10 Tips for Passive Advertising for Authors

Marketing a book requires more than picking out your business cards and setting up a Fan Page on Facebook. One big area authors often neglect is identifying a budget for marketing. How much do you have available to spend and where will you spend it?

Of course, we all know that the best advertising is word of mouth because you wrote an incredible book. That’s a given. But what else can you do?

There are two types of marketing in any business, and book selling is no different: active and passive advertising.

Active marketing is aggressive, requires campaigns, money and people resources, and is deliberate and purposeful. The point is to make each dollar and each hour spent return more than was spent.

In passive marketing, authors create materials/experiences and then let them spread the word in an on-going, rather than event, way.

Sometimes authors combine active and passive advertising, and, in fact, I think they should. Before a book’s release and immediately after, the author should assign a major part of marketing dollars to spread the word on availability. Linked to simultaneous passive advertising, the author should see some effect from the efforts. One of the hardest areas to gauge is the effect of various marketing strategies on sales given the lag time for sales data. And who knows who might later remember your book when going through paperwork and happening on your business card? How would you know that new sale was tied to the card?

This post focuses on passive advertising. We want to create maximum exposure with minimal effort or money. Here are xxx ideas for you to try, too.

1) One of the first recommendations here is to establish a Fan Page on Facebook. This is a place to interact with your readers, link to your blog posts, announce book signings and book releases, share content connected to the kind of book you write, and keep readers updated with what’s going on in your personal life and your writing. You can link readers to your website and blog to expand the content available to them.

A Caution: do provide more related content than in-your-face book selling. Nobody will come to your fan page to see you running the same book ads continually and solely.

2) My business cards take advantage of the valuable real estate on the back of the cards. See what I wrote about business cards when my first two books were published. Rather than use the back to list more about me or about my books (list of books, synopsis, etc.), I created content related to each book and gave people a reason to keep my card rather than trashing it.

For my culinary mystery, I printed a recipe on the back from the book title on the front. It’s an easy recipe that even kids could make. And it’s delicious and fast. A quick and cheap dinner recipe is content to keep!

For my erotic romance, I listed my protagonist’s “Top Ten Sex Tips.” That gets peoples’ attention, and I give away lots of those cards. Some people even ask for additional ones to give to friends. Now that is passive advertising!

Here’s a tip from an author friend of mine. When dining out, write a brief thank you to your server on a business card and leave with the tip. You never know who might see that card!

A Caution: Make sure the content is engaging enough that people will hang onto your business card and make sure the content connects to the content of your novel.

3) When I first saw the ad for car magnets, I knew I had to have them. They come two in a package and in different sizes. Lots of printing companies provide them. Probably your business card vendor has them available. The book title and your name should attract attention. I’ve had people in the grocery store parking lot ask me about my book.

A Caution: Getting the right size graphic to fit the space was a challenge for me. You don’t want to cut off your name or the title. I am spatially challenged on a good day. On a bad day . . . well, don’t ask.

4) Pens and other swag have been around a long time, but don’t discount them just because they’re not a new idea. People love getting useful stuff. I get pens printed with my book titles and names and hand them out in lots of venues. Again, there are lots of sources for stuff like this. My advice to go with a middle of the road pen, pricewise. Too cheap and they give out early, frustrating your potential customers. Too expensive and it’s not cost effective to give them out at book signings and other events.

5) Include your author name, book title, and publisher in your e-mail signature. Very easy to do and as passive as can be, not to mention free!

6) Seek more book reviews. If you have 20, set a goal for 50. If you have 50, set a goal for 100. On Amazon, we all look to see how many reviews (and the rating) that books we’re considering have. We are more likely to buy a book that a lot of people read and reviewed than one that few or none have read and reviewed. I don’t know the ratio of books read to how many end of being reviewed, but I know that more read than read and review. So if I see a book with 50 reviews, I would guess that thousands read the book. That gets my attention.

There are services that will provide you lists of people who review books like yours. Consider spending some of your marketing dollars on a service, then contact those people to ask for reviews. Once you have done that, the reviews that follow provide you with passive advertising for years to come as people dip into past articles and find you.

7) Seek more followers on your Fan Page. Keep building your list of people who follow your author page on Facebook (or Twitter or other social media sites you use). Continually add to your list by posting a request to be followed in various groups you belong to. The more people who see your Facebook listings the more potential book buyers you have.

By the way, do you follow me on Facebook? I’d appreciate it if you would. I have four Fan Pages for the different genres I write:

https://www.facebook.com/SharonArthurMooreAuthor/

https://www.facebook.com/RomanceRighter/

https://www.facebook.com/RiverGlynnAuthor/

https://www.facebook.com/carolineadamswriter/

8) Guest blog to get exposure beyond your own fan base. Provide a link to your website, blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook pages, and how to buy. Each person you guest blog for has a set of readers who are likely unfamiliar with you. Give them good content and a way to connect to get more followers and buyers.

9) Set up a Pinterest page with a story board for each book. Also provide content on other boards that relate to your book contents. I have recipes and cooking tips on my site for the culinary mysteries as well as beauty tips and elegant clothing for my romances. Check mine out (and follow me, please) at:

https://www.pinterest.com/authorsam/

10) Create a short PDF book to give away on your website or when people subscribe to your newsletter. Once the book is done, the passive part kicks in. The book can be past blog posts collected on a topic like how to keep romance alive or recipes you posted. It is sent to them for following you or for participating in a contest or as a bonus if they send proof of a book purchase. Make sure the free booklet has your book titles and how to buy.

There are lots more ways to passively advertise your work. Please share your favorites below. I’m always looking for ideas!