How to Make Your First Book Stand Out and Increase Sales [6 Methods]

Meta Description Have you been thinking about how to make your first book stand out? But worried that no one is going to read your book. Luckily for you, we can help with that.

Writing and publishing your first book can be a daunting task. But as an author, your work isn’t complete yet. You need to work to make your first book stand out from the hordes of published books. Fret not because we can help.

Having a social media following can do wonders for your book sales. So, first things first, when it comes to standing out with your first book, have a unique voice in your writing. Set up a website and be active on social media platforms to market your books to potential readers. 

6 Methods to Make Your Book Stand Out

Method # 1 Create Your Own Unique Voice

Discovering your creative personality, whether you’re working on a novel, a collection of short stories, flash fiction, or a news story, can sometimes be challenging. You might wonder what a voice has to do with literature.

An author’s voice is distinctively their own, distinguishing them from the rest. It makes their work stand out, and repeat readers will identify the style and return for it.

Your literary tone, grammar and punctuation, motifs, and perspective can all contribute to your voice. It is a signature on your writings that makes it personal and recognized, to the point where your readers can recognize a specimen of your writing as yours before ever seeing your name.

Method # 2 Set Up a Website

As a novelist, you require a website to exhibit your writing to both present and prospective readers. You need a webpage as a young writer to present yourself to someone who has yet to read any of your work.

You may have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, but your website gives you the necessary credibility. 

To pursue the traditional path and work with literary publishing houses, you must first develop an online presence. After all, publications nowadays expect you to handle much of your own advertising.

A website becomes even more important if you intend to go the self publishing route. Readers and fans must understand who you are and what you write. It also helps build an email list to keep your audience updated on your progress.

Method # 3 Establish Your Brand

Proper brand positioning of an author explains why someone should read your stuff rather than anyone else’s. Why does a reader choose your book above the thousands of others on the market?

Anything influences your brand, from social media activity to blog pieces and podcast interviews. Your author partnerships and new releases are consistent with your brand. Everything contributes to the larger picture of who you are and what you can offer.

Your author branding is a living, dynamic tale that expresses what distinguishes your work. It is an unspoken guarantee to your readers of what they may expect from you on a constant basis.

Method # 4 Create a Following on Social Media

Social media improves an author’s network by connecting them with fans, professional colleagues, and the literary community. It enables authors to become more engaged with their readers and understand them. It turns out to be a big benefit, particularly for writers who have drifted into a solitary lifestyle.

There are numerous social media behemoths these days, each with a unique approach to spreading awareness about the creators there. As a result, it is critical to evaluate which social networking sites will work best for you and to begin with simply one or two.

Set up an account on your preferred social media outlet. Provide a high-quality, well-lit picture about yourself that properly shows who you really are as an author. As a background image, you may use a snapshot of one of your most recent novels. Do not leave the spaces for profile photos empty; high-quality images that relate you to the viewers are an important aspect of social media.

You can discover other debut authors trying to make it big through a social media following and share ideas and advice.

Method # 5 Send Your Book to Reviewers

Book reviews let a potential reader know if your book is worth reading. It aids in determining the worth of a book. They lessen the risk of readers being dissatisfied with a particular book. Book reviews allow prospective readers to become intimately familiar with what a novel is about, providing readers an inkling of how they might relate to it, and evaluating if this particular book will be the appropriate book for them right now.

Books with more reviews are much more likely to be shown to prospective readers and purchasers on some platforms than novels with few or no book reviews. Book evaluations can boost your book’s visibility among book clubs, bookstores, blogging communities, and other places where new readers can find it.

In other words, the inclusion of book reviews can assist in authenticating a book’s merit and identifying who the book’s readership is. Once validated, other people like them are far more likely to want to accompany their peers and purchase the same book.

In short, book reviews are an essential part of book marketing that shouldn’t be scoffed at. You can also send advance reader copies to certain parties in the literary world that hold a lot of clout.

Method # 6 Build Visibility on Amazon

Amazon is an e-commerce juggernaut that should not be underestimated. Amazon presently has about 33 million book titles in its catalog, which it ships to practically every country where it conducts business. Amazon alone sold around 48.5 million books in 2020.

As a result, you must create adequate visibility on Amazon to enhance sales and make your book stand out because Amazon is where most of your readers will purchase their books. As a result, you can make money by selling books on Amazon but you have to do it right.

Final Words

This is everything we had to say regarding how to make your book stand out from the rest and boost sales. The fact that you can’t just attract readers with a good story as a new writer is a little bit discouraging to most authors planning on publishing their first book.

But it doesn’t matter much whether it’s your first or the tenth book on the market. If you advertise it correctly, it can easily stand out.