A book marketing plan doesn’t need to mean posting every day, chasing trends, or spending money you don’t have. For independent authors, a simple plan can help you decide where to focus your limited time and budget while still leaving room to write.

Most authors didn’t start writing because they wanted to become marketers. But once the book is out, marketing becomes part of the job, and it usually comes with no team and very little budget.

Author Brandi Easterling Collins puts it plainly: indie authors are marketing “with little-to-no budget.” She adds that many traditionally published authors are in the same position. For most writers, the marketing budget is whatever is left over from the day job.

I’m Cinthia Onines, founder of Boda Bliss. I help creative businesses and independent authors build marketing plans grounded in research instead of guesswork. I started my career in wedding planning, where nothing works without a timeline, and I’ve found book marketing is the same. The authors who burn out usually aren’t doing too little. They’re doing everything at once, without a plan deciding what comes first.

A sustainable book marketing plan starts with:

• Finding the actual problem: Are readers not discovering your book, or are they finding it but not buying?
• Creating repeatable content: Build ideas you can reuse instead of starting from scratch every week.
• Building relationships: Connect with booksellers, readers, reviewers, and communities that make sense for your book.
• Choosing the right discovery platforms: Focus on the places where your readers are actually looking for books.
• Marketing beyond launch day: Give your book multiple opportunities to find new readers instead of putting all your energy into release week.

Why Book Marketing Leads to Burnout

t’s a balancing act. When you’re making promotional content every day or every week, there isn’t much energy left for writing the next book.

At the same time, the competition has never been bigger. According to Bowker data reported by Publishers Weekly, more than 3.5 million self-published books were released in the US in 2025, a 38.7% jump from the year before.

Here’s how I see it: when the market floods with books, what can’t be copied becomes more valuable. Your voice, your story behind the story, and your real relationships with readers and local booksellers are exactly what a mass-produced book can’t fake. That’s where your marketing energy should go.

The real cause of burnout usually isn’t marketing itself. It’s random marketing: posting when you panic, chasing whatever trend is popular this week, and starting over every time.

So, instead of doing more, the first step is figuring out what actually needs your attention.

Why Isn’t My Book Marketing Working?

In my work, I diagnose before I prescribe, because two very different problems can feel the same from the inside.

• A visibility problem means the right readers aren’t finding your book. The focus needs to be getting the book in front of more of the people most likely to want it.
• A conversion problem means readers are finding your book but aren’t buying. That’s when it’s worth looking more closely at things like the cover, book description, price, reviews, and how clearly the book is positioned.

For example, more posting primarily addresses visibility. If people are already clicking through to your book page but leaving without buying, another month of content may not solve the actual problem.

Before adding another marketing tactic, look at what you already know. Are readers not seeing your book, or are they seeing it and not choosing it?

That answer should shape the rest of your marketing plan.

Don’t Overlook Holiday Book Marketing

Next, let’s look at one opportunity authors can use to give their books a new reason to be discovered: seasonal marketing.

The holiday season gives authors something especially useful: a reason to talk about a book that isn’t simply “buy my book.”

Books are naturally giftable. For instance, readers might be looking for something for their sister, their book club friend, their teenager, a coworker, or themselves.

And your book doesn’t have to be new.

A title from three years ago is still new to every reader who hasn’t found it yet. Instead of treating holiday marketing as something reserved for this year’s releases, think about where your existing books fit into the season.

A romance novel might fit naturally into a cozy holiday reading list. Your cookbook can become a hostess gift, while a children’s book might be something grandparents pick up for the kids. You can even take the idea beyond the book itself by pairing it with a journal, candle, bookmark, or another small-business product.

Holiday marketing gives you new ways to position a book readers may have overlooked the first time around.

Other holidays that can help you promote your book

Of course, the winter holidays aren’t your only seasonal opportunity. The right holiday depends on the book.

• Valentine’s Day: Romance, poetry, relationship books, or books about love and friendship
• Mother’s Day: Books centered on motherhood, family, relationships, or books that make good gifts
• Halloween: Horror, gothic fiction, mysteries, paranormal romance, thrillers, and darker fantasy
• Graduation: Personal development, career, business, inspirational, or coming-of-age books
• Summer reading: Beach reads, romance, thrillers, children’s books, and vacation-friendly reads
• Back-to-school season: Children’s books, young adult titles, educational books, or books relevant to teachers and parents

You can also look at local festivals, literary events, awareness months, and genre-specific celebrations.

The question isn’t, “What holiday can I force my book into?”

Instead, ask: “When would this book naturally make sense to the reader I’m trying to reach?”

What Should a Book Marketing Plan Include?

Now, let’s take a look at the plan itself.

You don’t need a 30-page marketing document.

For an independent author, your plan can be surprisingly simple. Start with:

1. A clear understanding of the reader you’re trying to reach
2. A visual direction for the book
3. A small library of repeatable content
4. A few places where those readers already discover books
5. Relationships with booksellers, reviewers, and reader communities
6. A plan for continuing promotion after launch

From there, you can decide which tactics make sense for your book, budget, and capacity.

A Simple Book Marketing Plan for Independent Authors

1. Create a Moodboard for Your Book Marketing

First, think about how your book looks, feels, and even smells.

Picture a rainy cabin, a candlelit bakery, or a cold coastal town. Gather images, colors, objects, settings, and textures that capture the world of the book.

This isn’t just a pretty Pinterest board. Instead, it becomes a visual anchor for your marketing.

You can use it to guide Pinterest pins, Instagram posts, short videos, newsletter graphics, bookstore promotional materials, and photography. As a result, you’re not reinventing the visual direction every time you need content.

