Top 11 Book Marketing Strategies for 2021 Pack your laptops and your business acumen as we are leaving 2020 and heading into 2021 in first class. We are about the business of books and branding of our author/small press personas. Make no mistake, branding and being about your business are not the same. To be about your book business, you must be about book marketing and going into 2021 take some of these tips with you on your book journey. 1) Write More Books First-time authors with one book can sell well, and we've seen some millionaires produced from one book, but they are the exception. More than one book makes it easier for you to sell multiple books at one time. You sell all three books of a trilogy to one customer by marketing book bundle deals. And this can be accomplished in multiple ways. After a full-length book loses its out-of-the-gate steam, you can release a short story or novella, leading sales in three directions: your first book, the novella, and the pre-order of your next full-length novel. You can also write blogs on the topics of your book, which bolsters your credibility on a subject. This works with fiction and nonfiction. With a fiction series in between new books, you can write a short story about what's going on in the main characters life. This can be a free or $0.99 read. You can promote it on your site only and sale it to accompany a pre-order of book two. The possibilities are endless when you have multiple books, as the sale of one always draws attention to your other titles. Be sure to market and tag your book as a short story or a novella. Never mislead readers into thinking that they will be buying a full-length novel. They will give you one-star ratings and write you off as another author putting together garbage and selling it to make a quick buck. In the end, marketing one book will always direct traffic to your online store whether it's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble brick and mortar stores or your website. You have to regard the quality of your work highly with professional editing and expert covers. Neither has to cost a fortune, but remember with any business you must invest in it in order to see a return on that investment. That good ole ROI. Let's move on to cover design. 2) Cover Design For Genre - Be Clear on Genre Studying the book industry, particularly genre classification on Amazon is very important. While decided the genres to select to add your book to IngramSpark or Amazon (or any other outlet) it's best to nail down your genre. Not just simple marketing it as a mystery but is it also in the "legal" sub-genre that will attract readers that like legal thrillers. Is it a romance set in the winter, during the Christmas holiday? Then, you may have a "holiday romance" on your hands. Digging deeper into your genre will help you with keywords and tags, as there are ways for your book to be discovered beyond it being simply a romance or a mystery. Deciding your genre will help you cater to fans of it with your cover design. Catering to lovers of the holiday mystery is much different than a legal mystery. It's best to search a genre in the Amazon store and then look at the top 100 books in that genre. This should help guide you in selecting a cover design that aligns your book to compete in your genre. This cover design is important to be successful, as bona fide readers expect covers for their favorite genre to have a look. Deviating from that look may have your book overlooked. Publishing is black and white. It's best to stick to the formula and don't even go out of your way to make a splash. You may splash right into an empty pool because you set out to be unique. I cannot stress to your more that publishing has been around many decades and unless you are going to revolutionize the industry just stick to what works. This is like Hollywood scriptwriting. Those that follow the formula usually get somewhere. But those that don't can't even get into a production meeting. Once you're established and in you can make some moves to shake things up, but starting off, just play it safe, and make your money. In the end, know your genre, and create a cover that fits right into that box, otherwise you risk looking like an amateur. Just keep this golden rule in mind: readers judge books by their covers. So books that match the genre is important to sell books. 3) Get Print and E-book I like to call this Amazon domination. You need to be discoverable in as many ways possible, so having an E-book and paperback is essential. But you can go so far as at least offering the hardback and audio editions, as well. This is the Law and Order effect. You need a flavor for every type of reader. And this goes for any book. Art book. Children's picture book. Coffee table book. Never forget that Amazon has a host of Kindle edition programs that garner books a lot of attention. Even if your book doesn't have a solid E-book platform, the Kindle promotions could still drive traffic to your book. A person could easily decide to buy your paperback or hardcover if they have no interest in the E-book. Additionally, the Audible edition sales have been picking up, as people move into the new millennium by using newer technology. Always remember that you're in business to make money. Having a product available in every platform is essential to maximize earned income. 