More people buy books from Amazon than from any other bookstore. Wiley makes sure information about your book is correct and feeds to Amazon six months ahead of publication - you don't have to do anything for this to happen. But there are ways you can help boost sales at Amazon:

• Take advantage of the Amazon Author Programs: Amazon Author Central (access to author bio page, ability to link to your social accounts, RSS feed, and see Bookscan sales numbers)
• Improve your book’s Amazon page
  • Get as many Amazon “Customer Reviews” as you can once the book has published.
  • Ask everyone who has read the book, and liked it, to post a “Customer Review.”
• Share a scrubbed link (meaning the link ends with the ISBN and is not the full link that comes up when you search the book) with all your followers on social media sites. You can do this when your book is available for pre-order on Amazon around 4-6 months prior to publication (Kindle edition available only at pub).

If people can’t find your book, they can’t read it. Make sure they can find you and your book by:

• Linking to your book's wiley.com page wherever you can (your email signature, your website, your profile or bio)
• Adding more links to your book throughout your website. The more links, the more Google will value and highlight your content.
• Including the full book title in both the titles and content paragraphs of blogs you publish.
• Reaching out to other members of your community to get them to link to your book content as well.

Social media can play a huge role in marketing your book, but it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts. We outline the various social media platforms below, but virtually every platform is a great place to share information about your book. When you do, remember to include the title, plus a link to your book’s wiley.com page.

Some quick ways to make social media work for you include:

• Connecting with whoever is managing the social media site(s) at your place of work, or academic society, and asking them to mention your book—both before publication and at launch.
• Getting your friends to share too. The more people who share, interact, and comment on your posts, the more likely the social media algorithms are to show it to other people. And the more eyes on it, the better!
• Engaging with the Wiley social media channels that can be used to promote you and your book.
• Finding authors that are doing this well on each platform, then following their lead as to what’s working for their book. Posting quotes, excerpts, press hits, helpful content, tips and advice, and more will build your platform as a thought leader in your space.

Note: The largest tip for social media is not to post about your book all the time. Nothing will lose your fans faster than posting only about that. Stick to the “80-20 Rule,” where you share newsworthy and interesting content related to your field/topic 80% of the time and only share about your book 20% of the time.

Facebook

Consider starting an author Facebook page. This will give you a place to direct fans and readers. They can also send you messages and questions directly here, so it’s a great way to interact. Try to post daily. Figure out when your audience is online. If they’re students, they may not be on during the day. Same with some professionals. Experiment with posting at different times to see when you get the most interaction.

Grow your following by joining and interacting in groups centered around the topics you write about.

Twitter

Twitter is huge in the writing world. It’s an easy way to connect with others around the world. Maintain a presence here—again trying to post roughly once a day. On Twitter, you can “retweet” another thought leader’s tweet to your followers, making it easier to stick to that 80-20 rule. Do be wary of “trolls” who may want to argue with you for no reason.

Grow your following by following others and interacting with their tweets. Make yourself a thought leader by sharing useful content and make use of appropriate hashtags.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great platform if you’re a business author or looking for good connections in your field. It can be a good way to reach people by job title and area expertise. Be sure to include in your job title that you’re also an author and share news about your book in the feed.

You don’t truly have followers in this platform, but you do have connections. Gain more connections by posting good, relevant content.

Instagram

Instagram has a bit of a younger crowd, but it’s a great way to get great visuals out there. If you have a lot of visually appealing content, get on Instagram. You can also post pictures of you speaking at events or working on your manuscript. Give people a glimpse into your life.

Follow people in your field. Share their content. Do giveaways to gain followers.

YouTube

If videos are your thing, then consider starting a YouTube channel. Post videos regularly to get people to subscribe. Some authors will do a separate video for each chapter of their book, as a good starting point.

Consider ending your video by asking viewers to subscribe. You can also direct them to your other social media channels.

Gaining followers

It can feel like a second job building up a social media following, but it’s worth it. Here are some easy tips to use to gain followers.

• Good content—If you have good content, people will find you.
• Giveaways—Hosting giveaways where entrants must Follow/Share the post to be entered to win can really help spread the word about your book.
• Interact—Make sure you interact with others and follow them.
• DO NOT BUY FOLLOWERS—There is no point in buying fake followers. They won’t interact with your content.

There are lots of ways to promote yourself across the internet, and the book buying audiences are now more responsive to valuable content, such as videos and short articles offering educational tips, than traditional advertising.

Some quick ways to promote your books online include:

• Place a book cover on your faculty or professional website. Include a sample chapter (Wiley can provide this, but remember to ask your Editor for permission), as well as a link to buy the book.
• If you run a blog or website, add a post about your book. If you have a contact who runs a blog, ask them to feature a review of your book.
• Add your book to your listed publications on ResearchGate.
• Upload your table of contents or a summary slide about your book to SlideShare.

If you have more time, you can create pieces that will make you a thought leader in your field and expose your audience to your book. You can create these content pieces on your own by filming short videos on your cell phone or by writing articles to share on your blog or another website. Read on for different types of content you can create.

