How to Launch a Book (and Not Waste Time & Money on What Doesn’t Work)
Aug 18, 2020How the hell do you market a book?
I think, after publishing eight of my own and dozens for other people, I finally know.
Why did it take so long to learn? Two reasons. One, I’m stubborn. Two, publishing is confusing as hell.
I didn’t really know either of these things when HarperCollins acquired my novel Party Girl In 2005. I also didn’t have a clue that the publishing industry itself didn’t have a clue. I naively assumed that because I was being published by one of the Big Five, my future was made. Fame, fortune, millions of copies.
It took me five more books to realize that, despite the fact that I got my books featured on shows like The Today Show and The CBS Morning Show and in the pages of Cosmo and Redbook, this was not going to happen.
Between the years that my agent sold my books to publishers and I started a company where entrepreneurs pay us to write and publish their books, I studied marketing. Then I took what I’d learned in marketing and applied all of it to launch my most recent book, Make Your Mess Your Memoir. I didn’t do this because I wanted to sell a lot of copies (in my experience trying to sell a lot of copies is like trying to sleep well; it’s either going to happen organically or not). I went all out on this book because I wanted to see what worked and what didn’t so I could use the good and disregard the bad for my clients.
Here's what I tried, why I tried it, how much it cost and whether or not it worked:
1) Created a “sales page” on my website for the book on my site
DETAILS: As opposed to having a standard book page with just a book description and cover image, I created a page that breaks down, in succinct sections, what readers will get out of the book, why they should read it and what others had said about it. The sections include a few brief sentences followed by testimonials followed by a message about why I wrote the book followed by information about why I’m uniquely qualified to do this followed by bullet points about what the reader will get out of the book (scroll to the bottom of this page to see what I mean).
COST: $0
WHY I DID IT: I read this post about an author named Tom Morkes doing and it sounded like a great idea.
DID IT WORK? There’s absolutely no way to gage how effective it but it was fun to do and I think really helped me streamline how I could talk about the book long before it came out.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Yes! And I will recommend my clients do as well.
2) Compiled lists of media people I knew and reached out to them months ahead of time
DETAILS: Because I spent years working in media—writing for dozens of publications and appearing as a “talking head” on multiple shows—I’ve built up hundreds of contacts over the years. But I also really left that world when I started my company. And I also happen to find pitching myself to people I know to be one of the most uncomfortable experiences in the world.
In an effort to keep myself motivated to keep going when I felt rejected or got scared, I actually created a vision board for the media I hoped to appear on as a way to get myself to break through the fear. The board featured almost all shows I’d been on before or podcasts hosted by people I know.
COST: Free, aside from the time and mental anguish
WHY I DID IT: Media attention is good. Duh. But not THAT good. Not so duh. More on this in a bit.
DID IT WORK? In a word, here’s what happened: Zip. Zilch. Nada.
Months before the release, I reached out to people I know who write for Forbes and The Daily Beast, bookers I know at The Today Show and Fox News and even people like a former employee who works for Shonda Rimes’ site. For each outlet I had a unique, pandemic related pitch tailor made for that show or site. I also reached out to podcaster Rich Roll, someone I’ve known for decades, who had asked me for help when he was getting ready to launch his first book and has actually discussed me on two of his episodes. For years, I’d been too scared to ask me if he’d ever have me on his show (see paragraph one in this section) but I finally took a deep breath and did it. When I didn’t hear back, I reached out to his ads manager (also an old friend) who forwarded my request to his producer.
In all these cases, I was either ignored or, in the case of one site, told to come up with idea after idea after idea, all of which were rejected.
BUT THEN: A funny thing happened. As the release got closer, I began reaching out to people I didn’t know very well—including a woman I’d met once who worked at The New York Post. She immediately responded that she’d love to include my book in a column on the best books of the week.
And then, an even funnier thing happened. Good Morning America, a show I’d always assumed was way out of my reach, asked me if I wanted to come on for a five-minute segment to talk about my book and how people could use it to keep their mental health stable during the pandemic. Every step of the way, the producers were so kind and helpful, consistently telling me how grateful they were to me for doing this—as if I was doing them some massive favor. It was an exquisite experience for which I’m incredibly grateful.
