• This article contains affiliate links • Refreshed and updated, January 2024

Ready to set ambitious book marketing goals for 2024?

We’re on the brink of a new year and it can be tempting to dive headlong into ambitious goals for your book marketing. Whether or not 2023 brought all the things you hoped for your writing career, hopefully it contained some insights and wisdom.

I encourage you to pause, reflect, and celebrate, before you set author platform goals for the year ahead. The best book marketing campaigns are carefully tailored to suit not only your ideal reader, but also you, the creative talent behind the work.

Book Marketing Goals: 7 Suggested Steps

1. Review this year, in general

Did you pick a word for 2023 in advance? What word actually represents it for you, in hindsight?
Here are 7 great questions to review your year
If 2023 wasn’t so stellar for you, remember it’s OK for your author energy to fluctuate. (This piece was written before Covid, so it’s even more apt in out post-pandemic times!)

2. Review your book marketing results

Start with these questions to evaluate how your book marketing performed in 2023:

What were your goals for book sales in 2023?
What wider goals for growing or nurturing your author platform did you set?
Which goals did you meet, abandon, and miss? (Be kind to yourself here.)
What unforeseens (good and bad) came along that impacted your efforts?
What types of promotional activities did you enjoy? Not enjoy?
What did you learn about your ideal reader?
What did you learn about the types of marketing that work for you?
What new marketing skills did you pick up?
How well did you manage your time between writing, book marketing, and the rest of your life?

3. Plan for some self care

Make sure you refill your creative tank, especially at this time of year before you make renewed demands on yourself in January. And as we head into 2024, it looks like there may still be some emotional and practical challenges ahead for all of us.

4. Know yourself

You can’t do it all for book marketing and honestly, you shouldn’t even try. You’ll be miserable, ineffective, and burn yourself out.

Do you identify more as an introvert or extrovert? This will hugely influence whether you enjoy different types of book marketing activity. For example, a 4-day conference might demolish an introvert, whereas a 1-hour book club visit feels fine.
Do you enjoy communicating more in writing (you’re an author, I get it!) or do you also like video, audio, drawing, or other forms of creativity? The book marketing strategies that you enjoy will also tend to be the ones you’re good at and can stick with. Playing to your strengths can also help you come up with more creative book marketing ideas.
Realistically, how much time do you have for book marketing? You need to allow for writing time and whatever you’ve got to juggle in the rest of your life.

5. Identify your book marketing objectives

This article by Boni Wagner-Stafford on Jane Friedman’s blog describes this step best. You’ll consider awareness, engagement, and sales.

And take a look also at my piece: What kind of author are you?

6. Set a reasonable book marketing plan

My view is there is far too much information available on how to do different kinds of book marketing, and not nearly enough on should you even pick a tactic. Please don’t hurtle headlong into trying something before you pause and consider whether it belongs in your plans at all. Many types of book marketing take a while to pay off, so choose carefully.

Here are my tips for how to evaluate advice you read online .
I found this Book Marketing interview on the Indy Author Podcast, with Orna Ross of the Alliance for/of Independent Authors, particularly balanced and worthwhile. And here’s the next in the series, on Book Promotion.
Aim to set some goals that are outcome based (for example, land a BookBub Featured Deal, or get signed by an agent), but most that are effort based (example: send your first note to your email list, or introduce your work to 4 small bookstore owners). You can’t control the outcomes but you can control the effort. If you put in enough effort in the right places, you will see results, but by measuring only outcomes, you can get disheartened.
Refer back to your objectives, and remember that a book marketing plan is not simply about the number of copies you sell! Growing and nurturing your audience, and connecting with your community are important, authentic, long-term tasks too.
Here’s my encouragement for aiming to make your marketing mindful !
As someone who loves to make plans, the last few years have been good for me to learn to live more flexibly. Keep in mind, your book marketing goals could still get derailed by world events, local circumstances, or things you need to deal with in your own life.

7. Look for author platform timesavers

Having decided on the type of book marketing you want to undertake, it makes sense to identify ways of getting more efficient.

Here’s a helpful discussion about managing time for authors, including whether you should even try :)
Consider time blocking, task batching, and using your lower energy times of day for tasks that are easy or repetitive.
Tools I use:
- For social media, I’m currently using Later, which I like. (As a light user, I’m on the free plan.) I’ve also dabbled with Recurpost, Tailwind, and Hootsuite. Always remember you need to engage with others on social channels, not just post.
- Like many, I’m a fan of Canva for designing easy graphics, and I frequently use Smart Mockups too.
- My email list, including automated welcome sequences, now lives on MailerLite, although previously I used ConvertKit and still like that a lot.
- For my low cost digital products, I couldn’t be happier with Membervault. Lovely product, lovely people, super price!
- If you’re frequently scratching your head for what to post on social media, write on your blog, or send to your email list, my Done For You Content Calendar is a big hit at this time of year.

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Is a new author website one of your goals for 2024?

I didn’t set out to plug my website design services in this post, but there’s no escaping it: if you want your books and message to be taken seriously, you need a professional-quality website. I specialize in using Squarespace to create a stunning, businesslike home for your work. If you’d like technical expertise, book marketing advice, and all of the implementation taken care of, consider hiring me.

After careful preparation together, I’ll design, build and launch your site in just 2 weeks. Learn more, and then schedule our free and friendly chat.

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