How Your Book Sells Itself: 10 Ways Your Book is Your Ultimate Marketing Tool

Marketing for Authors #1

by Bethany Atazadeh, Mandi Lynn

Are you terrified of marketing your book? Do you have it ready to go (or already published), but you feel stuck because you don’t know what to do next?

Book marketing can feel like you’re never doing enough. It can seem impossible. How do you know if you’re focusing on the right marketing tactics? How do you know which strategy will work for you? What if you’re missing something?

We’re here to help! Bethany Atazadeh and Mandi Lynn have each successfully marketed multiple novels and want to help you discover the best marketing tactics for YOU—starting with the book itself.

Your book is your MOST powerful marketing tool.

In these pages, we’ll walk through the ten fundamental aspects of your book that can make or break sales, and help you get them right! We’ll discuss genre, covers, titles, blurbs, formatting, editors, taglines, keywords, categories, how to develop a marketing mindset, and how to choose the right marketing strategies for you. This book is PACKED with information to help you succeed. Get your copy now!

From indie authors Bethany Atazadeh and Mandi Lynn, please enjoy the first book in this new series, Marketing for Authors.

----What early readers are saying ----

“This book is packed with useful information. Having just released my book, I was looking for new ideas on marketing , and Mandy and Bethany gave some great insight and tips. I will be implementing what I read straight away. I look forward to the rest of the series.”
- Natalie Roberts

“This book is so helpful for those who don't know anything about marketing, like myself :)
It helped me a lot!”
- V. Timi

“I love how clearly the book is laid out. It could easily be a reference book during your launches, relaunching or whatever your marketing needs are. The action steps are simple, but what people doesn't like simple?  As a homeschooling mom I need simple marketing tips and tricks to get the word out. If you need help with marketing, give this book a read!”
- Peggy Spencer

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

183 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 24, 2019

About the author

Once upon a time, Bethany Atazadeh escaped into writing YA fantasy—and never came back. Now she’s the award-winning author of The Stolen Kingdom Series, a wife, mom of two, and professional chocolate taster (unofficial title), who shares her writing adventures and helpful tips she’s learned about publishing on YouTube. To find out when her next book arrives, sign up at bethanyatazadeh.com.

CONNECT WITH BETHANY ON:
Website: www.bethanyatazadeh.com
Patreon: www.patreon.com/bethanyatazadeh
Instagram: @authorbethanyatazadeh
YouTube: www.youtube.com/bethanyatazadeh
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B077FRKJGW

Reviews

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the first book of the Marketing for Authors series, Bethany Atazadeh and Mandi Lynn guide you through how to position your book in the best position to hook readers. Especially for indie authors like myself, there’s a lot of things to consider in packaging your book for readers and it can feel overwhelming and stressful at times. Atazadeh and Lynn speak in a casual, conversational style, breaking down what can be overwhelming concepts into simple to implement ideas and easy to digest. They talk about things like the cover, the back blurb, tag lines, editing and more, why it’s important, speak to their own experience and a few pointers on how to improve your chances on increasing your book sales. There’s also a portion where they talk about promotion, and in an age where ‘marketing your book’ is a dirty concept, they tell you it’s okay to promote your book, and that you should have confidence in your product. Even for someone that’s read quite a few of these types of articles and books, Atazadeh and Lynn make me think of things in a new way. Highly recommend for new authors.

[T.E. Elliott]

I think I'm just going to call it at 65%. I think this would be most helpful to those just getting started in self-publishing or are contemplating doing so. Well written, just not what I'm needing at the moment.

[Lacy Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is planning to publish a book, and is terrified or overwhelmed at the prospect of marketing, this book is an immense help towards gaining confidence in your ability to handle this aspect of publishing! It's a very down-to-earth and easy read, with plenty of helpful tips and suggestions, and is a great reference to look back on at all stages of the publishing journey. I learned several new things that I'd never considered before, and a few things I'd already learned about were written in a way that gave me a better understanding than I'd had before. I know that I will be going back through this book again in the near future as my own publication time draws closer. I highly recommend this for new authors!

[Ana Guerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to start developing the marketing mindset

I love Bethany and Mandi’s YouTube channels, so when I heard of this book, I got it as fast as I could. I think it has valuable information, and even though is a serie of 6 books and we have to wait for the rest (grrr), this one serves as a big introduction to start marketing your book and/or your brand. You should check it out! Gonna get book 2 for sure 😄

[Holly Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is chock full of valuable insights and practical advice on how to market your book, finding keywords, choosing tag lines and promo lines, and so much more! I loved learning about the Rule of 7 and the 7 Marketing Mindset strategies necessary to comfortably and confidently market your book and brand. I highlighted so many points in this book that I'll return to over and over again.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical and detailed advice

I read these books out of order, (I read the 3rd last year, I think?) which is completely fine because I read them based on what I want to learn at the time. They're told in a smooth, easy to follow style, good for people who usually don't read non-fiction (like me). Even though I've been publishing for years, marketing is one of my weak spots, so I'm really interested to try some of these things going forward, especially the categories/keywords part.

