Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Associates links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a couple of pennies (at no extra charge to you).

I learned about Make a Big Impact With Your Book: Author Marketing Strategies for Long-Term Success by book marketer Melanie Herschorn on social media.

Without looking the book up on Amazon, I contacted the author for a review copy. The title told me that it’s a book you’ll want to know about. (I mean, if you’re reading a book marketing blog, you’re probably interested in long-term book marketing success.)

I didn’t even look at the Amazon description before I started reading the book. Again, the title was so broadly on-target with what most of my blog readers want to learn, that I didn’t think I needed to.

That was a mistake.

Note to self: Always read the book’s description

It’s why I was surprised when I saw in the third paragraph of the first page of text that the book is for “thought leaders” who have written a nonfiction book. That’s a pretty narrow focus.

Huh.

Only then did I pull the book up on Amazon.

The description clearly says,“Are you a nonfiction or children’s book author with a powerful message to share with the world? Do you dream of becoming a thought leader, increasing your book sales, and leaving a lasting impact on your readers?”

Whoops.

Stop now if you write fiction

The fact that it’s for a narrower audience than I expected is not a dealbreaker, of course. (But it does explain why my Kindle announced it was a one-hour read and the description noted the paperback version is just 115 pages.)

And really, so much of what works with nonfiction book marketing also applies to fiction.

Except not in this case – and that’s okay. Most of Make a Big Impact With Your Book won’t help novelists.

The key to long-term book marketing success

This book is built around the premise that its readers are mission-driven (yes, cynical me rolled her eyes while reading that chapter), and the advice focuses 100% on content marketing.

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

It adds that when you use content marketing, you aren’t pitching products or services – in this case, a book. Instead, you’re providing your target audience with relevant information that helps them in some way.

It’s an approach designed to build trust in the entity providing the useful content.

All good. This blog is an example of content marketing, so you know I appreciate the strategy’s value.

Repurpose your book’s content for long-term book marketing success

The author wisely advises readers to build their content marketing plan from their book’s content. She explains that you can use it to create:

• Blog posts
• White papers
• Podcasts
• Emails
• Social media posts
• Lead magnets
• Guest blog posts
• Articles for blogging platforms such as Medium and Substack
• Public speaking
• LinkedIn articles and newsletters
• Recorded videos
• Live videos
• Online summit presentations

(I’ll add one more to her list: tip sheets.)

This strategy is absolutely a smart timesaver.

Herschorn shares more “what” and “why” than “how,” though. She writes about what you need to do, but I felt like you’d need more instruction on how to do much of it.

Still, repurposing your book’s content into several different forms for marketing purposes is smart.

Will the book help children’s book authors?

Back to that book description I overlooked…it says it’s for children’s book authors.

Um, no.

The content marketing strategy might work for some children’s book authors, especially nonfiction books for older readers.

But there’s no question that it’s a book for people who have written nonfiction books they want to use as giant business cards to generate consulting and speaking gigs, among other opportunities.

The author illustrates her points with helpful anecdotes from client experiences, but only one of them is for a children’s book.

Children’s book authors might need more help connecting the dots than the book offers.

Should you buy this book?

Take these specifics into account before buying this book:

• I’ll admit that I feel like the title makes it a bit of a bait and switch. A more accurate title would be: Make a Big Impact with Your Nonfiction Book: Content Marketing Strategies for Long-Term Success.
• The author’s advice is solid. And some of it is universal for all authors — specifically, why you must get clear on your target audience and where you’ll find them online, and the importance of consistency in your marketing.
• Readers get a URL for several helpful worksheets and tips. That URL is repeated over and over and over. Including screenshots for those bonus resources plus information on how to use the worksheets would have added value to the book. (But I love a digital download!)
• If you believe the book will help you, get the Kindle version after you’ve accumulated a few digital credits from Amazon. At $9.99 for the equivalent of 100 print pages, I think it’s a tad over-priced. But it’s more affordable than the higher-than-I’d-expect print price.
• This book is a big lead magnet for the author. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Herschorn wrote this book to build credibility with the people her LinkedIn profile says are her ideal clients: law firm founders and million dollar business owners. She’s saying to them, “You can trust me to market your books.”

Regardless of Herschorn’s motive for writing Make a Big Impact With Your Book, it’s a useful, albeit limited, resource for nonfiction authors. Just don’t expect it to give you a complete blueprint. (Here’s a better book for that.)

What’s your best nonfiction book marketing tip? Please share it in a comment!

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission (at no extra charge to you).

When I spoke about “the one thing that will make a difference” at the Find Your Readers Summit last month, I focused on email marketing.

Here are just a few of the many reasons I believe authors should build an email list:

• You own your email list. You don’t own your connections on any social network, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or the others. If one of them crashes, or if you get kicked off the site, you’ll lose your audience.
• It’s more effective than social media marketing. So why not put your time where it will pay off the most?
• You can tap your subscribers to be beta readers or book launch team members. Stop fishing for reader support on social networks. You’ll find them in your email subscribers.

If you want to sell books, you need to get on board with email marketing.

Why aren’t you using email marketing?

So why aren’t more of you building an email list you can use to communicate regularly with the people who read the kinds of books you write?

The problem for many (you, maybe?) is that they don’t know where to begin.

When I’m tackling a new area, I often start by studying the terms used. If I don’t, I spend way too much time Googling and not enough following instructions. (That’s why I added publishing and marketing glossaries to this site for you.)

So let’s start there — with the terms commonly used when people discuss email marketing. When you understand them, you won’t feel like you need to use Google Translate when you begin researching email service providers.

The email marketing glossary for authors

To minimize overwhelm, I’ve limited the number of terms defined. So, while it isn’t a complete author email marketing glossary, it should be enough to reduce the intimidation factor.

Bounce rate: The percentage of emails that are not successfully delivered to recipients. Bounces can be classified as either hard (permanent delivery failure) or soft (temporary delivery failure).

Call to action (CTA): A prompt or button within an email that encourages recipients to take a specific action. That might be visiting a website or making a purchase.

CAN-SPAM: A set of rules and requirements established by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate commercial email messages sent to recipients within the USA.

Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who click on a link within an email compared to the total number of emails delivered.

Conversion rate: The percentage of recipients who take a desired action (such as making a purchase or filling out a form) after clicking on a link in an email.

Double opt-in: A process where subscribers confirm their email address and consent to receive emails by clicking on a verification link sent to their inbox. It provides an added layer of permission and reduces the risk of spam complaints.

Deliverability: The ability of an email to avoid the spam or junk folder and successfully reach the recipient’s inbox .

Email automation: The use of automated workflows or triggers to send emails based on certain actions or events (such as welcoming new subscribers as soon as they subscribe).

Email service provider: This is a software company that provides an email marketing platform or tool that connects to your website and lets you acquire names and email addresses and create and send bulk emails to those addresses (subscribers). It automates all of this for you.

Lead magnet: The digital, downloadable incentive you offer your target readers in exchange for providing their email address and adding themselves — “opting-in” — to your email list.

List hygiene: The process of regularly cleaning and updating email subscriber lists to remove inactive or invalid email addresses, reducing bounces and improving deliverability.

List segmentation: The process of categorizing email subscribers into different segments based on specific criteria (demographics, interests, purchase history, etc.). It allows for more targeted and personalized email campaigns.

Open rate: The percentage of recipients who open an email compared to the total number of emails delivered. It indicates how engaging the subject line and email content are.

Opt-in: The act of giving permission for a sender to email someone by willingly subscribing to a mailing list. Don’t risk being identified as a spammer by adding people to your email list. Invite them to add themselves using an opt-in process.

Personalization: The practice of tailoring email content and design to specific subscriber information. For example, personalization lets senders add the recipients name to the message subject line, salutation, or anywhere else in the message, among other things.

Unsubscribe rate: The percentage of recipients who choose to unsubscribe from a mailing list after receiving an email.

Authors, don't risk being identified as a spammer by adding people to your email list. Invite them to add themselves using an opt-in process.Click to tweet

Getting over that next email marketing obstacle

Now that you’re more familiar with some of the terminology, you’ll want to start thinking about:

• The email service provider you contract with (I use ConvertKit; it’s designed for creators like us).
• The freebie or lead magnet you’ll offer readers in exchange for their name and email address (here are ideas for novelists and nonfiction authors).
• How often you’ll email your subscribers.
• What you’ll send them.

Get started by adding yourself to author and marketer lists so you can see how others handle email marketing.

Add yourself to author and marketer lists so you can see how others handle email marketing.Click to tweet

Study what they share in their emails and how the information is presented. Do they use text only or do they feature a combination of text and graphics? Which of these formats resonates with you?

Review the types of content they offer and how they do it. Some people send self-contained newsletters, while others (like me) provide only a portion of the text in the message and link to the rest online. Which approach do you prefer?

When you learn the terms above, then learn how you want to show up in your subscribers’ inboxes, you will begin to gain the confidence you want for the next step.

Do you offer an email newsletter? Please provide a signup link in the comments so other authors can subscribe to see how you do it.

I don’t like when industry buzzwords and terminology are dropped into conversations with people who don’t work in that field.

You know how it goes . . . social workers never tell anyone anything. They share with them.

Educators don’t work with groups. They’ve got cohorts.

And there are no phrases with words in the military and financial services field — those folks love their acronyms. They’ve got a POV or ARM for everything.

Authors are guilty of using buzzwords, too

Authors do it, too.

How many times have you mentioned to someone who doesn’t write that you’ll add a POD option for your next book or that you’re wondering if you should ditch ARCs this time?

Marketers are no different. They might even be worse!

I get frustrated when I see them using the latest buzzword (or any buzzword) with authors without pausing to explain or define industry expressions.

No matter who does it, it’s a way of setting up boundaries that separate those in the know from those in the dark. I prefer inclusion over exclusion.

Learn these book marketing buzzwords

With that in mind, here are a dozen common book marketing buzzwords you’re likely to come across as you learn how to market your books. The list is not exhaustive, but it’s a good start.

1. Call to action — CTA

A call to action, often abbreviated to CTA, tells your reader what you want them to do next.

Authors who are savvy social media users include CTAs in many of their posts. They might say, “If you liked this, please subscribe to my newsletter,” or “What do you think of my new character’s name? Does it work for you? Tell me in a comment.”

All authors should include a “please review this book” CTA at the end of their books.

We need to be told what to do, so please tell us in a CTA.

2. Funnel

This concept describes the journey a reader takes from the first interaction with your book(s) to purchase. It typically moves from awareness to opinion to purchase, as shown in this illustration. (Note that it looks like a funnel.)

Not everybody who becomes aware of your book will go on to purchase it. Those who do move through the complete cycle shown in the illustration and come out the bottom of the funnel as your readers after they purchase your book.

For more on this, read “Curious about book funnels? Here’s (almost) everything you need to know.”

3. Landing page

This is a simple web page with a single purpose.

For authors, that could be encouraging readers to subscribe to your newsletter or buy your book (but not both).

Because a landing page is so focused on just one goal, it is visually simple and has no menu or toolbar with other options to distract visitors.

My landing page offering the “Build Book Buzz Guest Blogging Cheat Sheet” is an example of one that’s designed to get newsletter subscribers.

The landing page for the Build Book Buzz Reader Book Review Forms is a product sales page. Note that there’s no menu or toolbar.

4. Lead magnet

Also referred to as a “reader magnet,” “lead generator,” “opt-in bribe,” or “freebie,” this is an irresistible gift you offer your target audience in exchange for their contact information.

While marketers might encourage you to collect full mailing addresses, don’t.

First, you don’t need that much information — all you need is a name and email address.

Second, people won’t provide it. If you force them to fill in their address to get your lead magnet, they’ll close the window and you’ll lose your chance to start building a relationship with someone in your target audience.

My “Guest Blogging Cheat Sheet” mentioned above is a lead magnet,  as is my “Book Marketing Plan Template” and “9 Places to Look for Readers Who Write Reviews.”

Get nonfiction lead magnet ideas in this article and fiction lead magnet ideas in this one.

5. Opt in

Opt in is a verb that describes what people do when they add themselves to your email list (often because they want your lead magnet). They opt in.

