Book marketing strategies change a bit when you’re promoting an older title, so it’s important to keep your marketing plans separate for your new releases and your backlist.
But that means something can be done to spike book sales on this older title!
10 Strategies to Reignite an Older Title
Whether it’s a single book or your entire backlist, here’s a quick rundown of marketing strategies that can help you revive and reignite a book that no longer falls in that “new release” window.
#1 Do a Cover Update
If your book is more than a year old and not selling well, re-do the cover. Find a professional cover designer that has a strong portfolio in your genre and get their help.
Go as low as you can go for 2 or 3 days (fewer days creates urgency) and submit the book to sites that are dedicated to promoting Kindle deals.
#4 Run BookBub Ads
Because BookBub ads are so visual, this will work especially well with a new cover. When using book marketing strategies like this, be smart about running your ads to target those who are most likely to resonate with your book, regardless of its pub date.
If your older title is part of a series, bundle the first two titles to create a new product. If you write non-fiction and cover the same topic you can do a bundle as well!
#6 Build Book Marketing Strategies Around Current Events
If there is something in the news cycle related to your book or industry — speak up! Pitch yourself to online influencers for guest pieces or interviews. Get really active on social so you show up for trending topics. Definitely plan a dedicated blog post. Consider whether or not you can provide value by releasing a special newsletter.
Of all the book marketing strategies, this is one that’s frequently neglected. Be sure to use your email list and social media to remind people to post a review after reading the book. Remember, a book with 20 reviews is more likely to keep selling than a book with only 3 reviews.
What strategies have you used to reboot an older title? Do you have any questions for Penny? Please share them with us down in the comments!
About Penny
Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a bestselling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU. She was named one of the top influencers of 2019 by New York Metropolitan Magazine.
Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Amazon visibility campaigns as well offering national media pitching, online book marketing, author events, and other strategies designed to build the author/book visibility.
“Chain yourself to the keyboard and type till your fingers bleed.”
“You need a seatbelt. Stay in front of the keyboard.”
“Just tell your hoodlum friend outside you ain’t got time to take a ride.”
— “Yakkety Yak” The Coasters, 1958
Indeed. Yakkety Yak.
You do have time. In fact, you need time to take a metaphorical ride.
So, sneak out the back door, ditch your work (pounding that keyboard), and let’s talk about other things besides writing that you can do to further your career. C’mon. . .come with me. I’m the hoodlum at the curb with the motor running.
C’mon, let’s take a ride.
Over a year ago, here at WITS, we talked about dealing with the dreaded blank page. We talked about story elements like plot, character, setting, and denouement. But there’s more to what you can do to grow as a writer, maybe a lot more. And it can be a fun ride.
What else can you do to get better at the art and craft we all love so much?
On this trip, we’ll pass huge gatherings with thousands of people, classrooms with students taking notes, and small groups of like-minded writers. We’ll crank up the radio and cruise around the outskirts of the writing world.
We’ll look at conventions, classes, writing groups, and we’ll have a good time!
I’m glad you’re along for the ride. Here we go.
Attend a Convention
Once upon a time I sat in the opening keynote speech at a major writing convention and heard a big-time New York agent say, “Real writers aren’t at conventions — they’re at their desks, writing.” Yes, friends and neighbors, I heard it and I actually knew the speaker. We’d shared a ride in from the airport, among other contacts.
Well, after chomping down on the hand that was feeding him, he later tried to walk back what he said explaining how conventions are good. He wasn’t there next year.
But . . . Could it be true? Could he have been right?
No! I don’t buy it. I think “real writers” — published and unpublished — do go to conventions to listen to lectures, to rub shoulders with readers, and to enjoy themselves, to share in the community.
It’s an understatement to say there are many, many conventions to choose from. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of all shapes and sizes. Here are some great ones.
All of them have thousands of attendees, and all feature the biggest names in their writing universes. Smaller ones for mysteries include Left Coast Crime and Men of Mystery. Note: the latter has been virtual for the last two years.
So, how do you pick?
Forget analyzing in terms of location, cost, time involved, blah, blah, blah. I say go for the writers in attendance. If that means you have to skip one year to budget for the writer you really want to see, do it.
I once took time off work to hear a writer I admired when he lectured at Goldenwest College here In Huntington Beach. He didn’t draw a very good crowd, maybe a dozen, and I stayed around afterward to thank him . . . and ended up sitting around for almost half an hour shooting the breeze with Frank Herbert. Yeah — Dune’s Frank Herbert.
