How to Get Your Book Out There: Real Ways to Help Readers Find It

You published a book. Now how do you get people to actually find it?

There are plenty of ways to promote a book, but I’ve started thinking less about promotion and more about discovery. I’m an indie author myself, and building the Motivated Savages Indie Author Bookstore has given me an interesting view of how books move between authors, readers, search, social media, bookstores, communities, and everyday conversations.

I’ve tried plenty of things myself, watched other authors try plenty more, and I’ve become pretty convinced of one thing:

Your book doesn’t need to be everywhere. It just needs more ways for the right reader to find it.

So, let’s talk about some of those ways.

Think in Paths, Not Posts

This is probably the biggest shift I’ve made in how I think about promoting a book. Instead of putting all the pressure on individual posts or promotions, I think about the different paths that could eventually lead someone to a book.

A Google search is a path. So is a genre shelf, review, social post, author interview, guest article, library, book club, local event, or recommendation from another reader.

Someone might see your book on social media today and think nothing of it. A few weeks later, they come across your name somewhere else. Eventually they see the book again and this time they click.

We can’t really know which encounter did the trick, and I don’t think we need to.

That doesn’t mean we should stop paying attention to what works. If you’re paying for promotion, you absolutely want to know what you’re getting for your money. But not everything has to produce an immediate sale to be useful.

Sometimes you’re simply giving someone another chance to run into your book.

One post doesn’t have to do all the work.

Start by Googling Your Book

Seriously. Go Google it.

Search your book title and author name, your title by itself, your author name, and your series if you have one. Then look at the results as though you don’t know yourself.

What would someone find if they heard about your book somewhere and looked it up later?

Your retailer page should obviously be there, but it’s nice when that’s not the only evidence on the internet that your book exists. Your website, bookstore listings, reviews, interviews, articles, library listings, reading lists, and other mentions all create different ways someone might find you.

This is one reason books in the Indie Author Bookstore have individual pages in addition to appearing on genre shelves. Someone might find a book while browsing Romance. Someone else might search the title. Another person might follow a link shared by the author.

Same book, different ways in.

Put Your Book Where Readers Are Already Looking

Readers don’t always know what book they want next. Sometimes they just know they want a creepy horror book, a funny romance, a fantasy world to disappear into, or something good for their kid.

Instead of only asking “Where can I promote my book?”, try asking:

Where are people already looking for books like mine?

That could be an independent bookstore, library, online book discovery site, genre community, book blog, reading list, book club, newsletter, or local organization. It could also be somewhere much more specific to the actual subject of your book, which we’ll get to in a minute.

You don’t need your book listed on every website willing to take it. A handful of places where the right readers are actually browsing makes a lot more sense to me.

Stop Posting the Same Book Post

You know the one. Cover. Description. Purchase link. Two weeks later: cover, description, purchase link.

There is an entire world around your book that you can talk about instead. Maybe it’s a character you love, something ridiculous you researched, the real place that inspired a setting, an old review you forgot about, a reader photo, the story behind the cover, an event you’re preparing for, or something you’d do completely differently if you wrote the book today.

And one of my favorites: show people where your book goes. If a bookstore puts it on the shelf, show us. If your library carries it, take the picture. If your book appears in an article or reading list, share it. If a reader sends you a photo, ask if you can post it.

There’s a very different feeling between constantly saying buy my book and saying:

Look where my book showed up.

If your book is listed with Motivated Savages, you can do the same thing. Share the genre shelf instead of always sharing your individual book page. If you’re included in an Indie Book Discovery article, share that. If you’ve had an Author Spotlight or contributed something to From the Author, that’s something different to talk about too.

The book hasn’t changed. The conversation around it has.

Don’t Be Afraid to Talk About Other Books

I think this one is particularly important. If the only books you ever talk about are your own, your audience learns pretty quickly what they’re going to get from you.

But if you talk about what you’re reading, share an indie author you discovered, show some bookmail, visit bookstores, ask people what they’re reading, or recommend something you genuinely enjoyed, your space starts becoming somewhere people can discover books, not just somewhere they get asked to buy yours.

That gives people more ways to talk to you too. They can recommend something, tell you what they’re reading, tag another author, or join the conversation even when they’re not shopping for a new book that day.

And yes, you might send someone to another author’s book, but they might come back. Readers are allowed to own more than one book. Thank goodness, because this whole operation would fall apart pretty quickly otherwise.

If your book is sitting on an indie Horror shelf, send people to the whole Horror shelf sometimes. Tell them yours is there and invite them to wander. They might discover somebody else, and somebody else’s readers might discover you.

That’s just how bookstores work.

Get to Know Other Authors

The same idea applies to your author community.

If you’re in an author group or writing community, don’t only show up when you have a link to drop. Get to know people. Learn what they write. Celebrate their releases. Share opportunities when you see them. Make introductions when they make sense.

A lot can come from normal relationships with other authors:

• An event you wouldn’t have heard about
• A guest-writing opportunity
• A book-club connection
• An introduction to a reviewer
• A recommendation
• A collaboration
• Someone simply thinking of your book at the right moment

You can do the same for them. If a reader asks for a recommendation and another author’s book fits better than yours, recommend it. If you see an opportunity that would be perfect for someone you know, send it along.

You don’t need to keep track of who owes whom a favor. That’s exhausting. Sometimes another author is simply the reason a new reader finds you.

Let People Read Something Besides Your Book

Your book doesn’t have to be the first thing someone reads from you. Maybe you write about something connected to your work, share a story from your own experience, review a book you genuinely enjoyed, or contribute something to a site or community you already follow. The point isn’t to start creating content just for the sake of having more content. It’s simply another way for someone to come across your writing and get curious about what else you’ve written.