It also reminded me of something I learned when I originally worked in media and was a freelancer for People magazine. When I reached out to Kevin Sorbo’s publicist (Google him, he used to play Hercules on some show), I remember the publicist being verbally abusive and unhelpful. When, the next day, I reached out to Tom Cruise’s publicist, she was lovely and gracious and respectful. Basically, the reality (and irony) is that often the higher you reach, the better you’re going to be treated. The true pros are at the top.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Yes but I would defy all the suggestions we’re always given and not do it so far ahead of time or reached out to so many people I actually knew. And I would have shot for better outlets at places where I didn’t actually know people, rather than assuming the biggies wouldn’t be interested.
3) Put together an Advanced Reader Team
DETAILS: An Advanced Reader Team is a group of people made up of personal contacts, email subscribers and social media followers who agree to read your book ahead of time and then post a review of the book once it’s out (on Amazon and, for extra credit, on Barnes & Noble, Walmart and GoodReads).
This means giving the members of it a copy of your book a month or two before the release (the easiest way to do it is to create a BookFunnel account and email them a link. For mine, I had one of my team members stay on top of the team so they purchased the ebook for 99 cents a few days before the “official” release and then posted their review.
COST: $500 for the team member plus $20/year for a Book Funnel account
WHY I DID IT: Reviews are social currency (do you buy anything that has fewer than 10 reviews?) Reviews also, along with sales, kick Amazon’s algorithm into gear so that the site starts recommending your book to those who bought books like yours.
DID IT WORK? Roughly 150 people joined the team but I knew from previous experience with Advanced Reader Teams that usually only about half of the people in the team—if that—end up coming through. As of this writing, a few weeks after the book’s release, there are over 100 reviews on Amazon. While of course those aren’t all from my team, they definitely got the momentum going.
BUT. Many people’s reviews were rejected, owing to Amazon’s arbitrary and Byzantine way of trying to prevent fraudulent reviews. In short, Amazon has both humans and bots constantly trying to prevent any author or product creator from filling their item with positive but phony reviews. Yet whom they reject is quite random: I know people who have reviews from their mom on their books but I’ve had people I’ve never even met but whom I follow on social media that have their reviews rejected. Still, there’s a workaround: once a review is rejected, my team member handling the ART asked the person who submitted it to re-send a shorter review with a lower star rating and voila, it was usually approved.
IN THE END…Despite the annoyance (most of which I didn’t need to deal with firsthand because I had a team member running interference), this was probably the most useful of all the techniques I tried. The book debuted at #1 in all 10 of its categories and has remained there pretty much every day since. While that can’t be attributed solely to the reviews, they make a big difference. (While the book also has dozens of reviews on Barnes & Noble, Kobo and other sites, we all know the behemoth, for better or worse, is the one that matters.)
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? In the words of Mr. Big, Abso-f-ing-lutely.
4) Signed up for a Book Review Targeter account
DETAILS: Book Review Targeter is a site that reveals who has reviewed books similar to yours on Amazon. Many of those reviewers have websites and the idea is that you then go to each person’s website and, if they have a contact form or email address on their site, you reach out, tell them how much you love the review they did for whatever book it is and ask if they’d like to join your Advanced Reader Team.
COST: $20/month for the account, plus what I paid the team member to do it
WHY I DID IT: I learned about this from Dave Chesson, who knows more about book marketing than anyone out there. I figured that even though I already had a sizeable group for my ART, it’s never a bad idea to add more.
DID IT WORK? Depends on how much you value one lovely person. I had the same team member who managed the ART try to track down those who’d reviewed other books on writing; most ignored her, one joined the team and then asked to be taken off the emails and still posts weird shit on my social media and one was so utterly lovely that she wrote me several notes telling me how much she loved the book and being one of the first people to post a review. Was it worth all that to find one lovely person? Not entirely. Though almost.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Nope. Way too much trouble for way too small an impact.
5) Created a book made out of a big podcaster’s episodes in the hope of getting on his show
DETAILS: My company has a service where we compile an entrepreneur’s pre-existing content (podcast episodes, newsletters, social media posts or anything else that encompasses the person’s work) and create a full book out of them. Since I did one for my mentor which he absolutely loved, I figured anyone else I went to this sort of effort and expense for would be wowed.
COST: $8,000 for research, editing, layout, design and printing.
