10 ways authors can help each other with book marketing

Discover 10 ways authors can help each other with book marketing. You'll reduce loneliness and encourage sales -- a true win-win. 

Do you ever feel like you’re in this book marketing game all by yourself? It can seem like a pretty lonely experience at times, right?

Why not counter that by working with other authors to get the news out about your book and how it will entertain, educate, or otherwise help people?

This doesn’t mean that you should writers and ask them to share information about your book with their fans, audiences, and followers. Unless you have relationships with them already, that won’t get you very far.

The golden rule

You want to work collaboratively, always following the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If you want help from others, help them first.

With that in mind, here are 10 creative ideas for supporting other authors in ways that will encourage them to support you, too. You’ll be much more productive. And you might feel less like you’re in this alone.

1. Cross-promote lead magnets.

Lead magnets are those enticements you offer readers to sign up for your email newsletter.

Collaborate with one author or a group of them to build your email lists by sharing each other’s lead magnet links on social media and in your newsletter.

2. Plan a “local authors night” at a bookstore or library.

The connections you make with other local authors will support you well beyond this fun night of book signings and sales.

Consider solidifying the connections by meeting in person on a regular basis to brainstorm or share information.

3. Form a book marketing group on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Groups built around a shared interest or challenge offer opportunities to get feedback, request opinions, or ask for help solving a problem. You might be surprised at the level of support you can get from a group of like-minded individuals.

Authors are talking about book marketing challenges and sharing their experiences in the Build Book Buzz Group on Facebook. Join that one, or form your own there or on LinkedIn, where there are lots of existing groups to join, too.

4. Be a “connector.”

Look for opportunities to connect authors in your network with promotion opportunities or quality service providers you’ve worked with or who have been recommended to you by others you trust.

Maybe it’s a book blogger, podcast host, librarian, or book marketing coach. Don’t wait for someone to ask who you’ve worked with to get podcast interviews or set up your email newsletter. Look for opportunities to connect author friends with those who can help.

5. Form a Meetup group.

Connect with local authors by organizing and promoting a regular Meetup.

Defining in advance what you hope to get from group meetings will help you be specific about the people you’d like in the group. You might want to meet only with novelists or with just nonfiction authors, for example.

Get started at Meetup.com.

6. Guest blog for each other.

Guest blogging is such a win-win.

When an author who writes for the same audience as you contributes an article to your site and promotes that post to their network, more of the right readers will discover you and your content.

And, when you write for your friend’s blog and promote your guest post, you’re not only connecting with their audience again, you’re bringing your readers along with you.

You’ll both find new fans in each other’s crowd.

To be the best guest blogger ever, download and use the free Build Book Buzz Guest Blogging Cheat Sheet.

7. Recommend books in your newsletter.

I love it when author newsletters share information about books they think I and other subscribers might like. I take those recommendations more seriously than I do the random recommendations I see on social media when someone posts, “What should I read next?”

Focus on recommendations that target the same audience as your books. Select titles that are similar enough to yours that it’s likely your subscribers will enjoy them. 

For example, if you write psychological thrillers, you can recommend others in that genre along with domestic or legal thrillers or even police procedurals. But avoid deviating too far from your category. Romance novels, prescriptive nonfiction, or young adult fiction, to name a few, wouldn’t be a good fit for a thriller writer’s subscribers.

8. Read and review each other’s books.

Arrange with your network to write honest reviews of each other’s books. Minimize problems by establishing rules in advance about how to handle books that members don’t like.

Also, if you give each other review copies, be sure to declare that fact in your Amazon review. You’re required to state when you receive a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

For a bonus boost, buy the books on Amazon so your reviews show up as verified purchases. These reviews show up first, ahead of those that aren’t verified as purchased on Amazon.

But always, always, always, write an honest review.

9. Use their books as contest giveaways.

Contests can expand your social media following, build an email subscriber list, and generate interest in your books.

Using friends’ books as additional awards supports them while it solves the “what can I offer for prizes in addition to my books?” conundrum.

10. Recommend each other for media opportunities.

Soon after my first book landed me on The Montel Williams Show as that episode’s expert guest, one of the produc called to see if I could recommend an expert on a related topic for a different episode. (My topic was “why men don’t call after the first date”– hahahaha, I’m not kidding.)

I was happy to help.

Similarly, if I’ve approached a newspaper with an article idea or a TV talk show that brings on multiple guests to address the segment’s topic, I recommend other sources, too. It’s an easy way for me to support others in my network.

Plus, the easier you make it for a journalist to cover the topic you want to discuss, the more likely they are to make it happen.

Implement even three of these ideas and you’ll feel more connected and less isolated while you market your book.

What other ideas do you have about collaborating with others to make book marketing less lonely and more productive?

(Editor’s note: This article was published in April 2019. It is updated and expanded.)