TL:DR – Advice on selling a book in the age of influencers and podcasts.
A friend of mine, Greg Gbur, has a new book out. It looks fascinating, its title is Invisibility: The History and Science of How Not to Be Seen. I needn’t tell you much more about it, it does what it says on the tin, as they say. Gbur is a physics prof who specialises in optics and has a way with words. It’s a guaranteed great read.
Anyway, Greg was lamenting on social media how hard it is for a popular science author with a book out to get that very message across. There are so many books published every week, so many people chattering and chuntering on about those books. Any attempt to promote it and get the book into people’s shopping basket or onto their Kindle seem doomed in this age of influencers and endless podcasts vying for our attention.
It was different back in my day, says the grand old man whose book Deceived Wisdom was in book stores back in 2012! Actually, it wasn’t that different, I did my best with promoting it as did my publisher, they got me spreads in various papers and there was an option to do radio interviews (they’re like olden-days podcasts but you can’t pause or rewind them, hahah).
I thought about some of the things I did to help sell my book and at one point it was riding high, above books by Sir David Attenborough and Professor Brian Cox that were on the market at the same time. Indeed, I think the relative rate of sale on Amazon outstripped those two giants for at least a week or two. My publisher was pleased. They reported back that sales on an amazon promo day had outstripped what most publishers expect from their bestselling crime authors. Which was nice.
I’ve put a list together for Greg, just off-the-cuff thoughts to help raise the visibility of his book about invisibility. The same advice would hopefully work for other types of promotion. Anyone’s welcome to give them a try. I’d even suggest A/B testing some of them on your different socials, see what happens. One bonus piece of advice: Do not read the reviews on amazon or any other sales site, there will always be the contrarians, the fakers, the trolls, it’s unpleasant to see, and you as an author, do not need it.
First – get a photo of you on all your social media, no cartoons, no logos, no graphics. A mugshot, smiling or otherwise (no hat, unless that’s your trademark look)
Second – make your display name your real name rather than your website name or pseudonym, the name that’s on your book cover.
Third – update all bios and introductory pinned posts and such to mention your new book and provide a link to the main site where people can buy the book in all formats in which it is available
Fourth – Change all the banners and headers on your social media to include a graphic of the book with the title and your name clearly visible.
Fifth – Write a call to action for the book and pin it on those accounts that allow pinning
Sixth – Do an executive summary of the book blurb and pin it to your website
Seventh – directly contact some friendly people you know in the media and science who will be interested and who you might describe as influencers/social media hubs and get them to give it a mention. Thank them when they do.
Eighth – Send copies to a select few, ask them to read it and give you a testimonial, one-line review. Thank them when they do. Post the five best at the top of your socials and on your website.
Ninth – Invite yourself on to relevant podcasts and do a good job explaining why the book is so great, push it, push it, push it.
Tenth – Don’t give up and keep your fingers crossed for the day amazon sells the Kindle version for $1 and when it does share the promo link like mad on the day on all socials. Don’t apologise for spamming. It’s not spam. These are your socials for you to use as you see fit. Apologies just dilute the promo.