Self-publishing your own book? If yes, have you already figured out how to attract readers… more readers? If not, then you have come to the right place.
The point of having a book published is to get people read your stories, know (more) about you, and buy your books. Why else do you work so hard to hone your grammar and writing skills and fight off sleep to write page after page of text? You write because you believe you have something to offer and you want to reach as many people as possible with your book.
If you have a hard time getting new readers, try juggling between being a writer and being an entrepreneur. In other words, you should try your hand at (your own) book marketing and promotion.
The key to attracting more readers – and selling more books – is to brand yourself as an ‘authorpreneur’ (a portmanteau of author and entrepreneur). If you are digitally savvy, then half the battle is won.
Here are 7 powerful ways you can do to attract more readers:
- Know your readers.
Who is your ideal reader? What do they look for in a book?
You must understand what you readers are drawn to, why they are drawn to it, and how you can meet their needs. Find out who your story appeals to, get to know them better, and be there for them, online and offline. That way, you can create content that they will love… content that speaks directly to them and avoid wasting time, money and effort promoting yourself to people who will most likely never read your words.
- Create your author website.
An author website will help to increase not only your book’s visibility but your brand awareness as well. For potential readers, your website may be their first impression of you.
Make sure your author website is well-designed; it should appear credible and professional and above all, reinforces the image you wish to portray.
While you are at it, add your book (or books) to your website; each book should have an individual page, which should include both front and back cover images, a description, a price, reviews (if any), and links to booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Once all your books have an individual page dedicated to them, create a ‘Books” page, which is the main page that links to all individual book pages. This will help readers find all your books in one page.
- Optimize your website.
Optimizing a website refers to search engine optimization (SEO), which increases your website’s ranking on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. You need to make a few simple fixes to improve your author website’s rank in search engines and increase traffic and conversions.
Make sure all pages, especially the book pages, and content are optimized with the appropriate keywords. Your title tags should be short and sweet, catchy yet effective, and your meta description needs to be content descriptive, keyword relevant, and page related.
- Build your email list.
In other words, do email marketing. One way to attract more readers is to invite them to sign up for your emails (and updates).
Why build your email list? You would want a dedicated line of communication to people who will most likely embrace your words. Email subscription is one of the best ways to get access to your readers.
Email marketing is effective if and only if you provide remarkable content and valuable information to your subscribers. Start by adding a signup form to your author website. Entice your website visitors to sign up by offering a free download, like a first chapter of your next book, for example.
- Post on social media.
The important thing to remember is that social media is intended to be social, not promotional. You can quickly turn off or lose fans and followers with incessant promotion.
Just like how you do with your emails, you must post remarkable content – content that focuses on the needs and interests of your social media audience; engaging content that sparks smart conversations between you, the author, and them, the readers; content that they will find useful, intriguing, inspiring, funny or thoughtful that they cannot help but share with their peers.
- Get reviews for your book.
Most self-published and independent authors struggle to get professional and objective reviews for their books.
Here are two ways to get book reviews:
- Offer a complimentary copy of your book to email subscribers or social media followers in exchange for their review. Encourage them to post their reviews on your book’s Amazon and Goodreads pages.
- Pay professional book reviewers to review your book. Many self-publishing companies tie up with book review publications such as Kirkus Indie, BlueInk Review, and US Review of Books to offer their clients the most affordable review bundle. Check with your publisher.
- Participate in book events.
There is no better place or opportunity to attract new more readers, new readers than a book trade show or book fair near you. One book event that you can participate and even sign autographs is the BookExpo New Title Showcase (formerly BookExpo America), which takes place annually in New York.
Many self-publishing companies partner with marketing and exhibit service organizers to promote their clients’ works in national and international book events. Consult your publisher to know how they could display your work in book events.
May you have the best of luck getting more people to read and buy your book!
Need help marketing and promoting your masterpiece? Don’t hesitate to talk with a ReadersMagnet marketing consultant today. Call 1-800-805-0762 or email us at info@beta.readersmagnet.com
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