Becoming a published author of a nonfiction book that teaches or inspires will open up a variety of ways to generate revenue for your business.

It may sound counter-intuitive but I encourage my clients to give their books away. For example, giving the book away for free to a hot prospect can lead to thousands of dollars in consulting fees. They might throw away a business card but chances are, the book will stay on their bookshelf or credenza, keeping you top of mind.

Of course, we also want to generate revenue in the traditional way by selling our books. Here are six tips to help you do that:

1.         Make Your Book Discoverable

To sell your book, you have to make it easy for people to find it. That means taking advantage of all the ways you can notify potential buyers:

  • Add a blurb about your book with a link to the sales page in your email signature. Everyone who receives an email from you will also get your promotional message. Make the message short and quick, emphasizing the benefits of the information you share in the book.
  • If you’re selling on Amazon, pick keywords that reflect what readers who are searching for your topic will use. Use Amazon KDP Help for assistance and Jane Friedman’s post on the same topic.
  • Add a link to your book sales page on all of your social media profiles.
  • If you have a blog, place an ad for your book in the sidebar.
  • Add a link in your monthly newsletter.

For the sales page link, don’t use the long, ugly link from Amazon. Instead, shorten it to make it more user-friendly. Here are the ways I reference my book, Book Smart:

2. Create Marketing and Promotion Collateral

Your marketing collateral should be available online and offline.

  • Start by creating a media kit. Among other things, an author’s media kit will include an author bio, Sample Q’s &A’s, author headshots, interview topics, and a book excerpt. In addition to creating a complete media kit in print and digital versions, each section of the media kit should be easily downloadable on your author platform/website.
  • Create an Author/Book page on Facebook. Here’s a short tutorial.
  • Design bookmarks and postcards. As you know, I recommend printing a small number of books in your first print run to avoid having boxes of books in your garage or basement. The same advice applies to bookmarks and postcards. Yes, you can get them cheaper in quantities of 1000, but be realistic about how many you will actually distribute. I recommend a quantity of no more than 250 to start. You can slip a bookmark or postcard in any of your correspondence including bill return envelopes. When you mail or give away a book, include a bookmark for the reader to share with a friend. If you’re speaking at an event, have a stack of bookmarks or postcards to share even if you plan to sell your book. Not everyone will be ready to buy immediately.
  • Create a tip sheet or postcard to give away. I took one of my blog posts titled Five Experts Who Need to Write A Book and created a postcard listing the reasons on the front with my book information on the back.

3.         Use Advanced Social Media Tactics

Find out which social media platforms your target reader hangs out and establish a presence there. Always include a link back to your book sales page.

  • Create a hashtag for your book and encourage people to use it.
  • Share your book cover or images of your book in posts.
  • Turn tips and action items from your book into posts
  • Share pictures of you or others implementing your book’s tips
  • Share images from promotional events

4.    Set up Author interviews

Interviews can be conducted online or in person. The idea is to get out there and meet your readers, talk about your book, and help build buzz for it.  Interview ideas include:

  • Writing a guest blog post to be published by an influencer in your industry.  
  • Scheduling a reading at a Meet-up or local bookstore
  • Interviews on podcasts, YouTube channels, or social media live
  • When you’re traveling for business or pleasure, announce the trip to your followers and offer an in-person signing at a coffee shop, restaurant, or hotel conference room.

5. Create a Promotional Video for Your Book

It takes a bit of work to create a promotional video or book trailer, but a video is quick and easy to digest and video content performs particularly well on social media. You can create a video that’s simply you talking to the camera. You can also outsource video production if you want to get it done with little to no fuss.

Share your book trailer on social media, YouTube and other video sharing sites, your author website or blog, and on your Amazon Author Page. Other ways to share your book trailer include sending it in an email to your list, sharing a link to it at offline events, adding it to your social media profiles, and sharing it on book websites like Goodreads.

If you implement any of these tactics, please share the results in our Facebook Group.

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Linda Griffin
Linda Griffin

Linda Griffin is the founder of Expert Author 411. She believes becoming a published author will put any business owner heads and shoulders above their competition. Ms. Griffin is the author of two books: Maximum Occupancy: How Smart Innkeepers put Heads in Beds in Every Season and Book Smart: The Ninety-day Guide to Writing and Self-publishing for Busy Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, and Corporate Professionals. Both are available on Amazon at amazon.com/author/lindagriffin