Best practice for email marketing is a 100 percent opt-in list. Don’t add people to your email list without their permission. They need to decide whether they want to hear from you or not.

Note the example on the right; you’ll also find it on the right sidebar of this page.

For more on this subject, read “3 important email marketing truths you need to know as an author” and “Book review: Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert.”

Don't add people to your email list without their permission.Click to tweet

6. Optimize/Optimization

When you “optimize” something, you make the most of it.

For authors, optimize refers to maximizing the power and impact of your Amazon sales page, Amazon author page, and the text on your website for SEO reasons (see below).

It’s often used in conjunction with search terms people will use to find you and your books.

7. Pixels

Pixels also refers to images but in this case, it’s an advertising term referring to a piece of code that is used to track behavior on a website. It’s often used when talking about the effectiveness of Facebook ads that drive traffic to a website.

8. Re-targeting

Have you ever noticed how a product you looked at on an e-commerce site shows up as an ad on other sites you visit?

That’s re-targeting. It’s designed to encourage you to buy that product. Think of it as a digital reminder.

Here’s an example of re-targeting and really, it’s kind of creepy. After my daughter’s dog had surgery, I asked her via text how she got the pup to take pills. She sent me a picture of this product . . . which showed up on a page I was reading on my phone’s browser this morning.

9. Plugin

This is software that you add — plug in — to your browser or website that gives it more functionality. You’ll use a plugin to add an email optin form to your website.

Notice the social network icon toolbars at the top and left side of this article that allow you to share it quickly and easily. We added those toolbars here with a plugin.

10. SEO

SEO — search engine optimization — is what you do to your website (see optimize/optimization above) so that it gets found by search engines.

The better your site’s SEO — meaning, the more content you create that fits what your target audience is looking for — the higher your site pages will show up in search engine results.

11. Split testing

Also referred to as A/B testing, this function allows you to test website features such as headlines, text, or images or email subject lines and content, among other things.

12. Upselling

Upsells are designed to sell more to someone making a purchase. The most recognizable example is “Would you like fries with that?”

When you upsell, you’re either suggesting that the customer buy a better version (with more features or functionality, for example) or encouraging them to add a complementary product to the purchase.

Authors can upsell by offering a discounted price on a companion workbook, providing a volume discount, or selling additional merchandise or services from within the book.

There are many, many more book marketing buzzwords, of course.

Is there a book marketing buzzword you don’t understand? Maybe we can help you. Share it in a comment. 

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2017. It has been updated and expanded.)

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission (at no extra charge to you).

It makes me crazy when people selling products and services to authors use marketing buzzwords and phrases without defining them. The phrase du jour is “book funnels.”

And I’ll be honest: When I first learned about marketing “funnels” years ago, it took me a while to truly understand the concept because marketing funnels don’t work like my kitchen funnel. (I’ll explain that later.)

So, what is a book funnel and how can it help you sell more books? I’ve got the answers for you. In this article, I explain:

• What are book funnels
• Why you need one
• Book funnel process flow
• Book funnel elements
• How you’ll use your book funnel

Note: This article is not about the paid resource called BookFunnel, a brand name for a service that allows you to outsource the book funnel process to a specialist.

What the heck are book funnels?

A book funnel is a marketing strategy used to increase book sales. It consists of a series of steps that guide potential readers from discovering your book to purchasing it.

I created this graphic to help visualize it.

How book funnels differ from my kitchen funnel

Now let me explain why this concept wasn’t obvious to me at first.

When you pour a liquid into the wide mouth of a kitchen funnel, all of that water comes out the narrow bottom. All of it.

With marketing funnels, lots goes into the top, and little comes out the bottom. The difference between “lots” and “little” remains trapped in the middle. The marketing happens in that middle.

Getting stuck in the middle is a good thing

People enter the top of the funnel, and either take the action you’re requesting in the middle, or they don’t take it. If they don’t take action, they remain in the middle.

If they do take action, they move farther into the funnel.

And if they take the final desired action – purchasing a product, registering for an event, etc. – they come out of the funnel at the end. Sort of.

So, lots of people enter the top, but not everybody takes all of the steps that lead them out at the end. Unlike the liquid flowing through my kitchen funnel.

Why you need a book funnel

Now that you know what a book funnel is and isn’t, the big question is: Why do you need one?

Book funnels are a great way to gain visibility and generate more sales for your books. Here’s why.

Increased visibility: A book funnel and the marketing activities that drive readers into it increase your book’s visibility and boost your author brand. It will also help generate more traffic to your website.

More sales: Targeting potential readers who are interested in your book and guiding them towards making a purchase helps you sell more books.

Increased engagement: A book funnel can help increase reader engagement on social media but also through email, which I find both helpful and rewarding. You’ll be able to use your email list to launch promotions, send notifications about new releases, and create conversations around your book and other topics.

Saves time: It automates the marketing process and reduces the time you spend manually promoting your book. This gives you more time to do what you’d rather be doing – writing another book.

Affordable: It’s a cost-effective way to market your book.

Once it’s set up, it keeps working for you all day and all night. What’s not to like about that?

Book funnels are a great way to gain visibility and generate more sales for your books.Click to tweet

Book funnel process flow

If you’re new to the funnel concept, it helps to break down how readers flow from top to bottom. Here’s how it works.

Step 1: At the top of your book funnel

Book funnels typically begin when you or your publisher create awareness of your book. This might involve social media campaigns, advertising, blog posts, and email marketing.

You’re attracting readers to the top of your funnel.

Step 2: Drawing the right readers into your funnel

Picture those readers hovering at the top of the book funnel. You want to draw them in by helping them learn more about your book. Reviews, interviews, videos, and other content can give readers a better understanding of the book’s themes and characters or what they’ll learn from it.

That information will help them decide if they want to move further into your funnel to continue learning more.

Step 3: Pulling readers further into your funnel

To pull those at the top even further into your funnel, you offer them a free digital gift that’s related to the book. Some call this a “freebie” or “reader magnet.” The marketing term is “lead magnet.”

They must provide their email address to receive this gift.

