Marketing & Selling Your Book

Every way to reach readers falls into one of four buckets. None of them are optional forever, most authors eventually use all four, but which one to start with depends on your budget and whether you already have an audience.

Cold outreach: reaching people who don't know you yet

Free, and the lowest response rate of the four. Worth doing, but expect most attempts to go nowhere, that's normal, not a sign you're doing it wrong.

• Book bloggers and reviewers who cover your genre: most post submission guidelines on their own site, follow them exactly, and a pitch that mentions why your book fits their site specifically beats a form template.
• Bookstagram and BookTok creators who review your genre: a short, specific DM converts better than a generic "check out my book" message sent to a long list.
• Reader-facing Facebook groups and subreddits, not just author groups: read the rules before posting, most restrict or outright ban self-promotion, and a removed post (or a banned account) is the real cost of skipping this step.
• Podcasts that interview indie authors in your genre: smaller, newer shows say yes far more often than established ones.

Don't send the same pitch to many people or post it across many groups in one sitting. Similarly-worded messages posted in a short window read as spam to both moderators and automated spam detection, even when the intent behind each one is genuine. Space it out, and reword it each time.

Warm outreach: reaching people who already have a reason to listen

The highest response rate of the four, since trust already exists. Start here if you're not sure where to start.

• Your mailing list: the audience that's specifically opted in to hear from you. Track growth on the Mailing List page.
• Your personal network: friends, family, coworkers, alumni groups. Genuine asks work, but see Recruiting ARC Readers on why family shouldn't be the ones leaving your Amazon reviews.
• Past readers: anyone who read an earlier book, or was an ARC reader on a previous launch, has already said yes once.
• Newsletter swaps with other authors in a similar genre: you mention their book to your list, they mention yours to theirs. Works best matched by genre, not by list size.
• Communities you're already a genuine member of, not one you joined solely to post in once.

Paid ads: spending money to reach readers

Ads amplify what's already working, they don't fix a book page that isn't converting. Buying traffic before you have any reviews or organic sales is a common way to spend money without learning anything.

• Amazon Ads (Sponsored Products): pay per click, target keywords or comparable authors' book pages directly. The most common paid channel for self-published authors, since it puts your book where people are already buying.
• Facebook and Instagram Ads: more setup and targeting work, and generally a weaker return for books than Amazon Ads unless you already have real creative (video, reviews) to run.
• A BookBub Featured Deal: a paid placement in BookBub's genre newsletters. Real reach if you're accepted, but it's competitive and selective, and usually paired with a deep discount or a free price.

A page with zero reviews and no organic traffic converts poorly no matter how much traffic you buy it. Get some organic sales or reviews first, then use ads to send more people to something that's already proven to work.

Free content: building an audience without spending money

Slower than the other three, but it compounds and doesn't disappear the moment you stop paying for it.

• Short-form video (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts): the hook has to land in the first couple seconds. Average watch time on a new account is short, so open with the point, not a windup.
• A newsletter or blog with real content, not just launch announcements: give something useful first, the book mention becomes a natural aside rather than the whole pitch.
• Goodreads: a free author profile, and Goodreads giveaways (free to list a limited number of copies) can generate real early reviews.
• A permafree or discounted first book in a series, or a prequel novella: a common way to get new readers into a series without asking them to pay upfront. Only works if the next book is actually ready to sell them into.
• Genre-specific Facebook groups and subreddits again, framed as content instead of a pitch: answering other people's questions builds visibility without breaking self-promo rules.

If you're writing a series

A series changes the math in both directions. Readers who finish book one often go on to buy the rest, which makes ads and promotions pay back better. But recruiting ARC readers for book two or three gets harder, because new readers usually need the earlier books first.

• Put a signup link in the back of book one, so readers who finish it end up on your list for the next release.
• Run ads and promotions on book one, since that's where new readers enter the series.
• For later books, recruit ARC readers from people who already finished the earlier ones, not from cold audiences.
• A free or discounted first book (see above) works best when book two is ready to sell them.