Book Marketing Tips from 10 Travel Writers #3

I started hosting an author interview series a few years ago, and have interviewed 60+ authors so far. Each one of them has written and published a travel guide, travel memoir, travel narrative, or a piece of travel fiction. I pose a standard set of questions, and I find their responses enlightening, inspiring, and entertaining.

Over the years I’ve noticed that book marketing is consistently one of the most disliked aspects of being an indie author, so I thought I’d bring all of the marketing sections together into small groups in order to inspire you to throw off any concerns you have about marketing or promoting your book, and to dive right in with an activity that resonates with you and doesn’t fill you with fear or dread. There are so many different marketing techniques you can use for your book, that you have the option of picking and choosing the strategies that you’ll feel comfortable using, and have the biggest impact on increasing your book sales.

We don’t want you to get overwhelmed, so are only including feedback from ten authors in each post, to give you enough choice to pick from, but not enough to get overwhelmed. If there’s a technique you’d like to use but aren’t sure where to start, leave us a comment below and we’ll feature an article that goes into more detail about technique.

In this week’s book marketing recap, our authors mention the following marketing techniques:

Use Word of Mouth, Social Media and Influencer Marketing
Maintain an Author Newsletter
Offering a free starter library or first in a series Lead Magnet
Try Amazon Ads and Facebook Ads
Maintain a TripAdvisor Forum presence
Aquire reader reviews
Content Marketing on your website and blog posts
Be a guest on a Podcasts
Create an Audio Book version to cross-promote your ebook and print books
PR activity with niche magazines
Offer a book giveaway
Personal appearances at conferences
Feature your book on Facebook groups & email lists offering free books

Carmen Amato

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO THE BEST OF MEXICO, with 42 contributors, was published with 42 influencers already talking about it! Many contributors belong to other Mexico-related Facebook groups and Pinterest group boards, and the guide is often shared there. We do little marketing beyond that, able to rely on word-of-mouth to keep it high on the Mexico Travel and Travel Essay categories. Travel bloggers occasionally put it on lists of “must-reads” for Mexico and downloads soar when they do.

On a more personal level, my newsletter is my main marketing effort. Every other Sunday, readers get my book news, an excerpt from what I’m writing now, and a review of a mystery I’ve enjoyed and think they will, too.

Many readers are introduced to Detective Emilia Cruz because I offer a free Starter Library to subscribers on my website: http://carmenamato.net. After that introduction, they buy the books on Amazon, Nook, Apple, or Kobo.

Read the author interview we did with Carmen Amato

Kashlee Kucheran

I love using social media to reach new readers. I did a Facebook and Instagram promotion where I offered the first 100 people in March who bought my book a 30-minute call with me and it was an amazing promotion! Not only did I get to connect with so many new people, but I got to hear about what they liked or wanted more of in the book. These people all became friends and started recommending the books to their inner circles. Soon those 100 sales grew exponentially and I was able to reach more people with my positive life messages.

Read the author interview we did with Kashlee Kucheran

Garett Wilson

I use ‘Sponsored Products’ ads on Amazon, which have been very effective, and I have my Twitter and Facebook pages. Otherwise, I rely on word-of-mouth to gain more readers. I know that there are more things I ought to do, but so far I’ve been very lucky that the book is selling well, so I’m more focused on writing the next one.

Read the author interview we did with Garett Wilson

Tom Fay

I didn’t do much marketing at all until earlier this year, but I’ve now started experimenting with AMS (Amazon) ads. I tried Facebook ads but that didn’t prove to be fruitful for me. I occasionally plug my work on my social media channels, and it’s useful to have your own website so that you can link to it when you write articles.

Read the author interview we did with Tom Fay

Brett Sigillo

It’s almost all Amazon. I maintain my own websites for each book based on destination, but only because I need some type of individual market presence to maintain credibility. I’ve also developed a following on the TripAdvisor forum for the destination of my first book. By contributing my knowledge and advice to that group I’ve earned a sense of loyalty and folks there are always recommending my books to people seeking travel advice. That helps a lot.

All of my books have received numerous 5-star reviews on Amazon. When I publish a new book there is an expectation that it will be of the same quality as the previous projects and that commitment to quality has helped greatly.

Read the author interview we did with Bret Sigillo

Caitlin Galer-Unti

As a blogger, I use my own website (and associated email list and social media) as my primary marketing tool. I’ve also found podcasts very helpful; most podcasters are always looking for guests so it’s easy to get on a show and talk about your book and/or the topic you write about. I find Amazon ads very effective too, although their reporting system is very confusing.

I’ve had some success in getting my book featured in magazines in my niche (by sending copies to vegan magazines) although it’s not guaranteed and sometimes I send copies with no response. Other times, my book appears listed in the magazine and I find out through a friend who reads the magazine! That’s always a nice surprise.

I speak at vegan conferences on travel too. Finally, since I know a lot of bloggers (and used to work in blogger marketing) I ran a blogger campaign for my first book when it came out, where each blogger wrote about a destination they’d visited and vegan food they’d found there, and talked about my book. I ran a book giveaway as part of that campaign (I run book giveaways every so often to build my email list).

Read the author interview we did with Caitlin Galer-Unti

Joyce Dickens

I had done a bit of research that indicated getting off to a strong start was important, so I offered my book free for a few days after the launch. During this time, I promoted it on several “free or cheap Kindle book” Facebook groups as well as a few relatively inexpensive e-mail lists. For email lists, FreeBooksy, andBargainBooksy was one of the few that had a specific travel category.

Read the author interview we did with Joyce Dickens

Molly McCord

Book marketing is definitely a marathon, so I regularly promote my titles through social media posts, targeted ads, and book newsletter services. I will offer one book for free to bring in more new readers, or limited time pricing on select titles. It is important to have an email newsletter, as well as a social media presence to stay engaged with your readership.

Audio books are growing in sales, and there is a whole new listener base that is looking for stories through their earphones. All of this takes time to build, but it is worth the effort if you want to publish multiple books.

Expect to keep marketing your book(s) for the long-term, too. If I do not keep promoting mine, sales decrease noticeably.

Read the author interview we did with Molly McCord

Dana Zeliff

I focused on growing my email list and created an incentive for people to join. The offer is a French Rivera planner which includes some basic planning printables, itinerary ideas, foods to try in the region and more. I use this in addition to other printables and helpful travel information to warm up my list before pitching my book.

My product is mentioned throughout my most popular French Riviera blog posts, and I utilize Facebook ads.

Read the author interview we did with Dana Zeliff

Grahame Elson

I have tried a variety of different promotions through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon and many more.

The best approach, in my opinion, is to focus on one thing at a time and make sure you do it properly and then assess the impact. Pinterest did nothing to help my sales but when I switched my efforts to Twitter I saw an immediate increase.