Can Authors Market a Book Before Release Date? Here are the 10 Best Techniques for Book Marketing Before Launch
Today we are going to talk about the very essential task that an author needs to fulfil no matter their experience.
You might be an experienced author or you might start new without any kind of experience in being an author and this blog is for both of you.
We are of course talking about book marketing as well as marketing yourself as an author.
We are going to talk about how authors can market a book before the release date and in the process, we will also explain why this is such an important aspect of a successful book publishing campaign.
The thing you need to understand about book publishing is that you are simply never going to get enough time to market that book after it has been published because the clock starts taking right after you published the book.
It all goes downhill after a book has been published and if we talk about it in literature terms then the event of publishing the book is the climax of the arch.
That is why if you want to have the most popular and the most successful book publishing event where you are going to see a lot of interest and activity in your book, you need to start marketing the book before it has been published.
That is easier said than done. That is why we bring you this blog to help you understand how you can do exactly that and market a book before its release.
The book publishing market is massive and already near the $150 billion mark by 2024 with a CAGR of 4.2 %. The only way you can capitalise and have a sizable chunk of this huge market is to be ahead of the game before anyone else.
The only true solution to this is to market your books before they are even published so that you can create hype for your books just as hype is created around movies with the help of trailers.
So, let us check out all the ways in which you can market your book before release.
Top 10 Book Marketing Ideas Before Book Release Date
Active Social Media Presence
The very first technique we are going to talk about for marketing your book before its publishing or release date is to always maintain an active social media presence.
This means the moment you get the idea of writing your first book, you should create a social media account as an author and start promoting your ideas and start building an audience.
This is because if you decide to create a social media presence after the book writing has been completed then it will just be too late because it takes a lot of time to build a social media following.
That is why you should always be active on platforms like Facebook and Instagram and you can also be active on Twitter/X which is excellent for interactions.
You should keep on sharing your ideas and content that is entertaining and interesting and not just blatant marketing.
You need to think about this from your side as an audience because you are only going to follow a page when you get something out of it and that is what you should do.
Interesting Content (Podcast)
If you are struggling with the kind of content to post on social media in order to grow your author accounts and if posting images is just not doing anything, start a podcast.
Now we understand how common podcasting has become because everyone with anything interesting to share has created a podcast but that should not stop you from doing it as well.
When you are starting a podcast on social media, you are going to find no shortage of content whether it is long-form videos or even shorts and this will keep up the engagement rates.
However, you must keep in mind to keep the conversation interesting and short and also invite interesting people into the podcast and it keeps the podcast focused on the themes of your book.
You can also move away from the theme of the book but then when you try and market your book you are going to find it difficult to market it to your audience who are accustomed to a different theme.
Offline Network Building
Online network building is probably easier to do and you can do all of that remotely but offline network building can also produce significant results.
Offline network building literally means going to literary events and workshops as well as interacting with new others like yourself and also attending book fairs.
It is all about going to all the events that not only match the kind of work you do but also match the theme of your books.
It is about being friendly and talking to people.
For example, if you are an author who publishes books about bird watching then you should try building a network with your local bird watching community and meet them and also market your ideas to them.
This will help you build a network which you then can utilise to promote your book but you should not start promoting your stuff straight away.
Online Collaborations
At number four we have online collaborations and you can do it right from your home but you must be able to have a lot of patience and a lot of persistence and even a little bit of budget in order to do it.
Online collaborations are all about trying to find people like you online whether it is authors or bloggers or people who hold respectable positions in the type of industry or content you create.
You should first try and network with these kinds of people and even do a little bit of paid promotion about your podcasts and the other kinds of content you have available.
You can then try being friends with them and joining them on Instagram LIVE and other places. You can also invite them to your podcast and give them a stage to promote their content.
What this will do is it will open up their audience base to you so that you can have an additional inflow of relevant audience that are ready to receive what you are about to promote to them right before the book launch.
Influencer Marketing
If you are looking to market your book before its release date and you do not have a lot of time and you simply want effective results as fast as possible even if it costs a little then this is the best option for you.