You don’t have to keep all of that writing on your own website either. There are book blogs, newsletters, publications, and communities that welcome contributions from authors. Motivated Savages has From the Author, where indie authors can share original writing in their own voice, and there’s also room for thoughtful book reviews from authors. Those are a couple of options here, but look around for others that actually fit you and what you write.

Sometimes people find the author before they find the book.

Figure Out What You Want From Social Media

Social media is not one giant thing.

What works on Facebook may flop somewhere else. What people want on TikTok isn’t necessarily what they’re looking for on Threads. Trying to treat every platform exactly the same, or trying to build all of them at once, can eat up an incredible amount of time.

I think of it as having a main quest and side quests.

Maybe there’s one platform where you really build your community. The others might send traffic, introduce you to people, help with discovery, let you experiment with something new, or just give you useful information about what people respond to.

Ask yourself what each one is actually doing for you.

• Am I building community here?
• Is anyone clicking through to my website?
• Am I meeting readers or authors I wouldn’t meet elsewhere?
• Is this helping people discover my work?
• Do I even like being here?

You don’t have to be equally invested everywhere.

There is a whole separate conversation to be had about social media for indie authors, but for now, I think knowing why you’re using a platform is a pretty good place to start.

Use the Weird Stuff in Your Book

This might be one of my favorite ways to think about discovery. Your genre matters, but what else is in your book?

Maybe your character restores old cars. Maybe the story takes place on an island. There’s a bakery, a ridiculous dog, a fictional band, a historical event, a sport, a profession, a local landmark, or some very specific hobby you somehow spent three weeks researching.

Those things give you ways to connect with people outside the book world. A book involving hiking could connect naturally with outdoor communities. A story based in a real town might have a local angle. A book involving food gives you a whole different set of things to talk about.

And frankly:

“I wrote a mystery involving competitive beekeeping” is a lot more interesting than “my new mystery is available now.”

Your book probably contains more ways to talk about it than you realize.

Give Readers Something to Do

Sometimes we get so focused on asking people to buy the book that we forget they can participate in other ways.

There are all kinds of ways readers can have a little fun with your book beyond simply reading it. Maybe your book has something built into it that people can play along with, or maybe you just give readers a reason to take it somewhere, share it, pass it along, or start a conversation around it. It doesn’t have to become a whole campaign either. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the easiest for people to join in on.

A few easy ideas:

• Take the book somewhere interesting
• Pass a copy along
• Share a favorite line
• Post where you’re reading it
• Bring it to a book club
• Recommend it to someone who would genuinely like it

When readers start talking about the book, taking pictures of it, or recommending it themselves, you’re no longer the only person creating opportunities for someone to discover it.

Keep a Couple Books in Your Car

I mean this literally. For all the time we spend thinking about Google and social media, we still occasionally encounter humans in the wild. Talk about being an author when it comes up naturally. You don’t have to wedge your book into every conversation, but you also don’t need to act like it’s a secret.

I sold a copy of my book at the gym once. There was no strategy behind it. The book came up in conversation, the person was interested, and I happened to have one. That’s it.

People ask what you do, what you’ve been working on, what you’re excited about. Sometimes your book fits naturally into the conversation. Just don’t become the person who turns “How have you been?” into a hostage situation involving a paperback.

Keep a couple copies handy. Know where people can find your book if they ask. Put one in a Little Free Library. Talk to the local shop with the community shelf. Pay attention to what happens around you.

Sometimes “getting your book out there” can be surprisingly literal.

Don’t Forget About Your Old Books

Launch week ends. Your book doesn’t. If you’ve been publishing for a while, you’ve probably accumulated reviews, reader photos, interviews, event pictures, articles, old posts, characters, and stories that haven’t seen daylight in years.

Use some of them again. Share the old review. Reintroduce the character. Talk about something you’d do differently now. Create a Where should you start? post for readers who are new to your books.

Your new reader doesn’t know you posted something similar three years ago. They weren’t there.

A reader discovering your oldest book today is still a new reader.

Make It Easy to Take the Next Step

After all this work helping someone discover you, make sure they can actually figure out what to do when they get interested.

Look at your website and social profiles like a stranger would.

• Can they find your books?
• Can they find the rest of your series?
• Is it obvious what you write?
• Can they find somewhere to buy the book?
• If they discover an article you wrote, can they easily figure out who you are?

Nobody should need a scavenger hunt to buy your book.

Don’t Turn This Into a Giant Checklist

This is probably the most important thing to say at the end. You do not need to do everything in this article. If you finish reading this and immediately create a 47-item author marketing to-do list, I may have failed you.

Start with what actually fits you. If you’re good with people, look for more opportunities to get your book out into the real world. If writing comes naturally, use that. Put your energy into the social platform where you’ve actually built a community, or go dig through that backlist you’ve barely mentioned in three years. You probably don’t need an entirely new strategy. There may already be something you’re doing well that you could simply do more with.

There isn’t one magic place where you can put a book and suddenly everyone knows it exists. What you can do is keep giving the right readers reasonable opportunities to run into it.

Your book doesn’t need to be everywhere. It just needs more ways for the right reader to find it.

Give Your Book Another Place to Be Discovered

That’s the idea behind the Motivated Savages Indie Author Bookstore too.

Indie authors can submit their books completely free. Each book gets another place where a reader can encounter it, learn about the author, wander through a genre shelf, and follow the author’s chosen link if they want to learn more or buy it.

It’s not supposed to be the only place your book exists. It’s just one more place someone might find it.

Submit Your Book to the Indie Author Bookstore

Already on the shelf? There are more Author Resources coming as I keep experimenting with all of this and sharing what I learn along the way.

Explore Author Resources