[Savanna Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read! As a published author, I already knew a lot of what Mandi and Bethany were talking about, but it’s always good to remind yourself of the basics of book marketing. They offered encouragement and new perspectives that I’ll definitely be taking with me into my future marketing endeavors. :)

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of helpful information and practical advice. Looking forward to reading the full series.

[J.L. Vampa · Rating 4 out of 5]

HIGHLY recommend for new authors!

This book is concise, to the point, and incredibly helpful. Bethany and Mandi have penned a fantastic resource for new and seasoned authors alike. If I’d had a resource like this when I started out, I can’t imagine how much it would have helped me avoid many of my trial and error moments. That being said, these two ladies also emphasize just how important it is to be okay with failure and their encouragement to never give up as well to direct your focus is just what I needed to read. Thank you for this series, Bethany and Mandi! HIGHLY RECOMMEND for all new and aspiring authors!

[Timi V · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so helpful for those who don't know anything about marketing, like myself :)
It helped me a lot!

[J.E. Mullins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is fluff. 100% fluff. If you know anything, and I mean anything about self publishing, then you know too much for this book to be of any use to you. It's basic, and shallow, only skimming the surface of how your book can "sell itself". If they are saving the deeper dive of actually teaching me how to do these things for later books, they lost me with this one. I won't be wasting my time with another.

To offer something positive, I will say it was well written and put together and nicely formatted, even if it lacked in any meaningful content. This is the reason this book is getting two stars.

When I finally get to the end, and I browse the resources section, hoping to find something of substance to help make this whole book worth something, all I find are links to youtube videos, some old videos by the authors, some made by other people. Like, instead of actually teaching you anything, they are relying on other people to do it for them. Classy.

If you are completely new to self publishing, and want an overview of what is expected to possibly succeed, and you have a Kindle Unlimited account, then sure, go for it. You're not losing anything but your time, and you won't lose much because this book is rather short. Otherwise, I suggest you spend your research time and dollars elsewhere.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely informative and very helpful. Mandi Lynn & Bethany Atazadeh have both written a fantastic non-fiction book to help authors, whether you're self-published, or traditionally published, market their book. This book has SO MUCH information in it that can help authors, and hopefully gain more readers. I hope that by using their advice, I'll be able to build a wider audience for my books. Now onto the second book in the series!

[Shu Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Concise summary with a highly personal tone to help get an author into the right mindset to market effectively, using their book package as the cornerstone of the actual marketing. Would recommend. No ground breaking incites if you've been keeping your ear to the industry, but will save someone months if not years, if you haven't been watching things for a long time.

[Kaylee Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book by two amazing ladies. They shared so much pertinent and practical information. I highly recommend this for every author who is trying to publish their own books and get people to buy them. Definitely a great resource for self-published authors!

[Bhavana Varma · Rating 4 out of 5]

What worked:
1. It starts from the basics and is easy to understand.
2. Examples through the experiences of the two authors.
3. The formatting was great emphasizing key statements.

[Geri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very excited to buy this book. I follow both authors on YouTube and find them very charming.
I am looking to self publish my own book, and was doing my own marketing research for months. When I saw that two indie authors put out a book on marketing I thought it would be filled with gold.

Unfortunately, I found more gold on free online blogs. This book gives you an overview in what to do when selling your book, but doesn’t give many tips. The book has a lot of run-on sentences (this became less of a problem in the last half of the book.) The book talks about the necessity of hiring a professional editor, so I assume one was hired for this book. If one was hired, I’d ask them lookover the hard to read sentences throughout the first half of the book. Bethany discusses in the beginning of the book that it will be conversational like sitting down at a coffee shop with her. This came across, but I think my personal preference with information is for it to be more straight to the point.

I wish the book had numbers and examples to back up its information. It would say things like: have a good cover, have great keywords, have a good Tagline - but no examples to help me understand the information in a practical sense. Also the authors speak candidly about the mistakes they made with their debut novels, which was fantastic. I wish they had of waited on publishing this book so they could show numbers and other proof that the changes they made actually made a difference. Unfortunately nothing backed up their information.

