It’s a new year and time to start making plans to successfully market your books in 2023.
What did you do right last year? What helped you sell more books? What do you wish you had done differently?
If you haven’t done it already, I hope you will some time now to make a brand new marketing plan for this brand new year.
To help you get started, here are some new trends for 2023, to think about and add to your book marketing plan.
2023 Trends
- In-Person Events. With COVID, we hibernated for almost three years, avoiding other people. It was a great excuse for introverted authors to not meet people. This is not a medical article. Things may change, and I certainly want everyone to stay healthy, but now is the time to get back out there. Look for in-person events. Book festivals, seminars, book clubs, library events: anything that gets you out and meeting people is a great way to sell more books.
- Book Promotion Sites. There was a time when posting a Kindle Countdown Deal on book promotion sites such as Choosy Bookworm and Fussy Librarian were an almost guaranteed path to increased sales and increased rank on Amazon. Then they went out of fashion. But like every good fashion trend, it’s back. My authors are seeing more success with advertising countdown deals on two sites, Fussy Librarian and Book Raid.
- Going Wide. What does this phrase mean? It means that it’s time to think about using more than Amazon to sell your books. Think about other bookstore websites, those in-person events, and Kickstarter.
- Connecting With Your Fan Base. We used to think of marketing as just increasing our sales. But with more and more books available every month on Amazon, connecting with our readers, developing a relationship with them, and increasing their anticipation for our next book is one of the most important keys to selling books in 2023.
- Kickstarter. It’s the newest thing in book marketing because it works! Yes, it is time consuming. Yes, you must work at it. There are ways to do Kickstarter well and ways not to. But my authors are seeing increased sales and more importantly, increased income by using Kickstarter.
At Open Door Publications we are starting some monthly Zoom groups and webinars to help our authors gain more marketing success in 2023. If you are interested in joining a Zoom marketing group, email me at khmiller10@gmail.com, and keep watching for newsletters and social media announcements about upcoming marketing webinars.