Step 4: Convert readers in your book funnels from “interested” to “buyers”

The process you use to capture their email takes them to a “thank you” page on your site. In addition to information on how they download your lead magnet, this page provides more information about the book, including purchase links.

Your process will also automatically send an email containing the link they use to download your lead magnet. You use this to encourage a purchase, too.

Step 5: Continue to encourage purchase by staying in touch

You have the email address of everybody in the middle of your funnel who added themselves to your email list – they “opted in.” This is whether they bought the book and came out the end or not.

Send them regular emails with helpful and interesting information so they don’t forget about you and your book.

These aren’t “buy my book” emails. They’re “staying in touch” emails that include book and other news as well as a purchase link.

These are the people who are most likely to purchase from you eventually. It might not be this book, but it could be the next one.

Visualize these five steps as you look at the book funnel diagram again.

Book funnel elements

Book funnels require technology. If you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, you can pay someone to set this up for you.

These are the elements you need.

Email service provider

I hope you’re already collecting email addresses that you use to stay in touch with readers. If you aren’t, this is a great way to start.

Your email service provider will:

• Give you the power to add a form to your landing page that collects email addresses
• Automatically collect and store those email addresses for you
• Automatically send email messages to people as soon as they provide their address (this is called an “email sequence”)
• Allow you to create and distribute to your list an email newsletter or any other messages you want to send them

There are many email service providers to chose from. I used several before discovering my absolute favorite, ConvertKit. It’s designed for creators like us, and the customer support is exceptional.

Landing page

A landing page is a single web page designed to encourage a single, specific action. It has no toolbars. There are no links to other pages on your site. I design mine with Thrive Architect, which works with WordPress.

The goal of your book funnel landing page is to get people to join your email list. This is where you offer that free digital download, your lead magnet.

This means there should be a clear call-to-action that encourages readers to do that. Include these elements:

• Text that describes your lead magnet
• An image of the lead magnet or something that represents it
• A call to action
• An email signup form, either on the landing page or on a form or page that pops up when people click on the call-to-action button

Here’s an example of the landing page for my newest lead magnet, a cheat sheet that lists the “8 Services That Help Journalists Find Authors and Other Sources.”

Lead magnet

A lead magnet is a digital, downloadable incentive you offer your target readers in exchange for providing their address so they add themselves to your email list. It must be relevant to your book.

Get nonfiction lead magnet ideas and resources for creating one in “5 nonfiction lead magnet ideas.”

A sample chapter works well as a fiction lead magnet, but I’ve got other ideas plus tools you can use to design yours in “3 fiction lead magnet ideas.”

Thank-you page

As soon as readers submit their email address, technology will take them to a thank-you page. That page can either provide the download link for your lead magnet, thank them for requesting your “gift” and instruct them to check their email for a message with the download link, or both.

Use this page to sell your book.

In addition to text that thanks people and instructs on the next steps involved for downloading the lead magnet, include:

• Your book cover
• Book description
• Your best influencer blurbs/testimonials
• A few reader reviews if you have them
• Purchase links to online retailers selling your book

Email sequence

An email sequence is an automated series of messages.

In this case, the first message thanks readers for requesting your gift and provides instructions on how and where to download it.

Follow that with an email with more information about your book and purchase links.

Continue to nurture these interested readers by sending regular emails with updates about your book, additional content related to it, helpful or interesting information, and so on.

View your landing page as an alternative home page

The idea behind a book funnel is to create a series of steps that use information to turn readers from browsers to buyers. This is why I want you to use your landing page as an alternative home page for much of your book marketing.

Send people to your landing page instead of your website’s home page. Get ideas for how to do that in Carolyn Choate’s free lead magnet, “20 Ways to Bring People to Your Funnel.” (Carolyn sets up funnels for authors and others. This is part of her funnel, so even if you aren’t interested in her free download, check out her landing page for inspiration.)

Add the URL to your social media profiles. Share it on social media regularly. Include it in your speaker bio if you speak at conferences and online summits.

Repetition can lead to purchasing

Here’s why: People aren’t going to buy your book the first time they hear about it on social media, in a guest post, or in a YouTube video. When you send them to your Amazon sales page early in this relationship, they aren’t likely to buy the book quite yet.

People aren’t going to buy your book the first time they hear about it on social media, in a guest post, or in a YouTube video.Click to tweet

They need more information and they need it more than once. A lot more.

You can do all of this with email marketing. And that’s why you want to capture their email addresses.

Email marketing allows you to connect with the right readers in a way that helps keep your book top of mind now and later.

There are definitely situations where you’ll send people to your book’s sales page on Amazon or elsewhere. But when you’re marketing to readers who don’t know you and your work yet, a book funnel built around email marketing is one of the best ways for them to get to see the value you offer.

Start building your book funnel

Don’t wait to get started building your book funnel. And don’t let the technology frighten you off. If you don’t want to do it yourself, pay someone to do it for you. Help is out there.

But do it.

Let a book funnel help you connect in a more meaningful way with the people you wrote the book for while you sell more books.

What company do you use for your email service provider? Please tell us in a comment. 

Professional public speakers have long known that organizations with training budgets view a book as an excellent indicator of expertise and topic knowledge.

I discovered this, too, when my humor book, WHY CAN’T A MAN BE MORE LIKE A WOMAN?, was released a couple of decades ago. Fortune 500 corporations that included Corning, Kraft, and Xerox invited me to speak, as did organizations that needed a light-hearted, upbeat keynote speaker.

I was happy to oblige and accept flattering fees to speak at sales meetings, conferences, and women’s events.

Speaking doubled my book income

So…when my publisher released Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions, my book marketing plan included securing paid speaking engagements that would allow me to:

• Provide nonprofits with information they could use immediately to generate publicity
• Sell books
• Leverage the book to earn more

In addition to meeting all three goals, my speaking income was a little more than the advance I received to write the book. Clearly, the time it took to pursue paid speaking opportunities was well worth it for me.

Benefits of being an author who’s a public speaker

Is it worth it for you? Here are five reasons to consider being an author who’s a public speaker, even if you focus on doing it locally rather than outside your home base:

1. You can earn more from your book as a public speaker.

Sure, you can – and should – accept unpaid speaking gigs offered by local groups or association conferences. But why limit yourself to unpaid opportunities? Why not take that experience to organizations that have money to pay speakers?

What’s more, most organizations that invite authors to speak both want and expect authors to have books available for purchase. It’s why publishers like to see public speaking in the marketing sections of book proposals. Speaking equals book sales.

The mechanics of that vary according to the situation. Some events are large enough that organizers arrange to bring a local bookstore onsite to handle sales.

In other situations, you will need to bring, sell, and sign the books yourself. (When that’s the case, always ask your host to provide a volunteer who collects money while you sign books.)

In addition, in some situations, event organizers purchase enough books to give one to every attendee. Sound appealing?

2. You can share your message with more people when you’re a public speaker.

You have something to say, right? That’s why you wrote the book. Speaking lets you present your core messages in person.

But it’s more than that. People in the audience can share their messages, insights, and stories with you, too.

When I spoke about the lighter side of gender differences (the subject of my first book), men and women alike would share funny stories with me afterwards. It’s the best kind of content research!

3. It can lead to more and often better paying work.

Many consultants speak to generate leads. If you’ve got a book and you consult on its topic, public speaking can not only generate more speaking invitations at higher fees, it can also fill your inbox with requests for information about your professional services.

If you've got a book and you consult on its topic, public speaking can not only generate more speaking invitations at higher fees, it can also fill your inbox with requests for information about your professional services.Click to tweet

To help seed this, be sure you have useful handouts that supplement your presentation. Brand them and add your contact information. Include a link to a free digital download – a lead magnet – that will let them add themselves to your email list.

4. It supports your expert positioning.

If you wrote a book, you’re considered an expert on its topic.

If you wrote a book, you're considered an expert on its topic.Click to tweet

This applies to all types of authors – from nonfiction writers to novelists to memoirists. (Think about all the research you did for your novel. You learned a lot, didn’t you?) When you add “public speaker” to your list of credentials, you further underscore that expert status.

Expert positioning, in turn, opens you up to media interviews that generate publicity, more invitations to speak, and higher consulting and speaking fees.

5. Your fans want to hear from you.

Whether they deserve it or not, authors are admired by non-authors.

For reasons that I struggle to understand, many think authors are “cool.” And people like to hear what cool people have to say. Oblige them.

via GIPHY

This in-person connection is especially important with memoirists. Because your story is personal, readers welcome a chance to learn more about you in person.

It’s those personal connections that solidify relationships and create loyal fans, too.

How to get started as a public speaker

To get started, identify local groups you’d like to speak to. This is essential if you don’t have much experience.

Groups you belong to should be at the top of your list. Identify groups that reach your audience and check their websites for their meeting schedules.

The daily and/or weekly newspaper calendar of events will give you others, as will Google (try searching for “community events calendar [your city,state]”).

If you’d like to speak nationally, target the local chapters of national associations so you get some practice in front of that group – and some possible recommendations for the national conference. Industry conferences usually have a call for proposals on their websites you’ll need to complete and submit.

For instruction on how to become an author who speaks, see Module 4 of of my two courses, Book Marketing 101 for Nonfiction and Book Marketing 101 for Fiction.

I know that public speaking isn’t an option for every author. You’ll do fine without this tactic in your book marketing plan.

For others, it might be time to step over the wall that’s held you back so far, especially now that there are fewer COVID-19-related restrictions. If you’ve never experienced it before, you might be surprised by the benefits and possibilities being a public speaker will bring to your author experience.

If you speak about your book’s topic, how do you usually get your speaking engagements?

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2011. It has been updated and expanded.)

The trees are spectacular this time of the year in my part of the U.S. And I live in apple country, so I can get plenty of apple cider, the Official Drink of My House, along with fruit for pie, crisp, and sauce.

But the days grow shorter while the weather gets colder…and colder…and colder. (Sigh.)

Still, October is Sarcastic Month and National Popcorn Popping Month, and the week of October 9 is Pet Peeve Week. What’s not to like about them and the many offbeat October holidays you can use to add life and fun to your book promotion?

How to use these unusual October holidays

Let’s look at a couple of special days in October and how they might help you bring more attention to your books.

A couple of them are controversial: October 5, National Kale Day; October 26, National Mincemeat Day; and October 30, National Candy Corn Day. You know why I say they’re controversial, don’t you? People either love ’em, or hate ’em. Stir the pot by creating a branded social media graphic for each and asking folks in your network to weigh in.

Howl at the Moon Night on October 25 seems made for vampire and children’s books, don’t you think? Work with your local children’s librarian to host a Howl at the Moon contest for the little ones. Novelists, write a short story around that theme and offer it as a limited-time incentive (a lead magnet) for people to sign up for your newsletter.

Use World Smile Day on October 7 to encourage people to do at least one thing to make someone smile. If there’s a connection to smiling in your novel (a perpetually happy character, perhaps?) or you offer self-help advice, write and distribute a tip sheet with advice on how to find ways to smile more. No connection? Use it anyway to drip out – share one at a time, over time – social media posts and images with ideas for how we can all smile more.

You might want to brainstorm with a friend about how to use these holidays or events to your advantage. Open your mind to the possibilities and have fun with them.

Use these October book promotion possibilities

Expand your book promotion with this short list of unexpected and fun October holidays. Look for more on the beautifully redesigned Holiday Insights site, too.

• October 1 International Coffee Day
• October 2 Name Your Car Day
• October 3 National Boyfriends Day
• October 3 Techies Day
• October 5 National Kale Day
• October 6 Come and Take it Day
• October 7 World Smile Day
• October 9 Curious Events Day
• October 9 Moldy Cheese Day
• October 10 National Angel Food Cake Day
• October 12 Cookbook Launch Day
• October 12 Moment of Frustration Day
• October 12 National Take Your Parents to Lunch Day
• October 13 International Skeptics Day
• October 18 No Beard Day
• October 19 Evaluate Your Life Day
• October 21 Babbling Day
• October 22 Smart is Cool Day
• October 25 Howl at the Moon Night
• October 26 National Mincemeat Day
• October 29 Hermit Day
• October 30 National Candy Corn Day
• October 31 Increase Your Psychic Powers Day

Be sure to check out the list of book-related occasions during October in our 2022 literary calendar, too.

