5 lessons I've learned about book marketing
I was tidying up my Google Drive recently and I found this post! I originally wrote it as a guest post for someone else’s blog but I had a great Q&A session with my Debut Author group last week and a lot of these topics came up… so I thought it was worth a repost here!
I also thought I would preface this post with explaining the difference between marketing and PR, because this is something I find many people are confused by.
I actually used to run my own content marketing agency and when I was a journalist I worked with PRs all the time so I do know the difference but it’s not always obvious.
In Publishing, you often find people talking about sales, marketing and publicity as though they are all the same thing, but, while they are related to one another and should play nicely together, they’re actually completely distinct.
Here’s a clear breakdown:
1. Goal:
Marketing is about promoting and selling a product or service. Its main focus is driving revenue - getting interested people to buy your book.
PR (Public Relations) is about managing reputation and relationships. Its main focus is building trust, credibility, and awareness for you and your author brand.
2. Messaging & Approach:
Marketing messages are often controlled, direct, and persuasive. We’re talking about ads, email campaigns, sponsored social media posts, and other paid-for promotions.
PR messages are more indirect and earned. The goal is to get others (like journalists or influencers) to talk about your book positively, rather than you promoting yourself directly.
3. Channels:
Marketing: Paid channels mostly - advertisements, sponsored posts, PPC (pay per click) campaigns, email marketing, larger events like festivals, etc.
PR: Earned or owned channels - press releases, media coverage, interviews, thought leadership pieces, social media engagement, press launches.
4. Measurement:
Marketing: Usually measured in hard metrics - sales, leads, clicks, conversions, ROI (return on investment).
PR: More difficult to track as measured in softer metrics, for example media mentions, author ‘brand’ sentiment, audience reach, reputation, and sometimes engagement.
Here’s an example to make it concrete:
If you launch a new book:
Marketing would be running Facebook ads, promoting it on your newsletter, and offering pre-order discounts to drive sales.
PR would be sending the book to journalists, getting it reviewed in a magazine, or being interviewed on a podcast to raise awareness and credibility.
In short, marketing says ‘Buy this book,’ while PR says ‘This book is worth taking a look at.’
They often overlap, but the distinction is really about direct sales vs. reputation and awareness.
In my experience, when it comes to books, marketing is a far more powerful tool than PR.
While PR is great for raising your own profile as an author, it’s less immediately effective at shifting copies of your book. It’s definitely more of a ‘longer game’ kind of thing.
OK, so now we’ve cleared that up, here are the top 5 lessons I’ve learned about marketing since becoming a published author!
1 You can’t do everything - pick the things you enjoy
Like many authors, when I first got my book deal I was determined to Do It All. I googled anything and everything around book marketing, set up new social media accounts, built myself a new website, set up a mailing list, got headshots done, started researching digital advertising, and basically gave myself a bit of a mental breakdown.
In short, very quickly I became totally overwhelmed. It took a few conversations with some wiser and more experienced author friends to realise that less is more. As an author, you’re constantly juggling lots of different balls, and it’s inevitable that you’ll drop some if you overload yourself.
The best tip I was given, early on in my career, was to pick the marketing-related things you enjoy doing, and focus on them. So for me, it’s having a good, up-to-date website and dedicated author newsletter. I dip in and out of social media but it’s not my main focus. I set up a Tik Tok account, just in case readers wanted to find me, but I don’t post on it - it directs people to my Instagram, where I focus most of my social media efforts.
Picking the marketing avenues you enjoy will mean that marketing your books doesn’t feel like a chore. And if you enjoy it, you’re far more likely to stick with it.
2 It’s important to engage with readers
I feel quite strongly about this one. But it needs to start with a caveat - I don’t believe authors should respond to negative reviews. Ever. Despite how much you want to!
I’ve managed to resist over the years, except for one occasion - when a reviewer left a one-star review for one my books that hadn’t even been to the copyeditor yet. There was no way the reviewer could have possibly read the book, so I left an unwise and rather sarcastic comment on the review, saying I’d love to borrow their time machine and go into the future.
I later learned that some reviewers will star-mark books they want to read as a way of reminding themselves. Oops.
Anyway, I think reviewers, on the whole, are amazing, and it’s really nice to acknowledge the time they spend reading and reviewing your book. Or even commenting on your social media posts.
I try really hard to respond to all of the comments I get - I think it’s only right, and I know that readers really appreciate it.
3 Amazon / Facebook ads are a dark art
I can’t really say much about this because, nearly eight years on from my first book being released, I STILL don’t understand how Amazon ads work. Or, for that matter, Facebook ads.
If you do want to go down the route of advertising your book then I really strong advise you consult an expert in the field for advice. The landscape is constantly changing, and you can easily spend hundreds of pounds otherwise, without ever seeing a return on your investment.
4 The landscape constantly shifts
And talking of landscapes changing - it’s not just advertising algorithms. The whole digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and it can be a real challenge to keep up with the times. BookTok has been a big driver of book sales for a few years now, but I have heard that even that is on the wane now.
Cover reveals used to be a big thing, but now they don’t seem to have the same impact, and some publishers don’t bother doing them at all.
If you have a publisher, I think it’s important to stay in communication with whoever is in charge of marketing your books, and make sure you are both on the same page, and that your efforts are supporting theirs, and vice versa.
And don’t be afraid to ask for their advice - they’re the experts after all!
5 The best marketing you can do is write another book
I talk to many traditionally published authors as I also build author websites, and I always come back to this point: marketing your book is (mostly) your publisher’s job.
The best marketing you can do for your book is to write another one. Honestly. You are a writer, and writing is your job.
Of course, marketing your book is something you can get involved with, but don’t let it be at the expense of writing your next novel!
Am I allowed a bonus lesson!?
I hope so, because I’d like to end on an important point…
It’s OK to take breaks from your marketing efforts!
Writing takes a lot out of you and I think all authors reach a point where they’ve had enough and just want to run away and hide.
So if one day you wake up and realise you feel completely overwhelmed by social media, and just want to be Left Alone, then take a few days off! Or a week! Or however long you need.
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