In this day and age, there are excellent book influencers out there who simply talk about new and upcoming books.
You can approach them and be as transparent as possible and simply ask them to promote your book.
There are usually two kinds of influencers you will meet. The first kind of influencers you are going to meet will ask for a copy of the book and they are going to read it and promote it only if they like it.
You are also going to meet a second kind of influencer who might ask for something in return for promoting your book.
It is your decision on which kind of book influencers to choose but we would suggest you to go for the first kind of influencer that is honest and provides their honest opinion because that would be a trusted voice to significantly boost the reputation of your book.
Email and Newsletter Marketing
Let us look at something traditional right now when it comes to book marketing techniques and we are of course talking about email and newsletter marketing.
This is definitely one of the more traditional ways of marketing a book before its release and it is about running an email marketing campaign and building an email list in order to send out regular updates about your book.
This technique is going to cost you money if you do not know how to do it and it is going to take a lot of work to do.
However, it is proven to produce results and this is a great way to market your book to the people who are already interested in your book.
You can send out these emails to your podcast audience and your social media followers and ask them to sign up for a newsletter in their mail.
Freebie and Giveaway Contests
If you want to generate hype around your book and you want your works to become popular in a very short amount of time then you should organise contests in order to provide freebies to your audience.
This can be anything from free copies of your past works and free copies of the new and unreleased book.
It can even be in the form of merchandise associated with your book such as mugs and hats as well as shirts or even pins and pens with your branding.
The reason why this works all the time is simply because people love free stuff but you must make sure that getting them is just as easy and that they do not have to follow 10 whole steps in order to get these.
You must also keep in mind that whatever you give out should be related to your book.
Book Launch Hype Countdown
One of the most important things you must keep in mind about these 10 techniques is that you should not selectively follow only one of them. We recommend you should follow a bunch of them together.
If you want your book marketing campaign to be effective then following them simultaneously is going to produce better results.
This means that when you are already promoting your podcast content on social media and also collaborating with other authors and presenting giveaway contests, you must also start a countdown timer to the eventual book launch.
This means you should keep on mentioning how many days are left on the book launch on every podcast episode and you must also start increasing the number of items you give away the closer you are to the book release date.
Your goal is to have the highest amount of interest in your book right before the book launch and that is why you should gradually up the ante with a hype countdown.
Video Book Trailer
We all can collectively agree on the fact that a video always works better than text content or even images and that is exactly why when you are creating promos for your book, you should create a video.
This does not have to be a Hollywood-scale production and it can just be a little short film about the theme of the book or it can just be a simple video about what inspired you to write the book.
All you need to do if you just make sure that it is a video that encapsulates the idea of your book into easily digestible content.
You must also make sure that this video is under a minute and very compact so that people actually watch the entire video and this is very important because people really do not have long attention spans to sit down and watch a 10-minute video about a book that is not even launched.
Website Marketing
And finally, we come to the aspect of having a place for people to come when they are influenced by your marketing, we are talking about your website or the landing page for your book.
All your promotions and links should redirect to your website which should have large and simple banners about the book as well as simple CTAs on how to pre-order the book along with sections for following up on the giveaways.
Along with that, your website should also contain links to all the influencer marketing videos about your book and it should also contain all positive reviews about the book and even bonus content about the book.
Your website is your storefront and that is why you should take great care in order to present it well. You should also think about the SEO situation of the website because that is also very relevant.
We hope this blog gives you an idea of how to market a book before its release date and how you can successfully generate interest in your book even before it has been published or released.
If you follow at least 5 of the techniques mentioned above well, you can expect a good level of interest in your book and it should set the stage for a very successful book launch.
However, if you simply do not have the time to do all the things we have mentioned above and you simply want experts to take care of book marketing along with book publishing and promotions and even the minute but important things like book cover designing and manuscript formatting and just about everything about your book, we are here for you.
We are Orange Publishers and we are one of the most renowned and popular legacy book publishing companies in India where we provide a book publishing experience that combines the convenience of self-publishing with the reliability of traditional publishing.
We will help you with the entire book publishing process and much beyond that and we welcome you to visit our website and check out everything we do.
