When you are an author and plan to help your publisher market your book or if you publish the book by yourself, there are some things that you must do in order to carry out a successful marketing campaign. We shall divide these activities into three categories.

Basics

You must ensure that there are at least three positive reviews by users at every online retailer that sells your book.

Four months before publication, make sure that the product pages at all online booksellers are up and they have correct information.

Reach out to all your contacts and tell them that your book has been published and request them to tell others.

Include your product page on your email signature so that all people you contact will know that you have a book out.

If you have published highly successful titles in the past, make sure you include “author of” in the byline of all articles you publish.

Things requiring more effort but worth the work

Online booksellers usually have several ways of helping you sell more books on their sites. You should make use of all the tools they provide you in order to increase book sales.

Try to use social media to spread the word. You should start with one website and try as hard as you can to make it work for you. If you don’t succeed, move on and try another site. Sooner or later you are bound to find a site that will help you market your book. However, you should know that time is of the essence when you use social media for book marketing.

Your academic connections are very important if you want to establish credibility and sell more books. You should request to write articles or to get mentioned in alumni magazines. You should contact operators of professional websites to feature you on the sites. You can also sell books in bulk to an academic society.

Raising the stakes even higher

If you have recently published a book, it is not easy to get people to buy the book or even know about it in the first place. You should therefore always look for ways to add more kick to your marketing campaign. The following are some things you should do:

Create a website or blog. This website should be an author website where you list all your work and have individual sections for your books. You should give your editor the URL of the website so that he can give it to other important people. The link to your website should also be prominent in your email signature.

Create an author profile on Goodreads and start talking with your readers.

Write original articles based on topics you have mentioned in your book. Try to make the articles relevant to the national/global scene.

Always mention your book when you are called for interviews and when you are asked to speak at events.

If you have a marketer, always keep him/her informed about everything you do.

Create a promotional video for your book and post it on your blog/website.

You can also host an online book signing event.