WHY I DID IT: Rather than go on a dozen tiny podcasts, I decided for this book I was going to make an effort to only go on a few big ones. I targeted Jordan Harbinger, both because I’d interviewed him on my (now long gone) Sirius radio years earlier and also because we’d casually discussed my going on his show. I figured if I surprised him with a book “by” him, painstakingly created by me and my team, he’d be so wowed that we would finally make my appearance on his show happen.
DID IT WORK? Not at all and beyond that, it was totally demoralizing! Admittedly, I didn’t know Jordan well, although he’s sent me Twitter messages that were very complimentary (see below).
So, after months of having my team meticulously go through his episodes, transcribe the best ones, organize them by topic, edit them and compile them into a book, I had a cover designed and the book laid out. Thrilled with the final result, I emailed Jordan—telling him about my surprise and saying I’d love to have copies printed to send him. I realized that the person I thought I knew didn’t exist when he responded that he was moving soon and would probably throw it away.
BUT. No but. This killed me and cost me a lot of money.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? A million billion trillion times no.
6) Ran excerpts from the audiobook as podcast episodes
DETAILS: I have my own podcast where I interview writers about their best book launch techniques. It has over 800,000 downloads and a fairly devoted audience of writers or aspiring writers so I picked three chapters from the book that I thought would be most helpful to them and ran each as its own podcast episode.
COST: $0 [I would have been paying to have those episodes produced anyway]
WHY I DID IT: Because I could! I may have been slapped down trying to get on other people’s podcasts but no one could reject me on my own.
DID IT WORK? Hard to say. I offered a bonus to podcast listeners and only a few took me up on the offer. But thousands of those episodes were downloaded. For me, the impact of my podcast can be hard to determine since a podcast is, well, non-interactive. But I know that when I hosted a retreat a few years ago, three-quarters of the people who signed up—some flying in from other countries—knew me from my podcast.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Sure. In the end, there seems to be no good reason NOT to do this. I need pod episodes every week anyway. And no one messaged me to say they didn’t like it.
7) Ran Book Bub and Amazon ads
DETAILS: BookBub is considered the most important site when it comes to getting readers to buy your book (see #21) and Amazon is, well, Amazon. Whenever I’ve explored the world of advertising on either of those platforms, I’ve become woefully confused and thus run just a few highly ineffective ads. So I found people on Fiverr who specialized in advertising on those platforms and hired them.
COST: In the end, $0 but for a brief time, $200
WHY I DID IT: Um. Advertising is good.
DID IT WORK? No and it was entirely my fault. First of all, I went to Fiverr—which can be great when you need, say, podcast episodes edited but you really never know what you’re going to get there. Despite being reasonably tech-savvy, I literally couldn’t do the basics that the Amazon ad guy I hired told me to do (which is to say, set up an advertising account on Amazon) so he kindly offered to cancel my order. With the BookBub guy, he ran ads from my BookBub account without showing them to me first and they were, well, terrible. So they performed, well, terribly. He also kindly offered to cancel my order. No harm, no foul I guess?
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Maybe but I would first ask around and find the best people who specialized in these ads that I could find.
8) Pitched book blogs
DETAILS: When I received a list of book blogs from a seminar on getting your book in libraries ran by Jane Friedman, I combed through it meticulously, determining which accepted unsolicited submissions, which weren’t long gone, which cost money (a lot) and which weren’t completely janky. I was left with about a quarter of what I’d started with and asked a friend helping me with PR to pitch my book to those. Not one responded.
COST: $0
WHY I DID IT: Readers read book blogs. Right?
DID IT WORK? Um, a zero percent success rate suggests that perhaps this whole book blog thing has fallen off a cliff. Maybe going to the paid sites would have been effective but the reign of book blogs (if there ever was such a reign) seems to be long past.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? No way, Jose.
9) Did a guest blog post for a big writing site
DETAILS: This allegedly used to be the way to gather a big audience for a book: go to someone who already has a big audience in your field, do something nice for them (like write an amazing post) and voila, that person’s readers will become yours.
COST: $0, though a considerable amount of time.
WHY I DID IT: See details above.
DID IT WORK? I have to say no. The blogger ended up running it weeks before my release, when my book wasn’t yet available on Amazon, and even though some blogs on this blogger’s site have hundreds of comments and have been shared dozens and dozens of times, my post gathered only a few comments, mostly by people I’d sent the post to. But also the way I employed this strategy was admittedly lame, since you’re supposed do a bunch of guest blog posts and not just one.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? If I did, I'd make a much bigger effort to do a whole guest blogging extravaganza.
