Whether your book is traditionally published or self-published, you’ll need to put some effort into marketing. While social media posts, book reviews, and appearances on podcasts or at book readings will help build awareness and sales, the marketing experts at Web Design Relief know that you can’t beat the budget-friendly effectiveness of a newsletter. You can write your own newsletter to target your readers or utilize existing book promotion newsletters. Here’s how to effectively use a newsletter to boost your book sales.

Utilize A Book Promotion Newsletter To Boost Book Sales

By featuring your book in a book promotion newsletter, you’ll reach an interested, engaged audience of readers that you might not have had access to otherwise. A book promotion newsletter is usually free for subscribers—the authors pay to have their books featured in the newsletter.

It can be expensive to have your book promoted in some of the better-known newsletters, but there are also worthwhile, more affordable newsletters available. Choose wisely—you don’t want to end up in a newsletter that doesn’t reach a good number of potential readers for your book and genre.

Also, keep in mind that most book promotion newsletters focus on books that are available at bargain prices. The best time to use this type of newsletter to market your book is when you plan to offer a very substantial discount on your book. While you might not make a lot of money in sales when your book is only 99 cents, you’ll reach more readers and potentially generate more positive book reviews and word of mouth—which can lead to more profitable sales!

A few book promotion newsletters to consider:

• Bargain Booksy
• Free Kindle Books & Tips
• Choosy Bookworm
• LitNuts
• BookBub

Create Your Own Newsletter To Boost Sales

In order to be an effective marketing tool, your subscriber list is something you should build before you need it to help boost your book sales—so it’s never too early to get started!

When you create your own newsletter, you can curate a list of subscribers and generate a built-in audience for your book promotions. And when ever-changing social media algorithms make it harder to reach your followers, your newsletter mailing list belongs only to you and offers direct address to your potential buyers.

Of course, if you want to use your newsletter to successfully grow your audience and sell more books, you need to maximize its potential—and that does NOT mean turning the newsletter into a giant ad that relentlessly screams Buy My Book without offering any other value for your subscribers. And you should continue to send out your newsletter beyond the time you’re promoting your book. Here’s how to create a newsletter that will win over readers and get your book-buying audience interested.

Keep it short and sweet. Your newsletter shouldn’t take half an hour to read. If you have a lot of content to share, put a teaser in the newsletter and link to the full article on your website blog.

Stay focused. To improve your newsletter’s odds of having a good open rate, make sure it’s an easy, interesting read. The best way to do this is to choose a theme or goal for each newsletter and make sure your content revolves around that. Include reader magnets—exclusive content or opportunities that encourage your readers to stay subscribed to your list.

Be smart about your schedule. Keep in mind how often your newsletter will be sent to subscribers. Whatever frequency you choose, make sure it’s something you can stick to. Your readers will expect to get your newsletter on a regular schedule as promised. People’s attention spans are short: If your newsletter is sent out too infrequently or inconsistently, you’ll lose your audience.

Go easy with sales pitches. Blasting your subscribers with nothing but ads and links to buy your book will have readers deleting your newsletters from their inboxes and unsubscribing at record speed. No one enjoys aggressive marketing tactics. Keep your promotional material to no more than 5% of the newsletter, and use the rest for content your readers will find entertaining or informative.

Use strong calls to action. The links and buttons to purchase your book should be clear and simple. Offer exclusives before your book is published to build excitement. Run a special sale and use the newsletter to announce the special sale price to your readers.

Whether you go with a book promotion newsletter or create your own, newsletters are an excellent way to connect with your readers and bring your book to the attention of more potential buyers.

Question: What’s your favorite newsletter?