The Problem with Seeking the “Right Ideas” for Book Marketing

Someone asked me this week for the latest and greatest, “right,” right now, new ideas in book marketing.

Hahahahaha. Oh, here’s the key to the city! And some fancy chocolates.

The only right, right now I feel confident proclaiming is making yourself right, right now. That is the most useful right, right now for authors.

Because the secret is there is no secret.

There is not a whopping collection of secrets that have always worked or a boutique of lovely, bleeding-edge secrets du jour. There are only all the things, infinite paths, and the path you’re on for you and your books and your goals.

That said, go ahead and copy!

There may be no single great thing for you to try next, but there may be one great thing you see another author doing and want to try yourself. Go ahead. It’s calling your name and holding some appeal for you is as good a reason as any to try it. And, finding your own author path by copying others first is a battle-tested route to author success. See this link for more on these six types of copying that work.

1. Copying good ideas. (See a good idea? Borrow it!)
2. Copying the answers. (Ask Google, ask A.I., ask more experienced authors.)
3. Copying to learn. (Borrow ideas as a way to learn firsthand.)
4. Copying for mastery. (Copy until you absorb the essence of a thing, until you know it at the cellular level.)
5. Copying through mix and match. (Taking a little from column A, blending with idea B, and sprinkling in some C.)
6. Copying for self discovery. (Copy to discover what’s best for ourselves and our author business path.)

Right for you ...

The best right ideas for book marketing are the ones that are right for you, and there are eight different areas I’ve seen authors plumb over the years to uncover sales and marketing approaches that are right for them. See this link for more on these eight ways.

1. Your personal strengths.
2. How others see you.
3. Your interests and skills (those you have and those you want to develop).
4. The needs of your books, their content, and your customers.
5. Your values and priorities/what matters to you.
6. Your short- and long-term goals and desired benefits of being an author.
7. Your connections; how other people can help you.
8. Your current life and schedule; your desired life and dreams.

Right for your insights ...

One of the best pools of book marketing insights and fresh thinking can come from mining your own book reading, book awareness, and book buying habits.

Visit your bookshelf, LibraryThing account, or GoodReads site to take note of what you’ve read over the last several years. Where/how did you learn about these books? What prompted you to buy them? Where did you buy them?

Here’s what my own data taught me as a publisher when I analyzed a decade of my own reading:

1. Create quality work that’s meaningful to readers’ lives.
2. Have books available where most people go and as many places as possible.
3. Get books mentioned everywhere.
4. Use your connections and your relationships and your Google search skills/A.I. questioning skills.
5. Make it easy for people to share your books and information on them.
6. Get your books into libraries.
7. Have book clubs read your books.
8. Go anywhere people congregate and introduce your work to them.
9. Getting books read is part of getting books sold.

Right for your books ...

Some sales and marketing techniques are better fits for some books than for others. Genre books do better than others with digital sales options. Regional and non-fiction passion/hobby books do well with in-person events and exploiting niche media. Business and scholarly/professional books can run with a thought leadership model doing large events, consulting, and targeted media appearances. See this link for more on these twelve common author business model templates that come with their own marketing and sales strategies:

1. Classic Author
2. Thought Leader Author
3. Self-Published Genre Author
4. Entrepreneur Author
5. Freelance Author
6. Hobbyist Author
7. Regional Author
8. Ghostwriting Author
9. Author Building Author
10. Day Job Author
11. Retirement Author
12. Combo Author

Right for your readers ...

What do your readers respond to? Which of your books, blog posts, social posts, and newsletter content bring you the most interaction and response? What are the distinct aspects of you, your writing, and your public communication that appeal and engage your followers most? How can you use that information in future outreach efforts?

*All the themes* are one place to start learning about your readers. There are your broadest themes of your books, primary themes, tangential themes, and customer and reader themes. See this link for more on the following ten places and ways to explore and exploit your themes for sales opportunities.

1. Social media
2. Book parties
3. Non-bookstore stores
4. Volume sales
5. Your events
6. Other people’s events
7. Your classes
8. Other people’s classes
9. Your tours
10. Other people’s tours

Right for your customers ...

The 80/20 (Pareto) Principle is your friend for finding what’s right for your customers, those who have already spent money on your books, products, events, and services. You can use this simple tool to analyze various aspects of your revenue flows, leading very quickly to what’s “right” in these departments. Do more of what works best. Pursue more customers that most easily bring you business.

• Which 20% of your books bring you 80% (or most of) your money?
• Which 20% of events (programs, audiences, etc.) bring you 80% of the benefits (income, exposure, new opportunities)?
• Which 20% of customer types bring you 80% of your business? (Individuals, bookstores, gift shops, libraries, special sales, etc.)

Adapted from the new book, The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business Around Your Books (Everything Goes Media, 2025).

*Feature image by Cristina Conti (Adobe)