Do you know the most powerful way to market your book?

Word of mouth recommendation.

It’s a free, highly credible, highly viral resource that helps to amplify your efforts to create interest and buzz about your work.

And all you really need for word of mouth marketing is a book worthy of sharing, and a way to get it into the hands of the people who will spread the word.

Sound simple?

Well it is simple, but not necessarily easy.

The devil is in the details, right?

Although the concept is simple, the implementation is going to require some time and effort, especially in the beginning.

However, with a good plan, you’ll soon reach a tipping point where your fans begin to market for you in numbers great enough to really impact your book sales.

How To Get Started

The best time to design and implement your marketing plan of action is before you even start writing your book. It takes time to build relationships, learn your readers wants and needs, and develop a base of rabid fans that clamour for more.

Grow your readership as you write your book, and when it’s time to launch your book, you’ll already have an invested and eager audience waiting.

Great advice, except my book is already written. Now what?

Even if you already have your book in hand, don’t panic! The process is still the same. It just may take a little longer to see the book sales come rolling in.

So, let’s skip past the year or two (or five) of blood, sweat, and tears that were required for you to write, edit, and polish your masterful novel, and assume that it is indeed worthy of personal recommendation.

The next step is to get your share-worthy work noticed and shared by the right people. Here are a few key things to remember:

• Focus more on discoverability rather than selling. Your work is important, so help those who can benefit from it, find it.

• Accept responsibility for the marketing and promotion of your book. Even if you choose to outsource some of the work, your book’s success depends on you taking action.

• Marketing and promotion is just an extension of your author platform. The lines between platform building and book marketing are often blurred. For the biggest impact, combine these 71 strategies with the 101 Quick Actions You Can Take Today to Build the Writer Platform of Your Dreams. [Read more…]