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How to Market Your Self-Published Book

                                            Smith Publicity book promotion services. Picture showing a book publicist at work

When traditional publishers release new books, a marketing campaign accompanies the launch to help the title sell copies. It's a given that book promotion services are essential to compete in today's crowded marketplace. Authors who self-publish must take on these responsibilities because they do not have the support of a publishing house. While it's possible for an author to promote a book without support, most hire a professional book marketing and publicity firm. Expert book marketers use a mix of tactics to gain exposure. Publicity needs to reach target audiences of potential readers.

People often buy books after seeing an author interviewed or reading an article that mentions a book. Most of these continue to originate in traditional media – TV, radio, print – and then are picked up or repurposed online in many places. Also, articles and videos that end up online stay there forever, greatly extending the value and lifespan of publicity hits. Authors also can include links to their media successes on their websites and in social media posts. All of it works together to generate buzz and interest in a book. To get someone to buy a book, they may need to hear about it several times in different places.

To do well in interviews and giving comments for articles, authors need to be very well-versed in their areas of expertise. It's common for interviewers and journalists to ask questions down to a fine level of detail and expect thorough answers. Simultaneously, replies need to be concise and pithy because anything lengthy or rambling will lose people's attention in most cases. Also, in today's internet saturated world, books and authors need websites. The site needs to promote the book but never with a hard-sell approach; it also needs to be user friendly and load easily on mobile devices.

In most cases, a blog should be connected to the website and linked from it. Well-written and focused blog posts can help attract search traffic because they are updated more often fresh new content. Websites, on the other hand, are more static. Search engines index new content, resulting in visibility for blog posts. They can be powerful forces in attracting people to the main website. Guest posts on other people's blogs are a direct way to reach more people online. If your article contains a backlink to your website, it will help you reach new audiences. Search engines also notice backlinks.

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