Big thanks to my guest author this week, Stephanie Weaver! Be sure to check out her site, Substack, and subscribe.
While all authors need to promote their books, if you got a six- or seven-figure advance from a Big Five publisher, they’ll be making a concerted effort and budget spend to promote your book.
It’s the rest of us who must work harder and smarter. Here are my tips after publishing five books with independent presses. My fifth book, Bitter, Sweet, a memoir about family estrangement, came out April 7, 2026.
💥 Shout-out to my exclusive advertising sponsor, the always-free Booklinker (universal book links—so helpful!), and the paid tool, GeniusLink. I love and use both💥 (affiliate link).
You wouldn’t launch a new business without creating a business plan. Yet most authors never set goals because we’re so focused on the writing—and on selling, layout, and cover reveals—that we forget that every book is a product going out into a crowded marketplace.
Clearly define what success looks like for YOU. Is it reviews in specific outlets? Best-seller status somewhere? A certain number of live events? Seeing it hit #1 in a category on Amazon? Be realistic in your goals. The New York Times Best Seller List is not going to happen for most non-celebrity authors unless you or a benefactor can afford to pre-order 10,000 copies from one of their reporting bookstores.
Your book will not make money. Most books do not.
What we all need to decide, based on our goals (see #1), is how much we want to spend to achieve them. There are one gazillion places for authors to spend money and never see a return or feel “successful.”
This includes paid blog tours, Google ads, Meta ads, Goodreads Giveaways, Amazon ads, pricey podcast or radio tours, printing bookmarks, postcards, business cards, swag, going to writing conferences…you get the idea.
If you don’t set goals and a budget, you can drip away thousands of dollars over a couple of years, not realize it, and still feel like your book “failed.” But if every dollar you spend is toward one of your goals, you can stop second-guessing yourself.
Decide how much time you want to spend each week on promotion that’s both realistic and sustainable for you. Dedicate that time in your calendar each week, e.g., 15 minutes for Facebook on Monday, 15 minutes for TikTok on Wednesday.
Pick the one or two social media platforms you enjoy and focus on them.
Consider what you really LOVE doing. Are you an artist, a musician, a dancer? Can you use that skill to create related content?
Most people will not see what you post because of the algorithm, so you’ll need to post multiple times. If you create any assets, such as quote cards or video clips, make sure to use them in multiple places and repeat posting them on a cycle.
For example, make a static quote card in Canva and also animate it to share as a Reel and a TikTok video. Research the best hashtags for your book on each platform and use them consistently.
Are you a great lecturer, someone who can lead retreats, super comfortable on camera? Do you love pitching articles? Any of those additional talents can be a bonus.
Consider teaming up with another writer with complementary strengths and help each other. I’m not great at pitching companion pieces, so I meet monthly with journalist Abby Alten Schwartz. She helps me with essays, and I help her find a publisher for her memoir.
A press release says, “This book is now available.” Snooze. 😴 You need customized, targeted pitches, whether you’re pitching yourself as a content expert to a journalist, a conference speaker, or a podcast guest.
Book marketer extraordinaire Allison Lane told me, “Don’t sell your book. Explain your purpose. Your book is part of a conversation about a topic that you are the advocate for. People don’t want to listen to a sales pitch. They want to know how your book will help THEM.” Every pitch you write should keep this in mind.
Create a one-sheet media kit. Canva has great examples. Once you have a media kit, create a book landing page on your website that offers your free handout, buy buttons, a downloadable headshot, and your media kit.
If you have more than three links to podcasts or TV appearances, create a media section on that page. If you have more than three podcast links, create a Spotify playlist of your appearances and embed that on your landing page.
Set up a free Google News Alert with your name, book title, and relevant topics. Always share posts when someone mentions you or reviews your book. Use any relevant topic links to create social media posts in response.
It’s a challenging time to be a writer, with a splintered media landscape that changes every week, and over two million books published every year. Don’t despair!
Focus your efforts on finding your audience, playing to your strengths, and enjoying the ride.
Stephanie Weaver, MPH, distills complex human experiences into accessible, compelling narratives. Her fifth book Bitter, Sweet: How To Heal Yourself When Your Family Is Broken, is a heartfelt exploration of healing from family estrangement, reconciliation, and personal transformation.
"Bitter, Sweet is that rare book where you know the twists are coming and they shake you up just the same..." ― Allison K Williams, author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like A Pro from Blank Page to Book
Subscribe to Stephanie’s free newsletter, Bitter, Sweet: Notes From a Happy/Sad Life. Follow her on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads. Purchase Bitter, Sweet through Bookshop.org or Amazon.
Learn more about Stephanie’s professional book coaching, beta reading, and speaker coaching.
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The truth is simple. Most authors don’t fail because their writing isn’t good. They struggle because readers never get the chance to find them. Let’s fix that.
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