10) Hired a designer to create a Slideshare out of information from the book
DETAILS: A guest on one of my podcast episodes swore that this was a great way to gather readers and the key element was to, after posting, reach out to the Slideshare account on Twitter and ask them to feature it on the Slideshare home page. So I created one of my own and reached out to that Twitter account.
COST: $200 for the designer, plus my time
DID IT WORK? With a whopping 67 views, 0 comments and 0 Likes, I’d have to give it a hell no. I reached out to the Twitter person twice, which was once more than I would have liked to and got no response.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Um, no.
11) Gave away the first three chapters of the book as a lead magnet
DETAILS: As far as I know, my Facebook ads manager team invented this brilliant concept: they created a site where visitors could read my first three chapters, comment, like, sign up for my email site and sign up for my newsletter buy my Memoir Writing course at a crazy discount. Then we ran Facebook ads that directed traffic to our site.
COST: $0 because these guys are my business partners (they charge roughly $5000 for the service) and the money I put into Facebook ads I would already be spending
DID IT WORK? While I don’t have exact sales numbers as a result of this, it summoned so much interest, sold quite a number of courses, added a lot of people to my email list and frankly everyone in the world should hire this team.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN: As a Valley girl would say, fer sure.
12) Submitted my book for a Readers Favorite review
DETAILS: I heard about this site from another book marketer and though I couldn’t tell if a review from the site would be taken seriously, I figured why not?
COST: $0.
DID IT WORK? They wrote the nicest review ever, weeks before the book came out and even posted that review on other sites.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN: Yes! They were very nice! And a review’s a review.
13) Opened a Pubby.com account
DETAILS: Pubby is a site that allows you to review other people’s books on Amazon in exchange for others reviewing yours.
COST: $20/month
DID IT WORK? Not for me. I tried reviewing a few people’s books but then my reviews weren’t approved by Amazon so I kept getting emails from Pubby that I’d failed to meet my commitment.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Nope. It felt kind of gross actually. Actual reviews from readers who passionately love (or even passionately hate) your book means so much more.
14) Tried to get my book in libraries
DETAILS: I heard about this from the aforementioned Jane Friedman seminar and had a library one-sheet created. Then when I poked around, I was told that most libraries order from Overdrive. I tried to set up an Overdrive account but was unable to and although Ingram, my distributor, allegedly distributes to Overdrive, for whatever reason it didn’t work in my case. Kind of knowing I would be throwing money away, I signed up for a Library Bub spot, which seems to mean I paid $300 to have this release sent out which means that dozens of us paid to be a part of something that cost the company the $200 or so it costs to send a release.
DID IT WORK? In a word, no.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? I wouldn’t do any of these things but one of recent podcast guests, Jason Pinter, explained a much better way to get into libraries in this episode.
15) Hired a social media agency
DETAILS: Someone I knew was launching a social media agency and though I already have a good handle on my Instagram and Facebook, I figured I’d be supportive and possibly give my social media accounts some extra love that would help my book. I ended up taking over that process myself after getting a few ideas from them but then they ended up becoming incredibly useful during my release week when they DM’d all my LinkedIn contacts and Instagram followers, telling them that the book was available for 99 cents.
DID IT WORK? While I can’t track exactly how many people bought the book because of those messages, I have to imagine it was a lot. The fact of the matter is I find it cringe-y to ask anyone I know to do me a professional favor (see #19) and the lovely thing about this was not only that I didn’t have to laboriously message thousands of people but also that I could pretend it wasn’t happening. There was another added benefit, which is that many people responded asking me if I would come on their podcast or if they could write about the book or even if they could hire my company to help them.
COST: $700
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? I'll take elements of what that service offered and encourage my clients to do the same.
16) Asked stores if they’d carry my book
DETAILS: I learned something when I switched from traditional publishing to indie publishing: it’s not nearly as hard to get into bookstores as your publishers tell you because they’re often angling to get other books in those stores and are thus invested in your book not getting in there. I learned from my client Emily Lynn Paulson, when she got her book in over 70 stores, that bookstores are often quite open to selling a book they think people will buy.
