By Colleen Markley

As a winner of Nickie's Prize for Humor Writing, I was thrilled to see my funny piece included in Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter, a humor book published by the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. Seeing my name in print was amazing, even more so because I was in the same chapter as an essay by New York Times bestselling author Peggy Rowe and an excerpt from an Amy Schumer book! Six degrees of separation now has my pages rubbing pages with some very impressive writers.

Not only am I excited to share my own words with the world, but I also want everyone to know that buying the book, Sisters! helps make the world a better place: book sale proceeds benefit the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop Endowment, which is used to keep the workshop affordable for writers. And the world always needs new voices in writing, so I’m determined to be a good collaborative citizen and get the word out about Sisters!

It’s always a challenge, though, to reach readers. In the spirit of collaborating with fellow writers, here are some of my top tips for authors who want to increase their book sales in a crowded publishing market.

Tell Everyone You Know About Your Book

I posted lots of “book in the wild” photos on social media — pictures of the book with friends and family. Each post incorporated the same hashtags, and then I added some others to try out with the variety of posts. I brought a copy of the book with me on vacation with my girlfriend, and she helped me with some solo shots and some of us together.

I also asked my friends and family in different cities to take photos and share them with me. My nieces and nephews were very excited to be involved, and I loved seeing their happy faces with the book!

The kids were great, but of course photos of the dogs got the most engagement. This is where dog hashtags really helped get attention. Ranger gave the book a lick of approval, and my biggest fan, Gryffin, loyally stayed by my side as I signed books for family and friends.

I even staged a photo during Thanksgiving of our whole family (35 people!) with their copies of Sisters!

Enlist Your Book Club in the Promotional Effort

I was lucky to have friends and family who were excited for me, including my own book club. I moved into our house 10 years ago and was invited to be a member of our neighborhood book club. Over the years we have read thousands of pages together, and each month the host selects the book and leads the discussion. When Sisters! was released in October, I sent an enthusiastic newsletter about it to my entire list, which includes all of my book club neighbors. I was nervous about asking them to read it, and thankfully didn’t even need to ask because they were so excited for me that they couldn’t wait to have me attend as guest author. They all brought their books for me to sign (which is so much fun and I also a little nerve wracking as I’m afraid I was going to misspell something and then make a mess of someone’s book). I asked them if I could post some photos of our group, and they were all so happy to help. It didn’t hurt that my friend who hosted that night is also an interior decorator, and her house was a gorgeous backdrop for the photos. We used the official book club guide available online, and I was so amazed that a humorous book was able to provide some space for some serious conversations about relationships — as well as keep us all laughing together. We didn’t make it home until after 1 a.m. (on a work night!)

Make It Easy for People to Know Where to Buy Your Book

I sent an email newsletter to my subscriber list with all the purchase options as easy hyperlinks. I loved looking at the analytics later to see who had clicked and where.

I also updated my Facebook and Instagram bios and created a link tree to include purchasing links. (It took me less than 10 minutes to do even though I have a general fear of all things technical or possessing electrical plugs).

A quick redesign of my website home page included links to different places for purchasing the book and directed family and friends there. I thought it was important to offer several choices. Some people love Amazon and how easy it is to buy books there. Same with Barnes & Noble. But others prefer Indie bookstores. One option I love is Bookshop.org, which partners with independent bookstores across the country to help support their work — the company just celebrated its second anniversary and announced that in just the last two years they’ve revenue shared over $21 million to indie bookstores worldwide.

Encourage Your Local Independent Bookstore or Library to Carry Your Book

There’s nothing more exciting for a writer than having their library or local bookstore carry their book! It’s absolutely a wonderful way to connect with the community. I’m so grateful that I have friends who are also such great fans — they’ve gone into stores on my behalf and asked the shop managers to carry Sisters! They’ve also offered to have me come in and sign copies so they could put a “Local Author” or “Signed Copy” sign next to the book, which also helps encourage sales of Sisters! Not everyone has a self-appointed street team, though, and it can be really nerve wracking to do self-promotion. I’ve found this to be similar to other kinds of anxiety (and anxiety is my superpower), but the more times you do something difficult, the easier it becomes. I’ve found it helpful to think of this as my obligation as a writer to my publisher. Perhaps you can tell I’m an “Obliger” — I’m certified as a workshop presenter for Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies, and I use those skills to help motivate myself. Gretchen also has an essay in Sisters! about National Sibling Day (April 10), and I love how this comes full circle.

