The Internet is a crucial venue for marketing books. Here, you have multiple opportunities to reach readers from all over the world and to promote your books for free. But getting online marketing right can be tricky. If you’re a self-published author, you can still follow a book marketing plan that sounds like it was written by a professional from a big publishing house. Just follow this guide to marketing books online.

Set up an author website.

People who want to know more about you or the books you’ve written shouldn’t have to comb the Internet looking for you. Build an author website that contains book excerpts, your bio, links to your social media accounts, contact details, a press kit, and a blog.

Write guest posts for other blogs or literary websites.

Marketing books online relies heavily upon networks and interconnectedness. The more connected you are, the more you make yourself known to potential readers. When you write posts or articles, not only do you gradually make a name for yourself, you also get to do some promoting by including your book in your byline.

Don’t underestimate the power of social media.

The success of marketing books online depends on reaching the maximum number of potential readers possible. Online marketing gets a big boost from social media networks. Create Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest accounts, start posting, and build a following.

Ask people to write reviews of your book on Amazon.

Request reviews from friends, relatives, colleagues, and anyone else who has read your book. Amazon is vital to marketing books online. Potential buyers rely on Amazon reviews when deciding whether or not to purchase a book.

Make a video book trailer.

One of the best strategies in marketing books online is to put together a book trailer promoting your book and then upload it to YouTube or another video sharing website. From there, you can post the link to the website on your social media accounts and ask your friends and followers to share the video as well. Don’t forget to write a description of the video with a link to where your book can be purchased. Alternatively, you can hire a professional to make the book trailer.

Use paid ads.

Marketing books online can be done without spending a dime. But if you really want to increase your sales and if you are able, you can also spend on paid advertisements. Try Facebook, Google, Kindle Nation Daily, World Literary Café, Digital Book Today, Book Blast, and Independent Author Network.

Sponsor blog posts.

This is another paid marketing option. If you have the budget, you can reach out to literary bloggers and offer to pay them for featuring your book on their website. Of course, it would not be ethical to pay them to write an entirely positive review, so be ready to read some unfavorable remarks. This is nonetheless still a good marketing tactic because you gain the attention of the bloggers’ readers and social media followers.