The Ambitious Author

5 Steps to Market a New Book Release

Posted on October 20, 2015 Updated on June 30, 2016

One of the questions I receive most often is from authors is, “How do I promote my new book?” 
Whether it be your debut release or book #5 (or #105) marketing a new release can often be daunting. 
But it doesn’t have to be!

Through the months of June, July, and August, I blogged a marketing workshop here, where I shared all the different marketing options available to authors. And there are a lot of opportunities! But the list can be intimidating, so let me break it down into critical steps for a new release. 

This list is accurate for either indie or traditionally published books (although indie authors certainly have a few more steps related to book production). 

Let’s get started!

1. Make sure your book is posted on your website, Goodreads, your Amazon Author Central page, and all your social media profiles. In other words, if people are looking for info about the book, make sure they can find it!
2. Choose whether you want to do a blog tour. If yes, get started and enjoy the ride! For more info on the steps and best practices, see this post. 
3. Line up your influencers and early reviewers. One of the most helpful tools to gain traction with book sales, is to help your book garner reviews early. I’ve shared a lot of strategies to gain reviews here.
4. Share the new release to your newsletter list, blog, and social media channels. In other words, get the word out to your people! Get excited and your enthusiasm will be infectious! 
5. Schedule paid advertising. This is the step many authors try to skip, but I’ve very rarely seen a book take off without some amount of paid advertising. There are so many choices out there, it’s easy to waste money. My go-to sites are ereadernewstoday.com and Facebook Ads. (You may remember, I shared the Facebook ad process in detail here.)