5 Steps to Sell and Market Your Books

1. Find your Community

Even if you are Wole Soyinka, not everybody will read your book; so get over it. Some people may throw your book in a trash, but there will be others who will absolutely adore it and place it on their front shelf. You need to find these people and build your market around them. If you are writing about career development, then you might need to target young school leavers. If your book is a futuristic science fiction, then you should know your market isn’t with the elderly.

2. Connect with the activities of your community:

The next thing is to figure out the activities of your community. Are they students who love to club? Do they have a book club or do they go to the movies? Are they sports people who gather at bet shops? The idea is to meet them at the place of their activities to connect with them.

3. Communicate:

Just as important is getting the word out. In this day and age, social media is the best way to reach out. Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn updates, etc. You have to be loud and persistent because that is the only way to be heard in this day of information overload.

4. Be Creative with your Marketing:

You can offer free copies to a school, or sell at a particular time and at a discount. You can post snippets on social media and flood your timeline with a creative book cover that can get people talking. Do everything you can to create a discussion around your project because then you can build your following and get referrals from your community to others.

5. Keep the Buzz:

It’s been 400 years and Romeo and Juliet still sells today. Your marketing should not stop on the date of the publication. Book marketing is a marathon and not a sprint. You need to create new ways to keep your book in the minds of people and don’t let the buzz wane.

Ejedegba Samuel