How to Market Your Own Book

If you have been following us on Instagram or Facebook you would have seen us share  all the secrets on how to successfully market your book and all the ways that we can help you have the most successful book launch possible in smaller digestible portions throughout the month of March. I also did an entire live session with the Caribbean Books Foundation on this topic.

Here’s a compilation of what I’ve learnt in the process of self-publishing my first book “Collection of Poems by Latoyaa Roberts” and through my interactions with other authors and creatives:

Step #1 in Marketing your Book: Identify your target audience. ⠀
⠀
What is a target audience?⠀
Quickbooks defines a target audience as a specific group of consumers that is most likely to be receptive to your marketing campaigns. A business might have different target audiences for different products or services. Each target audience has specific needs, and business owners usually devise a specific marketing plan to attract them.⠀

Step #2 in Marketing your Book: Know your Market.

Who are you selling to? How do you reach them?⠀

Step #3 in Marketing your Book:  Expand your Network.

Join a new platform, connect with friends of friends; you’ve got to let the whole world know you wrote a book!⠀

Step #4 in Marketing your Book: Finalize your budget.

This is arguably the most important step in this process as it determines the resources that you will be using throughout your book launch. Here’s what I recommend:⠀
👉🏾Be realistic with what you can spend⠀
👉🏾Do your sales projection⠀
👉🏾Consider doing partnerships/collaboration to reduce costs⠀
👉🏾Look for some free platforms e.g podcast, blogs, webinars, national libraries, books clubs⠀
👉🏾For other platforms where you have to pay consider advertising bundles/ packages⠀

Step #5 in Marketing your Book: Tell your story

Let your audience know who you are.

Step #6 in Marketing your Book: Have a Social Media Strategy

Make use of the many marketing tactics that are available online or enlist help from professionals for an effective book launch.⠀

Step #7 in Marketing your Book: Face to face still works!

Go out and tell persons about your book, pass our flyers, visit bookstores, libraries etc.

Step #8 in Marketing your Book:  Choose and upload your eBook to online shop(s) ⠀
⠀
I recommend looking into Amazon – KDP (select), Splashwords, Lulu and Etsy⠀

Step #9 in Marketing your Book: Know your analytics

You must have a way to measure your performance: ⠀
-simple spreadsheet⠀
– google analytics⠀
-FB analytics⠀
-Amazon monthly sales report ⠀
– Simple questionnaire on your social media pages⠀

Final Step in Marketing your Book: Host author events for for new book launch⠀
These may be:⠀
-Book reading ⠀
-Book signing ⠀
-Book pop up shops ⠀
-Presentations at conferences/ libraries, etc
-Book displays -temporary ⠀
E.g library, bookstore, community outreach ⠀

If you need assistance with marketing, editing or self-publishing your book click here to learn more about our services or email us directly at booksbylatoyaaroberts@gmail.com.

Meet the Illustrator- Tomley Roberts

The Virtual Preview Session 4

For this session, Latoyaa Roberts entertained two guests, Ms. Juliet and Illustrator of “Collection of Poems by Latoyaa Roberts”, Tomley Roberts. Ms. Juliet, a broadcast media professional, was the reader for this session. Her choices were: The Voice of a Child, Road Trip to Victory and The Blackman – Tribute to Black Stalin. Juliete concluded her reading by saying “Latoyaa, I want to congratulate you on your book, you don’t get- you don’t see this very often and I think as a young woman, a Tobagonian, I really appreciate the fact that you took time out … to come up with a collection of poems based on your life experiences, your journeys, and society and what you see around you and it’s something that’s should be heralded.”

For the second part of this session, Latoyaa and Tomley Roberts, the author and illustrator of “Collection of Poems by Latoyaa Roberts” discussed the 6 art pieces in the book and the creative process it took to produce the pieces. They even gave a sneak peek of two pieces! Purchase the Book Here

Chill Vibes with Latoyaa Roberts and Xavier Edwardz

The Virtual Book Preview Session 3

For this third session, Latoyaa Roberts sat down with musician, Xavier Edwardz to read and discuss his three (3) favourite poems from “Collection of Poems by Latoyaa Roberts”. Xavier dropped little nuggets of wisdom and brought a cool ambiance throughout the session. His favourite poems were some very hard-hitters; Give Thanks, Online Advocacy and Glass Ceiling.

Xavier Edwardz, who also wrote the foreword for the book, said “It was really inspiring, to me, to go through those poems line by line and get a deeper insight into who you are.”

Purchase the Book Here

Latoyaa Roberts and Cindy Andrews Talk Women and GBV Issues

The Virtual Book Preview Session 2

In honour of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Latoyaa Roberts and Cindy Andrews hosted the second installment to the “Collection of Poems by Latoyaa Roberts”- Virtual Book Preview adorned in orange apparel where they discussed women and gender-based violence through 3 pieces from the book chosen by Cindy; Shrinking Civic Space, Is 10 Too Much and A Woman’s Role in the Home.

Cindy said, “For me, when I look at poetry- when I look at art, it always reflects society to some aspect. Art captures, it reflects, it tries to highlight and address different issues in society and this is exactly what this collection does. It has been sectioned into 5 different aspects but when you really look at the collection on a whole, it all comes together and you could see the interconnectedness of each story even if it exists within a different theme and it’s something that I appreciate”

Purchase the Book Here

The Virtual Book Tour Session 1 was a Success!

with Latoyaa Roberts and Kleon Mc Pherson

The first virtual preview of the book, Collection of Poems by Latoyaa Roberts” with Kleon McPherson Spoken Word Artist was completed successfully. Viewers were offered the opportunity to listen live and interact with author Latoyaa Roberts and Spoken Word Artist Kleon Mc Pherson as Kleon gave his insight on his favourite four (4) poems out of the forty-five (45) poems in the book; Live the American Dream, I Love Tobago, When a Woman Wants to Achieve and The Grassroot Youth.

” You write timeless pieces that can stand the test of time,” said Kleon who analyzed the poems to reveal hidden meanings that just a regular read of the poem could not establish and then proceeded to give “Collection of Poems by Latoyaa Roberts” a raving and honest review, “There’s many levels you touched; there’s something for everyone, I realised, coming out of the book of poems. Something for women, something for men- depending on what the angle you look at it from… It has something that at some point is relatable to someone somewhere.”

Purchase the Book Here