Book Marketing on a Budget

About this video

Dale outlines budget book marketing strategies that do not require heavy social media posting. He recommends leveraging the hundreds of free and discounted ebook promo sites, testing premium promos singly before stacking them, and using free or discounted pricing — especially for authors with a backlist — to reach new readers. He urges visual promos using tools like Book Brush and Canva, with book trailers kept to a minute or less, and networking with niche authors for newsletter swaps, group promos and giveaways. He advises building a premium hosted author website and blog, pursuing free local visibility through libraries, bookstores, schools, conferences and local media, and using friends and family as ambassadors and affiliate sharers rather than buyers or reviewers, to avoid bias and skewed Amazon recommendations. Other tactics include low-budget Amazon Ads — he suggests starting at as little as $1 per day with very low cost-per-click and learning as you go — promoting other books in back matter, building an email list you own, and leveraging reviews for social proof. A sponsored Storyad segment is presented as a shortcut for finding contacts, websites and tracking earnings and expenses.

Key takeaways

• Test premium ebook promo sites one at a time and record results before stacking them; free/discounted promos suit backlist authors best.
• Stop the scroll with graphics, 3D book images and short trailers of a minute or less, made with Book Brush or Canva.
• Network with authors in your niche for newsletter swaps, group promos and giveaways to borrow audiences cheaply.
• Do not have friends and family buy or review your books; ask them to share links and act as ambassadors instead.
• Build an email list from day one so your readership is not lost if a platform suspends or terminates your account.

Episode details: published January 6, 2024 · 18:26 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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