How can you link any of these to your book or its theme, message, characters, or mission? Please tell us in a comment. 

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission (at no extra charge to you).

When I delivered the luncheon keynote about platform-building for authors at the UW-Madison Writers’ Institute several years ago, I recommended that attendees secure book publicity with tip sheets.

I explained that a tip sheet is a type of press release that offers tips or advice in a bulleted or numbered format.

Like a press release, it’s written like a news story so that a media outlet or blogger can run it as is. No  additional research or writing is necessary.

“We love tip sheets”

After lunch, an attendee thanked me for recommending tip sheets to the audience. He was a features editor for the largest daily newspaper in the Midwest, he explained, adding, “We love tip sheets. We’d like to receive more of them.”

He’s not alone.

Media outlets, especially newspapers and magazines, like tip sheets because they can pull just one or two tips to fill space. They also run them  as submitted or use them as a starting point for longer feature articles.

Tip sheet success story

That’s what happened recently to Sandi Schwartz, author of Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities to Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer, when she took advantage of current events — a heat wave across the U.S. — to create and distribute a tip sheet titled, “How to Enjoy the Benefits of Nature Inside During a Heat Wave.”

Her advice was included in an article in the Palm Beach Post that was then re-published by USA Today, Yahoo, and The News Sow.

It’s a great example of how publicity begets publicity.

Monthly book publicity tip sheets

“I am grateful that Sandy suggested this tactic for book publicity because it keeps my book marketing active. I had no idea that my tip sheet would be used in a local paper that would ultimately get syndicated to USA Today. That was a huge hit for me and something I can use in all future marketing,” Schwartz says.

She has been sending out monthly tip sheets since April to a handcrafted media list consisting of her local media, national outlets covering parenting and environmental issues her publisher provided, and a few parenting bloggers as well.

“I have been happy with the results given the minimal effort it takes to tweak existing content into the tip sheet format that Sandy provides. It is simple and can lead to great results as I experienced with the USA Today article. Other tip sheets have resulted in articles in Women.com, Mothermag.com, Kiddos Magazine, and Embracing Change blog,” Schwartz adds.

Radio, TV, podcasts, bloggers use tip sheet advice

Radio stations like to share the advice in snippets or, like podcasts and TV talk shows, build author interviews around the tip sheet topic. In fact, my tip sheet on how to get a good holiday gift from a man was the basis of my appearance on the national TV talk show, “Home & Family,” which ran then on the The Family Channel.

Bloggers run them as posts because tip sheets save them the time it takes to write something helpful themselves.

When done right, tip sheets showcase a nonfiction book’s content or a novel’s theme or message while getting the book title in front of the book’s target audience. That’s what book publicity is all about.

Book publicity tip sheet topics

For many, the hardest part of writing a tip sheet is coming up with a topic.

For nonfiction, start by making a list of the most commonly asked questions you get from readers or others. Each can be turned into a tip sheet.

Your chapter topics are a goldmine of ideas, too.

For fiction, begin with your book’s themes, messages, and lessons. A novel that deals with grief and loss, for example, could yield a tip sheet on how to recover from loss.

When Irish children’s author Avril O’Reilly sent a tip sheet to media outlets throughout Ireland, she had immediate success that included newspaper and television exposure for her fiction book, Kathleen and the Communion Copter.

In her tip sheet, O’Reilly offered parents advice for selecting just the right Communion gift for girls. While her book is fiction, she was able to find a nonfiction nugget she could use to create a tip sheet that offered the media useful information they could use immediately.

You can do that, too.

Tip sheet elements

Successful book publicity tip sheets include specific elements:

• An attention-getting headline that includes the number of tips.
• An opening paragraph that describes the problem.
• A quote about the problem from the book author.
• A sentence that introduces the tips.
• Short, helpful tips in a list format.
• A concluding paragraph about the author and book.

Breaking it down

Let’s look at each element.

Headline

The best tip sheet headlines mimic those you see on the cover of women’s magazines – “5 surprising ways to get a beach body fast” or “6 tips for keeping your email inbox at zero.”

Include the number of tips and the tip sheet topic.

Opening paragraph

When writing the opening paragraph to describe the problem you’re solving, use statistics whenever possible to give your content weight and credibility. Using statistics isn’t required, but it’s effective enough that it’s worth doing a little research for studies, surveys, and reports.

For example, the author of a book about family caregiving writing a tip sheet about how to avoid caregiver burnout might use this first paragraph: “The National Association of Family Caregivers reports that self care is one of the biggest problems among caregivers today. The association says that nearly three quarters (72 percent) of family caregivers report not going to the doctor as often as they should and 55 percent say they cancel their own doctor appointments.”

Author quote

The author quote amplifying the problem should always add something new, rather than repeat what was stated in the opening paragraph. Use this opportunity to share an opinion.

Provide quote attribution with the author’s full name and book title.

Here’s how Schwartz did it with her heatwave tip sheet:

But nature is so critical to our health and well-being. “Nature calms us, reducing feelings of stress, anxiety, and anger. It has also been shown to improve focus and attention, as well as reduce blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. It even makes us friendlier and more apt to reach out to others in our community,” explains Sandi Schwartz, author of Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities to Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer.

This part: [explains Sandi Schwartz, author of Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities to Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer.] is the attribution.

Sentence introducing your tips

The set-up sentence for the tips is simple. Use this formula: “Here are (author’s last name) (number) tips for helping (audience/group) (topic).”

For the caregiving tip sheet, this sentence could be: “Here are Smith’s six tips for helping family caregivers take better care of themselves, too.”

Short tips

Use bullets or numbers for your tips. Start each tip with a verb to encourage action and keep each to no more than three sentences.

Remember that your goal here is to offer advice, not talk somebody into buying your book. Focus on providing helpful advice.

Concluding paragraph

The final paragraph ties everything up with two or three factual sentences about the author, the book, and where readers can purchase it.

Again, don’t be overtly promotional. This is a news piece, not a sales tool.

