How To Market a Book Ebook

I've read a number of books proporting to give you everything you need to know about book marketing, and more often than not they contain broad generalisations, concepts, or delve into a niche area rather than look at the industry as a whole. 'How to Market a Book' broke that mould for me. It contains practical advice, specifics and examples that you can directly apply to marketing your book in simple concise language. You are prompted to create ideas and checklists for pre, during, and post book releases, setting you up for a career writer. I'm certain I will be coming back to this book repeatedly when I'm creating a marketing campaign or just when I need some fresh ideas.

Penn’s How to Market a Book quickly became one of my top three resources on book marketing. I worked through a stack of titles for a literature review and to deepen my understanding of my client’s industry, as well as to inform questions for my user experience research. Penn’s book stood out for its clarity, especially for someone not natively rooted in the marketing world, and for the way her guidance follows the natural arc of an author’s journey. Among the most memorable insights were her core marketing principles, her approach to content marketing (including repurposing material that lands on the “cutting‑room floor” for readers and followers), and her practical advice on networking and social media engagement. It’s a resource that feels both accessible and genuinely useful for authors navigating the complexities of promoting their work.

Very helpful book! Many notes taken and some great new ideas, thanks Joanna!

Hugely useful and methodical. As with every book,one can feel the passion and the generosity in equipping every reader to enjoy and grow their writing story as well as their own writer’s story. I’d started reading your blog a few years ago and your websitewas at the time a lifeline as I followed the tips and guidanceto publish a collection of poems.Now your books, including this one, continue to provide encouragement and clarity both in the writing process and the technical and marketing aspects, perfect 🤩

I bought this book several years ago but only recently picked it up to actually read it because I was ready to publish my book. Wow! The advice is simple but very effective. The author's suggestions have made a huge difference in how I approach marketing of my books now. It has helped me to stop overthinking and to implement simple and sustainable marketing approaches at each stage of my book writing process. As a non-fiction author this book has been a valuable tool. Highly recommend it!

This is a good, well-written, comprehensive guide covering a range of publishing methods. It’s very good value. Many guides to book marketing assume you already have a base - some sales on platforms, a social media presence, useful contacts etc - which is quite depressing if you are starting from nothing. This book does discuss how to get started from rock bottom.

Marketing my books was always something I wanted to learn more about and put into practice. But the subject is vast and complex enough to feel overwhelming and confusing. I chose this book because Joanna Penn is a highly respected and a well known name in the indie publishing world. This book is part of a series to help authors on various aspects of writing, publishing, marketing and running a business. The advice resonated with me from the opening chapters, which dealt with marketing and what you considered success to be. This is important as it’s the target all your efforts will be aligned to. From here, the book covers all aspects of marketing, offering practical, common sense advice and examples to help you get to grips with the complexities of it all. It’s a book that needs to be read at least twice. Then it’s easy to dip into the sections you need help with. Highly recommended.

There seems to be a lot of references to her own site but I guess that's to be expected. She gives a lot of good advice and references.

This is such a helpful book with many great suggestions. I love the way Joann writes and plan to get more of her books for authors.

This excellent guide takes you from having absolutely no sales to arming you with everything you need to market your brand and sell books effectively.

I learned a ton about using paid advertising, Facebook Pages (so you can use Facebook ads), having an email list, doing relaunches for older books (like changing the cover) and other things that made the idea of marketing a book so much easier.

Though I’m not going to try everything – who has the time? – there are specific things I’m going to use in the next couple of months. I finally have a strategy (besides the one I was already working on – platform building – that was working) that will boost sales.

I recommend this to all authors wanting a long-term publishing career.

