When you hear the term “book marketing” you might immediately start thinking about BIG, grandiose plans. Month long book launches, expensive PR plans, a long list of things to get done sooner rather than later. Just thinking about all the things you “should” do is enough to make most author’s breath catch in panic.
But what if I told you that you could successfully market your book in just 10 minutes a day?
10 Minute Marketing Moments
It is true that as an author it is important to create your brand, build your author community and market yourself and your book early and often. You may start with a big book launch or a PR campaign, but remember… It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
The best long-term book marketing plans are small, consistent efforts that stack up over time. I call these efforts 10 Minute Marketing Moments.
What can you do in just 10 minutes?
I recommend you focus your time in one of three main categories.
Author Branding
Author branding is a bit like your signature – it should be unique and distinctive to your style and who you are as an author. You author brand may take years to create and, just as you change as a person, your author brand may change over time.
A few ideas of 10 Minute Marketing Moments spent on Author Branding are:
- Create a public Facebook Page
- Create an email collecting landing page
- Write your author bio
- Take author headshots or create an avatar
- Decide on 2-3 Key colors for your brand
- Write your Mission Statement
- Set up a Goodreads author profile
- Research new keywords for Amazon ads
“Your author brand is an ongoing, continually evolving story that communicates what makes your work unique, and represents an implied promise to your readers of what they can expect you to consistently deliver.”
–Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer
Marketing
Marketing is the act of working to get your book seen. Sometimes this includes paid advertising or incorporating PR but not always. Marketing moments might look like:
- Social media posting
- Blogging and guest blogging
- Creating graphics for your book or brand
- Looking for advertising opportunities
- Setting up Amazon or social media ads
- Planning a discount promotion for your launch
- Assembling a launch team
- Submitting your book for reviews
- Submitting your book for an award
- Finding general book reviewers to pitch
- Scheduling a blog tour
- Coming up with your list of comp authors and titles
“Book marketing creates awareness for a specific book among booksellers and consumers. The goal of marketing, of course, is to generate book sales.”
–Valerie Peterson
Community Building
If you’ve ever joined me on Free Advice Fridays, the New Shelves weekly live Q&A and book marketing vlog, you’ve probably heard me talk about the power – and importance – of community. A strong community can help teach you, encourage you and help make you better than you ever could be on your own. This aspect of marketing is vital not only to the success of your book, but also to avoiding burnout as an author.
10 Minute Marketing Moments spent on Community might include:
- Finding or chatting with Beta Readers
- Creating your launch team
- Asking for a book review
- Writing a review or endorsement for another author
- Finding or working with contractors (illustrators, formators, cover design, editing, etc.)
- Interacting in an online Author group discussion
- Joining a writing workshop
- Stopping by Free Advice Fridays (A shameless plug but a genuine invitation! www.NewShelves.com/FAF)
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
–Helen Keller
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Some of the suggested marketing efforts will take longer than 10 minutes. That’s okay! You can either set aside more time when you have it or dedicate 10 minutes a day for multiples days on the same project. The important thing is to consistently work towards your goals.
If you commit to 10 Minute Marketing Moments for 365 days, you will have invested over 60 HOURS in marketing your book over the course of a year.
What are you going to be doing in your 10 Minute Marketing Moment today?
My plan today is to create a short 2 minute video that can be uploaded to YouTube. Learning a new platform takes time, but working through video and having another channel to reach readers and fans is another marketing task.
Thanks for the article.
Cheers!
David W. Gates Jr. – Tennessee Post Office Murals
Kudos to you! Video is a great way to reach new readers and a smart way to spend 10 (or more…) minutes. Share the video with us when you’re done. I’d love to see it!
That’s a good suggestion — bite-sized time chunks. Me like it!!
You asked for it, this video is my plead to the Mayor of Fort Lee, NJ to NOT demolish their beautiful post office.
Video is newer skill for me, always a work in progress to get better, but its a marathon, not a sprint. enjoy!
https://youtu.be/eIrn7LuuLTA
David
Well done! You did a great job with this video and the description. One suggestion, if I may, is to add in a few hashtags to that description to reach even more people.
Thanks, as I look at this again, I’m thinking I should have also included a link to my author site so people can also read up more on the work I do.
I didn’t realize hashtags worked or were as important on the YouTube platform like they are on other social media. Good to know.
Have you written an article on how or where to use hashtags. I must have missed if, if you did.
No, New Shelves doesn’t have a full article on hashtags, but this overview from Hootsuite is pretty good: https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-hashtags/