I told him how I’d read Dune when it was serialized in Analog; he asked about my stories (the first had appeared in Analog) and it was amazing. Years later I got to relate that story to his son Brian, who was glad to add it to his collection of anecdotes about his dad.
I say look for writers you want to see.
And you learn, often unexpected nuggets of information you never would have found out otherwise.
The first time I went to an event called Men of Mystery I looked around the room at 500 mystery readers— 90% of whom were women. And I thought: why, that’s my audience! That information alone was worth the price of admission.
Take a Class
Note that here I am talking about in-person physical classes, not virtual. We’re out from behind the keyboard, remember? Cruisin’, interacting with other writers. Having said that . . .
Sure, you can learn a lot from a good writing class. For one thing, the assignments will force you to write. But — choose carefully. For example, I took a “Creative Writing 101” class at a local community college, and found that I didn’t fit in with 19-year-olds fulfilling a GE requirement.
As with conventions, my advice is to look for an instructor with credentials you respect. If she writes your kind of book that’s a huge plus.
Join a Writing Group
Absolutely, for a number of reasons. One — you get feedback. Look, my wife taught English for her whole career and she’s always my first reader, but she’s my wife.
A writing group is a double-edged sword because in addition to getting feedback you will be expected to provide some of your own.
Speaking of my wife, one time a friend of hers, a fellow teacher, asked me to read her romance novel and comment on it. After the usual caveats I agreed. I reviewed it like I would any story from an aspiring writer, and to be honest, I had to tell her it needed work before it could be sent out to agents. After a while she spoke to me, but she never asked me for advice again.
But I'd told her! I warned her that I only knew one way to critique and she assured me that was what she wanted. You will have to learn to evaluate the feedback you get .
Here’s my rule of thumb on evaluating feedback: if they all say the same thing — they’re right.
I wrote the blurb, the back cover copy for my new book and I really liked it — funny, interesting, it would make people want to read the story. My publisher sent it to several readers and writers.
“It’s too long.” “It gives away too much.” “It’s boring.”
I loved it, but I dumped it without a second thought.
Be prepared for anything in a critique. I had a reviewer pull a gun on me. More on that thrilling episode later.
The Common Denominator to All of These
Pro — Gets you out from behind the keyboard.
Con — See Pro.
That’s right, in the final analysis you could spend all your time in classes and at conventions and never type “Once upon a time . . . “ Let alone “The End.”
One of my best teachers, reviewers, and readers is a writer named Paul Bishop, author of Citadel Run, Tequila Mockingbird and others. He told me of a woman in his class who had been ready to start her mystery for over a year, “Just as soon as I find out what the FBI building looks like.”
My guess is she’s still waiting.
Circling Back to the Gun Story
Oh, right, I promised to tell the gun story.
Detective Bishop was sitting with me going over his comments to my thriller Read ‘Em And Weep. He’s now retired, but back then he was on the LAPD. He reached down into his boot top and pulled out a small revolver to show me something about the weapon.
Here’s another rule of thumb: when the reviewer does that — pay attention to what they are saying!
My guess is you will select a combination of the above and do as much or as little as feels right. But there is one thing I know you will do. You guessed it.
The One Thing You Must Do . . .
Read! Read like a mad person. Read like a writer. Read!
Take a book apart like I did one of Bob Crais’ thrillers. I’ve talked about this before. I admire Bob Crais’ work enormously and when I was switching from science fiction to writing mysteries, I took apart a novel of his called Lullaby Town.
Remember how in The Wizard of Oz Dorothy is warned not to look behind the curtain? Well, I looked. I broke that book down scene by scene on 3” x 5” cards. I read it like a writer. I loved the book then and I do now, but I can’t go back and reread it. I know it too well. Sigh.
I’m a confirmed book guy. I love holding the printed pages, carefully inserting bookmarks, writing my name inside the cover.
But when I’m working I read electronic copies. The Notes feature in iBooks and Kindle is revolutionary. If you’re not using it — start. I can mark a brilliant sentence without leaving the page, and it’s not on a scrap of paper or a stickie that I can lose. Go through one your faves and see if they use a structure with Plot Points 1 and 2 and a clear watershed midpoint. Mark those spots.
Let’s say it again: read like a writer.
So we’ve cruised by conventions, stopped in for a Coke at classes, filled up with gas at writers groups — how long can I drag this out? Drag? Sure, maybe till the flag drops and the race is on. Ok, I quit.
lt’s up to you. Bring in the dog, put out out the cat, and get out from behind the keyboard!
