Book Marketing Resources

Book marketing is a specialised area. It’s not the same as selling other goods because, though a book doesn’t cost a lot of money, people give choosing a book a lot of consideration. I’m not an expert, but there are plenty of people who are. However, there’s also some dodgy advice out there, so a list of trusted book marketing resources will be a big help to anyone wanting to market a book.

To help me compile a list of useful and reliable book marketing resources, I turned to The Alliance of Independent Authors Facebook Group to ask for recommendations from other authors. This is a closed group for members of The Alliance of Independent Authors, and I recommend that your first step in book marketing or self-publishing in general is joining The Alliance of Independent Authors because they have a wealth of useful and reliable information on all areas of independent publishing. Among other things, ALLi membership gives you access to free downloads of all of ALLi’s ebooks, which is a growing and invaluable resource library of advice for independent authors.  

Now to the book marketing resource list. I’ve only read some of these books, but they’ve all been recommended by people whose opinions I value, and they’re all by respected authors.

Book Marketing Resources:

I’m a great believer in Kirsten Lamb’s social media advice, so I’d start with her book Rise of the Machine: Human Authors in a Digital World.

  Social Media Is Dynamite: How to Get Noticed and Sell More Using Social Media.  Is 109 pages introducing all the key tools and a section on planning as well as a list of resources at the back. It’s a good introduction to the different platforms and what they do, so great for a beginner. This book is free for ALLi members by messaging Laurence O’Bryan – don’t forget you have to join the Alliance first.

Debbie Young  was commissioned  by SilverWood Books to write a book to help their authors (and all others) to market their self-published books. Sell your Books is a gentle, hand holding, practical guide that takes the fear out of marketing, while also giving a much-needed reality check to authors starting out on the process. Buy it on Kindle.

Let’s Get Visible: How To Get Noticed And Sell More Books by David Gaughran is also a valuable resource.

Then there’s Joanna Penn‘s How to Market a Book 

And Marketing Your Book: An Author’s guide by Alison Baverstock

Summary

In the end, word of mouth is all that really sells books, not adverts, not even reviews, just people enjoying books and then recommending them to others, and that’s not something you can control or pay for.  You can, however, help facilitate it, and that’s what book marketing is all about.

In the comments, please share any valuable resources on marketing that you’ve found, and comment on any of the books listed here.