Note from Jane: Today’s guest post is by novelist Andrea Dunlop (@andrea_dunlop), formerly a publicist at Doubleday.
There is so much publishing and marketing advice for debut authors since they don’t know much—if anything—about the process on their first go round. But for most authors—particularly novelists whose work is not necessarily attached to specific moment in time—book marketing is a long game that involves building an audience and a brand over the course of many books.
This week I launch my second novel, She Regrets Nothing, almost two years after my debut. Given that I’d worked in book publishing for eleven years before Losing the Light was published, I knew more than most authors going in, but I’ve learned so much in the two years since! Here are four questions to consider between book launches that will help you maximize your long-term marketing efforts.
1. Who are you core audiences?
Before your debut novel releases, you spend a lot of time thinking about who the audience might be, but once it’s been on-sale for a while you have more information to work with about who they actually are.
- Which readers did you hear from?
- What did they gravitate towards?
- Which other books did they buy?
Like a politician playing to their base, your marketing efforts should always consider your core audiences. Unless you are writing for a very specific niche, your audience probably includes crossovers from different groups. For example, folks who bought my book were primarily female and read a mix of literary and upmarket women’s fiction, domestic thrillers, as well as some new adult fiction and contemporary romance. One of the best reasons to be on social media as an author is because it allows you to see and connect with your audience, giving you real time insight with which to tailor your marketing efforts.
2. What’s new about this book?
Of course you’ll want to go back to anyone who loved your first book, but to grow your audience you need to either reach more of the same type of readers, or reach new readers. Consider what elements your second book has that your first book didn’t.
My novels have plenty in common— female protagonists, coming-of-age elements, a strong sense of place, disastrous romantic entanglements—but identifying what was new about She Regrets Nothing helped me and my marketing team figure out how this book could reach a wider audience than the first. My second novel is the story of a young woman who discovers a wealthy family that’s been kept from her and decamps to New York to join them. Right away the book started garnering comparisons to Gossip Girl, a show that’s endured as a cultural touchstone of New York City (and which I happen to love) and Edith Wharton, who wrote so beautifully about social class in New York. There are also darker, edgier elements to my second novel that have sparked conversations about sexual dynamics, class, and wealth that the first one didn’t.
3. What worked well for your first book launch? What didn’t?
Before you publish their first book, your marketing plans are mostly speculative. But once you’re a year or two in, you’ve seen which efforts were successful in terms of generating publicity, boosting your social media engagement, and converting into sales—in other words, what worked for you and what didn’t. I threw many different tactics at my first book’s launch, meaning that at this point, I can double down on the former and abandon the latter.
I hired an outside publicity firm—Booksparks—to handle the PR for my first book and since they did a stellar job, I hired them for the second book. Because they knew me and my work already they’ve been able to get significantly more attention for my second book.
A counter example: for the first book, I spent a lot of time trying to get Amazon customer reviews, and while this can certainly help with a book’s visibility and sales, for me the cost-benefit of the outreach wasn’t worth it. Now that I know that, I can take it off my to-do list.
4. How can you fine tune your social media strategy?
Social media marketing takes a long time to pay off. If you’re a neophyte, it takes a while to learn how to use the various platforms well, understand their audiences, and feel comfortable enough to generate good content. Many novelists only get serious about social media when a book launch is imminent, meaning that social media might not have been a major factor in your first launch because your platform wasn’t that big. And that’s okay! That time between books is a great time to get your sea legs on social. Once you have a better idea of who your audience is, you’ll have a better idea of how to find and communicate with them.
I wasn’t hugely into Instagram before my first launch, but Bookstagrammers such as Book Baristas and Swept Away By Books became some of my first evangelists and really helped my work find its initial readers. After experimenting with the Instagram a bit more, I discovered I really liked using it, which is always a key component to being effective on a given platform. I also experimented with some new platforms between books, such YouTube, which I abandoned once I discovered just how work intensive it is to create great videos (hats off to the YouTubers!).
When a book launch isn’t imminent, it’s easier to approach social media with a spirit of experimentation, creativity, and fun, and to freely abandon what isn’t working for you. Much of the social media overwhelm I see comes from the idea that you need to be on all the platforms all the time—something even most large corporations don’t de especially well. Find one or two you love and focus on those.
Book launches are intense and can feel very high stakes, so use the time between them to take a step back and consider how to build a career over many years, and many books, to come.
Now it’s your turn: What did you learn between book launches? How have you adjusted your strategy?
Andrea Dunlop is a Seattle-based writer and a social media and marketing consultant. She is the author of Losing the Light and She Regrets Nothing. Find out more at her website.
After more than thirty years as a published author, I have seen so many changes that I’ve concluded there is no formula for success with launching a book. A book launch used to be an event, a kickoff, for your book. Now, it’s a drawn-out process that begins long before the ink dries on the page. It seems to me it is “author-specific,” as well. A book launch for an introvert might be wine and cheese with friends, for an extravert, a signing at a gigantic book fair. While I’ve learned a lot from current marketing gurus, I finally picked up on a pattern. There was always another webinar or school or something that brought income to them and took it out of my pocket. One exception is Jane Friedman, who has always given value and honesty to the conversation. I like Andrea’s tips in this blog and appreciate her willingness to try different approaches and share them with authors who are still struggling. Thanks to Jane for posting.