This book is a gift. It comprehensively and succinctly lays out the myriad options for marketing your book. As someone who has just written a book and is going thru the publishing and marketing process currently, Penn’s book was the right book at the right time. The book made me feel good about some decisions and also providing guidance about what I can do better. The main thing I took from this book is that marketing is up or the author - nobody is just going to do it for you (unless you are Stephen King or pay a lot of money). Penn’s book is the answer for what things should an author needs do in order to effectively market a book. Finally, this book is far from a boring lecture or checklist. The book comes alive with real life examples of what the author has done or examp,es of other authors. Even though it’s prescriptive non-fiction, it was a light and breezy read. Bravo Joanna Penn

Contains all possible strategies and tactics for marketing a book but leaves it to the author to pick and choose what suits him. More like a textbook or coaching manual than a specific how to book. Useful as a reference book in your author journey. Might overwhelm novice writers.

J'ai lu plusieurs livres de Joanna Penn, tous vraiment très bons, et celui-là est celui que je conseille à tous les auteurs, en particulier les auteurs indépendants auto-édités. Il permet d'obtenir une vision de synthèse des différentes possibilités pour réussir le lancement, le marketing et la promotion de son livre, indispensables pour espérer sortir du lot et réussir à toucher plus de lecteurs. Tous les aspects sont évoqués et c'est une des valeurs ajoutées de ce livre : même quand on n'a pas l'âme d'un vendeur, on peut trouver dans la liste des techniques de promotion qui restent naturelles et même amusantes, en phase avec notre personnalité d'auteur. Le parcours de Joanna est d'ailleurs intéressant sur ce point car elle nous explique à quel point il était difficile pour elle d'assurer la promotion de ses livres, et comment elle a trouvé une approche créative et cohérente avec sa personnalité pour aller à la rencontre de ses lecteurs. Très inspirant pour tous les auteurs qui comprennent l'importance du marketing mais ne savent pas comment faire pour s'y mettre sans renier leurs valeurs.

I've been in the PR industry for 13+ years and I'm working on my first book marketing project. Since I have zero experience with book marketing, the author for the book I'm promoting recommended I start with this book. It provided a great overview of everything related to book marketing. There are so many different options for book review sites, ebook promotions, and other things that it can get overwhelming. I appreciated that she shared the specific sites she uses when launching a new book. Penn provides helpful strategies for uncovering keywords, discusses price pulsing and ad stacking, and offers a sample book launch timeline. I highly recommend this book for anyone starting out in book marketing. While I purchased the print version of the book, I also got it on Audible so I could get through it faster while doing other tasks.

Honestly, there is some good information in here, but there were three aspects that just didn't cut it: 1. There was a lot of fluff to get through before I got to the actual point of the book. 2. It constantly used the first person. I'm all about conversational writing, but there was so much "I" in here that I grew disinterested and kinda sludged through various chapters because I had to, not because I was engaged. 3. It was exceptionally repetitive. The fact that MySpace is obsolete now was mentioned multiple times across multiple chapters to highlight essentially the same point. And that was just one example. Again, I did get some actionable information. But there are other book marketing books I've enjoyed more.

This book is a must have for writers, especially self-published and indie authors. It is especially helpful for those who are just starting off. Experienced writers should have gained some of this knowledge through experience, but this book still can be helpful even for the experienced. Joanna is a good example of someone making it as an indie author, as she has done well for herself. She has a lot of knowledge of the marketing world and knows what she is doing. I don’t think it can be stressed enough for how hard it is for a writer to make it these days. I have come across a lot of indie authors who have written several books and haven’t made it very far. However, perhaps they aren’t following some of the key points in this book. I started to follow more of the key points in this book and it does seem to be helping. I just started so I am still a long shot from making big bucks through writing. The book is organized into five sections. The first section has to do with getting the right mindset and preparing yourself to market your book. The second section is about getting your book seen on the internet by the use of keywords and other methods. Part three is short term marketing which is where she talks mostly about paid advertising. The fourth part is about long-term marketing using such things as E-mail and social media. Finally, she discusses coming up with a marketing strategy for yourself. I love her concept of social karma, and it does work well. I always find it a good idea to promote other people’s books through social media. In my experience, others seem to be drawn to people who are promoting other people. Joanna does specifically stress some of the more important techniques in the book and even has a list toward the end of the essentials that need to be done. There is also a list of questions that you can ask yourself if you feel like the marketing isn’t working in your favor. The book is well organized and easy to understand. I would say it is one of the best books out there when it comes to marketing your book. I have been following her main points and am starting to meet some success.

