Book marketing tips
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The best book marketing tips for authors come down to this: start before you publish, offer value instead of sales pitches, and keep promoting long after launch.
Authority Book Guide, published by Big Impact Books, collects the book marketing strategies and tips for authors that build credibility as well as sales. People do not buy from an author they have never heard of, so each tip below helps readers find you, trust you, and want what is inside your book.
The best tips for marketing your book are to know your audience, build that audience before launch, share thought leader content from your chapters, grow an email list, and pursue podcast and media appearances. Paid ads come later, once your message already resonates.
A useful way to think about it comes from Big Impact Books: planning a launch without marketing is like booking the caterer, venue, and DJ for a party and never sending invitations. You end up with boxes of books and no one who knows to buy them.
Each strategy below is judged on the same three points: what it does, when it fits best, and how directly it builds authority.
| Strategy | What it does | Best stage | Builds authority? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thought leader content | Shows expertise through blogs, videos, and articles | Before and after launch | Strongly |
| Email marketing | Nurtures interested readers over time | From the first subscriber on | Moderately |
| Social media | Grows a community around your mission | Before launch onward | Moderately, if value led |
| Podcast guesting | Puts your voice in front of new audiences | Around and after launch | Strongly |
| Media coverage | Adds third party visibility | Around and after launch | Strongly |
| Partnerships and influencers | Reaches audiences that match your readers | Any stage | Moderately |
| Book signings and events | Builds personal connection | Launch and after | Moderately |
| Paid ads | Speeds up reach and sales | After your message resonates | Indirectly |
When you self-publish, there is no publisher's team behind you, so every tip above becomes your job. Three extra tips for marketing a self-published book matter most:
If running every step feels like too much, compare your options in our guide to book publishing services.
Divide your income goal by what you earn per copy. Use the worksheet below to see the number for your own price and royalty rate. For authority authors, the result is a reminder that clients, speaking, and media often matter more than royalties.
Assumptions: earnings per copy equal the price multiplied by your royalty rate. The estimate ignores discounts, returns, printing costs, fees, and taxes, and it rounds up to whole copies. Check your actual contract or platform terms for your real figures.
Definition
Book marketing, as Authority Book Guide uses the term, is the work of promoting a book and its author through channels such as social media, email newsletters, podcasts, media, events, reviews, and ads, so the right readers discover it, trust it, and buy it. For authority authors, it also means building the author's reputation as the go-to expert, which is why it should start before the book is published.
These tips are one part of the bigger picture. Read the full guide on how to use a book to build authority.
Big Impact Books helps CEOs, attorneys, professionals, and business owners plan, create, publish, and promote their book, with guided interviews designed around about one hour a week of your time.
