Maybe you started off the year with the best book marketing intentions, and maybe some of your book marketing efforts did well, while others fell a bit flat.

But regardless of where you are in the book marketing process, now is a good time to check in with your efforts and explore how well your book discovery is working out.

This will help you realign your marketing efforts and start moving the needle to really sell more books.

When you read some of the best book marketing blogs a lot of them cite “book discovery” as a big issue.

Too many books! Not enough book discovery!

And with all the books being published each day that statement seems to ring true.

The problem is, it’s really only half true.

Book discovery, in and of itself, is not a problem.

For example, you can run Facebook ads all day long and get a lot of discovery. The question really is: are you getting the right kind of book discovery?

And therein lies the biggest problem authors face.

This is why I thought it would be a good time to encourage you to take a serious look at what you’re doing so you can attempt to figure out if you’re really utilizing the best book marketing strategies for your genre, market and author brand.

The New Reality of Book Marketing

The thing that will really help you start selling more books is just one thing: repetition.

The act of seeing a book over and over again is what separates the books that don’t do so well from those that sell like gangbusters.

Add to that, the repetition has to be focused on your core audience.

So repetition in, say, a series of Facebook ads, to a too-broad audience who isn’t already seeking out books JUST LIKE YOURS, is the kind of bad book discovery I mentioned earlier. In bad book discovery, the people who are seeing your book aren’t the ones who are most likely to buy.

But the best book marketing strategies that create the right kind of repetition could potentially add a significant increase to your bottom line and help you start selling more books.

Consider Your Price Point

Did you know that the higher your book is priced, the more you’ll need to spend on book marketing in order to hit your book discovery stride and get readers to find it?

This may seem counterproductive if, let’s say, you’ve priced your book high in order to “earn back” what you’ve invested in it thus far. But it’s true.

For example, a book that’s priced over $20 needs to get in front of your intended market nearly a half dozen times, before they’ll even consider a buy. But books priced at $3.99 or less need half that exposure.

So, while there’s nothing technically wrong with pricing your print book at $19.99 or higher, or your eBook at $9.99 or higher, you’d better be prepared to do a lot of book promotion for it to help increase the level of exposure you’re going to need to translate those impressions to sales.

Consider Your Message and How Clear You’ve Been

Did you know that your book’s message – title and subtitle are just as important as your book cover?

And while I always encourage authors to not skimp on a book cover designer, I would also suggest you spend twice as much in sweat equity determining the title and subtitle of your book.

Most consumers buy in four, maybe six categories. They’re very focused on what they want, and what they don’t want.

Consumers make near instant decisions and, in most cases, use their intuition to assess whether the book’s message is right for them. Your message needs to be crystal clear, or your consumer simply won’t buy.

Typically a non-fiction subtitle very much describes what the book is about and what it intends to achieve, that’s just the nature of the non-fiction. But I see a lot of fiction authors who don’t utilize their subtitle option on Amazon to make it clear what genre their book is in, who the reader market is, what the amazing hook is – this is a seriously critical missed opportunity,

Consider Your Busy Amazon Book Page

Have you looked at your Amazon page recently?

If you haven’t you should, because it’s pretty busy. Amazon does everything they can to push people to things they want them to notice.

Yes, it’s your book page, but the competition for other stuff is fierce.

The reason I mention this is that you’ve absolutely got to make sure that your page is tight and focused. Your book cover has to be outstanding, and your book description has to be compelling enough to keep shoppers engaged, rather than scrolling past it to visit some enticing Amazon offer.

If you aren’t sure if your book page is tight enough, ask yourself some hard questions. Starting with the most important one: Who cares? Who will care about your book based on just the description? This is what translates into book sales. So here are some things to look at:

• Is there a blurb you can lead with in your book description? Remember people like what other people like.
• Did you leave space in between paragraphs to make your book description scannable? This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. Consumers don’t read, they scan. Use short paragraphs, and bullet points when possible. All of this helps to open up your book description, so it’s breathable and easier to read.
• Does your book description lead off with the most important, key element of your book? If your first sentence isn’t specific or doesn’t zero in on why readers would love your book, you should consider a redo.

Your book page needs to be crystal clear, enticing, and keep consumers from clicking off to something else.

Knowing Your Reader is the Best Book Marketing Strategy

The biggest misstep authors often make is not knowing who they are writing for.

Sure, you should first write the book that you want to write, but if you aren’t focused on your specific market and fulfilling their needs in some way, then don’t expect to see any book sales either.

Do you know your reader, really? Do you know what your reader likes, dislikes or gravitates to when it comes to your specific market?

The importance of knowing the “look” your reader gravitates to, as well as book specifics will be key to selling more books and acing your book discovery.

One way to get to know your reader is to read a lot in your genre.

Get to know other books and authors is a good way to knowing your reader, too. As well, check out some top best-selling authors in your market and look at their also-boughts on Amazon.

This will help you dig into your genre even further and maximize book sales.

This is one element of knowing your reader, the other is a reader profile which you can get for free in the resources and downloads section below.

The Key to Advertising Your Book

Amazon ads are fabulous, but you need to put a lot of work into understanding what makes them effective – and at the end of the day they need to be monitored and tweaked on a regular basis.

Amazon ads are effective, when managed properly.

The other kind of ad is an eBook ad for your pricing promo and I would encourage you to do these through Bookbub.

In general they are always great as a boost to your book sales because it comes back to targeting. You can align yourself with specific authors and genres to ensure you’re getting in front of the right people.

Resources and Free Downloads

Free Reader Profile Brainstorm

The 8 Most Common Book Marketing Mistakes Authors Make

How to Get Your Book Noticed on Amazon with 5 Simple Strategies