One of the banes of postmodern life is that successful professionals must communicate effectively across multiple media. Communication is more important than ever because technology has made all of us more productive. If one 2017 professional can now do the work of a dozen 1960 professionals, then that professional effectively functions as a team, including the team manager. Production, marketing, and sales all need to be done by that one professional. As an economist, I faced this challenge; it has only gotten worse now that I am an author and publisher. Introduction Joanna Penn in her new book, How to Market a Book, advises authors on trends in marketing and sales of self-published books. She sees five non-negotiable activities for all book marketing: 1. Make sure that your book is the best it can be... 2. Identify your comparison books and authors. 3. Optimize your book sales page… 4. …use paid promotions to send readers to your book page. 5. …set up a professional looking website and an email list sign up. (281-282) In my experience, each of these activities can keep you busy. During the past year, for example, I spent more than six months working with different webmasters to upgrade my three websites (T2Pneuma.net, T2Pneuma.com, and StephenWHiemstra.net), which is Penn’s item 5. Meanwhile, I spent an equal amount of time moving my titles from exclusively with one printer to be jointly with another printer, Penn item 1. These two activities ostensibly prepared me to be more effective in my promotions, Penn item 4. Who is Joanna Penn? Penn is an interesting writer for self-publishers to pay attention to because she is one of the few authors who has succeeded in quitting her day job and living off the proceeds of her writing. Less than five percent (one in twenty) of independent authors sell a thousand books (I have sold about six hundred) which implies that even fewer authors have broken even on their book sales. Most independent authors are supported by a day job or by a spouse. By her own accounts, Penn started seriously writing in 2006 and quit her job in 2011, five years later (7-9). This track record makes Penn a credible source of recommendations for how to succeed in self-publishing. A Healthy Mindset Part of Penn’s success arises because of a heathy mindset. She writes: “marketing is sharing what you love with people who will appreciate hearing about it.” (13) This mindset is a form of “attraction marketing” which means that you find out what people want and offer it to them. Why is this important? Two reasons stand out. Attraction Marketing First, when I studied marketing in the 1970s and early 1980s, I was taught “push marketing”. Push marketing means that the firm bought advertising and pushed it out to the reading, listening, and viewing public. Attraction marketing is new and many people have not yet caught on to it. Penn has done her homework which is an important reason for her success. The Mindset Advantage Second, Penn mindset comes as a relief for those of us who doubt our own credibility as authors. It is one thing to write a book; it is another to believe that anyone other than your mother would want to read it. This fear of being an unworthy author is pervasive and it prevents many authors from succeeding in their marketing. Penn mindset shows that she believes in herself and does not get in a muddle in reaching out to others who will appreciate her writing. The Book Launch Thing Another gem arises when Penn writes that “marketing is more than a book launch” (20). While I have learned to sell books in person and online, my failure to have a great book launch has always bothered me. Penn offers an important piece of background information on this point. Traditional Publishers Focus on the Launch Traditional publishers, who work with retailers to stock and toss books all the time, focus on the book launch because they have limited time and resources to devote to each book. The launch is coordinated with a media campaign and a month later they are on to another book. For small publishers who have no retail connections, no publicity team, and no media budget cannot easily host a successful launch following this model and probably should not try. Book marketing is more of a marathon than a sprint for the small publisher because resources are tight, relationships need to be built, and learning is an ongoing necessity. Assessment Joanna Penn’s How to Market a Book is a useful, readable, and timely book for authors who publish. I found her comments on podcasting and publishing audio books particularly insightful. Perhaps you will too.