How to Build Your Audience Before Your Book Launch
Launching a book without an audience is like throwing a party without inviting guests—you might have a great book, but if no one knows about it, it won’t get the attention it deserves. That’s why one of the best things you can do to shore up your success is to build an audience for a book before your book launch.
This guide will explore why starting early matters, proven strategies for nonfiction and fiction/memoir authors, and how relationships can supercharge your reach. If you’re wondering how to sell more books as an author, it starts with building the right audience early.
Why Building an Audience for a Book Before Launch Matters
Imagine releasing your book and having an eager group of readers ready to buy, review, and spread the word. Some of these folks may already be in your orbit—they could be your book club friends, satisfied clients, fellow writers, or other community members. Everyone’s reach will vary (and we’ll get to some how-to tips in a moment), but no matter how large your pre-existing audience is, it will help you get better results for your book launch.
Boost Book Sales & Reviews
An engaged audience means the ability to run a successful pre-order book campaign (something I don’t recommend doing without one), more launch day sales, and a stream of positive, authentic reviews coming into sites like Amazon, where what happens in the first 30 days of your book’s launch can trigger a cascade of benefits on and off the platform
Generate Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Readers who connect with your work become advocates, sharing it with their networks. The earlier this happens, the faster the momentum of your book sales and incoming reviews.
Direct Line to Readers (Why an Email List is Key)
Owning a mailing list means you’re not at the mercy of social media algorithms or feeling awkward about sticking with a platform you don’t want to be on. You control your outreach. Unconvinced? Maybe it helps to know that email open rates average between 15–25%, while unpaid, organic reach on today’s most prominent social platforms can be as low as 2–4%. Email click-through rates are also stronger than those for social media, at 2.9% to 1.36%. (Read more about email marketing here.)
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Whether you’re writing nonfiction to grow your business or a narrative to entertain readers, an audience is key to your book’s success. So why not build an audience for a book sooner rather than later? If you’re looking for how to sell more books as an author, starting your audience-building efforts now is crucial. Let’s look at how you can do that.
Audience-Building Strategies for Nonfiction Authors
Your book isn’t just a prop for your Zoom background—it’s a tool to establish credibility, attract clients, and position you as a thought leader in your space. To build an audience for a book before your launch:
Offer a Free Resource (Lead Magnet Strategy)
To start a relationship with people who may become future readers and clients, create a miniguide, checklist, or other exclusive content that provides value in exchange for an email sign-up. To attract the right audience for your book (and your business, if you’ve done it right), be sure your lead magnet is tied into the same topic as your book. The people who want one should also benefit from the other.
Engage Subscribers with Valuable Content
Send helpful content related to your book’s topic. Share case studies, industry insights, or behind-the-scenes updates about your book’s progress. Invite subscribers to 1-1 calls or “focus groups” where you can ask questions and really dig into the problems of your ideal readers/clients.
Build Authority with Blogs, Webinars & Social Media
Write blog posts, host webinars, or start a podcast to engage your audience and establish your expertise before your book launches. Webinars are a great way to grow your mailing list when you partner up with hosts with existing audiences of their own to promote to.
Leverage Social Media Marketing for Authors
Share tips, start conversations, and repurpose your book’s content into posts or short-form videos to drive engagement. Don’t forget to include explicit invitations to join your mailing list, perhaps by promoting your awesome free resource. I recommend promoting your list at least once a week or more often, depending on the refresh rate of your chosen platform.
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Did you notice that these are also tactics that work well after the book has been released? If you want long-term success and are serious about how to sell more books as an author, you should continuously build an audience for a book beyond its initial launch.
Audience-Building Strategies for Fiction and Memoir Authors
Narratives like fiction and memoir are frequently about exploring connections—so your audience-building strategy should be too. Here’s how.
Share Short Stories & Personal Essays
Many writers find that they cut out large amounts of great writing when they revise their drafts. That writing could be whole scenes or even storylines that, with a little massaging, stand alone well as short stories or personal essays. Seek to publish these in anthologies or journals that target the same audience as you, or share them online and off in venues where you can interact with your ideal readers.
Create an Engaging Newsletter (How to Keep Readers Interested)
Go beyond book updates—share personal anecdotes, favorite books and reviews, or insights into your writing process. Offer readers glimpses into your book’s world. This could be a prequel scene, a character’s backstory, or an exclusive short story. Readers love to feel like insiders.
Use Social Media to Connect with Your Ideal Readers
Post writing updates, playlists, inspiration boards, and other “behind-the-scenes” looks at your process. Engage readers with polls like weighing in on titles and cover designs. Include regular posts encouraging people to join your mailing list by sharing a taste of the special content you share with your list as a teaser.
Run Giveaways and Challenges
Engage potential readers by hosting book giveaways, raffles for prizes, caption contests, or writing challenges. Get double the benefit by including autographed books from other authors you admire as prizes and invite those authors to cross-promote, or just use it as an excuse to reach out and start building a relationship.
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Again, if you’re focused on how to sell more books as an author, these efforts shouldn’t stop after your book is published. The more you invest to build an audience for a book, the more those sales and reviews will flow. You want an even bigger audience to promote your second book’s launch too, right?
The Power of Relationships in Book Marketing
You ever hear that saying “To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together”? No author succeeds alone. Building relationships with fellow writers, influencers, and book-loving communities will amplify your reach. When you have a traditional publishing house behind you, there’s a built-in network of support you get to tap into. But as an indie author, it’s essential to focus some of your time and energy on building your own network.
Collaborate with Other Authors
Partner with writers in your genre for cross-promotions, anthologies, or giveaways. Many indie authors team up to create themed book bundles, exposing each other’s work to new audiences. One powerful way to collaborate is by compiling an anthology, which can expand your network and build credibility. Learn how to do it successfully in this step-by-step guide.
Leverage Bookstagrammers & Influencers
Connect with book bloggers and social media influencers who can introduce your book to their engaged readers. Don’t forget subject- or topic-themed outlets: In your nonfiction book, these opportunities should be obvious, but they’re often baked into narratives as well. For example, if your novel involves a protagonist in a certain career, if there is a survivor of trauma or an illness, there are communities especially primed to enjoy and need your story. Find the influencers around whom these communities orbit.
Network at Events & Online
Attend writing or other topical conferences, join genre-specific groups, or participate in social media chats to build your visibility. And you’re not just looking to get readers here. These events and social spaces can be excellent ways to make friends with other authors, influencers, and thought leaders who have audiences they may be happy to introduce your book to, especially if you can reciprocate the favor.
Learn from Successful Authors
Take inspiration from mega-successful authors like Andy Weir, who initially wrote his breakthrough novel The Martian as a blog serial he promoted mainly to his small mailing list, which grew via word of mouth and played a key role in the success of the final published book (which he listed for $0.99 to get it into as many hands as possible).
Next Steps: Get Ready to Launch Strong
Building an audience before your book launch is one of the best ways to ensure success—but rushing to publish before you’re truly ready can backfire.
- Want to make sure you’re launching at the right time? Read our in-depth guide on why publishing too soon can hurt your success.
- Are you really ready to publish? Download our checklist to discover the nine steps every successful book publishing project must take (and see how you stack up).
To paraphrase the saying, the best time to start building your audience was yesterday. The second-best time is right now. If you’re serious about how to sell more books as an author, don’t wait—start building your audience today!