DID IT WORK? Yes! I reached out to my favorite local book store, Book Soup, and they not only said yes but also hosted an online event for my book. I also reached out to my favorite specialty shop, Kitson and they said they’ll both sell it in store once life rolls around to being normal again and also host an in-person signing for me. Then I walked into Barnes & Noble, randomly started chatting with a clerk there and he offered to order my book for the store. I've since recorded a podcast episode about this technique.
COST: 0
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Hell, yes.
17) Hosted a launch day pitch party event
DETAILS: In an effort to come up with a virtual event that wouldn’t just be the same old same old, I asked my friends—fellow writers Ryan Hampton and Lisa Smith— to come on a Zoom call. I then invited my followers and subscribers and Lisa and Ryan invited theirs. Lisa asked me a few questions and then we allowed anyone there who wanted to an opportunity to pitch us their book ideas, which we then helped them refine and polish.
DID IT WORK? Yes. And it was super fun. Evidence here.
COST: 0.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Absolutely.
18) Created a whole bunch of swag
DETAILS: I made I’m Making My Mess My Memoir thumb drives, t-shirts, bookmarks and canvas prints—and sent packages, which also included signed paperbacks, to the Advanced Reader Team members who had been the most supportive.
DID IT WORK? Hard to say. Getting shirts printed at the beginning of the pandemic was no small feat and while I was happy to be able to gift my most supportive readers t-shirts and other stuff, I think they probably would have been just as supportive without the extra incentive.
COST: Around $1000 (I wanted shirts people would actually wear! I figure if you’re going to give away a shirt someone would only wear to sleep in before they give it away, why bother?)
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Survey says probably. The fact is, making shit with your book title on it is fun but whether or not there’s a direct payoff is impossible to determine. (I tried this again with another book and kinda changed my tune; listen to my episode about that here.
19) Reached out to institutions to see if they wanted to bulk buy books
DETAILS: Knowing that rehabs want to offer their clients special workshops, I created a bunch of bulk offers where, in exchange for their purchase of a large number of books (at a major discount, thanks to the folks at BookPal), I would give them courses, one-on-one consultations and swag.
DID IT WORK? Nope. Admittedly I didn’t try very hard; I offered it to a few rehab owners I knew but when they didn’t respond, I just stopped trying. Because of the pandemic, the rehab business is in a serious state of flux so I figured I’d cut my losses and move on to other strategies.
COST: Just time.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Doubtful.
20) Tried to work GoodReads into my strategy
DETAILS: GoodReads is one of those Amazon-owned companies that’s meant to be a social media site for readers. It’s not my thing because I was burned out on social media networks by the time it came around and because, as most authors already know, their members are harsh. But I’d heard that it was important to work GoodReads into my launch strategy so I went and updated my GoodReads page in the hope of being able to do a giveaway timed to my release but the customer service was so janky that by the time I got my page functioning and a promotion prepared, it was already too late to time it for my release.
DID IT WORK? No. Too many roadblocks to even really try it.
COST: Just time.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? No, but that doesn’t mean others shouldn’t. The truth is if I don’t use GoodReads normally, I’m probably not going to have a great experience using it to promote a book. An author who loves GoodReads and uses it all the time may well have a different experience.
21) Submitted my book to be a BookBub featured new release
DETAILS: BookBub is the most influential of the book sites out there (see #7) and is notoriously picky about the books they choose to promote. In other words, they’ve rejected me in the past. While landing one of their featured deals is the real golden ticket, I submitted my book to be a featured new release and felt like Charlie himself when it was selected.
DID IT WORK? Because my book was featured the day of my release and I was employing a million other promotional strategies at the same time, I can’t say how many books this helped sell but having my book exposed to millions of book buyers undoubtedly helped enormously.
COST: $300
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Hell yes!
22) Sent an email to friends and personal contacts on the day of the release
DETAILS: This one’s pretty self-explanatory but I sent out an email when my ebook was priced at 99 cents to ask friends to buy it.
DID IT WORK? Now maybe other people have different relationships with their friends than I have with mine but I would rather ask a million strangers to support me than promote myself to my friends. (I will say this not to be self-aggrandizing but just for clarity: I have hundreds of people I consider friends so this was an email that had to be sent in six batches.) I also think friends are probably much more supportive when hearing from someone who’s publishing their first and possibly only book than when hearing from a girl on her eighth. I will say this: it’s always surprising who writes back with the “Oh my God, this is so amazing, just bought it” sort of reply and who doesn’t say a word. This time around, it was my dentist who won for most enthusiastic response.