4) Audio Book Production https://www.acx.com - Amazon's ACX platform is yet another option that Amazon offers authors and small press publishers to get their books into the hands of readers. What's nice about ACX is that you can connect with a producer to adapt your book into the audio edition for no upfront charge, but for a 50/50 split of the sales, which is distributed by Amazon. Not only can you have your book available in Audible and iTunes you can start an account on Soundcloud, Sparemin, and Youtube, offering snippets for free with a link that drives traffic to your Amazon page or website to buy the book in any format reader wishes. 5) Redo Old Book Covers Going into 2021, it's time to gather those old book covers and update them all. Sure, like anything else, book covers do become old and need refreshing. You can even add a book club reader guide, an extensive author interview, or shots of the actual manuscripts with authors markings. In an effort to but the cost of book covers, I have been using a graphic designer in Germany. If you're in the United States, you know how important it is to cut costs and outsourcing to other countries is what the Fortune 500 companies do. I have a long relationship with a designer on Fiverr and her expertise has helped me to allocate more money to publicity and book marketing needed for a successful book launch. Take a look at her work and reviews. Her name is Les, tell her that Rahiemb sent you. https://www.fiverr.com/germancreative - fiverr germancreativ 6) Pricing You're the author or publisher and run your show. Of course, you value your work and want a big paycheck for your craft. But competitive E-book pricing is essential to the success of your book. In short, refer back to that top 100 list in your genre and see what those top books are selling for. Get into the lane of your direct competitors to actually compete. 7) Amazon Marketing Amazon Book Marketing services are hugely important to sell your book. Not only can your book be highlighted as a sponsored product, it can be positioned to be shown when a person logs into Kindle. But there's more. Amazon marketing provides one-on-one phone calls to help you better position your book and they offer detailed insight of your usage of keywords. They know which keyword a customer used to find your book and whether or not it converted into a sale. This information is vital to augmenting your book sales. This information essential to helping you figure out SEO and Keyword book marketing strategies. 8) Smart Author Branding Please be sure to send one message with your books and their covers. They should all be competitive and genre specific. While you may want to write in multiple genres, be careful as not to confuse your readers. You can do this, but be careful to stay on message. Think James Patterson. He's a mystery author at heart, so even his fantasy fiction series are branded to stay in line with what he represents. Know that everything has a purpose. Don't do anything without a thoughtful plan of action and knowing what the desired result. 9) Support Other Authors Networking with other authors in and not in your genre can vastly help you expand your reach. Connect with other authors to run joint book marketing campaigns, review exchanges, and joint book signings. Your objective is to get book sales and bodies at your events, so teaming up with other authors is a key way to accomplish this. While there is competition, there is strength in numbers. 10) Collaboration There have been a lot of collaboration with mega authors and lesser-known authors and its high time you take advantage of that idea. Two authors joining forces to contribute a novella to make a complete work is a way to cut pre-publication and book marketing costs. Even if you do not contribute to a co-authored book, you can bundle books in ebook to paperback to have readers buy your book and another author's. I mean, what do you have to lose. Not much, but help reaching your overall goal: sales. 11) Social Media We have to get away from spending vast amounts of time on social media, especially if it's not generating shares, likes, and comments. Reevaluating what you post is key to maintaining an effective marketing campaign. Large firms plan marketing strategies for a week or even a month in advance. That's something for you to incorporate into your book marketing on social media plan. Knowing what's coming up helps you plan accordingly. For instance, are there national holidays coming up or simple celebrated things like National Chocolate Candy Day that you can create a campaign around. Again, for social media to make you money it has to have a purpose. All roads should lead to your web site or Amazon page. I have found that Instagram and Twitter are my most effective tools. Facebook is a blackhole of 5,000 friends of which only 100 are actively engaged with my posts. I post there because anyone researching me will undoubtedly check my FB content for authenticity, but I use Instagram and Twitter for new readers and to meet bloggers from the United States to the UK to Australia. Two things that you have to activate to build a social platform is the effective use of hashtags and professional content. I am particularly fond of the material promoted on Instagram under the hashtag #bookstagram. Take a scroll through and you'll be very inspired to revamp and elevate your social media content to draw attention with awe-inspiring social media content. In the end, spend less time on social media. Plan your marketing campaign in advance and make memorable content that sparks readers to buy. Whatever you do in 2021, I implore you to elevate or jump-start your marketing strategy. Its a new year so let's make the most of it. If you need any help feel free to visit my Fiverr page where I offer affordable freelance book marketing and publicity services to aspiring and seasoned authors.