How Can Indie Authors Get Publicity for Their Books?

Getting publicity for a self-published book can be challenging, but it is essential if you don’t want to see your work get lost among the thousands of other titles published each day. Publicity is what makes the difference between a book simply uploaded to Amazon (some call this the Upload and Pray Method) and one that people will hear about.

The second, more favorable outcome requires planning and executing a strategic book publicity campaign over the course of months. While publicity on its own cannot guarantee book sales or any other form of success, it is an essential ingredient of building your author brand.

I’ve put together a list of tips to help you get publicity for your book. Below is the first part of it:

The number one thing you need to know about getting publicity for your book is that you must start early. Create a plan no later than six months before your book’s publication. Decide what your goals are, who can help you achieve them, how can you reach them, what can you offer them, and start thinking of ways to sweeten the deal. That’s PR in a nutshell.

Don’t believe me? Do you follow your favorite authors on social media? If you do, you’ve likely noticed them posting about their forthcoming book months before it’s released, and that’s what you want to do. Get the hype going before people can even buy and then keep it going strong.

NetGalley allows you to solicit pre-publication reviews of your book from professional reviewers, bloggers, booksellers, librarians, educators, and other enthusiastic readers. You get to approve or deny each request. Your chosen reviewers then have the opportunity to read the book and post their review on the site as well as on their own preferred review channels.

In addition to reviews, however, you may also get interview requests from members of the media, because they’re on NetGalley, so it’s a great way to put your book in front of them. The drawback to this, of course, is the high price tag, but I believe it’s a worthwhile expense for most books.

Watch out for news items that relate to your book. It’s always a good time to write an essay, op-ed, or even some discussion comments on the subject you know best. Establishing yourself as an expert is the best way to get mentioned or interviewed in the media, which—as you already know—is one of the best ways to sell more books.

Hosting giveaways—both pre- and post-publication—is a great way to get people interested in your book. This could include running contests, or you could send people to different websites that offer free copies in exchange for honest reviews. Either way, encourage winners to leave reviews on every platform that you’re going to be selling through (like Amazon). When I work with authors who are interested in doing giveaways, I turn to my list of more than 40 places that will host giveaways.

Press releases are sent to the media to share news and updates about your book. It is important to make sure your “news” is actually of interest to media, that your press release is well written, and that you don’t send the same press release over and over again. Google some of your author friends, or other authors at a similar stage in their career to yours, or who wrote books in the same genre, and see what they usually write in their press releases. There is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from them. And be sure to include a link to your author site, as one of the goals of putting out a press release is to get links back to your online hub.

This tip has to do with making sure that your book looks professional. I addressed unprofessional-looking book covers recently (What Makes a Book Look Self-Published). Don’t care to work with a publisher but still want your book to look like it’s traditionally published? Then you may consider putting something other than “KDP” or your name on it as the publisher. You can easily create your own imprint and use it to publish your book. Some believe that this could get more stores interested in carrying your book. I don’t feel that it makes a huge difference, but authors seem to like it… So I am happy to help set this up.

If the above sounds overwhelming, you can always hire a book publicity company and marketing team to ensure that your book gets in the right hands. I can help you get attention from your target audience: the media and readers. My team is ready to take your book to the next level.

~ Nanda