2. Create Repeatable Book Marketing Content

Next, create a list of content ideas you can rotate through instead of inventing something new every week.

Pick a few from each group:

• The story: Share the history or inspiration behind the book, introduce your main characters, talk about a favorite moment, or read a short section aloud.
• Reader matches: Help readers understand who the book is for. Think genre, themes, tropes, mood, setting, or books they may already enjoy.
• Behind the scenes: Share drafts, notebooks, research, your writing space, deleted scenes, or the process of bringing the book together.
• The gift angle: Create “the perfect gift for…” content or pair your book with complementary products like a candle, pen, journal, tea, or cozy blanket.

Then give some of that content a home base.

Your author website is space you own. For example, a useful blog post, reading guide, character guide, book-club resource, or bonus page can keep helping readers discover your work long after a social post disappears.

When I build marketing plans for small creative businesses, I look for what can be reused before I add anything new. For an author, one moodboard can become a Pinterest pin, an Instagram carousel, a newsletter section, a website graphic, and a promo asset for your local bookstore.

The goal isn’t five new ideas. It’s one good idea doing five jobs.

3. Partner With Your Local Indie Bookstore

From there, look beyond your own marketing channels and start building relationships.

Independent bookstores can be valuable partners for authors, especially when there’s a strong local connection.

Ask what they have planned for the holidays and whether there are opportunities that fit your book. That could mean a signing, author event, local-author display, staff recommendation, book club, or Small Business Saturday promotion.

When you approach a bookstore, make the collaboration easy to understand. Send a short pitch, explain the local or reader connection, suggest a specific idea, and be prepared to promote the event to your own audience too.

Because I work with independent bookstores, I also look at this from the other side of the counter: the easier you make the partnership, the easier it is for a bookseller to see how your book could fit.

Think partnership rather than simply asking for shelf space.

Booksellers can introduce your work to local readers, recommend it when it’s a good fit, host events, and help create word of mouth. If you’re looking specifically for reader reviews, focus on legitimate advance reader copies and organic reviews rather than paying for positive reviews.

4. Use Book Discovery Platforms to Reach More Readers

Next, look at where readers are already discovering books. You don’t have to build every audience yourself.

Different platforms can help with different parts of book marketing:

• NetGalley: Get advance or review copies in front of reviewers, booksellers, librarians, and other book advocates.
• BookFunnel: Deliver advance copies, reader magnets, bonus content, free chapters, and other digital book files.
• BookBub: Reach readers through book discovery, promotions, deals, new releases, and author followers.
• Goodreads: Give readers a place to discover, shelve, discuss, rate, and review your book.

You don’t need all four.

Look at where authors in your genre are finding readers, then choose one or two platforms and use them well.

5. Keep Marketing Your Book After Launch

Finally, don’t treat release day as the end of your marketing plan.

If you have a new book coming, the months before release are naturally busy. You might set up pre-orders, plan a cover reveal, create your book listings, recruit advance readers, and offer the first chapter or bonus material in exchange for email sign-ups.

But release day isn’t the finish line.

In Writer’s Digest, author Tabitha Lord shares advice she received early on: indie publishing is “more like a marathon than a sprint.”

Your launch is one marketing moment among many.

For example, an older book can find new readers through seasonal campaigns, bookstore events, newsletter features, new content, price promotions, series bundles, collaborations, or the release of your next book.

The question after launch becomes: What gives me a reason to introduce this book to readers again?

Make Your Backlist Work for You

That brings us to your backlist.

Every new book gives readers another doorway into your work. Someone may discover book three first, love it, and then go looking for books one and two. Therefore, your backlist is an important part of your long-term marketing strategy.

If an older title never found its audience, that doesn’t necessarily mean its opportunity is gone.

For instance, you might bring attention back to it with a refreshed cover, seasonal campaign, series bundle, limited-time promotion, bookstore event, newsletter feature, or new content built around its themes.

Instead of thinking about each launch as an isolated campaign, look at how your books can support one another.

Only Have One Book? Start Laying the Foundation

If you only have one book, you don’t have a backlist yet. However, you can start building toward one while making the most of the book you have.

1. Start your email list now. Offer a bonus scene, deleted chapter, short story, reading guide, or other useful extra in exchange for a sign-up.
2. Collect reviews steadily. Reviews can continue helping readers evaluate your book long after launch.
3. Mention what’s next. Give readers small glimpses of your next project so they know there’s more coming.
4. Reuse what you’ve made. Your moodboard, photography, content categories, templates, and marketing systems don’t disappear when one campaign ends.

The goal is to build marketing assets that become more useful with every book you publish.

Build a Rhythm, Not a Frenzy

So, what does all of this look like when you’re actually trying to fit marketing around your writing?

I’ll always choose a simple plan you’ll actually follow over an ambitious one you’ll abandon after a few weeks.

For many independent authors, a sustainable starting rhythm might look like:

• A few posts a week, pulled from your repeatable content list
• One email to your readers each month
• One bookstore or community connection each month

Your rhythm may be smaller or larger. What matters is whether you can keep doing it without marketing taking over the time you need to write.

Then, once a month, ask yourself three questions:

• What brought readers to my book?
• What took the most energy for the least return?
• What can I reuse next month?

Those three answers become the starting point for your next month’s plan.

That’s a book marketing plan you can stick with, and it leaves room for writing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Book Marketing

Ready to Build Your Book Marketing Plan?

Ultimately, you don’t need another giant list of marketing tactics. You need to know which ones make sense for your book, your readers, your budget, and the time you actually have.

Boda Bliss helps independent authors build research-backed marketing strategies, including audience research, campaign planning, content direction, customer journeys, and sustainable promotion plans built around your actual capacity.

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