The inevitable truth of modern book marketing is that much of it falls on the author’s shoulders. This happens for two main reasons—1) as publishing houses grow and gain more authors, their team’s attention must split and focus their resources more heavily on their front-list authors, and 2) readers are more interested in the more personal relationships they can have with authors than they are with the relationships available to them with companies.
So what is an author to do when they’ve spent years working in a different career, struggle with technology, or have very limited marketing funds and can’t find or afford a personal assistant?
These resources will help further your education and help make up for some of the skills you may lack.
Free Software
Everyone loves free stuff, especially when that free stuff makes you look really good. These are my favorite sources of free software.
DIY Book Covers 3d Book Generator
This free to use 3d mockup generator provides beautiful mockups of your book from the front cover. This will allow you to share teasers of how your book make look on the shelf or on a desk or coffee table long before you have a printed copy in your hands—without the cost or skill required to Photoshop the image yourself.
Canva
Canva is a free (with a paid upgrade option) layout program that makes it very easy to create your own beautiful documents and designs for print or electronic use. As you dive into social media and digital marketing, this is one program you’ll want in your toolbox. From adding text to your own images or putting your 3d mockups onto coffee tables and shelves, Canva can help you be equipped to market your book.
QR Code Generator from Bitly
Post-2020 print marketing is incomplete without a QR code that allows the viewer to scan with their smartphone’s camera app and visit a website or an online store within seconds. But how do you make those QR codes yourself?
If you use Google Chrome, you can right-click on the page and download a QR code with the Chrome dinosaur in the middle.
Or, for a very basic frame with fun “Scan Me!” text, you can put your link, image, document, or anything else you want to share into Bitly’s QR code generator. For an add-on cost, you can even include your name or your logo in the middle of the code.
Free Stock Photos
Whether you’re looking for eye-catching, professional photos for your website or you simply want more variation in the backgrounds you can use than the photos you take on your phone or the free options in Canva, you’ll soon want access to stock photos.
And while you can sign up for Adobe Stock and pay per photo you download, you might not always want to or be able to spend that money.
There are free stock photo sites out there that share photos you can use in marketing. Just make sure to read the usage rights. (You may be able to use it in marketing but not in commercial use—items you would sell, such as a book.)
Pexels.com and Unsplash.com are my two favorites.
CapCut
Lastly, if you want to get into the best performing social media content out there, you’ll need a good video editor. CapCut is free and easy to learn with the many tutorials about it on YouTube to teach you everything you need to know to edit videos for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook.
Easy to Use
Zazzle
Zazzle got its start as a customizable wedding invitation and favor site, but it didn’t take long for creators to come up with other uses for the platform. I personally run a print-on-demand merchandise shop there, allowing another source of income and great customer service.
One of the benefits to you of this shop is The Author’s Toolkit marketing collection, in which I’ve created numerous designs for printed materials to help you in your book marketing.
These templates give you an easy way to plug in your information and order printed copies shipped to you using my designs and offer variations to help you as you grow. From author business cards to book one-sheets, there’s something for every stage of the journey.
Did I miss any of your favorite tools? Let me know in the comments.
Jori Hanna is a writer and marketer from Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Taylor University with a degree in Professional Writing and loves working with authors to help them reach their full potential. Check out the Services tab to see what she can do for you. Follow her on most social media @authorjjhanna and @jjhannaacademy.
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