If you’re an author who is planning on self-publishing your book, it is crucial that you have a marketing plan in place. Like I said last week in the blog post 12 Genius Ways to Market Your Book, the more you market your book, the more people will know about your book, and the more people will buy your book. In other words, if you hope to make money by actually selling copies of your book…marketing is a critical step.
But if you really don’t want to do your own marketing, no worries: there are companies that will market your book for you. (Spoiler alert: It’s expensive.) If you’re willing to shell out some cash and leave the heavy lifting to the experts, here are a few good companies I’d recommend:
- Outskirts Press: At $1,299, Outskirts Press’ Book Launch Bundle isn’t bad. This option is one of the most inexpensive plans available for book marketing, and 5 hours of access to a personal marketing assistant will help teach you how to take the reins after Outskirts Press does all the setup work.
- iUniverse: iUniverse offers a range of services from advertising to radio services to book signing events. In today’s day and age, I’d suggest starting with their Social Media Strategist Plan, which is pretty expensive at $6,999, but includes a robust service on social media marketing.
- Dog Ear Publishing: Dog Ear’s à la carte services make best bang for your buck, at a total $1,294 for a website setup ($695) and a social media campaign ($599). Alternatively, you can shell out the big bucks for the more invasive (and definitely worthwhile) Facebook Advertising & Management option at $2,699 for 3 months.
- Authors Unite: The book marketing packages at Authors Unite are for the most serious self-published author. They offer a range of packages from the $60k Full Distribution Launch (a seven-day campaign that gets the author in front of up to 5 million readers and sells up to 7,000–20,000 eBook copies and that guarantees your book to be a USA Today or Wall Street Journal bestseller), to the $7,500 Book Launch package (a one-day campaign that typically gets author in front of up to 1 million readers and sell up to 500–1,500 eBook copies at $0.99 apiece through our targeted email list and that guarantees your book to be an Amazon bestseller). Alternatively, you could opt for publicity only, such as the three-week media blast ($5k) that will feature your book in 10 articles and one TV spot.
If you’re building an author platform, you (or your marketing company) will need to put in some serious work for at least a few months—finding your target audience, learning how to speak to them, and converting them to loyal readers. Then, you’ll have to keep up with interacting with your readers regularly to keep your loyal following. Just as Smith Publicity, Inc.’s president Sandra Poirier Diaz says, “It takes time to get a big name and awareness in the media.”
The most important thing in all this, however, is that you’re marketing a good book. And that’s where a good book editor can help.
Book editor Kristen Hamilton is the owner and sole employee of Kristen Corrects, Inc., where she provides manuscript editing services for traditionally and self-publishing authors. Several authors whose books she has edited have won awards and have topped Amazon’s best sellers lists.
Reading is Kristen’s passion, so when the workday is over, she can usually be found curled up with a good book alongside her four cats. She loves watching cat videos and scary movies, eating pizza, teaching herself French, and traveling, and she is likely planning her next vacation. She lives outside of Boise, ID.