To make it easy for bookshop owners to order your book, it’s helpful to have a “sell sheet” — a one-pager to leave behind so they have all the relevant info on the book, such as the ISBN number. I created a sell sheet for Sisters! which you can use as a model in creating your own. You can find the Sisters! sell sheet here as well as my own website.

Ask Friends and Family to Leave a Review on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or Barnes & Noble

Reviews are so important — for both authors and readers. Authors are helped by the credibility of positive reviews and readers know they can count on something fabulous to read. The reviews that a book attracts really can determine its selling success. Algorithms, for example, on Amazon, tend to be secretive and hard to crack, but reviews are a huge part of determining visibility. The more reviews a book has, the higher it comes up in searches. Buying a copy of Sisters! — and reviewing it so others can find it — all help support future writers (which is just really great karma).

Emphasize to friends and family that writing a review takes just a couple minutes, and the impact on how reviews help book sales and authors lasts for years. It’s pretty simple — find the book, click “leave a review” and write something lovely (all trolls should go back under their bridges and stay there).

The three places that book reviews and ratings help the most are Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads. Here are the basics for each of these:

• For Amazon, log in to your Amazon account. If you’ve never done a review of any kind before on Amazon, you’ll want to use a public name for your reviews. Simply choose a name (be creative!) and enter this now on your Profile page. Next, go to the product page (such as for Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter) and scroll down to “Review this product.” At the very least, give an overall rating (number of stars), but, ideally add a headline and at least a sentence or two review in the appropriate space. You don’t need to have purchased the book from Amazon to leave a review (but the company does have a rule about needing to have spent $50 at Amazon previously on anything else, and if you haven’t spent that much money at Amazon I’d like to visit you in your quiet peaceful cave so please invite me over).
• Barnes & Noble offers detailed advice on posting a book review on the B&N site. You’ll need to set up an account to do so, but don’t need to have purchased the book from Barnes & Noble.
• Goodreads’ reviews also count a lot and are easy to post. Here’s how to write a book review on Goodreads.

Start Your Own Street Team

It takes a village to sell a book! In my newsletter, I wrote about my thrill in receiving the first box of Sisters! and offered ways my readers could find and promote the book. Here’s a sample email for building your street team.

Dear Friends and Family,

Oh my goodness, I'm really excited. 

Today is the launch day for the Sisters! book! 

I feel a little bit like a kid waiting for their birthday party guests to arrive with presents, but instead it's me peeking out the window to see if my box of books with MY WRITING has arrived yet. I've seen other authors do unboxing videos and always thought that their enthusiasm was catchy (in a good way, not a germaphobe kind of way). I will not physically be able to wait to make a video of me opening the box, as I will be using up all my patience waiting for the delivery person to walk up to my front door.

I so appreciate all of you being part of my tribe and journey as I do this writing thing. And I especially appreciate those of you who've asked how you can help support me! Here are things you can do that would be awesome:

1. Buy the book — for yourself, or as a gift for your sister, sister friend or other human who could use a laugh. Proceeds fund the endowment for the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop — you're investing in humor for generations to come.
2. Read the book (see #1 for important first step).
3. Review the book online on Amazon or Goodreads or your other favorite reading site (but only if you like it, otherwise you can just keep that to yourself, thanks).
4. Attend the virtual book launch party. (Yes! I'll be there!) 
5. Check out my updated website, follow me on your favorite social site (fancy buttons with lots of options are linked below), and share your good wishes and praise in the internet realm.
6. Tell a friend (or seven) to do these things, too! Maybe even invite them to sign up for my newsletter so they can be in the inner circle — it's a fabulous place to be with all of you!

And thank you for your kindness, support and shared laughs! 

XOXO, 
Colleen

With these steps, that’s how I channeled my enthusiasm for Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter, built a street team and helped increase book sales. These are techniques any author can employ to create a buzz for their books.

— Colleen Markley

Colleen Markley is a novelist and freelance writer living in New Jersey. Her award-winning essay “Unflappably Calm, Occasionally Furious, Ready and Willing to Hide the Bodies” is part of the humor anthology Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter. Named the June 2021 winner of the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop Humor Writer of the Month, Colleen attempts to be funny all of the months, and is excited that her new monthly column for The Dharma Direction is setting that challenge bar.  Her novel-in-progress, Lilith Land, is a story about the end of the world where only the women survive. (It’s a novel, not an action plan). Find her at www.ColleenMarkley.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter and updates.