Refine Vague Book Promotion with “Online Marketing for Busy Authors”

The rise of self-publishing has spawned a huge flood of eBooks in the market. What hasn’t grown along with this flood, however, is a step-by-step guide for how to market those eBooks. That’s where “Online Marketing for Busy Authors: A Step-by-Step Guide” steps in. Written by a veteran of the book publicity industry, the book aims to help authors make sense of the confusing world of marketing a book online.

What “Online Marketing for Busy Authors” is About

The world of social media can be a confusing and distracting place for an author. True success in online book planning, according to author Fauzia Burke, is about planning and smart execution. Authors need to understand how to fit their goals inside of social media.

The most crucial step in online book promotion, planning, is the area most underutilized by authors. Despite advice to the contrary, most authors only have vague goals (such as “sell a lot of books”). Going after these goals is not a recipe for success. In fact, it’s a recipe for burnout. Achieving any book promotion goals is a daunting task, but it becomes more daunting without clear goals. Achieving any goals, vague or specific, requires time, something a lone author doing all of the marketing, promotions, and publicity does not have.

The purpose of “Online Marketing for Busy Authors” is to fix that problem with prioritization and targeted planning. Instead of trying to promote your book on every platform, Fauzia Burke recommends authors choose the platforms that work for them. Once they have established a presence on a platform, they need to understand and pursue a targeted plan of action. (The book provides questions to guide planning.) From there, authors should focus on the long-term, building long-term relationships with their audience for continued success.

Fauzia Burke (@FauziaBurke) is a speaker, writer, and founder of FSB associates, one of the first PR firms to specialize in online book publicity.

What Was Best About “Online Marketing for Busy Authors”

The best part about “Online Marketing for Busy Authors” is its focus on prioritization for authors. Two of the chief complaints of self-published authors is the lack of time and confusion about where to start.

“Online Marketing for Busy Authors” is one of the first books to tackle this problem with a three-tiered plan and plan-generating questions to help authors refine their vague goals. This is something authors should pay attention to.

What Could Have Been Done Differently

While the book provides excellent advice (especially for newbie authors), it does not address one critical factor, whether your book will actually make a profit. “Online Marketing for Busy Authors” is focused on providing advice for authors who have a good book, but need help planning and running the marketing side of things.

One other area that might increase the book’s reach would be the inclusion of more everyday authors who used the book’s methods (with specific details on that success). Including these stories might spark additional ideas for struggling authors.

Why Read “Online Marketing for Busy Authors”

Any potential or current author (self-published or not) who is having trouble managing their time while marketing their book should take a peek at Burke’s ideas. “Online Marketing for Busy Authors” provides the questions and structure to help time-starved authors prioritize and refine their marketing strategies.

The book won’t solve every marketing problem for authors — but it can help authors refine their efforts.

This article, "Refine Vague Book Promotion with “Online Marketing for Busy Authors”" was first published on Small Business Trends