3 Book Marketing Techniques to Guarantee Your Book Will Sell

For authors, one of the biggest challenges is getting your book noticed and purchased in an oversaturated market. You’ve poured your heart into writing, but without a strategic, proven book marketing plan, your masterpiece may sadly never reach its intended audience. That’s where implementing smart book marketing techniques makes all the difference. In the startup world, companies use “lean” methodologies to validate demand and get products to market quickly through an iterative process.

We’ve adapted these powerful lean principles to book marketing. In this post, we’ll cover 3 key book marketing techniques to help ensure your book doesn’t just sell – it becomes a legitimately successful bestseller.

Book Marketing Technique #1: The Minimum Viable Product

The first key book marketing technique we recommend is creating a minimum viable product (MVP) before writing your full book. An MVP is a basic, pared-down version of your book content that you can use to test the demand and get feedback from your target audience.

What is an MVP?

The MVP concept comes from the lean startup methodology. Instead of spending months or years developing a product in isolation, you create a basic prototype to put in front of real users quickly. The goal is to validate there is interest and get data to guide your next iterations.

For authors, some examples of book MVPs include:

• A free webinar teaching a condensed version of your book’s core concepts
• A 5-day email challenge covering mini-lessons from your book
• A private Facebook group sharing tips and holding discussions

Testing Your Idea First

The key is putting together just enough content and marketing it on a small scale to attract an initial audience. Does your free MVP draw in your ideal readers? Are they engaging with the material? This allows you to validate there is demand for your full book before pouring years of work into writing it.

Getting direct feedback on your MVP is also invaluable. You can learn what resonates, what falls flat, what else your audience needs – insights to shape your book and make it as useful and appealing as possible when you write the whole thing.

By starting lean with an MVP using smart book marketing techniques, you minimize risks. There’s no need to blindly write a book people may not want or buy. Test interest first, then write a bestseller your audience will devour.

READ MORE: The Secret to Finding the Right Readership for Your Book

Book Marketing Technique #2: Iterative Development

Our next powerful book marketing technique is what we call “iterative development” – the concept of continually improving your book over time based on real feedback, rather than attempting to launch a single “perfect” version.

Ship the “MVP Book” First

One of the biggest misconceptions authors have is feeling they need to endlessly polish and refine their book until it’s an immaculate masterpiece before releasing it to the world. However, this perfectionist approach means you may never actually ship!

The lean mindset says to get your “minimum viable book” out to readers as soon as possible – even if it’s a basic version missing some chapters or bonus materials you plan to add later. The initial MVP launch is just the starting point.

Collect Audience Feedback

Once your MVP book is live and selling, the real insights start rolling in. Who is buying it and why? What questions do they have? What do they love or struggle with? Gather as much feedback as possible from your first readers.

This user feedback is gold! It removes the guesswork and shows you exactly what your audience wants more or less of in your content.

Iterate and Expand

Using those insights, you can immediately start working on an updated version of your book that expands the high-value sections, clarifies any confusing areas, adds new bonus components your readers requested, and improves the overall quality.

Then, re-release your book periodically with each new iteration. Leverage the power of book marketing techniques like re-launching with a new edition, updated cover, and promotions to drive additional sales from your existing audience and attract new readers.

The goal is a constant cycle of feedback > enhancements > re-release. With this iterative book development approach following proven book marketing techniques, your book becomes more comprehensive, refined, and appealing with every new version.

Book Marketing Technique #3: The Continuous Sales Cycle

The third key book marketing technique is to make sales an ongoing cycle, not a one-time event. Too many authors write a book, do one initial launch, then sit back wondering why sales quickly fizzle out. The sustainable approach is constant audience growth and book improvements.

Always Be Marketing

Don’t fall into the trap of the “massive launch” followed by periods of inaction. The most successful authors are always promoting – running frequent campaigns, special offers, rebrandings and relaunches to keep interest high.

This applies the “agile” philosophy of constantly iterating versus blindly hoping your big 1.0 launch will be a smash hit. Be nimble, test different book marketing techniques, adjust based on results, and re-promote on a consistent basis.

Nurture Your Audience

Beyond just marketing more often, you need to actively nurture an ongoing relationship with your audience community through channels like email lists, social media, live events, and more.

Share helpful free content, solicit their insights, and promote a personal connection. When you eventually launch a new book, product, or service, you have a pool of warm prospects who know, like, and trust you.

Find Coaching and Community

Admittedly, this level of continuous book marketing requiring frequent new creation, promotion, and audience engagement can seem daunting to manage alone.

That’s where coaching and being part of a supportive author community pays dividends. Having expert guidance, accountability and partners pushing you to always be improving and promoting provides motivation. You’ll find you can generate steady book sales and growth for the long-term.

Utilizing book marketing techniques focused on frequent releases, iteration, relationship-building, and the right coaching/community makes marketing your book an energizing, rewarding journey.

Which Book Marketing Techniques Will You Employ?

The three book marketing techniques we covered – the minimum viable product, iterative development, and the continuous sales cycle – provide a complete strategy for validating your book idea, growing an audience, and generating sustainable sales.

By starting lean with an MVP, you ensure there is real demand before overinvesting. Then, an agile mindset of continual improvements based on user feedback allows you to enhance your book over time, rather than chasing an unobtainable level of perfection.

This progressive approach takes the fear and guesswork out of book marketing. If you’re ready to embrace these powerful book marketing techniques to get your book working for you, take action today!