Guides

7 Biggest Mistakes Authors Make Marketing Books Online

As an author, your first job is to write. Your second job is to market. This 10-page guide sets out seven common online marketing pitfalls for authors – and how to avoid them. 

Most authors want not only to write, but to be read. Yet to get your work in front of a readership, people need to be:

a) aware of it; and
b) persuaded to buy it.

That’s where marketing comes in. And you will have to market your own book – whether you’re traditionally published or self-published (especially if you’re self-published).

More people buy books online than in physical bookstores these days – so the most effective, lowest-cost book marketing you can do is online.

If you’re not yet published, one of the first questions agents and publishers will ask you is: “Do you have an online platform?” If you don’t yet have an audience, you will need to build one.

But I’m an author – not a marketer. Where do I start?

You can’t be expected to get it right first time. No one does. But you can learn from these common, classic mistakes that most authors make when marketing their books online. Avoid the seven pitfalls in this short guide, and you’ll be ahead of most authors – and sell more books.

This guide is available as a short Kindle ebook. A PDF version will also soon be available on our new Patreon page.