The Basics of Book Marketing Marketing – A Roadmap for Authors May 12, 2026
Marketing—that’s all the activities we undertake to reach the right people and share our message with them. Marketing is a relationship we build with our readers. In today’s online world, we can do this for free. We just have to make sure we don’t lose sight of the goal…
As an author, marketing has become an essential part of your work. Your marketing message can therefore consist of inviting your potential readers and fans to discover your book—whether they’re actively looking for it or not. To do this, you should know the following:
- Target audience: Who do you want to communicate with?
- Background: Why? What is your goal?
- Give and take—how can this work?
Giving and taking means that the relationship with your readers should be balanced. You give something, and they receive something. This feels good for both sides. As an author, you want readers to buy (or borrow) and read your books. But you can’t really control that part of the equation. As an author, you don’t press the BUY button—the readers do.
What you can control, however, are the messages you send out into the world. And these should be well-considered and thought-through.
As an author, you’re used to writing long pieces—but you should also write some short messages that connect with your readers’ wishes, dreams, hopes, and fears. Just as you evoke emotions in your stories.
Requirements for the messages you send to your readers:
- As simple as possible.
- Only one emotional experience per message.
- Only one invitation or request per message. Also known as a call-to-action (CTA).
- Create your message for a clearly defined audience, not for everyone who could potentially read your book.
Possible channels for your messages could include: blog posts, ads, live presentations, press releases, webinars, social media posts, email lists, or even a virtual book launch.
Checklist for Your Marketing
#1 You should know why you want to market your books
- Do you want to leave a legacy?
- Do you want to entertain?
- Are you taking a stand on an issue?
- Do you want to make it onto a bestseller list?
- Do you want to generate a steady income?
- Or do you want something completely different?
Your reason will be as unique as you are. Rest assured: there is no right or wrong answer here!
#2 Know your marketing goal
Various market research findings and recommendations invite you to craft specific marketing messages. Start by choosing one that resonates with you. Once you’ve gained enough experience, you can also select several different messages.
#3 What’s truly important to you
Stay honest and, above all, true to yourself—it’s hard to stick with strategies you don’t believe in.
#4 Define the values conveyed by your novel
This is important because your values attract like-minded readers.
#5 Know your genre
You should know exactly which genre your book fits into and why it’s unique within it. Do some research if you haven’t already. Talk to author friends to clarify which category your book belongs to.
#6 You should know how and where you like to stay connected, market yourself, and what you do and don’t like
There are certainly a few options here: social media (such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and professional networking sites like LinkedIn), you can of course also blog—on your own blog or as a guest, or both—run ads, do newsletter swaps, and of course, don’t forget good old-fashioned word-of-mouth through friends and family…
#7 Define your ideal readers
Find out where your ideal readers like to spend time online, how they make purchasing decisions, how they prefer to be contacted, and what works best for you. Analyse and identify demographic and, above all, psychographic characteristics—values, beliefs, and other important, non-quantifiable traits.
#8 Choose a specific marketing message and a goal, then create a campaign to implement them with start and end dates
Start small and slowly build your experience in this area of your career as an author.
You can do it!