"Buy my book!" Authors, you're doing it wrong

And the tech marketing strategy you can do today

There’s a logic that publishing means you need to market yourself and marketing means posting, and since the algorithm rewards posting you should post a lot, and every post becomes a variation of “buy my book.”

I get it but it doesn’t work, and there’s a better way.

(Quick caveat - I am pulling suggestions from my day job, Director of Marketing - Brand and Communications at a large AI tech company)

In the enterprise world, when a large company is assessing a new tool or capability like AI, they have three options: build it themselves, buy it, or partner with a vendor. The same build-buy-partner framework applies to marketing your book and none of it requires asking anyone to buy anything.

Build - Everything you know about your book that a reader doesn’t. Where the idea came from, the obstacle that almost stopped you finishing it, the character you had to kill off etc. These are gold and they make people want to read your book far more than being told or asked to buy it, even when it’s tongue in cheek. Books are a relational product, not a transactional one. So build content that pulls people toward the book the same way you wrote a story that brings people in.

Buy - full disclosure, I had the build and partner bits figured out before I wrote this but the buy section I brainstormed with AI. It helped me narrow down that I am not talking about buying with money, but with time and in ways that nobody can stop you from doing i.e. you don’t need to be invited or accepted to a podcast or a panel or a column spot, for example. Communities of your readers already exist and are open to anyone e.g. Facebook groups for historical fiction lovers. So buy eyeballs with your time and effort. Show up with recommendations (not your own book!!!), be genuinely useful, talk about books you love. Be a reader first.

Partner - Books aren’t competitive, rising tides raise all ships. If someone loves one book it doesn’t stop them buying yours. Readers who love one book in a genre are the most likely people to buy another. So find authors writing for a similar readership and propose something mutual e.g. a joint Zoom call or a shared newsletter feature. Worst case they don’t reply but unless you’re JK Rowling, you can benefit from someone else’s platform and they can benefit from yours. Most authors are looking for exactly the same thing.

The authors who sell the most books aren’t the ones posting “buy my book” the most. Build, buy, partner, and go for it. (Feel free to reach out to me, for example!)