Embarking on your publishing journey into the book world is a thrilling and challenging experience! Along your self-publishing way are trails that twist and turn through tough choices such as final manuscript revisions, or choosing an appealing cover design. But your author’s journey doesn’t end once your book is ready for readers. It’s only just begun! You will be rewarded if all your book marketing efforts are working towards the same goal and you continue to build your platform.
The next leg of your publishing adventure is along the winding path of book marketing. (How else will your book end up in the hands of your new fans?!) Early along your marketing path, you’ll reach a fork in the road—a choice of which trail your book will travel down. Do you self-market your book or have it professionally marketed?
How To Market Your Book?
Depending on what matters most to you, your marketing path may look vastly different from another author’s. What works for one may not work for another. The life of an average indie author is a constant balancing act as you choose between your book publishing dreams and your personal reality. So how do you decide on your book marketing route? Explore the benefits and drawbacks of each to discover which is best for your personal publishing journey.
Weighing Your Options
Imagine that you are standing at a literal fork in the road. One path is marked “Self-Marketing” and the other “Professional Marketing.” Now place a balancing scale at each path and let’s weigh out the pros and cons of each. What pros bring you the most balance in your book dreams versus your real-life responsibilities? What cons send your publishing dreams running for the hills?
Self Book Marketing for Authors
| PROS | CONS |
| Set Your Own Schedule Spend as much as or as little time as your availability allows. If one week you are slammed with life’s demands, the next can be a marketing-heavy week to make up for the lost time. Set your own marketing schedule that fits your personal needs. For example, if you’re a night owl, you can work well into the wee hours without worrying about missing your marketing contact’s business hours. |
Time Is Money The dangers of self-management can include procrastination and a busy schedule. These and many other factors carry authors away from their passions. Additionally, many marketing efforts involve time-consuming setup and consistent maintenance and updating. While you could save on the cost of professional marketing, you may miss out on opportunities with your time diverted elsewhere. |
| Learn as You Go Many indie publishers offer free materials to help authors learn the basics of self-marketing. Authors gain experience through hands-on learning and self-teaching. You can tackle each of your marketing options one at a time, at your own pace. With diligent studying and research, along with perseverance in applying what learn, you can teach yourself some valuable marketing tools. If you do your homework, you can gather marketing traction to get your book the attention it deserves. In time, you’ll learn which efforts were beneficial and which fizzled out. |
So Much to Learn, So Little Expertise Will you lose your way of spending too much time figuring out your marketing paths only to give up? If you do not savvy with marketing trends, you could be wasting a ton of time as a novice. Your learning curve may wind you through a very confusing path! Even if you’re a Facebook or Twitter guru, these avenues become completely different platforms in book marketing. The expertise of professional marketing can show you the way toward your book’s success and save several frustrating hours as well. This is time you could spend living your personal life or writing your next masterpiece! |
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Complete Creative Control You are the sole voice of all your marketing materials, rather than having your ideas and visions interpreted. Your book marketing will be in your author’s voice and from your perspective. You can choose how much or how little content to share as a teaser to entice readers. It’s all up to you and your creativity! |
What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt Are you familiar with SEO? Do you know how to find and reach your book’s target audience? Can you set up and run a successful social media ad campaign? Do you know which retailers and distributors are best for your book? These are just some of the many obstacles to hurdle over along your marketing path. An experienced marketing professional helps you figure out details like these and many more! |
Professional Marketing
| PROS | CONS |
| Expertise Helps Your Book Sales Soar When your marketing comes from a quality team of professionals, it shows! A specialist or agency studies market trends to develop a promotional strategy that offers your audience timely content with enticing designs on a consistent basis. Professionals are also receptive to your input. Their goal is to complement your vision in order to accurately reflect your book in its best light. Professionalism comes at a cost, but you’ll get what you pay for in terms of quality and expertise. Additionally, your book benefits from the value of time and effort well spent. Many indie publishers will even work with your budget and understand that authors often need the most help with marketing. |
Experience Costs Money The path of marketing involves several different options to choose from, many with hefty price tags attached. Book launch events, press releases, social media ad campaigns, blog tours are just pieces of a very big marketing puzzle that a professional team can help you with. Your initial costs may be higher, but setting a marketing budget could be an investment into higher book sales. |
| Network of Distribution Channels Many indie publishers have a vast network of distribution channels to get your book out to the reading world. With these distribution channels, you’ll be able to introduce your work to national and foreign markets and gauge which are most successful for your book’s sales through data and reporting. |
With Distribution Comes Royalty Cuts Royalty cuts often deter authors from distributing in various channels. Each distributor may take a different cut for the cost of essentially selling your book for you. Distribution becomes a cost-versus-benefit analysis. It often depends on aspects such as your book’s genre, target audience demographics, etc. Where you sell your book is just as vital as its pages’ contents. Royalty cuts may dig into your profits, but professionals with retailer distribution knowledge will get your book in your target audience’s hands. |
| Building into a Brand-Name Author Professional marketing can help build your author brand in the publishing world. Marketing teams will know which questions to ask you to gain an understanding of your vision. Together you’ll build a brand in your author name and gain recognition with the right marketing tactics. With consistent and relevant marketing, you’ll maintain a presence in various outlets from social media campaigns to press releases and so much more! |
The Challenges of Communication You’ve spent hours of your creative effort writing your book. You have so much to say about your book and your vision as an author! However, sometimes the toughest things to explain are those we are most passionate about. While building your author brand, exercise clarity and patience with your marketing professional to ensure that your author’s voice is represented accurately. If you’re not clearly explaining your visions, you’ll risk misinterpretation or having them get lost in the marketing shuffle. |
By now, your scales may be tipping heavily in one direction over the other. Or perhaps your options are weighing out evenly as you face the fork in your marketing path. If you’re unsure what’s best for your book’s publishing journey, just take a leap and see where it takes you! Try self-marketing on your social media channels or reach out to a professional book publisher. Explore different marketing avenues to see which will take your book to the heights you’ve worked so hard to reach! You’ve poured your creativity into this dream, don’t let it sizzle out!
Resources
Whichever book marketing path you choose, eBooks2go can help find your way! We fit all budgets into our packages! Here are some of our resources to check out as you weigh your options. Or reach out and get in touch with our book marketing experts at 1-847-598-1150. We’ll be happy to work with you on your marketing needs!
eBooks2go Self-Marketing Resources:
DIY Book Marketing Guide for Authors
eBooks2go Professional Book Marketing Packages:
Marketing Assistance Packages
Facebook Marketing Packages
Instagram Marketing Packages
Twitter Marketing Packages
Press Release Options