Book Marketing Archives | Page 2 of 12 | Jennifer Lancaster

marketing strategies for small publishers

October 2, 2025

Deep Dive into Micro-Publisher Marketing Strategies: A Focus on Niche Platforms

This post will utilise my knowledge of marketing to guide you to create a sustainable content marketing plan tailored for author-publishers. Are you experiencing the core challenges of running an indie/micro publisher: limited time, limited budget, and the need for high-impact, long-lasting content? Some muck about on Instagram, even when they are not connecting at a heart level on there. If you don’t have a plan, you’re not going to keep up momentum and gain a niche audience. So I’ve mocked up a Content Plan to tweak below. Plus, always remember that comments are key to any social media. Make the most of groups by having your books in a banner and mention of authoring in your bio (INCLUDING ON YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE!) 30-Day Content Marketing Outline: Niche Platforms for Indies This plan focuses on creating a single, high-value piece…

December 31, 2025

Publicity, Selling eBooks and Media

How Newsletters Sell both Books and Services

Why are Author Newsletters a Low Hanging Fruit? (An extract from my Micro Publisher book) When building any information-based business, influencing new readers is all part of the process… and we don’t do that overnight. Monthly newsletters make this super simple. Rather than solely worrying over promos – what new campaign to offer your email list – you set up a systematic schedule of writing and emailing a newsletter. The beauty is, anything you put into a blog can be transferred to a newsletter, either with RSS setup or simply copying the details and headings. I would suggest putting as much real and actionable content into your newsletter as possible and don’t rely on ‘read more’ links. Over time, my list shows that 2-3% click the read more link, so I switched to one long article and one promotion of…

January 9, 2025

Book Marketing

Re-Write of a Book Blurb

Occasionally I like to re-write a book blurb because it’s leaving so much unsaid. When writing a non-fiction book blurb especially, we need to focus on the specific group of end readers and what problems they want solved. How does the material match those problems? How can their dreams be helped on track by these pearls of wisdom? Let’s see how it works in this example (re-write is below the original). ORIGINAL: “How to be a Six-Star Business” (2021) Share the stories, inspiration, and genius of 22 entrepreneurs from around the world who provide insights and action steps to go BEYOND the every day in your business. Discover the 3 pillars and 9 principles that will make your business 6 Star as you continually strive to do and be better connect your heart to your purpose and join the 6…

October 14, 2024

Book Marketing

Steer Clear of Pay-to-Play Book Media

Indie author, you thought you were in the clear because you chose your own editors and designers and uploaded your books and didn’t get caught in hybrid or vanity publisher fees. Or maybe you did. Either way, there are more sharks waiting for you: it’s called Pay-to-Play Media and Marketing. Pay-to-play means hiring a company or individual to ‘guarantee’ your brand a mention in a publication, for a fee. There are all kinds: paid reviews, paid upfront (higher than $99) book awards, book fair stands, video trailers, ‘blog reviews’, pay-to-play magazine articles, book ad setup, and even high markups to place your book ad into Ingram’s magazines – which an author can tick a box to do themselves for US90 (not that non-US residents should). This last one was seen at a Balboa Press website. It may come to you…

August 5, 2024

Book Marketing

Engage the World in Your Book Creation to Engage an Audience

In the 1990s I went to see a band called TISM. This is Serious Mum is an anonymous, energetic rock band which riffs on social themes and is quite ‘out there’. Now what has this got to do with book creation and engaging an audience, you might ask? (Engagement is key to creating a buzz pre-launch and post-launch.) Three things: Suburban and urban themes, real hypocrisy Energy Novel ideas – no idea is too out there Bring the energy to your Category of One Now let’s bring that kind of vibe to these thoughts on trend waves and involving the world in your book creation. This is a radically different thing than writing a book you like and putting it up on Amazon KDP to hope for sales… la, la, la. You need to write in a category of one.…

May 17, 2024

Book Marketing, Personal Branding

How to Ramp Up a Personal Brand with Canva’s New AI Tools

Why Canva? Well, 16 million paying subscribers and 150 million free monthly users believe it’s the tool that will make their content marketing sing. Some of us (like me) also use it to make workbooks, business cards, brochures or beautiful pitch decks. Canva can be used for anything visual, and that’s why it’s great for promoting books. I have already done plenty of mockups with my book cover in different variants. For my personal profile on Facebook, Magic Edit replaced a boring background with blue and gold balloons. It used to take hours in Photoshop to do what’s now done in a click or two. Now there are 10 more AI tools, some of which could be handy for authors: Magic Switch: Like Re-size on steroids, Switch converts your design into a range of formats with one click. For example, you…