How to promote books

The number of bookstores has increased quite a bit over the past decade. No one doubts that reading is becoming fashionable again. However, people read, as a rule, recognized authors or laureates of literary prizes, and not all of them. To promote an unknown author’s book is quite difficult. How to do it?

Instruction manual

1

A book, like any product, needs advertising. Perhaps someone will be corrupted by the fact that a book can generally be considered a commodity, but the fact remains: in market relations, almost everything can be called a commodity. Therefore, you need to promote the book in the same way as other goods - of course, subject to certain conditions.

2

The book, even for reading enthusiasts, is not a commodity of prime necessity; therefore, it makes no sense to expect high sales after one or two advertising campaigns. Promotion of the book is a rather lengthy process. The untwisted book “lives” on the shelves for long, one can recall at least the writer Haruki Murakami. Until 2002, his books were gathering dust on shelves, since no one knew about him. Then, after a fairly competent promotion, he became one of the most popular writers among young people. Now, despite the fact that he continues to write, his popularity is low. The first books that so excited young people in 2002-2003 cannot be found at all.

3

Each book has its own target audience. Popular sentimental novels and detective stories are read mainly by women of mature age, science fiction and fantasy - teenagers and young people, prosaists known since Soviet times (Kabakova, Petsuha, Aksenova) - middle-aged people, fashionable young writers - students and young professionals. To promote a book, it is important to determine its target audience. The method of advertising the book depends on what kind of audience it will be.

4

For those who can afford the costly ways of promoting books, metro advertising is suitable. Many of us have seen ads like "Ustinov is in awe … of the new novel by writer NN." You can order reviews in well-known print media (for example, in Literaturnaya Gazeta or even Kommersant). In stores, the book should be among the sales leaders, best with the mark "recommend."

5

But most of the not very well-known authors or those who want to promote books by such authors do not have the necessary financial resources. In such cases, you will have to use less effective, but also sometimes quite successful ways. This is primarily promotion on the Internet - the creation of groups on social networks, discussion on thematic forums, advertising banners, etc. Sometimes authors or those who need to promote books use rather extravagant methods: they agree with the management of coffee houses that their books (or chapters from them) lie on tables, independently distribute chapters from their books in stores or near them. Distribution is free of charge, as a rule, so that the reader becomes interested and buys the whole book in order to find out the continuation of what is described in it. Do not forget about word of mouth - this is in all cases an effective method. First, your friends will read the book, then they will recommend it to their friends, and so on. It is important that they are interested in literature.