The single best marketing strategy for your non-fiction book
This is going to sound ridiculously simple and obvious, but the best investment you can possibly make in the future sales of your non-fiction book is to make sure you write a book that is really helpful to your end readers.
The reason for this is that word of mouth and recommendations are huge drivers for book sales - and people reliably recommend non-fiction books that genuinely helped them to solve a problem, understand something important, or learn how to do something.
The most trusted form of marketing out there is word-of-mouth. Way back in 2012, an influential report from Nielsen quantified this with a statistic reporting that 92% of people around the world trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising, with online consumer reviews being the second most trusted source of information.
Back in my student days I worked as a bookseller, and I can confirm on an anecdotal basis that recommendations are an extremely significant source of book sales. People consistently buy books as a result of personal recommendations. And failing that, people are swayed by book reviews and features/mentions on TV/radio/podcasts.
But how can you, as the author, create a situation in which people start recommending your book to others?
Typically people start trying to engineer this process in the immediate lead-up to their book launch.
In my opinion, this is much too late in the process.
The key to generating unstoppable word-of-mouth right out of the gate comes from involving your book’s ideal readers in its genesis and the whole writing and editing process.
In this way you kill two birds with one stone:
Your book concept and execution is stronger and more interesting because it’s had to stand up to feedback from ideal readers from day one. Beta-readers will ensure that the book you finally publish is more tightly-written, engaging and helpful than it could ever be without their input.
This group of beta-readers becomes the ‘seed group’ for your book’s initial audience of true fans. These people will feel invested in the book’s success before it even comes out, becoming your ‘street team’, promoting pre-sales, writing early reviews, etc.
You can then capitalize on initial buzz with things like podcast tours, giveaways to highly targeted audiences, creating community events for your ideal readers, etc. But all of these tactics will be more successful if you have that core group of beta readers creating a sense of occasion and excitement around your launch.
Working out exactly how and when to start involving beta readers in your book planning and writing process is one of the things I do with my 1:1 clients in Booked Out Author Retreat Intensives.