Here’s what a book publicity tip sheet looks like

I wrote “Nine tips for writing an op-ed that gets published” to publicize my book, Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions. It was widely picked up and used in full, as is, by nonprofit trade journals.

Here’s the finished version:

sample tip sheet from Build Book Buzz

(Click on the underlined text above to view or download the PDF file.)

5 common author tip sheet mistakes

When teaching authors how to create and use these media relations tools, I see these mistakes repeatedly:

1. Confusing a tip sheet with an ad. A tip sheet is a subtle book promotion tool. It doesn’t shout “buy my book.” Instead, it communicates, “If you think this information related to the book is interesting, imagine how much value you’ll get from the actual book.”
2. Forgetting to study newspaper and magazine articles before writing the tip sheet. News writing style is informal and factual. There’s no hyperbole.
3. Not understanding that a tip sheet is designed to help people solve a problem. State a problem . . . offer your solutions.
4. Offering a list of reasons to buy the book instead of a list of tips.
5. Avoiding tip sheets because you write novels and don’t see the connection between advice-giving and fiction. It’s true that it’s harder to generate tip sheet topics for fiction, but it’s do-able for every book. I’ve taught many, many novelists how to do this — you can do it, too.

How to use book publicity tip sheets

Distribute tip sheets to media outlets that would be interested in the content. For mass distribution, I recommend eReleases. Do not rely on free press release distribution sites as they won’t send your tip sheet to the press. It will just sit on their site, hoping to be discovered.

Email your tip sheet to a handful of media outlets you’ve researched by copying and pasting your tip sheet into your email message form. Or, use the email list management service you use for your author newsletter.

Add them to your book’s online press room.

Turn them into fiction and nonfiction lead magnets designed to entice people to sign up for your mailing list.

Use them as the starting point for future blog posts.

Include them with article pitch letters sent to journalists.

Add tip sheets to your book marketing plan and you’ll have many new friends among media editors, reporters, producers, podcasters, and bloggers. You’ll also get much more exposure than your competition.

And that’s exactly what you want.

Want help brainstorming a tip sheet topic? Share a brief description of your book here and let’s get people thinking! 

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2015. It has been updated and expanded.)

Raise your hand if you waited until you hit “publish” on Amazon to start thinking about how to get the book launch results that author dreams are made of.

If you’re a traditionally published author, you might not have thought about it at all. You expected your publisher to do whatever was needed to make sure readers discovered your book. No need for you to get involved. (Whoops.)

You were probably disappointed with your launch results, too.

Let’s turn that around. It starts with taking specific book marketing steps while you’re still writing.

Discovery is key

I understand the challenge. It’s hard enough to find time to write the book. Making room in your schedule (and mind) for book marketing while writing might seem like too much of a challenge.

But you have to — even if it means it takes a little longer to finish writing.

If you don’t start laying the groundwork you need to sell books before your manuscript is done, your book launch results will be dismal, discouraging, and disappointing.

If you don't start laying the groundwork you need to sell books before your manuscript is done, your book launch results will be dismal, discouraging, and disappointing.Click to tweet

Your book won’t be discovered on launch day or any other time of the year unless you goose the discovery process. That work starts early.

9 early steps to improving your book launch results

Here are nine steps to take while still writing that will help lay the groundwork for success.

Take on just one at a time. Fit in what you can, when you can.

If you do this, you’ll have several of your book marketing basics in place by the time your manuscript is done. That will set you up for a better, more successful launch.

1. Learn as much as you can about book marketing.

Read a book. Take a course.

Identify the bloggers who are publishing book marketing information you can trust. Subscribe to their newsletters.

In addition to my newsletter, I recommend:

• Kindlepreneur
• Author Marketing Experts
• The Nonfiction Authors Association
• Reedsy

2. Get clear on who will love your book.

That’s your target audience, the people you wrote your book for.

If you’ve written a nonfiction book, your target audience is people who are interested in that topic. But what do you know about them?

Many novelists tell me they wrote the book they’d like to read. It makes sense, then, that their ideal reader – their target audience – is people who are like them. (That’s not always the case – it’s just an example.)

3. Research your target audience.

Learn as much as you can about the person who is most likely to buy your book.

This will help you visualize your audience “avatar” – the one individual who best represents those who will love your book.

Next, do more research to learn where you’ll find them online and offline. For example, do people in your target audience use TikTok? Will you find them on LinkedIn? Do they like Pinterest?

4. Build a following on the social network that most of your audience uses. 

Your research into your target audience helped identify where you’ll find them online. Select one or two social networks that are most popular with your audience and learn how to use them effectively.

After you’ve spent some time learning how they work, start following “the right” people there.

Try this: Find the most popular authors in your genre. Follow them, and follow the people who follow them, too. (If they like the types of books the category leader writes, they’ll be interested in yours, too.)

And, of course, share content that will interest your ideal readers.

5. Connect with bloggers. 

Virtual book tours (author blog tours) are common and popular book launch elements.

When you “go” on a virtual book tour after your book is published, you’ll ask bloggers who reach the people you want to reach to share content that’s related to your book. That might be a:

• Guest post
• Q&A
• Audio or video interview
• Book review

You will be far more successful with bloggers who already know who you are. So, after you’ve identified the blogs you’ll want to visit on your tour, comment on and share their posts regularly.

They’ll notice you.

6. Build an email list.

Start gathering email addresses now. This is a never-ending process and for many, that growth is slow. So don’t wait.

Be sure to offer a downloadable gift – a “lead magnet”– in exchange for each email address. (Get ideas for fiction lead magnets and nonfiction lead magnets and learn how to create them at those links.)

Learn how successful authors use email to communicate with their readers by subscribing to their newsletters. What do you like about their approach? What do you dislike?

I also recommend reading Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert.

Learn how successful authors use email to communicate with their readers by subscribing to their newsletters.Click to tweet

7. Compile a list of “key influencers.”

Who is most influential with your book’s target audience? You’ll want to ask them to endorse your book after the manuscript is polished and finished.

Begin gathering names and contact information for them now. That’s all – just figure out who they are and how to reach them, and save it all in a file.

