Seeding Content, Priming Your Audience, and Strategically Marketing Your Book Ahead of Publication

Congratulations! You’re just starting to get out of the weeds of the editing and design process, and you’re beginning to think about book promotion. At this point, the realization that your ideas and thoughts are actually going to be bound in a book and in the hands of readers in just a few months may terrify you, excite you, or maybe a bit of both. It’s important to start using that energy to catapult you into the book promotion mindset. But how early is too early when it comes to book promotion? And how do you actually promote an unpublished book? The Greenleaf marketing team has put together a comprehensive timeline to help guide you through the months leading up to your book launch.

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With the growth in podcast popularity and consumers growing desire for new ways to consume media, the demand for audiobooks is soaring. According to the Audio Publishers Association, audiobook sales generated $1.8 billion in the US in 2022. This marks the eleventh year in a row the format has seen double-digit sales growth.

With this spike comes demand for more audiobooks, and with more audiobooks comes increased competition for readers' attention. This means in order to get your audiobook in front of the right audience, you need to break through the noise—and the best way to do this is by marketing and promoting the audio version of your book.

The following are ten ways to ensure readers know they have the option to listen to your book as well:

Writing a book is a huge endeavor filled with many exciting milestones and decisions, and the work doesn’t stop with a finished manuscript. Putting a book out into the world brings a whole host of new opportunities and challenges for authors as they work to get their books into the hands of readers.

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The new year brings personal reflection and thoughtful resolution-building. Your book marketing campaign deserves that same intentional review. Greenleaf’s Marketing Strategists (with more than thirty years of combined marketing experience!) reviewed the most successful book marketing campaigns of 2021 and below are our most popular, results-driven initiatives from this year that should make your marketing to-do list in 2022.

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Congratulations! You’ve poured your heart and soul into creating your book. Now the question becomes, how do you tell the world about it? Earned media coverage can significantly impact sales, establish your authority as an author and thought leader, and amplify the message you set out to share by writing your book in the first place. Crafting a personal, professional, and precise pitch is the first step in securing coverage.

A strong marketing strategy, combined with the excitement, urgency, and newness of a book launch will carry many authors and their marketing, social media, digital media, and publicity teams for months following publication without a lull. But once the launch strategy has been executed, how do you maintain promotional momentum and book sales? The below suggestions will provide focus to your ongoing marketing efforts.

Congratulations! Winning a book award is no small feat. Thousands of titles are submitted yearly for various award programs. If your book is selected as a winner or finalist for a book award, don’t be afraid to celebrate it! Below are a few ways you can promote your book’s award recognition.

Getting your book into the hands of readers for reviews, discussion, and word-of-mouth is an essential part of a book marketing campaign. It’s also the dream of most authors to see their book spark lively discussion and community building. One way to do that is by connecting with book clubs, which can be challenging and time-consuming as there’s no one central place where book clubs congregate. Below are some ways that you might connect with book clubs both locally and virtually.