Most beginning authors as well as many established book authors do not know how to set up a budget for promoting their books. In this post, I’ll reveal how you can go about setting a $50,000 budget for promoting your book—and then how to spend that budget.
Here’s your budget for promoting a book:
$40,000 — Publicity services. There are two ways that you can handle this expense.
1. Pay a publicist. Actually spend the $40,000 on a three- to four-month campaign with a professional PR service or publicist.
2. Pay yourself to do the work. A publicist gets paid anywhere from $50 to $200 per hour. So pay yourself at least $100. Then put in the work to promote your book. For a 40-week campaign, where you work two hours per day, five days a week, you’ll spend $40,000 paying the best person to promote your book—that’s you!
See this article for a step-by-step guide on how to make connections with podcasters, bloggers, magazine editors, TV producers, and other influencers: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/the-i-dont-have-any-time-hour-a-day-book-marketing-plan.
$2,000 — Book cover design. A great book cover design makes it easier for you to promote your book. You should always spend enough to create a dynamic book cover and a brandable book title. Consider your book cover design an integral part of your book promotion campaign. Note: a book cover design can cost you anywhere from $100 to $4,000.
$150 for a book title critique. A great book title helps sell a great book. Settle on the book title before you hire your cover designer. Get the best book title for your book by going here: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques.
$1700 for a book cover designer
$150 for a book cover critique. Once you receive some of the cover designs from your cover designer, get feedback on how to make those book covers sizzle. Order your book cover critique here: https://py.pl/ktATM.
$2,000 — Amazon ads. Advertising on Amazon is a great way to drive book buyer traffic to your books listed on Amazon. You can target the audience for your book by running ads with keywords featuring related authors, related book titles, relevant keywords, etc. You can set your daily budget and the price you’ll pay for your ads. Keep testing the price you’ll pay, the keywords you use, etc. until you come up with a winning combination where you make more money from book sales than you are spending on ads. Then continue running the ads that work.
Facebook ads, Google ads, Pinterest ads, etc. can also be targeted in a similar way. But Amazon ads generally produce the best results for books.
You won’t spend that much on Amazon ads unless the ads really work. But you can budget for that much.
$2,490 — News releases. Write a great news release and distribute it to thousands of news sites and other media.
$300 for a news release critique and rewrite that guarantees you the avid interest of editors, producers, podcasters, and bloggers. Sign up for a great news release here: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/news-release-critiques-that-help-you-sell-more-books-products-services-or-ideas.
$300 for a second news release from the same service.
$300 for a third news release from the same service.
$1590 for press release distribution via Press Cable. Send out ten press releases via the best press release distribution service. Vary the content of the press release to include different keywords, target audiences, headlines, etc. Send out a new press release every two or three weeks. You’ll find that these press releases will drive traffic to your website, boost the number of direct links to your website, and increase your website’s visibility to the search engines.
$2,000 — Podcast campaign. Podcasters are the kings and queens of Internet marketing in today’s world. They reach more people and influence more people than most bloggers. You can pay someone else to connect you to the top podcasters and Internet radio people, or you can take the time to connect with them on your own (and pay yourself as well as you would as a publicist).
Again, check out this article for details on how to carry out a podcast campaign yourself: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/the-i-dont-have-any-time-hour-a-day-book-marketing-plan.
$747 — 747 Book Marketing Blast-Off Program. Sign up for two months of guidance and coaching from book marketing genius John Kremer (yup, that’s me!) Find out more about this service at: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/747-book-marketing-take-off.
$747 — 747 Book Marketing Blast-Off Program. Sign up for another two months of guidance and coaching from book marketing genius John Kremer. It’s the best money you can spend on promoting your books.
$200 — Indie Bookstore Campaign. Via this program I will write a great bookstore sales letter telling them why they should stock your book.
Total Book Promotion Budget: $50,184
Yes, you can have a $50,000 book marketing budget that won’t break your bank. And will help you sell thousands of books.
About John Kremer
John Kremer is author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, the Relationships Matter Marketing program, and many other books and reports on book marketing, Internet marketing, social media, and book publicity. -- John Kremer on Book Marketing.