8. Create a Facebook Page.

I’m not talking about a Facebook profile – that’s your personal account where you acquire “friends.” I’m referring to a business Page where you acquire “likes.”

You’ll need a Page to advertise on Facebook, but it’s also a good way to establish your book’s presence on this popular social network without annoying your friends.

Use it to solicit opinions on your book’s topic, share progress updates, ask fans to vote on cover options, and so on.

9. Add your book title to your e-mail signature.

It doesn’t get any easier than just typing “Author,” followed by your book title.

Which one of these will you start doing today? Will you pick the easiest or the hardest?

Do what works for you, but whatever you do, be sure to do it now.

What’s the most important thing you did before you launched your book? Please tell us in a comment. 

Because many of her friends have influence with people the course is designed to help, I suggested she start by asking those friends to help spread the word. It’s a quick and easy way to begin moving forward.

But piggybacking onto someone else’s platform can – and should – involve far more than asking friends for support. The process is all about cross-promotion and collaboration.

How to leverage someone else’s network

It’s a smart strategy if you want to sell more books or other products, build an email list, or increase your social media follower count.

Here are eight ways to use the power of someone else’s network to reach your book marketing goals.

1. Do an Instagram takeover.

With an Instagram takeover, you literally take over someone’s Instagram account, posting your content instead of theirs. Create Instagram Stories and posts, or go live.

Keep in mind that this needs to be a mutually beneficial opportunity. Your host – perhaps another author in your genre – wants to know that you:

• Have an engaged audience that you’ll bring with you
• Will deliver quality, relevant content
• Will promote the takeover to your network

Keep the momentum going by arranging for your host to take over your account the following week.

2. Propose a newsletter swap.

A newsletter swap is a smart way to leverage someone else’s network while building relationships with others who reach your ideal readers.

With a newsletter swap, you and the influencer agree to promote each other’s books, programs, or products in your email newsletters.

I’ve got the how-to details in “How to do an author newsletter swap.”

3. Be a podcast guest.

Being any kind of guest is a great way to expand your reach, but I consider a podcast interview to be one of the easiest. Just show up and talk about something you know a lot about.

You’ll want to be thoughtful about what you say, of course. I always recommend working to communicate two or three key messages when you’re interviewed. Write them down ahead of time, and find ways to work each in at least once during the conversation.

Be sure to read “Message development: Know what you want to say and how to say it” first.

Support the podcast by promoting your appearance to your network so this is a win-win for all – you reach the podcast’s audience, but you also introduce your connections to the podcaster and their show.

4. Guest blog.

If you been hanging around here with me for a while, you know I’m a fan of guest blogging for several reasons.

When you write an article for someone else’s site, you’re providing an opportunity for your ideal readers to sample your writing.

via GIPHY

In addition, your host will most likely include a link to your book on Amazon or another retail site as part of your short guest blogger bio. (Learn the other reasons I love guest blogging in “4 reasons to embrace guest blogging.”)

Be careful to deliver a quality article that you’ve edited and carefully proofread. This isn’t an opportunity to “phone it in.” This should be a showpiece, not something you did so you could cross it off a list.

Get tips for being the best guest blogger ever in my free Guest Blogging Cheat Sheet.

5. Speak at a virtual or in-person summit.

via GIPHY

I do this once or twice a year, and I’m increasingly particular about the events I speak at so that I can maximize my time and reach.

I like to speak at events featuring other presenters who I’m fairly confident will promote the event to their networks.

When all speakers share summit news with their followers, everyone benefits. When they don’t, people in their networks aren’t exposed to helpful presentations and speakers, and other presenters don’t expand their reach and influence.

Speaking at a summit and offering free downloadable tips to attendees is one of the best ways I have for building my email list.

I usually create a new advice-packed “lead magnet” related to my presentation topic and require people to provide their email address to download it. They get bonus how-to information and my free, weekly, book marketing newsletter, and I can help more authors with articles like this one.

(Get fiction lead magnet ideas here and nonfiction ideas here.)

6. Bring well-connected people to your audience.

Do you have a blog or a podcast? Do you love using Facebook or Instagram Live? Invite influencers and others who share your audience to be your guest.

This helps you create quality content your followers will appreciate while your guest brings their audience to you, even while they’re connecting with yours.

Expand the impact by providing your guests with event text and images they can use to promote their guest appearances both before and after the events.

7. Get publicity.

Publicity – news media exposure – is the OG of audience leveraging.

Pre-social media, using publicity strategies to reach news outlets’ readers, viewers, and listeners was one of the only ways you could piggyback onto another’s platform.

Why should you work to reach audiences served by newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, and content sites? Publicity will help you:

• Get discovered
• Be seen as an authority and expert
• Sell more books
• Appeal to libraries and bookstores
• Expand your platform

Because I’m a national award-winning former publicist, I’ve written about publicity quite a bit on this site. Scroll through the articles here, and be sure to register for my author publicity course, “Get Quoted: A Journalist’s Strategies for Using HARO to Snag Book Publicity.”

8. Propose a joint venture.

The dictionary defines a joint venture as “a commercial enterprise undertaken jointly by two or more parties which otherwise retain their distinct identities.”

For us, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement where you partner equally with someone else to achieve a common goal.

Let’s go back to my friend’s situation. If her course is designed for people like you – my audience – she could propose that I host a free training with her that teaches something helpful and previews the course.

We agree that in exchange for access to my audience, we will split the income she earns from course registrations generated by our joint event. She expands her reach, I provide you with useful free training, and we’ve both earned something in the process.

That’s a solid joint venture.

Leveraging someone else's network is a smart strategy if you want to sell more books or other products, build an email list, or increase your social media follower count.Click to tweet

Which of these options works for you?

You’re better suited to some of these than others, right? If you don’t have a blog or podcast, you won’t be inviting people to write for you and you won’t be interviewing them on air.

But if you’re killing it on Instagram, a takeover there might become your new best tactic. Love talking about the writing craft or your book’s topic? Look into being a podcast guest.

It doesn’t matter how many of these you’re willing to explore. What matters is that you pick at least one – just one – and learn how to make it happen. You’ll move in the right direction – forward!

Which of these works best for you already? Which one are you going to try now? Please tell us in a comment.