Written by Sarah Mahadeo, M.Sc.
So, you’ve put in the hard work and written a book, got it published and it’s sitting on the shelf at bookstores…now what? How do you get people to read them? To pick up your book from the thousands of books on the shelf? How do you get readers interested and talking about your book and translate that into actual book sales?
Let me introduce myself, hi! I’m Sarah, M.Sc. in Marketing, owner of Firefly Crafts and Creations, creator of the Firefly Book Club and longtime book lover. I’m so excited to be here to collaborate with Scribbles and Quills to help you sell those books that you’ve put your heart, soul and money into (yes, we know how much money it takes to edit, print and publish a book).
I’ll start with little tips and tools at your disposal, specifically if your book is available at Scribbles and Quills, at little or no cost to help you get started.
First of all, readers need to know that your book exist, so your first order of business is discovery. Here are a few things you can do to help get reader’s attention
TIP 1: Get reviewers!
This is the age of influencers and reviewers, think about all the books that went viral because of BookTok or Instagram. Choose a few of our local Book Bloggers and Bookstagrammers to share your book with. Scribbles and Quills also recently established “The SQ Library” from which registered reviewers in “The SQ Review Lounge” have access too. Reviews are posted on Scribbles and Quills website as well as other social media platforms which readers are active on. This is a great way to let the local book world know about your book. Sign up to have your book in “The SQ Library” here.
TIP 2: Social media is your friend (and free), utilize it wisely!
Create reels and videos talking about your book. A short interview or open a Q&A to create some chatter about your work. Scribbles and Quills even has their reading room where you can shoot short videos and we would even share them on our social media pages to help support you. Book your video shoot time at Scribbles and Quills here.
TIP 3: Do a giveaway!
Oh how we Trinis love free ting! You can collaborate with Scribbles and Quills and host a joint giveaway for a copy of your book. You can also create a small hamper (you can either partner with other small businesses to cross-promote to cut costs) or even create some merch related to your book to give away with a purchase of your book (a mug, a bookmark). If you think partnering with other small businesses is the way to go, once again Scribbles and Quills got you! There are so many small businesses hosted within the bookstore that I’m confident a few would want to cross-promote with you.
TIP 4: Create an author’s profile on social media!
We love a personality behind the books. Keep your author pages relevant to your author brand (we will be discussing Author Branding in blog posts to come, not to worry). This can help your followers stay up to date on your work, know where to find your books and learn more about you and your book, which deepens your connection to your readers. If you have a book launch, book signing or you’re attending a bookish event, then this is a great place to let your followers know.
I hope these initial tips are helpful to you to introduce your work to new readers. If these tips and the tools available to you at Scribbles and Quills are useful to you, be sure to remain posted to this blog and watch this space! In future blog posts we will go more in depth on different aspects of marketing and branding to assist you in sales. Until then, stay safe and I hope your next book is a five star read!
– Your Marketing Firefly, Sarah
@fireflycraftsandcreations, @firefly_bookclub