Why book marketing is a waste of time (and what to do instead)

I made this video as part of a series on how to publish a book in 2016, but it deserves it’s own post, because a lot of authors are spending time and money on shit that doesn’t work, and nobody is really talking about the stuff that does work.

Most “book marketing” doesn’t sell books: it’s basic platform stuff that you kind of need, as a baseline, but isn’t actually attracting new readers. Lots of people will help you set up a platform or publish a book, but extremely few people know how to put your book in front of the right readers… unless you are paying for it, which isn’t a long term strategy for publishing success.

Putting up a nice website, building your optin offer, designing a great booking book… none of that is “book marketing”. Book marketing is getting your book in front of your target readers and convincing them to take action. Usually, when you pay for book marketing, you’re hiring a publicist to try and get your book on someone else’s platform, or you’re paying for access to a list, or to someone else’s traffic. That can work, sometimes, but costs a lot. What you should be doing, is creating amazing content than ranks well and shows up naturally when people search for keywords related to your book or genre. You should watch this video, but also check out all the videos on publishing you’ll find here.

2 Comments

  • C T Mitchell Posted

    Nice video where you elude to some ‘things’ you need to do but you don’t actually say. I’ll take a run through your other videos to see if you divulge some of the ‘meat’. But hey I do like your stuff – just looking for some juce

    • Derek Murphy Posted

      I wish I did hide the meat behind a paywall, but I’ve already put out most of my best tips on Youtube, you can find them.

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *