Book Marketing Tips from 10 Travel Writers #4

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:

Give Interviews
Try Amazon Ads, Facebook Ads, Google and Twitter Ads
Schedule Book Signings and Talks
Build and email list and run drip campaigns
Enlist a Launch Team
Schedule a promotion through Freebooksy
Host a Book Launch Party
Run a Promotional Discount or Goodreads Promotion
PR activity in magazines
Write Guest Blog Posts
Build Engagement with YouTube and other Social Media
Blog on your website
Leverage Fiverr to find freelancers to help you with your marketing

Tara and Mike

The choice to initially roll our book our through Amazon KDP Select was a difficult one. This required exclusivity, and after researching various distributors like Smashwords, Amazon’s market share and footprint just seemed too big to ignore. For the first several months, we only listed with KDP Select, and then published through Smashwords.\n\nUsing Smashwords as a distributor makes it easier for libraries and other niche markets to purchase our book. Eventually, we saw that sales through ancillary markets were a trickle compared to the reliable stream that we received from Amazon, so we went back to KDP Select.\n\nIn order to raise awareness of the book, we have completed interviews (online and on the radio), published ads on Facebook and on Amazon (the latter we have running continuously), run the occasional sale, and will participate in book signings/talks. Admittedly, PR is where we fell short and would hire out for our next book if we self-publish again. It was somewhat exhausting to even think about after all the other work we had done to bring the book to completion. The choice to initially roll our book our through Amazon KDP Select was a difficult one. This required exclusivity, and after researching various distributors like Smashwords, Amazon’s market share and footprint just seemed too big to ignore. For the first several months, we only listed with KDP Select, and then published through Smashwords.

Using Smashwords as a distributor makes it easier for libraries and other niche markets to purchase our book. Eventually, we saw that sales through ancillary markets were a trickle compared to the reliable stream that we received from Amazon, so we went back to KDP Select.

In order to raise awareness of the book, we have completed interviews (online and on the radio), published ads on Facebook and on Amazon (the latter we have running continuously), run the occasional sale, and will participate in book signings/talks. Admittedly, PR is where we fell short and would hire out for our next book if we self-publish again. It was somewhat exhausting to even think about after all the other work we had done to bring the book to completion.

Read the Author Interview we did with Tara and Mike

Jon Doolan

An email list is vital. Nick Stephenson has an excellent free eBook, Reader Magnets, about how to increase the number of emails you collect. For this current launch I also created a ‘launch team’, wrote guest posts on other people’s blogs (including this one!), I’m running a Facebook ‘share this post’ competition and I’m investing in some Amazon Ads. (I’m actually going to spend some money! It’s terrifying! An email list is vital. Nick Stephenson has an excellent free eBook, Reader Magnets, about how to increase the number of emails you collect. For this current launch I also created a ‘launch team’, wrote guest posts on other people’s blogs (including this one!), I’m running a Facebook ‘share this post’ competition and I’m investing in some Amazon Ads. (I’m actually going to spend some money! It’s terrifying!)

Read the Author Interview we did with Jon Doolan

Josh Summers

My absolute favorite tools is email drip campaigns.\n\nI give away a planning chapter of my book in exchange for an email address. Many of these subscribers come from my website but I’ve also done advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Google. Once somebody subscribes, I send them a series of pre-written emails that provides additional value for those who are planning to travel to my region and then end with a sales pitch for the book. It converts well, but that’s not my favorite use for email.\n\nMy favorite use is on the backend. I offer bonus materials within the book that readers have to “register” their book to receive (this essentially means giving me their email address). This is important because places like Amazon and Kobo don’t give me any information on who buys my book.\n\nOnce I have their information, I send them the bonus materials and then I wait. I think the automated sequence waits for a few weeks.\n\nThat’s when I send them an email asking how their experience has been with the book and personally asking them to leave a review. I know that Amazon often asks for reviews, but I’ve noticed that a personal email often pushes people over the edge to write the review, since they see that I’m just a simple indie-author whose book lives and dies by their reviews.”}” data-sheets-userformat=”{“2″:899,”3”:{“1″:0},”4”:{“1″:2,”2″:16776960},”10″:0,”11″:4,”12″:0}”>My absolute favorite tools is email drip campaigns.

I give away a planning chapter of my book in exchange for an email address. Many of these subscribers come from my website but I’ve also done advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Google. Once somebody subscribes, I send them a series of pre-written emails that provides additional value for those who are planning to travel to my region and then end with a sales pitch for the book. It converts well, but that’s not my favorite use for email.

My favorite use is on the backend. I offer bonus materials within the book that readers have to “register” their book to receive (this essentially means giving me their email address). This is important because places like Amazon and Kobo don’t give me any information on who buys my book. Once I have their information, I send them the bonus materials and then I wait. I think the automated sequence waits for a few weeks.

That’s when I send them an email asking how their experience has been with the book and personally asking them to leave a review. I know that Amazon often asks for reviews, but I’ve noticed that a personal email often pushes people over the edge to write the review, since they see that I’m just a simple indie-author whose book lives and dies by their reviews.

Read the Author Interview we did with Josh Summers

Daniel Prince

I am so new to this that I am still really finding my way. The only paid advertising I did was to get my book on the freebooksy.com email list, which they sent out on the last day of my free promotion on Kindle. It paid off as I got an extra 1300 downloads that day. But that is all so far, I have not yet tried any PPC ads on Facebook or Amazon. I tried my hardest to spread the word via my own network and sent 1000’s of emails. I hit Facebook and Twitter too. I asked for shares on FB from my friends and followers, likes are great, but nowhere near as powerful, and if you ask nicely people will share! I did a Facebook Live post which got almost 1000 views and lots of shares too.\n\nI also tried to get retweets from huge influencers such as Tim Ferriss, but no luck as yet! Lots of groundwork as laid and it all paid off. My book went straight to the #1 spot in both categories I entered it for on Amazon and stayed there for the whole 5 day promotion. When it went into the paid categories it hit number 2 and was number 1 new hot release and number 1 most wished for, so something was working, and I hadn’t spent any money advertising on Amazon. I am so new to this that I am still really finding my way. The only paid advertising I did was to get my book on the freebooksy.com email list, which they sent out on the last day of my free promotion on Kindle. It paid off as I got an extra 1300 downloads that day. But that is all so far, I have not yet tried any PPC ads on Facebook or Amazon. I tried my hardest to spread the word via my own network and sent 1000’s of emails. I hit Facebook and Twitter too. I asked for shares on FB from my friends and followers, likes are great, but nowhere near as powerful, and if you ask nicely people will share! I did a Facebook Live post which got almost 1000 views and lots of shares too.

I also tried to get retweets from huge influencers such as Tim Ferriss, but no luck as yet! Lots of groundwork as laid and it all paid off. My book went straight to the #1 spot in both categories I entered it for on Amazon and stayed there for the whole 5 day promotion. When it went into the paid categories it hit number 2 and was number 1 new hot release and number 1 most wished for, so something was working, and I hadn’t spent any money advertising on Amazon!

Read the Author Interview we did with Daniel Prince

Amber Farrington

I used Facebook, Instagram and my friends (and their networks) a lot. I also placed a few free ads and ran a 5 day free promotion from launch day to boost interest and downloads. This worked very well to build interest. I also hosted a Book Launch party and invited Press along.

I used Facebook, Instagram and my friends (and their networks) a lot. I also placed a few free ads and ran a 5 day free promotion from launch day to boost interest and downloads. This worked very well to build interest. I also hosted a Book Launch party and invited Press along.

Read the Author Interview we did with Amber Farrington

Dean Johnston

I’ve tried numerous small things, such as short-term discounts, Goodreads promotions, and joining book clubs. But, for the most part, my promoting has been limited to social media within my personal sphere of influence. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, that sort of thing.

I’ve tried numerous small things, such as short-term promotional discounts, Goodreads promotions, and joining book clubs. But, for the most part, my promoting has been limited to social media within my personal sphere of influence. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, that sort of thing.

Read the Author Interview we did with Dean Johnston

Ruth Livingstone

My blog at www.coastalwalker.co.uk is my prime marketing tool for my walking book. The blog has been going for over 7 years now, and it takes time to build up an audience. I do spend a good deal of time on social media, and make occasional references to my books and other published work. For my target audience of middle-aged would-be adventurers, Twitter and Facebook are the most useful platforms. In addition, I’ve written a number of guest blog posts and featured in a several magazines.

My blog at www.coastalwalker.co.uk is my prime marketing tool for my walking book. The blog has been going for over 7 years now, and it takes time to build up an audience. I do spend a good deal of time on social media, and make occasional references to my books and other published work. For my target audience of middle-aged would-be adventurers, Twitter and Facebook are the most useful platforms. In addition, I’ve written a number of guest blog posts and featured in a several magazines.

Read the Author Interview we did with Ruth Livingstone

Greg Seymour

In addition to the last answer about the benefits of blogging I would add utilizing social media to this list of marketing tools. Yes, there are other things I do, give away the book, etc, but nothing works as well as being in touch with youraudience. Not only will they buy from you, you can ask for and get a higher rate of reviews. You don’t need to be on five different social media platforms either, pick two of your favorites and manage them well.\n\nWhen I first started building social media profiles I thought it was all about the numbers. I worked really hard and built my Twitter account to over 20,000 followers. But they weren’t followers, they were just numbers that had no impact, no engagement, they were worthless. The moral of the story, don’t build just to build. Build for engagement. And, by the way, I hate Twitter, so now my account just sits there (with about the same result as when I would Tweet).\n\nBecause there are two of us running our “brand” we actually have three social media platforms. YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.\n\nYouTube was a natural progression from our latest adventure. We wanted to document our thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. We did and posted a video a day documenting our journey. We started the trail with 100 subscribers and six-months later had 2,200. Consistency breeds followers.\n\nI don’t touch our Instagram account but my wife loves it. A side benefit (once again, building community) was on our hike, we got intel about the trail from those who we were following and were ahead of us, and visa versa. One time, we posted a photo of our campsite that was hidden but right next to a beautiful river. An Instagramer that was behind us messaged us and we were able to tell him how to get to the hidden campsite. We have since met and he is now a friend.\n\nFinally, we have a Facebook page that recently hit 2,000 followers. During our trek the page was filled with updates about where we were and how we were doing. Now it is filled with photos from our trip, motivational quotes, our blog posts and those of other bloggers. Facebook and YouTube are the easiest, in my opinion, to develop a relationship with your followers. It does take effort to interact, but as the saying goes if you do what you love it isn’t work … or something like that.

In addition to the last answer about the benefits of blogging I would add utilizing social media to this list of marketing tools. Yes, there are other things I do, give away the book, etc, but nothing works as well as being in touch with your audience. Not only will they buy from you, you can ask for and get a higher rate of reviews. You don’t need to be on five different social media platforms either, pick two of your favorites and manage them well.

When I first started building social media profiles I thought it was all about the numbers. I worked really hard and built my Twitter account to over 20,000 followers. But they weren’t followers, they were just numbers that had no impact, no engagement, they were worthless. The moral of the story, don’t build just to build. Build for engagement. And, by the way, I hate Twitter, so now my account just sits there (with about the same result as when I would Tweet).

Because there are two of us running our “brand” we actually have three social media platforms. YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

YouTube was a natural progression from our latest adventure. We wanted to document our thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. We did and posted a video a day documenting our journey. We started the trail with 100 subscribers and six-months later had 2,200. Consistency breeds followers.

I don’t touch our Instagram account but my wife loves it. A side benefit (once again, building community) was on our hike, we got intel about the trail from those who we were following and were ahead of us, and visa versa. One time, we posted a photo of our campsite that was hidden but right next to a beautiful river. An Instagramer that was behind us messaged us and we were able to tell him how to get to the hidden campsite. We have since met and he is now a friend.

Finally, we have a Facebook page that recently hit 2,000 followers. During our trek the page was filled with updates about where we were and how we were doing. Now it is filled with photos from our trip, motivational quotes, our blog posts and those of other bloggers. Facebook and YouTube are the easiest, in my opinion, to develop a relationship with your followers. It does take effort to interact, but as the saying goes if you do what you love it isn’t work … or something like that.

Read the Author Interview we did with Greg Seymour

Nina Thomas

I use my blog and social media avenues (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). I also have a YouTube channel and worked with a content editor to edit some of my travel videos to make a promotional video. I used Fiverr to find a few some people to help market my book to various audiences and on different platforms. There are some great marketing freelancers on Fiverr who will do advertising that won’t break that bank. I also plan to send my book to a few travel websites and see if we can partner in some way. It can’t hurt to try!

I use my blog and social media avenues (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). I also have a YouTube channel and worked with a content editor to edit some of my travel videos to make a promotional video. I used Fiverr to find a few some people to help market my book to various audiences and on different platforms. There are some great marketing freelancers on Fiverr who will do advertising that won’t break that bank. I also plan to send my book to a few travel websites and see if we can partner in some way. It can’t hurt to try!

Read the Author Interview we did with Nina Thomas

Allan Wilson

As a blogger networking, marketing, and social media, have always been swear words in my vocabulary, although they are also a necessity to build an audience. So to date I have avoided them with the book, as Amazon will ultimately be the most important platform. However the book was part of a wider media package, which link in to YouTube videos and content through my blog, which work well to drive traffic. I also set-up a subscription form on my website, which linked to Mail Chimp, and I decided to publish the book once my subscription list reached 2,000 emails, which is the limit of the free Mail Chimp package. And this gave me the only deadline for publishing.

As a blogger networking, marketing, and social media, have always been swear words in my vocabulary, although they are also a necessity to build an audience. So to date I have avoided them with the book, as Amazon will ultimately be the most important platform. However the book was part of a wider media package, which link in to YouTube videos and content through my blog, which work well to drive traffic. I also set-up a subscription form on my website, which linked to Mail Chimp, and I decided to publish the book once my subscription list reached 2,000 emails, which is the limit of the free Mail Chimp package. And this gave me the only deadline for publishing.