Now it’s your turn. (I could work in something about kicking in money for gas here but I promised I’d quit.)
Do you go to conventions? Take classes? Are you in a writers group? What works for you and what doesn’t? And have you met an author you admire? Who were they and what was it like? It’s time to share. Who have you seen? Who would you like to meet? After all, we're all cruisin' in this writing hot rod together.
About James
James R. Preston is the author of the award-winning Surf City Mysteries and two historical novellas set in the swingin' sixties. Kirkus Reviews called Buzzkill, one of the historicals, "a historical thriller enriched by characters who sparkle and refuse to be forgotten." The hat isRobicheaux's Dock & Bait Shop, New Iberia, LA. It was captured at Bouchercon Chicago.
Since the beginning here at Writers in the Storm, we've been all about spreading the love. And every so often, we throw the doors open for some shameless self-promotion opportunities for our readers. Our only requirement for those glorious days -- formerly called "Pimp & Promote" -- is that they double the love and promote someone else's work alongside their own.
How DO you "Double the Love?"
For many in the States, school is back in session. In that same spirit, let's get out our pom-poms and cheer for ourselves and other writers! Down in the comments section, we ask that you:
Heap love on somebody else’s work – a favorite author, blogger, post or book you’ve read, a wonderful teacher or just someone who had profound influence on you as a writer or a person. Please limit your comments to one work. AND
Promote one of your projects that you’re excited about – a hobby, a blog, a book, or a new direction your writing is taking you. You decide. Just tell us about it in the comments! (Please restrain your enthusiasm to just one of your WIPs.)
The rest of us will shake those pom-poms and cheer you on down in the comments section.
We'll lead off the love fest with some of the WITS Team!
Ellen Buikema
New Love:
Warm, funny, and endearing, Sudha Balagopal’s Things I Can’t Tell Amma is a brilliant novella-in-flash.
There are many things that 22-year-old Deepa can’t tell her mother back in India now that she’s studying in Arizona. There are things she can’t tell the unfriendly librarian, or her shady professor, or her Indian would-be suitor, or the typist who sells her a typewriter, or prospective employers, but she’d like to tell her neighbor Theo how she feels about him. You’ll fall in love with Deepa as her story unfolds in these fifteen finely wrought flash.
Self-love:
If you are looking for a young readers chapter book series, take a look at The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon. I wrote these stories to help encourage empathy and cultivate insight into children’s lives.
These multicultural stories cover situations children typically encounter like getting lost, moving, starting a new school, making friends, family vacations, working in a team, and dealing with bullies using positive methods. Each chapter ends with one or more activities for children and parents or teachers to do together, related to the actions in the stories. These books are filled with humor to make the stories more engaging for children (and more fun for parents to read to their kids).
I've been working recently with a traditional writer making the conversion to indie. I met her in a class at Lawson Writer's Academy and I've been delighted with how hard she's worked to make her indie titles beautiful. I'd like to share the love with Sylvie Kurtz. And if you are hungry, check out her recipe box. Yum!
Self Love:
I'm hard at work on the sequels to Dominion of Darkness. You can follow my progress on World Anvil. Nothing to see yet, but if you follow me, that may be just the motivation I need to make some of the project public!
Jenny Hansen
New Love:
If you've been around WITS for a while, you've seen the gorgeous posts by Margie Lawson, founder of Lawson Writers Academy. I just finished two of her classes - and Advanced Advanced Immersion Master Class and another course on "endings."
Both of those made me think and stretch and become a better writer. I highly recommend anything she teaches, including those classes taught by her other (amazing) instructors.
Also, in my Immersion, we started talking about character emotion cheat sheets and this Emotion Wheel came up. Would you look at this (utterly magical) thing??
I love it!
Self-love:
Writers in the Storm has a new look. Our own Lisa Norman has been gussying up the place. We're not done by a long shot, so expect to see more changes in the coming weeks.
And I have a question for YOU. Are there features you'd love to see at WITS? A better way of organizing posts perhaps, or a more up-to-date resource page? Perhaps discount affiliate links for favorite writing tools like ProWritingAid or Evernote? Your suggestions are 100% welcome!
Okay, now it's your turn!
Spread the love all around the comment section y'all, and we'll chime in and cheer you on! Also, please let us know what you think of the new website we're building (thanks to the awesome Lisa Norman).
