If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably written historical fiction and are wondering how to promote your book online. Maybe you’re already promoting, and are looking for some ideas on how to get more attention. Like any other genre, historical fiction has a market and its audience. The book promotion strategies below are designed to give you some ideas to help you stand out, and make sure your book gets the attention it deserves.

1. Find your demographic

When you think about online book promotion strategies, the ideas that most people have are posting their book to Amazon and doing a blog. These are great, effective techniques that every author should consider — but they’re not the right promotion ideas for every one. When you’re looking at book promotion ideas, look at your intended demographic and their media preferences. Always take into account that you get the best book reading results from metaphor and simile over plain exposition.

Pay attention to your genre. Writing historical fiction? Consider creating an online presence. This can require as little as joining some social media sites and joining a few writing groups to see what’s happening in your genre. Are there hot topics that authors are talking about? Do you notice anxiety around upcoming ARCs or promotion dates? Or worse yet, do they join groups only to bring up their own work? This applies whether you are in the middle of writing or publishing a book or have finished.

2.Join social media networks

In the first place, you have to get online and join social media networks. They are the keys to getting yourself across to the publishers and those who you are targeting. But then what do you do after joining them? Make sure you introduce yourself so that people will know who you are, what you do, and above all, what will be expected from them.

But if you’re not that good at it, then ask for some help from someone who is good at it. Remember, the internet has made the world a global marketplace, and so you’ll sooner or later find your niche. Once you’ve developed a following, leverage the followers that you have for more subscribers by sharing your new content on your social media channels.

3. Start niche sites

You may think blogging and social media are the only ways to promote your book, but that’s just scratching the surface. There are so many communities out there that don’t involve the spoken word. Yes, that’s right. These communities include forums and niche sites. Take part in writing websites like Wattpad and Commaful, and join forums related to historical fiction. You’ll be amazed at how many readers you can find.

Make yourself available to the writing sites’ many members. Offer advice and support to newer members of the forum. Create a feeling of commuting among your fans. Keep in mind, this method works best when you’re actually enjoying interacting with the people that support you! And by promoting your books on more than one platform, you can earn the attention you need to sell more.

4. Communicate directly with your audience

Finding ways to connect with your readers is the key to successful book promotion online, so put in the work to make that connection as direct as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to write original posts to interact directly with your audience. Some social media platforms work better with fan interactions than others. Use Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr where you can build a rapport with your following. 

Some interesting book promotion ideas to involve your audience include live Q&A sessions, developing a post series around your book and offering “writer guide” case studies. Share videos on YouTube about how you found inspiration for the book or how you developed certain characters. When you have readers come to you for feedback or strategies, they are much more likely to engage with the author in the future.

5. Niche down

If you haven’t already put some serious time into researching your market audience, start there. Look into the kinds of blogs and resources that pertain to people who will be interested in your historical fiction. Really take time to understand who is reading the content of those sites, and who is writing it. Get to the heart of what makes these people tick, because it will be people like them you are trying to reach — and get them interested — with your book.

Be selective about the places you tend to market. You tend to get back what you put into marketing. Promoting your book all over the place simply because you think the exposure is “good” can actually be detrimental. Instead of diluting your time, effort and money in a lot of places, focus your efforts on maybe three to five places you really think fit with your book, and with your primary target audience. Knowing your market, and being really focused on them, will prevent this unfocused, confusing marketing, and help you build the right relationships, and be in the right places, so that your book promotion strategy has the greatest possible payoff.

6. Explore targeted advertising

Not all advertising is effective. Often you can get good results by targeting your ad properly. To do this, write a brief description of your target market or persona. Make sure to write down what’s most important to this person. What does he or she care about? How does this person spend their time? Where does he or she hang out on the Internet? Once you know these details you’ll be able to make a targeted ad that speaks directly to such a person. Good results are then sure to follow.

The great thing about promoting your book through targeted adverts is that it’s targeted. There’s less wasted time and money, and the advertising is more effective. It costs money, but it’s money well spent. Because you aren’t just targeting select groups on social media you’ll also make sure that the content you’re producing is useful to a variety of different types of people. You may have more things in common with certain groups than others, so this is a great way to explore them.

7. Pay attention to changing platforms

Keep up with the channels you’re using for that particular book. You may have a site for your business, but a different site used for other projects. Or someone needs to keep coming in to perform updates. These platforms need to be available now, but also in the future. That's especially true with social media. There's a lot of social media outlets. You need to know where you will use them for your book. Keep in mind that no one wants to hear about your successes. You have to create viralness surrounding you as a writer. This is usually done by providing meaningful and insightful content on a regular basis, and not only in the promotional nature.

Make sure you post your content in a variety of different places, especially starting out. See what works for your audience, make changes, and see the results. Don’t worry about wasting time and money if it doesn't work. At the very least, you will end up with data that can help you better promote your book in the future. Start with the places your target audience spends their time and put time and effort into that. They might be using sites for a different purpose than originally intended. The purpose might be entertainment or seeking answers to questions. If that is the case, make sure to have something to provide them.

8. Try something new

A key to success with marketing your book is to set yourself apart from your competition. What do you do that nothing else in your genre does, and then do it. If you already have a specific marketing angle, run with it. Promotions work on a catchall basis, but once your reader becomes used to seeing a precise routine, they lose their effectiveness. Mixing things up keeps you relevant to your audience and helps keep them invested in your success.

While it’s critical to find your unique approach to marketing, it’s hard to know exactly what will catch the attention of a reader online. It may take a few tries to discover something that sticks, particularly if you aren’t an established author. The best way to get around this problem is trial and error. Once you find something that works, keep doing it! It’s always stressful to throw a book out there for the world to see, and sometimes months will go by without any indication of real interest. There will be a handful of pleasant surprises, a whole lot of frustration, and the hard-earned satisfaction of sticking with it.

Are you ready to promote your book online? This guide will give you the guidance you need, but your task is to apply the information and create a unique strategy that works for your own book and business. It’s likely that promoting your book online is not going to be as easy as you expect. But if you take your time, create your strategy with care, and keep moving forward, you will be successful! Just remember, your reward is at the end of the road…

This is a guest post by Hayley Zelda. Hayley is a writer and marketer at heart. She's written on all the major writing platforms and worked with a number of self-published authors on marketing books to the YA audience. Find some of her work on Wattpad.

Want more great content like this? Check out this List Of Interesting Places To Write That Evoke Inspiration by Jessica Majewski of When You Write.