What I will say, this is a great book if you have no idea where to start. The authors give a heap of different areas to work on. But they say repeatedly “do your own research”. I get that this is to cover themselves, but buying this book was part of my research and wish I had gotten more out of it. But it is a nice list to start from. Just don’t expect a fountain of knowledge.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick and easy to read guide. The tone is very conversational, like you’re out for coffee or drinks with your fave writer buddies chatting about how to market. But, I found it less meaty than what I would have liked. They basically say that you need to get people to talk about your book (word of mouth) by writing a well-written book with good production (typo free, good cover, etc). So if your book is well written and produced well, then people will talk about it (in a positive way). This is absolutely true. The research in marketing also says this. It has a lot of good ideas for tactics. What I found lacking was a good discussion on strategy, the why of marketing. Without the why, it makes it hard to tweak tactics to changing marketing conditions. If you’re completely new to marketing as an indie writer, this is a decent book to get started with.

[Penny Kearney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good, quick read! It has the vibe of a roadmap, pointing out the best route and all the must see attractions along the way. As someone who often gets overwhelmed not knowing where to start, I find this kind of book extremely helpful. In particular the mindset of using one’s actual book as the primary marketing tool - from the cover, to the title, to the interior formatting - was a real eye opener for me. It’s definitely given me a lot to think about, and clear direction for my own research!

The casual tone of the writing appealed to me, as well. I’m a casual person and prefer learning from other people rather than looking things up on my own. Feeling like I was just having a coffee shop chat with the authors of this book really struck a chord with me.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the grounds that one is never too old to learn something new, I picked up this entire series.

I got so much useful information from this book, but most importantly I got *encouragement.* My first novel was published in 2009, and the marketing landscape has changed significantly since then. New ideas to try abounded ... but one of the most important things I got from this book was the "pick three" concept. Rather than trying everything, choose three tools to focus on ... and remember that what worked for one author might not work for you.

There's a lot packed into this little volume, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

[Eva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very Basic Information

If your a brand new author or you literally know nothing about starting an indie career this book is made for you. If you do know the basics and some understanding you really won’t get anything new from it. I highlighted one or two lines that really provides something out of the box for me but not really from the book. Again, I wouldn’t recommend this book for established authors or not yet published authors familiar already with basic knowledge.

[D.J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

All fluff, very little substance. The chapters were incredibly short (like 1-2 pages short), with promises of "we'll get to that later." Okay, when is later? I like Bethany a lot, but I think it might be best to just stick to her youtube videos. If you have KU, then reading this won't waste anything other than an hour of your time but I still think it might be better to just binge her videos like I did one week.

[Kara Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Bethany Atazadeh and Mandi Lynn offered advice that helped me realize what I need to change to market my debut novel more efficiently. They break down the information in an easily-digested format, allowing it to be read almost like a blog. I look forward to reading the rest of the books to enhance my blurb and keywords, hopefully increasing my sales as I write and self-publish more novels. Thanks for writing this series!

[Joanne Gentile · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so close to having my book published and this was just what I needed to kickstart my marketing process. I originally purchased books one and five in the series but have now ordered the rest and can't wait until they arrive.

I thought the book was easy to navigate and provided a structured and manageable marketing plan.

Thank you for providing this information to this 62 year old rookie!

[Emma Couette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very informative and easy to read. Bethany and Mandi put things in simple terms so anyone can utilize their tips. This book is the perfect tool for indie authors. I recommend reading it before publication as it talks about cover art and formatting among other things that are much easier to fiddle with beforehand.

[Aimee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like I was on a wild goose chase throughout the book because of all the times they said 'but we'll get to that later' or something to that effect. If you bring it up, get to the point right then, not later when I don't even remember what was being said. I won't be buying the other books in this series.

[Christina Hannan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy to read and straightforward first step into marketing your book. This definitely will be one of those books I’ll keep on hand to read again to refresh myself, especially since I’m still in drafting stages myself. Overall, this was quite useful and I’m looking forward to starting the next book!

[Kynsie Rene’ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very helpful! There was a lot of things in here that I didn’t even think of. Definitely would recommend it to anyone struggling with marketing or being afraid of it. If you are a self-published author, or about to be, looking for help, guidance, confidence, and tips this is a good book for you!

[Vi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction into the marketing world if you’re new and have no clue what you’re doing yet! It gave a great base to grow and gives you a gentle nudge in the right direction on your path to selling books.

[Martin A. Marquez Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some really good inside about how to write tour book so it will make more money for you. Who doesn’t want a successful book? Not me. I will take this advice from Bethany and Mandi Lynn.

[Kristy Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was written like a chat with friends.

this book was chock full of logical and plain spoken advice from two self published authors delivered in a knowledgeable yet humble way. There were so many helpful tidbits and I'm excited to try them out!