In my last post I discussed 5 Ways to Promote Your Fiction Book.  Although some of those tactics will work for non-fiction books as well, I thought I’d talk more specifically about non-fiction book promotion this week.

This should go without saying, but I’ve seen a lot of bad titles and a lot of bad covers out there.  Choose your title carefully and don’t settle for an ugly cover.  These two things are extremely important when it comes to a potential reader’s first impression of your book.

Once you have a great title, an amazing cover and killer content, you’re ready to launch your book!  Here are five ways to promote your non-fiction book:

1. Reviews — Getting reviews for your book will help increase its ranking on Amazon. Offer the book for free through KDP for a few days.  During that time, contact your email list to let them know about the promotion and ask them to review the book.  Use http://www.bookmarketingtools.com to get the word out to “free kindle” sites.  For more on this tactic, visit CreativINDIE with Derek Murphy.
2. Pricing Strategy — Another great tactic Derek Murphy mentions is having a pricing strategy.  Offering your book at a low price point (i.e. $0.99) for a period of 30 days will encourage sales and build some momentum.
3. Press Release Distribution — Put out a press release and distribute it through PRWeb. I am not a super big fan of the old fashioned press release approach (don’t expect news about your book to hit the front page of a major newspaper), but as Cathy Presland shares in her post “50 Surprisingly Simple Ways to Promote Your Book,” PR distribution can help create some backlinks to your website.
4. Book Launch Party — Schedule a book launch party at a local coffee shop or bookstore.  Be sure to bring plenty of copies of your book so you can sell signed copies, and have bookmarks or business cards on-hand with all of the information about your book and where to buy it.
5. Guest blog posts — Seek out bloggers in your field.  Follow them and connect with them on social media.  Reach out to them and ask if they accept guest posts for their blog.  You can write posts on topics related to your book (if not specifically about the book) and include a link to your website in your bio.  Beth Barany shares some great tips on www.writersfunzone.com on running a blog tour.

Again, these are just a few ideas to get you started.  Networking with other writers and published authors is always a good idea no matter what phase of the process you are in. Get involved in a community of writers, whether it be a local writing group, a national organization or an online forum so you can network, get tips and advice and swap ideas.

Not sure where to start?  WritePubChat is an online Slack community just for writers who want to discuss writing, publishing, book marketing with other writers.  Join us!

Featured image courtesy of James Barker