How to Market a Book: Third Edition

Books for Writers, Book 2

By: Joanna Penn

Narrated by: Caroline Holroyd

Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

Do you want to sell more books and reach more readers? Do you want to discover how to build an author career for the long-term as well as spike your book sales right now?

If you don't know much about marketing, don't worry. We all start with nothing.

I'm Joanna Penn, and back in 2008, I had no book sales, no audience, no website, no social media, no podcast, no email list. No nothing.

Now I'm a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of thrillers and non-fiction. My books have sold over 500,000 copies in 83 countries, and I'm an award-winning creative entrepreneur and international speaker, making a multi-six-figure income with my writing.

Learning how to market my books and my personal brand changed my life. Yes, you need to write an awesome book, but you also need to know how to get it in front of the right readers.

How to Market a Book is for authors who want to sell more books, but it's also for those writers who want to think like an entrepreneur and build a long-term income. It's for traditionally published authors who want to take control of their future, and for self-published authors who want to jump-start a career.

There are short-term tactics for those who want to boost immediate sales, but the focus of the book is more about instilling values and marketing principles that will help your long-term career as a writer.

It's also about going beyond just the book, because these methods can take you from being an author into making money from other products, professional speaking, and creating opportunities that you can't even imagine yet.

©2017 Joanna Penn (P)2017 Joanna Penn

I've read it twice...

No kidding. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up doing a third pass either. Simply put, if you want to learn the difference between selling no books because yours is lost and Amazon, and selling lots and building a killer platform, then read this book! (Two or more times!)

Aspired Bookmarketer

What did you love best about How to Market a Book: Third Edition?

The structure was awesome!

What did you like best about this story?

The book was nicely action-oriented.

What does Caroline Holroyd bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her narration made the book more exciting!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, though I plan to go through it again, and take action on many of the steps if possible.

Any additional comments?

The book was a good length. It was like a complete course.

An invaluable gem on marketing

Joanna Penn has become my go to author for all things indie publishing. How to Market a Book is stocked with invaluable marketing tips—from small to large steps. Combine this book with Ms. Penn’s podcast and you’ll have all you need to become an author entrepreneur. HIGHLY recommended!

Very informative step-by-step giuide

The tips and advice offers here make for a great and highly accessible audio book. It’s long enough to get the main points across but short enough to maintain your interest. I am writing my second book now and will come back to this book again for a refresh before I launch. Thanks for writing this, Joanna!

Helpful and to the point!

I appreciate the fact she repeatedly makes the point that you should write first, then focus on marketing once you have something to sell. I think that point can get lost in a lot of business materials directed at writers.

Go many great ideas!

Loved this book! I enjoyed that it offered a lot of great examples of what to do and also had CTAs that went to websites that provided more details/examples. I was hesitant to launch this upcoming book but now feel more prepared! Thank you, Joanna!

Excellent book !

I’m a self published author and I look forward to putting into application the techniques and approaches discussed in this book! Well done!

Helpful!

Just what I needed to get my author career off the ground and started up!

So much to learn! So much to do!

I’d better get busy. First I do need to finish my book! (Ha) Please keep it in mind. Some day...
“Original Thought”(copyright)
by Jackman McCoy.
Cheers! JM

Excellent Information

I’ve been blogging for many years but this book gave me lots of new ideas for marketing. I can’t wait to read the next one. Joanne seems to have a lot of excellent ideas for marketing your platform and book.

Aladdins cave of gold in marketing tips

I suspect many authors are overwhelmed by the multiple channels available to market their book. I certainly am. Do we write blogs, run Facebook or Bookbub ads, speak at events, or pay for twitter promotions among many options? It’s so hard to choose, particularly when you are new to writing and marketing. Of key importance is to think about where your ideal reader hangs out and to develop targeted marketing tactics.

Joanna addresses the fundamentals of successful marketing in this book – starting first with what’s our ‘Why’ for writing a book. She highlights the value of building our personal brand and reassures us that the journey to get recognised is a marathon and not a sprint. While it will take a long time, it will happen if you invest the time and track our learning. And the time to start is now. Even if you have done nothing apart from finishing your book.

