Writing & Publishing Marketing

Book Marketing: A Practical System for Selling More Books

Build a clear, repeatable marketing plan that helps readers discover, trust, and buy your book.

Book Marketing: A Practical System for Selling More Books logo
Quick Course Facts
17
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
17
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
5.5
Approximate Hours of Course Media
About the Book Marketing: A Practical System for Selling More Books Course

This course gives you a practical, step-by-step approach to Writing & Publishing with a focus on real-world Book Marketing results. You’ll learn how to create a system that helps the right readers find your book, trust your message, and take action.

Build A Practical Book Marketing System That Sells More Books

  • Learn how to Build a clear, repeatable marketing plan that helps readers discover, trust, and buy your book.
  • Define your ideal reader and position your book so it stands out in a crowded market.
  • Create stronger messaging, landing pages, and email marketing that support long-term sales.
  • Use social media, promotions, reviews, and outreach without wasting time or effort.

A practical framework for planning, launching, and improving your book marketing efforts.

In this course, you’ll explore the full Book Marketing process from foundational strategy to ongoing growth. Instead of relying on random tactics, you’ll learn how to choose the right channels, build an author platform that fits your goals, and shape a message that clearly communicates your book’s value. Each lesson is designed to help you make smarter decisions about where to focus your time and energy.

You’ll also learn how to strengthen discoverability through metadata, create a high-conversion book landing page, and plan a launch timeline that supports visibility from the start. The course covers essential promotion methods such as early reviews, limited-time offers, social content, blogger and podcaster outreach, and paid ads on a small budget. You’ll also gain a better understanding of analytics so you can measure what works and improve your results over time.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a sustainable marketing system you can reuse for future releases and long-term audience growth. You’ll move from guessing what to do next to following a clear strategy that supports Writing & Publishing success, helping you market more confidently and sell more books with purpose.

Course Lessons

Full lesson breakdown

Lessons are organized by topic area and each includes descriptive copy for search visibility and student clarity.

Foundations

1 lesson

This lesson explains the book marketing landscape : the main channels readers use to discover books, the choices authors must make, and the difference between random promotion and a repeatable system.…

Audience Strategy

1 lesson

Lesson 2: Defining Your Ideal Reader

18 min
In this lesson, you will define your ideal reader so your marketing speaks to the right people instead of trying to reach everyone. You will learn how to identify the reader most likely to want your b…

Market Positioning

1 lesson

Lesson 3: Positioning Your Book in the Market

20 min
Positioning is how readers decide whether your book is for them and whether it is worth their time and money. In this lesson, you will define the market category, audience, and promise your book occup…

Messaging

1 lesson

Lesson 4: Clarifying the Core Message and Promise

18 min
This lesson helps you define the core message of your book marketing: what your book is about, who it is for, and why it matters now. You will learn how to turn a broad book idea into a clear promise …

Channel Selection

1 lesson

Lesson 5: Choosing the Right Marketing Channels

20 min
Choosing the right marketing channels starts with a simple idea: not every platform is worth your time. In this lesson, you will learn how to match channels to your book, your readers, and your goals …

Platform Building

1 lesson

Lesson 6: Building an Author Platform That Fits Your Goals

20 min
This lesson helps authors define an author platform that matches their book, their readers, and their available time. Instead of chasing every social channel, you will learn how to choose a platform p…

Email Marketing

1 lesson

Lesson 7: Using Email Marketing to Build Long-Term Reach

22 min
Email marketing gives authors a direct, reliable way to reach readers without depending entirely on retailer algorithms or social platforms. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use email to build long…

Conversion Assets

1 lesson

Lesson 8: Creating a High-Conversion Book Landing Page

18 min
A high-conversion book landing page does one job: help the right reader decide to buy, join a list, or take the next step. In this lesson, you will learn the core structure of a landing page for a boo…

Discoverability

1 lesson

Lesson 9: Preparing Your Metadata for Discovery

18 min
Strong book marketing starts with metadata : the title, subtitle, series name, author name, description, BISAC categories, keywords, ISBN details, and retailer fields that help stores and search engin…

Launch Planning

1 lesson

Lesson 10: Planning a Book Launch Timeline

22 min
In this lesson, you’ll build a practical launch timeline for your book so your marketing efforts happen in the right order and at the right pace. Instead of trying to do everything at once, you’ll lea…

Social Proof

1 lesson

Lesson 11: Getting Early Reviews and Reader Endorsements

18 min
Early reviews and reader endorsements help buyers feel confident before they ever sample your book. In this lesson, you will learn how to build a small, organized review pool, who to contact first, wh…

Promotions

1 lesson

Lesson 12: Running Promotions and Limited-Time Offers

20 min
Promotions and limited-time offers can give your book a short-term sales lift when they are tied to a clear goal and a specific audience. In this lesson, you will learn how to choose the right type of…

Social Content

1 lesson

Lesson 13: Using Social Media Without Wasting Time

18 min
This lesson shows authors how to use social media as a time-efficient support channel for book marketing, not as a place to post constantly. The goal is to choose a few platforms that match your reade…

Outreach

1 lesson

Lesson 14: Working with Book Bloggers, Podcasters, and Influencers

20 min
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to approach book bloggers, podcasters, and influencers in a way that is professional, targeted, and respectful of their audience. The goal is not to ask for “promotion…

Paid Marketing

1 lesson

Lesson 15: Advertising Books on a Small Budget

22 min
Advertising can help authors reach readers faster than organic marketing alone, but only if the spend is focused and measurable. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to choose simple ad goals, pick the ri…

Analytics

1 lesson

Lesson 16: Measuring Performance and Improving Results

20 min
This lesson shows you how to measure book marketing performance without getting lost in vanity metrics. You’ll identify the numbers that matter, connect them to your book’s goals, and use them to make…

Ongoing Growth

1 lesson

Lesson 17: Building a Sustainable Long-Term Marketing System

18 min
This lesson shows how to turn book marketing from a series of one-off promotions into a sustainable long-term system . You will learn how to build a simple marketing rhythm, reuse assets, track what m…
About Your Instructor
Professor Mark Davis

Professor Mark Davis

Professor Mark Davis guides this AI-built Virversity course with a clear, practical teaching style.