In Inkish Kingdoms, we understand that writing a book is no easy task, and we also know that getting it out there is even more difficult. How do you get people to see your book? How do you convince them to buy your book? How do you convince them to read your book?

All those are valid questions. Nobody wants their year’s effort to be lost in the void of the internet or being burned by the sock accounts in Goodreads. If a publishing house buys an author’s novel, they will take care of marketing their book. However, self-published authors or even indie authors might need to work harder into selling their novels.

Keeping this in mind, we research a lot and ask around how authors are selling their novels, and if you are wondering: “how do I sell a book that I wrote?,” you are in the right place! 

Tip #1. Invest in your book

As book lovers, nothing calls more our attention than:

1. A beautiful cover! 
   1. You do not have to hire a graphic designer for your book cover, but you might want to consider it. You can check on LinkedIn for freelancing designers or even on Fiverr. 
2. A catching synopsis!
   1. Don’t have 1-page synopsis of your book. Nobody will read that. Make it intriguing, shocking, and even scandalous! Although people check reviews to decide what to get, reading a well-written blurb will make a difference between sending the book back to the shelf or to your cart.
3. An intriguing book title!
   1. A well-thought title is a title that summarises the story. A title that has so much power into what the story is about will resonate with readers forever. Your title must embody the essence of the story, but the story has to “explain” the book’s title. Consider “I’ll Give You the Sun” and “Where Things Come Back.” Those are well-thought titles and explain so much about the book, and when you finish reading those books, you will say: “wow, the name was so on point.”

Tip #2. Ask your friends to help you go viral

Social Media works in chains. You possibly have access to all your followers to see the content you post on your account, and so your friends. Let me explain this with an example:

I share something about my book on Twitter, where I have around 1800 followers. Assuming I have a 10% reach, 180 people will see my post. Now, one of those people retweet my post, and they have 2200 followers. If they also have a reach of 10%, 220 people will see their post. Now, two users, from those 220, retweet the post, and each of them has 3000 followers with a 10% reach, those are 600 new accounts.

If we leave it there, we will be reaching 1000 people with one single post. So, ask your friends to share your content, and if they don’t share it, are they really your friends?

Tip #3. Reach to people who have a reach

If you follow book bloggers, Instagram accounts, Twitter accounts, and even a podcast, reach out to them. The influencing “culture” was born because users had an absurd amount followers and a strong reach. You lose nothing to quote their services for mentions, recommendations, or short ads in their content. 

Keep in mind that the bigger the following or views, the more expensive their service, and yes, you will need to pay for their service. Check with multiple people, check their views, how many comments, how many people listen to them. 

Note: Do not consider only people with 100K followers on Instagram. Social Media are taking away value to the number of followers and giving more weight to how many people they can reach. Also, how many of those 100K followers aren’t bots? Are they really reaching 100K of their followers or only 100?

Tip #4. Reviews are important!

Do not buy Amazon reviews (link) or Goodreads reviews. Goodreads is full of fake accounts, and people will know if the reviews are fake. Also, Amazon and other sites might delete purchased reviews, and you will be losing your money. Also, there are two types Editorial Reviews and customer reviews.

1. Customer Reviews are the bulk to your book. If someone comes across your book on Amazon, let’s say, and has 0 reviews, they might think a few times before getting it. What to do then? If your son, daughter, wife, husband is reading your book, you can ask them then to leave a review!
2. Editorial Reviews are reviews you add to the detail page on Amazon or other sellers and even on the covers of your book. These reviews add a level of professionalism to your book. Only big and famous books have those, so why won’t you have one? Have experts confirm that your work is worth reading! Inkish Kingdoms offers the services of Editorial Reviews, and we are highly active on social media.

Keep in mind that all Tips will go back to Tip #2. If they read your book and left a review, ask them to share it on their social media! We never know when we will go viral!

Tip #5. Post on social media!

We have shared before tips on how to Market Your Book on Instagram, Market Your Book on TikTok, and Market Your Book on Twitter. 

Promote your work on Social Media. Develop your own community and followers and interact with them as much as you can. Also, invest time in your Social Media content, don’t just take a screenshot of your Amazon book and paste it on Instagram because that won’t reach anyone.

Again, we go back to Tip #2. If your friends share your content because you asked them to or if you have your own community, they will share your content too! If they tag you when they share the content, or if they are willingly sharing your book, reviews, or anything about you or your book, give them traction by sharing your stories, retweeting, dueting, mixing, and more! If their content about you goes viral, they will WIN, but in the end, you also win!

Bonus Tip

All the tips above and this one play an important role on social media. However, be mindful of the story, the market, and the genre you are writing about. 

1. The Market
   1. Which are the most trending stories? Who is reading what? What books are selling more, and what kind of stories are they about? Having this in mind, you can write your novel within that target market. 
   2. What are topics that are trending that you can use for your novel? Are you an expert on any specific topic? Which topics can you use without appropriating them?
   3. Ex: If you want to write a new version of The Illiad, so you write your novel in an epic poem style, how many people want to read about that? A few or millions? If it is not millions, then what is the point?
2. Mindful of the story and its genre
   1. We all know that there are genres that sell more than others, and some genres have voracious readers that will read anything that comes their way, so think about those and write your story having that in mind. 
   2. Do you remember the boom that happened when The Hunger Games became famous? Everybody was writing YA, Dystopian novels? Or when Twilight became famous, and everybody was reading paranormal, YA, romances? Or when 50 Shades of Gray became a global sensation, and everybody was writing erotica? Do that, which genres have the most voracious readers. Check Social Media for what is trending and what people are going crazy about. What is the next global sensation that you want to write?