• Bulleted List – Create a short article that breaks advice or insights about the topic of your book down into a 3-10 actionable or easily understood points. Types of lists include Top 5, 5 Tips, 5 Things You Don’t Know, 5 Things You Should Know, 5 Things that will improve, 5 Techniques to… etc.
• Q&A – 3-5 Questions with you or a contributor about your expertise, the topic or industry of the book, views on the market or a market event, etc.
• Short Article – Pick a newsworthy or interesting technique or topic related to the book and write a 1 page article.
• Video or audio (see multimedia section later on)
• Graphics – Charts, graphs, infographics (see www.dailyinfographic.com for examples)
• Whitepapers – These are generally longer and more in-depth than articles and take a deep look into a topic explored in your book or in your field.
• Guest Blog - News worthy short article or market commentary.
• Webinars – These can be great ways to get an involved crowd to interact with your content and see you as a thought leader.

Events are a great way to connect with readers directly. Whether you’re doing a book signing, speaking at a conference, or giving a keynote, every time you get in front of a crowd is a great time to not only tell them about your book, but to direct them to your newsletter and other social media accounts so they can continue to interact with you in the future.

Mention your book in sessions where you are a panelist or presenter, or add a slide at the end of your PowerPoint presentation.

Great places to make appearances include:

• Book signings
• School visits
• Library events
• Conferences
• Industry events
• Book festivals

Every time you’re in front of people with your book is an opportunity. Speaking is often the biggest driver of book sales over the lifetime of a book and only you, the author, can do that for your book. Take every opportunity to build the book into events, with one copy for every attendee, ahead of time to ensure a 100% conversion rate, avoid selling from stage or back of the room, and add value to every engagement.

Have the cost of books built into the contract, attendee fee, have them sponsored/donated, or buy them with your author discount. Seeding the market is crucial to building word of mouth over the long term. Authors with books are more valuable and effective speakers – the book helps make your ideas stick, serves as a welcome takeaway, and gives pass-along value as a lead generator for your next client or engagement.

• A venue can purchase books directly from Wiley to sell, give away, or include in a ticketed event.
• You or the venue can arrange to have a bookseller on-site to sell copies of the book.
• You can purchase books with your author discount.

Guidelines for booking events

The prime time to do events is within the first three months after your pub date and more specifically the first 3-4 weeks that your book is in full distribution. Remember to allow at least 3 weeks for your book to be shipped and received by book shops from the date of the book being received in the Wiley warehouse. Authors traveling outside of their home country need to allow a minimum of 5-6 week lead time for their book to be received overseas and/or to go through customs of another country.

Having personal connections in the media is one of the best ways to get them to feature you. Reach out to any personal contacts you know to see if they’ll do an article, review, or segment on the book. If you can tie the book to a recent newsworthy event, you’re even more likely to get featured.

If you don’t have any media contacts, you can usually find their email addresses attached to their LinkedIn profiles or on their media websites. Reach out with a targeted email explaining exactly what you’re looking for and why they should feature the book. It may help to offer them a free review copy of the book.

Do note that many media personalities will not open emails from unknown senders with attachments included due to security concerns. Avoid sending attachments until you’ve made contact with the person you’re trying to reach.

Also, remember that magazines will have a longer lead-time, meaning they go to print much earlier, than outlets like newspapers. So reach out to certain outlets earlier in order to try and secure coverage.

Besides traditional media, there are other avenues you can reach out to that may be happy to feature information about you and your book. Consider reaching out to:

• Alumni organizations
• Business partners
• Your own company
• Companies on whose boards you sit

Also, if you hear about or see reviews or your book wins any prizes and/or awards, please let us know. We will promote the details on your webpage, as well as in our e-newsletter and social media accounts.

Email

When used selectively, email marketing is still very effective. But first and foremost, the easiest thing you can do is add a link to your book in your email signature.

Email your contacts before publication to let them know you are writing a book, and again when the book is published. Tell them how they can connect with you, as well as where they can buy the book and any appearances/conferences you’ll be attending. If they are not buying directly, encourage them to recommend your book to their institutional library.

Also, if you’re publishing a textbook, recommendations amongst faculty and students are a key factor to your book’s success. If you have any contacts that you feel might adopt your book or recommend it to their students, email the list to us.

Newsletters

Use your newsletter to keep fans and readers informed about upcoming events and books. Share updates in your field to keep them interested. Don’t worry so much about how often you send it out. Instead, focus on the quality of your content and being helpful.

There are a number of free newsletter services out there to choose from. Pick one that you find easy to use. Authors use Mailchimp, TinyLetter, Constant Contact, Emma, and others.

Grow your followers by posting about your newsletter. Or offer an incentive for joining—like a free piece of content. Have a call to action on your website directing people to sign up.

Use your newsletter to:

• Announce a new book
• Announce a book is available for preorder
• Share the cover of your book
• Share relevant content with readers
• Do giveaways

Author videos and book trailers are yet another way for an author to communicate directly with their audience. We encourage you to put together a short video that we can use to help promote your book.

When you share these videos on your own social media, one of the benefits is that on many platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you can see exactly how many times your video has been viewed, which is a great metric to judge how your content is performing. However, some platforms—like Instagram—have time limits of 1 minute on videos, so keep that in mind when recording.

You can also “go live” on Facebook and do your own broadcast on your page where you can answer questions, talk about your book, converse about current industry topics and more.

Remember to relax on camera. Also, if you’re using a cell phone or other device where you can watch yourself as you’re recording, remember to keep your eyes on the camera and not on the screen. Speak a little slower than usual and don’t be afraid to show personality.