Top 10 Book Promotion Tactics for 2011 Revealed by Survey

Jan. 14, 2011 - PRLog -- Social networking and blogging are still the top two book promotion tactics, according to the annual survey sponsored by The Savvy Book Marketer, with 89 percent of authors surveyed planning to use social networking in 2011 and 86 percent planning to blog. Seeking book reviews and endorsements remains the number three choice, planned by 78 percent of those surveyed.

“Online book promotion tactics like social networking and blogging are popular because they are inexpensive and can potentially reach a very large audience,” says Dana Lynn Smith of The Savvy Book Marketer. “Internet book promotion also allows indie publishers to compete on a more level playing field with larger publishers.”

Smith notes that more traditional forms of book promotion are still essential. An effective book marketing plan should use a variety of tactics for the widest reach, and it’s important that authors and publishers learn how to implement those tactics effectively.

Here is a breakdown of the top 10 ways that authors plan on promoting books in 2011:

1.   Social networking: 89 percent
2.   Blogging: 86 percent
3.   Seeking book reviews and endorsements: 78 percent
4.   Press releases: 68 percent
5.   Ezines and/or email marketing: 59 percent
6.   Book signings: 57 percent
7.   Radio and television talk shows: 53 percent
8.   Speaking (live or teleseminars): 50 percent
9.   Freemiums (giving away ebooks or other information): 48 percent
10.   (tie) Article marketing and video promotions: both 48 percent

Other popular forms of book promotion include conducting virtual book tours (44 percent), exhibiting at book fairs, festivals or tradeshows (40 percent) and entering book award contests (24 percent). Podcasting, one of the newer forms of book promotion, is planned by just 20% of the respondents.

Here is a breakdown of the number of hours per week that survey respondents plan to spend on author and book promotion in 2011:

•   Fewer than five hours per week: 24 percent
•   5 to 14 hours per week: 44 percent
•   15 to 21 hours per week: 20 percent
•   22 or more hours per week: 12 percent

“The majority of those surveyed spend fewer than two hours per day promoting their books,” points out Smith. “Many authors have a day job, so it’s difficult for them to devote a lot of hours to book promotion, and marketing activities also take time away from writing. That’s why it’s so important for authors to develop a solid book marketing plan, prioritize, and manage their time well, to get the most benefit from the hours that they have available.”

Fifty-two percent of the respondents to the book promotion survey are independently or self-published authors, while 25 percent are authors published by a traditional publishing house, 10 percent are aspiring authors and 13 percent are publishers or marketing experts.

Fifty-four percent of the authors surveyed write nonfiction, 46 percent write fiction, 21 percent write children’s or young adult books and 8 percent write memoir. (Some authors write in more than one genre.)

Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides, a series of ebooks designed to teach authors book promotion tactics. For book marketing tips, visit her blog at http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com. Subscribers to Smith’s complimentary newsletter get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips e-book when they subscribe to the newsletter. For more book marketing tips, follow Smith on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BookMarketer.

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Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach with 15 years of publishing experience. She specializes in developing book marketing plans for nonfiction books and helping authors learn how to promote their books online.