Originally posted 2019-12-14 17:51:00.

Book Promotions – How To Do Profitable Book Promotions

What does a profitable book promotion mean? For some, it could be the chance to make enough sales to recoup their book promotion fee and make a small profit. For others, it could be that they got book one in a book series in front of new readers. They mightn’t have made a profit, but they know that some readers will follow the series and they’ll make money further down the line. And then for others, it’s the fact that their book promotion allowed them to add a hundred new subscribers to their mailing list. So what does a profitable book mean to you? Is it any of the above? What’s your goal? Having an idea of what you want before you begin could make a big difference in how you feel your book promotion has gone. With that in mind, I’ve put together a series of questions and tasks you should do before you spend a penny.

– What’s Your Budget – Before you begin, your budget is going to limit the size of your book promotion. Only got a few dollars? Then you’re limited to using sites like Fiverr.com for your book promotion. Got more that you can risk losing? Then you can work your way all the way up to something as large and as costly as a BookBub book promotion.

– Why Do Your Want To Do It? – Like thinking about your budget you should also sit down and ask yourself, “Why am I doing this book promotion?”

Is is to get book reviews? – Then maybe you’d be better going to sites like Librarything.com and making use of their free book giveaway services. Is it to build a list of subscribers? – Then maybe you’d be better off setting up a squeeze page and giving your book away free in exchange for a reader’s email address.

Is is just to get sales? – Like I wrote earlier, budget is going to limit your book promotion. If you’re short of cash, maybe reducing your book price down to $0.99 is going to get you in front of more readers. You mightn’t make a lot of money, but you will get yourself in front of new readers and more importantly buying readers. They might have only given you $0.99 for your book, but they have paid which is better than freebie seekers. If money is tight and you’re signed into Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited system, could a three day promo along with a little promotion help to kick start your book sales? Using your book giveaway along with a book promotion service (like the one BKnights does on Fiverr.com) and you’ll give your book a good chance of getting going once more.

– Make Sure Your Book Is Ready To Go – Like walking into a formal black tie party in fancy dress, does your book make a good first impression? How does you book cover look? – Is is a mess and looks like a ten year old did it with an hour’s experience of Photoshop? How about your book description, is it as boring as the back of a Conrnflakes packet, or does the wording make it irresistible to buyers. How about your reviews? – Is it just the ones your mother and second cousin wrote for you? Or are they nothing better than a “Great book, go and buy it” type of an affair. If it’s any of the previous, put your money away and sort those problems out. If your book cover, description, or reviews are weak or non existent, it’s time you got your shop in order. If you can’t do a good book cover or description, hire someone to do them for you. Again Fiverr.com is a good place to go. If you haven’t got the money and have to do it yourself, find out what’s working in your niche and work it into your book. Write out the ten best selling book’s descriptions by hand. Not only will this make you slow down and pay attention to the words they use, but you’ll see the formula they use to create it. Study good book covers, the fonts, the styling, the images, now try and recreate it on Canva.com

– Have You Got An Optin Page? – Even if your main goal is sales, you’re shooting yourself in the foot if you’re not building an email list of readers. Look at it this way? Would you rather keep buying traffic and book promotion services in the future, or have your own list you can mail to? It’s the latter, isn’t it? Because of that you really need to give some consideration to creating a giveaway item that you can tempt new readers onto your mailing list. This could a companion report, short story, free book, or competition that’s going to make them want to sign up. How do you think all the book promotion services that cost a fortune to advertise on did it? They built a list or a social following and they’re charging you for the privilege of posting to it. Think maybe you should do the same? Not only is your mailing list your most valuable asset, after your books, it’s one that pays for itself over and over again. And it’s yours. Even if Amazon blew up, all the world’s book stores burned down, you’d have a list of readers you could send your next book to. Don’t have that, and you have to go back again and again to the book promotion services.

Finally, although I didn’t cover any book promotion services in this post, because it depends on your wallet and genre. Test everything. I’ll say that again, test everything. If you’re spending $5 today on a book promotion service and it makes you $30, that’s a profit. If you spend $600 and you get a return of $400, that’s a loss. I don’t care how great, popular, or how many bells and whistles the services offers you. A loss is a loss. If you’re not tracking every dollar you spend, you’ll never know what service is producing the goods. Pick a website or promotion service and run the figures. If it’s not making you money, walk away and use another one. If you can’t seem to find one, then stick to using something like Amazon book ads. But again, test it. And if nothing works, maybe your time would be better spent working on your next book and building a catalogue you can sell further down the line.

Want more ways to get traffic and eyeballs on your books? Go here now.

 

The post Book Promotions – How To Do Profitable Book Promotions first appeared on WriteCome.com.