What’s the Best Way to Market a Book?

Each year more and more books are launched both by traditional publishers and self-published by their authors. It's made book marketing one of the hottest topics in the publishing industry. Whether eBooks or printed copies, everyone wants brisk sales and superior visibility for their titles. While optimal marketing strategies vary from book to book, many constants hold for many books. They are effective online promotion, publicity efforts aimed at media, and, where appropriate, events like book signing and author presentation. When combined in the optimal mix, these can help sell books.

Employing a professional book publicity firm like Smith Publicity also is an excellent idea. They are professionals and can help market a book. Their proven methods are based on years of successful experience. If you're a publisher or author, you want proactive experts on your side who have significant resources such as lists of targeted media contacts. They are invaluable tools in getting books covered in the media. It means interviews on radio and television as well as articles in newspapers and magazines. Most traditional media are now blended, which means they operate websites to repackage their stories.

Online booksellers today are a big part of book marketing because they offer each book and author promotional pages to attract potential readers. When these pages are developed with well-rounded content, they show up in searches. Once people land on the pages, if they are interested readers, they will order buy books. Few book promotion opportunities are as direct and efficient. Professional marketers are experts at developing and refining content for these pages. When they are augmented with well-place, descriptive keywords, then they show in search engine result pages.

Online media tours for book marketing also can have a considerable impact. Authors can make appearances nationwide form the comfort of their homes or offices. Also, radio interview tours can be conducted by telephone and save enormously on travel costs. The great advantage of both of these methods is that there is no sacrifice of effectiveness and travel costs are slashed. A virtual or telephone media tour also allows an author to build relationships with valuable media. These contacts can be useful for future book promotion and make the job of lining up and confirming interviews even easier.