Start Increasing Your Readership With These 10 Offline Book Marketing Tips On How To Sell More Books Offline
This article is packed with information to help you start selling your books offline. So it is okay if you read this article a few times over.
I have worked in the publishing industry as a PR and marketing consultant for over 8 years, and the number one campaign that ALWAYS sells tons of books is using B2B tactics where authors sell their books offline in conjunction with online marketing campaigns.
There are many opportunities to market your book offline! Like way too many! You just need a bit of creativity. Don’t get me wrong, using digital marketing campaigns and strategies to increase book sales works. (like my free 100 Social Media Tips Guide) But promoting your book offline as well can gain you faster results.
How? Implementing offline book marketing tactics will set your book apart from the rest. Most authors are so focused on online marketing tactics that they ignore offline ones. This gives you a HUGE opportunity. (as it is less crowded in the offline space) But this doesn’t mean you can ignore online book marketing strategies.
You Need An Online and Offline Marketing Strategy To Fully Promote And Sell Your Book
When you start to create a marketing strategy for your book, you need to outline an offline and online marketing strategy. Both strategies go together. For example, if someone saw you at a book reading, your goal is to get them to purchase your book (at an online or offline book retailer) and to follow you and promote your book on social media. Why? Because this one reader who you met at a reading can share your book with their online network. But for them to share information about your book online, you need an online presence and brand.
For both traditional and indie published author, offline book marketing strategies can help grow your readership and brand. It can help introduce your book to new readers that online marketing methods can’t. Plus as humans, we love face to face interactions.
Here are 10 Tips On How You Can Start Marketing Your Book Offline.
1. Arrange For A Book Reading At Your Local School
Doing a reading at a local school is a great way to inspire students and bring reading to life. Arranging an author visit has many benefits for students, one of the main benefits is that it validates the lessons teachers and librarians tell kids. Plus author visits bring books and topics to life, like writing, art, science, and civil rights.
2. Get Involved At A Local Literary Convention
As an author, it is so important to be apart of the publishing industry- whether you are an indie or traditional author. Most literary genres have a variety of conventions that you can go to and be a part of. These literary conventions are full of book launches, readings, and authors talking about their work and strategies that made them successful.
Research what conventions are local to you in your genre and then get involved. You can get involved by becoming a volunteer, a speaker, or a guest on a panel. Some conventions will also have an area where authors can sell their books. When you go, make sure you bring business cards so that you can give people you meet details of your books.
Some book conventions are just for book fans, and these are the best ones to go to promote your book to a new audience. Both types of conventions are worth going to promote your book and network. You never know who you’ll meet!
3. Go To Events That Fits Your Genre
Investigate events going on in your area and see what there is that fits your genre. Maybe you write books on knitting or woodwork and could sell them at a craft fair. Perhaps you write YA fiction that you could sell at the local cosplay convention. Perhaps there’s a steampunk market where you could sell your steampunk, Victorian or fantasy fiction.
These are chances to reach people outside your usual circle of readers so grab them with both hands.
4. Run A Series Of Low-Cost Newspaper Ads
People still read the newspaper! Local communities, universities, colleges, and high schools all have their own newspapers. Plus papers that get printed for a smaller demographic or community are excellent resources for low-cost advertising.
When picking a newspaper to run a few ads to promote your book, make sure your book appeals to its demographic. You don’t want to spend money on an ad that is targeted towards an audience who would not be interested in your book.
You can also try approaching widely read newspapers and offer to buy any advertising space they can’t sell for a reduced price.
5. Host A Free Lunch At A Local Community Center (aka Lunch & Learns)
Have you ever had another company come into your office with pizza to host a lunch and learn? If you have ever worked in corporate, you probably experienced this at least once a month.
As an author, you can host a lunch and learn at other companies that are relevant to your book and at community centers. The benefit for you is you get to introduce your book to a new audience and make sales. The benefit for the community center or company is that you are helping to bring a team and community together and are increasing engagement.
6. Host An Educational Workshop
Hold a workshop that has educational value for potential readers. These workshops should not just include you reading your book out loud. Instead, they need to be engaging and offer something of value that your audience can take away with them. Your books and/or services can be included as a solution to challenges they face, but should not be mentioned until the end. An educational workshop is more for authors who wrote business books and are using their book as a business card.
7. Get Business Cards That Promote You As An Author
Your book is a product, which makes you as an author a business. So, as a business owner, you need business cards. These cards should announce the book by providing necessary details such as reproduction of the cover, price, any associated website address, your email, and your author photo.
8. Donate bookmarks to a local library
Did you know that bookmarks are seriously cheap? Plus they are an excellent way to promote your book offline. So, once you have ordered a bazillion of them give them out for free! Donate them to your local library, ESL center, community center, sports team, or ask to leave some at a local coffee shop.
When making your bookmarks, don’t forget to add how to purchase the book and put a QR code on there to track how well this marketing tactic is working.
9. Sell your book at a trade show, book fair, festival, or farmer’s market.
Who doesn’t love going to book fairs, festivals, trade shows or farmer’s markets? (I am a huge book fair and farmer’s market fan!) These are significant events for you to promote your book offline.
For all these events, ask a few authors to join you in purchasing a booth to promote your books at. Other authors are not your competition. Instead, if you help promote and support each other, you will all sell more books and grow your readership faster.
10. Offer your book as a prize at a charity event.
Promoting your book offline while giving back and supporting a cause is a win win win!
When choosing a charity to work with it is essential to make sure it is aligned with your book, target readers, and brand. Try to offer something with your book as a prize. Such as a lunch with the author.
Why Offline Book Marketing Strategies Work
As an author, your best asset is marketing- both offline and online. Most indie authors don’t market their book at all or they only market online because that seems easier. These authors are missing out on huge opportunities. With offline marketing, your book has a better chance of standing out.
When it comes to promoting your book offline, think outside of the box!
As an author you are already creative, smart and witty- especially when it comes to words. But now you need to take those skills and use them to create a marketing strategy!
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all when it comes to an offline book marketing strategy. Explore your options and test campaigns out to see what works for your book and brand.
The publishing marketplace is saturated. To stand out, you need to ramp up your marketing efforts to attract new readers. This will take time, work, and lots of thinking outside of the box for it to become successful. On the bright side, you don’t need to create complex marketing campaigns to reach more readers rapidly. Instead, you need to work smart, harness that motivation and get some of that author creativity to make a big impact and lasting impression.
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