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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson! In today’s episode, Becky finishes the series on the four phases of your book marketing journey with the advancing phase, and gives you creative ways to keep your book in the conversation.
If you haven’t listened to the previous episodes on the four phases of your book marketing journey, we encourage you to do that. Those four phases are:
- Building (6 months prior to launching)
- Working (4 months prior to launching)
- Launching (week of your publication date)
- Advancing (1 month and beyond post-launch)
The advancing phase comes after the launch of your book. Many times, after all of the excitement, momentum, and energy of the launch, authors are confused about what happens next. How do you keep the momentum for your book post-launch? Here are some things to keep in mind.
Book promotion isn’t self-promotion, it’s message promotion. Remembering this can help you overcome resistance to continue to promote your book after the launch. You might feel like you’ve been talking about your book all the time or that the topic of your book is tired, but you’ll be surprised by how many people say, “What, you have a book!?”
Don’t stop mentioning your book on social media. You can talk a lot more about your book on your social platforms because people show up sporadically, the algorithms are wonky, and people may not be seeing your posts. It’s important to keep using different ways of telling about your book and adding value to your audience. Because chances are, even if you think everyone has heard about your book, they may not have yet.
Here are 4 key ways to keep your book in the conversation:
- Find ways to mention your book that add value and aren’t directly selling. One of the best ways to do that is by mentioning any podcasts or articles in which your book may have been featured. You can share those with your audience in a way that will help them, because the content will be of value. This will be a gentle reminder that your book is available.
- Intermittently but gently remind people to buy your book or leave Amazon reviews. You could post once a month, “Did you read my book? If so, one of the best ways you can help me is by leaving a review on Amazon”—or you can remind people the book is for sale by mentioning the various formats in which it is available. For example: “Did you know? My book is available on audio,” or “Did you know? My book is available on Kindle.”
- Relate your book and its topics to relevant holidays, events, or news. If there is something happening in the news that is relevant, timely, or interesting, get people’s attention and link it to your book. If you can very easily and seamlessly link your book to that news event, holiday, or top of mind activity, that will be a way to gently add your book back into the conversation.
- Think about one way each month to bring your book into online conversations. A word of caution: if the only time you show up on social media channels is to talk about your book . . . STOP! The important thing is to show up every day with a wide variety of content such as interesting stories, pictures, and glimpses of your life, so that when you drop in your book once a month or so to keep the momentum going, it won’t seem like that’s the only time you show up. Have an approach of showing up regularly, but sharing your book intermittently.
If you’re going to write a book, you need to be married to the message and believe in the content that you’ve written and are sharing in the world. And if that’s the case, then it’s only going to be natural for you to continue to bring up your book over time, at moments when the value is there for people.
Here are today’s action steps to keep your book in the conversation.
- Write out the next 12 months and come up with one idea each month that you are willing to try, in order to keep your book in the conversation.
- Is your book of particular value as it relates to some news story, holiday, or other event happening now? If so, brainstorm ways to tie your book to those current events and share them with your online networks.
Remember: book promotion isn’t self-promotion, it’s message or story promotion. We encourage you to realize your book is—and can be—an asset for you for months and years to come. Let us know below what action steps you will take today, or email Becky Robinson here.
In today’s podcast, we mention author Bill Treasurer, who was a recent guest on The Daily Connection: A Leadership Learning Series. This series is a daily 30-minute virtual event with various guests and topics. Registration is free! To watch the webinar with Bill Treasurer, click here.
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I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.