Wise words, Nita – my thanks to you as well!
I agree, Nita. Interestingly, I did a search on an author who was spruiking his marketing books – yes, his marketing books are selling HUGELY, but when I checked his fiction novels, very few sales. Which just goes to show how thirsty we authors are to find success & the magic road to it, so much so that we spend big on other authors’ marketing books…and when you find out their words of wisdom don’t seem to work for their fiction novels…well, let’s just say I read Jane’s blog and newsletters, and a couple of others, but I’ve stopped buying marketing books. Over the last 18 yrs of writing (40 books), and having ridden the waves of early self-pubbing (success!) to now (fighting a growing tide of less royalties and rapidly expanding authors, and I know this affects traditional and self-pubbed), I’ve found what works for one author won’t work for another, and what works today won’t work tomorrow. The swell and ebb of the writing and reading tide is varied and changes constantly. I even sunk quite a lot of money into marketing last year – both promo and newsletter building – with a slight increase in sales but not much. Even the freebies have proven not to increase sales that much, and I’ve stopped that, too, unless I run my own contest as a thank you to my loyal readers. Now I try not to flog myself and tread my own path, have more of a balance with my day job, writing and my life, and I’m a lot happier for it.
My first book (14 years ago) was a building book for women. Second book (just out now) a graphic memoir of a woman from Chile. Third book (out soonish) is a book of collected drawings and artwork. Fourth (eventually) will be a novel. Not so easy to find a common thread to build on! Marketing will be a very gradual thing I feel, but that’s ok. Was interested to read that the Amazon reviews was not an essential thing for you. I though that would be all-important?
As far as focusing on your core audience, I think a great way to pull those diamonds from the weeds is to invite them to join your launch team. I launched my first book a few years ago and built up an audience of around 1,500 readers since then. A few months ago, having begin to market my forthcoming novel to that reader audience, I solicited interest from anyone who wanted to participate in my launch team and was surprised by those who stepped forward. It wasn’t a large number but some of those who did would otherwise have been just random email addresses from my list. It gave me an opportunity to determine who I needed to treat well with one-on-one exchanges because they’d basically stepped forward to say they liked what they’d read so far, and wanted more. Jay
The most important (and surprising) fact I learned about launching a book is book marketing isn’t about sales as much as it is about relationships. I discovered this by accident. I have a mom blog. My followers didn’t know I had written a book, so when I announced via video that I’d signed with a publisher, my blog followers went crazy and shared all over social media. My FB followers increased from 300 to over 700 in 24 hours. When my book released, they posted pictures and their reactions on Facebook (without me asking…because I didn’t know enough to ask). Their posts received comments such as “Where can I find this book?” and “I want to read this.” So between releases, I’m building relationships…and I’ve made some wonderful online friends in the process. In fact, one reader in Australia hosted a dinner for a former student of mine who is doing a semester exchange Down Under. If people care about you–connect with you–they’re more likely to buy your book.
These are great questions to ask. It is important to think about what worked and what didn’t the first time around. I know I wasted a lot of time doing certain things for my first book launch, like sending out release posts to book bloggers. I just released my fifth book and I’m still learning each time I put something out there.
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Just launched my memoir published by Roman & Littlefield. It’s called “Inside The Star Wars Empire: A Memoir. I find radio works best for finding sales. Did the Jim Bohannon radio show for an hour and that worked. Also, I try to send people to Amazon from my Facebook pages (800,000 members) not that I like Amazon, it’s just at least there I can see my sales and what worked and what didn’t work. To bad publishers won’t let you see sales hour by hour like Amazon does.
Hi, Andrea…I appreciate your timely (for me) article on publishing one’s 2nd book..I instantly recognized what you went through on the 1st, stabbing around in the dark for something that worked…I am now convinced that slogging your way thru book store appearances is nice, it really doesn’t have the impact it once die; today the secret is social media. I anticipate my next book to hit the market in the first quarter on next year, and am now trying to instigate a plan that will lead up to said launch…I had my first book published at the age of 70, so you can see I’m a bit out of the loop with using social media to it’s best advantages, but I’m trying to learn quickly. My plan is to begin six months prior to my pub date making announcements, publishing teasers, etc. on FB. Also, I did not hire a publicist last time, a mistake I intend to correct this go around. I literally despise feeling like I’m tooting my own horn, so intend to try and find someone to do it for me. I love my life as a writer and become irritated at spending time tooting that proverbial horn, but it’s a necessary evil, i.e., if they don’t know you, they cannot become a fan. My novel, The Last Road Home, was recently the recipient of the 2017 NC Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Historical Fiction, but if your potential fans are outside of the State, I doubt it helps much and it seems distasteful to flaunt the award which was very special to me. So, again thanks for your insight, and I wish you great success for the future. Best.
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