How to Market a Book Third Edition (Books for Writers)

Do you want to sell more books and reach more readers?

Do you want to discover how to build an author career for the long-term as well as spike your book sales right now?

If you don’t know much about marketing, don’t worry. We all start with nothing.

I’m Joanna Penn and back in 2008, I had no book sales, no audience, no website, no social media, no podcast, no email list. No nothing.

Now I’m a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and non-fiction. My books have sold over 500,000 copies in 83 countries, and I’m an award-winning creative entrepreneur and international speaker, making a multi-six-figure income with my writing.

Learning how to market my books and my personal brand changed my life. Yes, you need to write an awesome book, but you also need to know how to get it in front of the right readers.

How to Market a Book is for authors who want to sell more books, but it's also for those writers who want to think like an entrepreneur and build a long-term income. It's for traditionally published authors who want to take control of their future, and for self-published authors who want to jump-start a career.

There are short-term tactics for those who want to boost immediate sales, but the focus of the book is more about instilling values and marketing principles that will help your long-term career as a writer.

It's also about going beyond just the book, because these methods can take you from being an author into making money from other products, professional speaking, and creating opportunities that you can't even imagine yet.

In this completely updated Third Edition, you’ll discover:

˃˃˃ Part 1: Marketing Principles

Book marketing myths, how discoverability works, and the polarities of marketing that will determine what you choose to implement

˃˃˃ Part 2: Your Book Fundamentals

Prerequisites for success, how to optimise your book for online sales, categories and keywords, exclusivity, pricing and use of free, box-sets and bundling, and writing series

˃˃˃ Part 3: No Platform Needed. Short-term Marketing

How to get customer reviews and find book bloggers, paid advertising with email blasts, paid advertising with Facebook, Amazon Ads and ad stacking, algorithm hacking, big data, and production speed

˃˃˃ Part 4: Your Author Platform. Long-term Marketing

Building an author brand, author website, list-building and email marketing, content marketing, blogging, audio and podcasting, video and book trailers, social networking, professional speaking, marketing audiobooks, PR and publicity, TV, radio and traditional media

˃˃˃ Part 5: Launching Your Book

Why launching is different for indie authors, soft launch, launch spikes, post launch, how to relaunch backlist books. Includes an example book marketing strategy and launch plan checklist.

˃˃˃ Other books for authors by Joanna Penn. Available in ebook, print and audiobook.

How to Make a Living with your Writing

Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur

The Successful Author Mindset

Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and Other Introverts

Co-writing a Book: Collaboration and Co-Creation for Writers

Successful Self-Publishing

Career Change: Stop hating your job, discover what you really want to do with your life, and start doing it!

Joanna’s website for authors, The Creative Penn, has been voted one of the Top 100 websites for writers by Writers Digest several years running, and The Creative Penn podcast is one of the top podcasts for writers and indie authors.