COST: Just my pride.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Yes, I would suck it up and hit send.
23) Created a book trailer on Clips
DETAILS: When my first book was released, publishers were fond of telling their writers to go “create viral videos,” probably because one author in the history of publishing had a massively successful book because they had a video that surpassed a million views. Millions were then spent on elaborate productions (I was one of the suckers; for my second book, I hired a director and even auditioned God damn actors to make a video that maybe 30 people saw). These days, I just create videos using the Clips app; because I’ve used the app a lot it doesn’t take me long to create a cool video that is, I believe, just as effective as the ones that required mucho dinero and a lot of time. This time, I went a step further by having the social media company I was working with make it better, with my voice over and a sharper look.
DID IT WORK? Sure. It was 30 seconds, intriguing and surely captured some interest from people (don’t judge the 21 YouTube views; I posted this video all over).
COST: Nothing since I was already paying the social media agency
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Absolutely.
24) Did smaller (but not small) podcasts and local TV shows timed for release week
DETAILS: Starting a few months before my release date, whenever a friend or acquaintance asked me to be a guest on their podcast, I asked if the episode could be released during my launch week. Everyone agreed though a few people forgot and released the episode early. I was also asked to go on a local Portland TV show and timed that for release day. (Since then I've become a book critic for that show—simply based on what a good experience they had with me that day—so it's paid off 100-fold.)
DID IT WORK? Yes. Exact numbers are impossible to track but picking and choosing podcasts that had decent-sized unique audiences and being strategic about when they came out is easy enough to do. (There are different schools of thought on going on podcasts; plenty of people feel that every podcast, no matter how small, is worth appearing on. Because I don’t love going on podcasts and because I already have too much to do, I [kindly] pass on ones that I know won’t move the needle at all.)
COST: $0.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Yep!
25) Hired a programmatic ad company to drive traffic to videos I’d created for the book
DETAILS: I didn’t know what programmatic media was until the social media company I was working with talked me into hiring their partners for this and honestly I didn’t get a good vibe from the people from our first conversation. They tried to sell me on a very expensive offer but told me they could give me a “special deal” because of my relationship with the social media company.
DID IT WORK? Just like with most things I don’t understand, I received a report from this company with results that flummoxed me but the social media company told me were “good.” I sent them to my Facebook ads team to ask if the results were good and was told they were horrific. When I forwarded that response to the social media company who’d referred me, I was told I just didn’t spend enough for it to pay off.
COST: $700.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? No and no.
26) Had an influencer friend post about my book when he offered
DETAILS: When my friend Joe Polish offered to post something about my book, I figured having him just post the book would be humdrum so I had my designer create a funny image that photoshopped the book into an already existing photo of us.
DID IT WORK? The post generated comments and interest from members of his community—the exact audience I want to reach.
COST: $0 (my designer did it as a favor)
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Yes of course! But I will say this: I asked a few other people I know with big followings to post and they didn’t; if I’d followed up, I believe they would have but see #22.
27) Used Quora to generate interest in my book
DETAILS: I’d heard that posting answers to people’s questions about writing about a month before my release would be a good way to establish authority—with the idea that I could then have a following and promote my book there once it was out. It was pretty time-consuming because I knew that there was no point in half-assing the answers if I wanted people to be interested in me and I have to assume that Quora, like Reddit, is highly suspicious of any user who appears to be too self-promote-y.
DID IT WORK? I amassed 284 followers and 1600 content views from my dozen or so answers (I have no idea if this is considered good or bad or neither) and then completely forgot about this strategy until just this moment, a month after my release so I just went and posted shamelessly promotional answers with links to my book which may or may not be deleted by the moderator. Just like with Amazon ads, I bet if I’d invested real time and energy in this strategy, it could have been effective but it seemed like it could be a potential serious time suck without a clear payoff.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? Nope.
So there you have it. My roughly 6000-word attempt to create the definitive post on promoting a book. I’m sure, despite all these efforts, there are myriad ideas I could have also tried. Please, if you have experience with any of these or have found other effective book launch techniques, post about them in the comments.
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