I’m a relatively new author and have been experimenting with marketing tactics including blogs on LinkedIn and Medium, treasure hunt campaigns, emails to librarians, Amazon ads, twitter blasts and entry into competitions. The results have been disappointing and I know I need to post valuable content on ‘real estate’ I own, i.e. on my own website and capture the learning and ROI of each campaign if I am to understand what is working and what isn’t. While I may be disappointed by a short term spike in sales only it is important to continue to build my personal brand as this will support longer term sales success.

Joanna has introduced me to the idea of making short videos and posting them on a regular basis on YouTube. They could be about your research process or a book trailer to support a book launch. She provides links to people who are doing this very effectively.

There is great advice on using audio books as a product and how you can run promotions, competitions and giveaways with organisations like ACX who give out 25 free codes. Personal declaration here – I was the grateful recipient of one of these for this book. Joanna reveals that audio books are one of the fastest growing market segments.

My top personal takeaways from the book include; the need to build my personal platform and start engaging a ‘street team’; recognising that while you may not make as many sales as you would like from a campaign, you are planting seeds and building awareness, not worrying about where I am now and where to start. I’m going to try crowdfunding an animated version one of my children’s books that I wrote for my nephew who is on the autism spectrum. I’m also going to think creatively about merchandising products to support my books.

Joanna is dedicated to service and a generosity to the community she serves. She has an 80/20 rule which reflects serving and posting content valuable to other authors 80% of time with 20% on promotion related to her products. This sense of abundance has been key to her success and a reason why she has so many super fans of which I am one.

Joanna’s knowledge is available in eBooks, paperbacks and audible files. If you absorb her content though audio files, as I often do, ensure you have a pen and paper (or notebook) handy as she provides many valuable tips and references. (I have learnt not to listen late at night in bed as I have to keep turning on the light to jot down a new idea or reference).

If you want to learn more about successfully marketing your book then this one is an easy buy decision.

By Tracy Stanley, Author - Engagement Whisperer: A quieter and more collaborative approach to inspiring your team

Some really great advice for beginners

I found the audio book really useful and full of great advice, and I would have loved to give it 5 stars. But the constant pluging/referencing of the website, and the other products on offer I found to be very frustrating. Over all though very useful.

Excellent advice

There is a lot of great advice packed into this book.
I was often surprised by some of the author’s insights.
I plan to listen to it again to take full advantage of the advice to market my own books.
I’m sure it will help me a lot to achieve my goals.

Helpful

I found this really helpful with some great advice; I think some of this is generic but it's nice to have everything in one handy guide rather than having to sift through various books. If you're looking for an intro to marketing, I think this would be handy. It's not over complicated and doesn't over-explain.

Excellent Information

This book is packed with useful information for anyone wanting to grow an audience and market their books. The author clearly lives by the principles that people need to know, like and trust you. I downloaded her videos will let her guide me through setting up my own web page, because she is clear an authentic. I will be buying more books from her.

amazing

Joanna's books are always very helpful and now I have even more marketing ideas to think about in the future.
this is a MUST have for all authors.

Totally useful - this is staying on my phone

As someone who is in the process of learning about publishing, having just finished my first book, this audiobook has been so useful. It's been accompanying me for the last few days, and has got me thinking about how I'm going to sell my book when I get it back from the editor. This is one of those audiobooks that is going to stay downloaded on my phone because I know I'll listen again.

Excellent summary of how to market your book

There's a huge amount of information to take in with this audiobook, and it's an even mix of practical checklists and conversational advice, which helps to digest it better.
Joanna clearly knows her stuff, and she evidences this throughout.
The narrator is a great stand-in for the author, as her tone and style is very similar to the author's conversational and friendly style, which helps.
However, be warned. There is no way you are going to remember everything here in audiobook format. Take it in chunks, as if you are like me, you may get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information.
My advice is to use the audiobook version to get an overview whilst on the move, but when it comes to enacting the advice, buy the book where I think the checklist style advise will come into its own.