Time-Saving, Low-Cost Book Marketing Strategies for Fiction Authors
- Fiction Yogi
- 17 hours ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 1 hour ago
In this article we'll consider:
Automating your author platform
Batch content creation
Low-lift engagement on social media
Book promotion services used strategically
Repurposing positive reviews
Author collaborations
Evergreen freebies
Monthly Book Marketing Plan PDF
Download to read later:
If you're a fiction author, fear not, I have good news about marketing your novel. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming, time-consuming, or expensive. With a bit of upfront work, you can put in place book marketing strategies that will save you time and money while still delivering results.
Many authors struggle to find the right balance between writing and promotion—but with a few smart systems, you can market your books efficiently without sacrificing your writing time, your savings pot, or, importantly, your sanity.
In this post, we’ll break down the most effective time-saving, low-cost book marketing tactics, including social media shortcuts, email automation, and low-effort tools that promote your books while you're busy writing (or "mentally planning") the next one.
Stay tuned to the end of the article to download your Monthly Book Marketing Plan PDF.
1. Automate your author platform with a website & newsletter combo
If you've been writing and publishing for a while, it's highly likely you already have this system in place and working for you. But for those starting your careers, your website and newsletter form the crucial foundation your business needs in order to reach readers and build an audience for your books.
They both require financial as well as initial time investment, but it is possible to keep the costs down, and once in place, it will run itself.
Build a simple author website, using platforms like WordPress, Wix, or Weebly (mine is with Weebly at TLDyer.com and costs me less than $10/month). Your website should include at the bare minimum:
Info about your book(s) and links to purchase
A short bio
A newsletter sign-up form
A reader magnet: free content, such as short story or novella, in exchange for email sign-up; additionally, display your reader magnet everywhere you have contact with readers, such as the back of your books, and social media profiles or pinned posts
Use an email marketing tool like MailerLite, Mailchimp, or ConvertKit to create an automated welcome email, or sequence of emails over a period of weeks or months, that "onboards" new subscribers to your newsletter (and brand) when they sign up via your website sign-up form or by downloading your reader magnet.
Each provider has tiered pricing plans, so find the one that best suits your requirements. I use MailerLite, and am currently on the free plan for my author brand, but a paid version for Fiction Yogi.
Why it works: Set it and forget it. After you've taken the initial time and care to build the system, your website and email funnel will work 24/7 behind the scenes to grow your audience of newsletter subscribers (AKA fans or soon-to-be fans).
2. Batch content creation
Instead of posting daily or scrambling for social media ideas, dedicate one day a month or a couple of hours a week to creating a batch of content (I use Saturday mornings).
Focus areas may include:
Quote graphics from your book or character lines (created using Canva, free or paid)
Behind-the-scenes posts (photos of your writing desk or research trips; quotes on what's inspired you, or a peek at deleted scenes)
Reader polls or trivia (especially for Instagram Stories or Facebook)
Simplify the process of content creation by developing a system of what type of posts you'll upload when. For example, Fiction Yogi's schedule looks like this: Mondays, motivational quotes; Tuesdays and Thursdays, quotes from my blogs; Wednesdays, new blog post; Fridays, zen-style quotes; Saturdays, handy writing-related infographics or promotional posts for my editing services; Sundays, either left free or a photo of a new book I'm reading.
If you can afford to, use scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to queue up a week's or month's worth of content that will upload to your social media profiles automatically.
Or to save money, do as I do and add your newly created post images to a folder on your desktop, then create a simple spreadsheet with an imported calendar (downloaded, for example, from Calendar Labs), in which you record the posts you'll upload each day. The downside is the time it takes to upload the posts manually, but I find it only takes a few minutes out of my day and is worth saving on the expense.
Time-saver tip: Turn one piece of content, such as a blog post or news about your books, into several social posts across platforms, as well as news for your newsletter.
3. Low-lift engagement on social media
We all know the dangers of social media as a time suck and its potential for overwhelm, and this is especially so when you're running a business online. Avoid feeling like you have to do everything and be everywhere—you'll only spread yourself too thin. Instead, focus on one or two platforms where your readers are, and where you feel most comfortable.
For most fiction authors, the platforms are one or more of the following:
Instagram (great for book aesthetics)
TikTok (if you’re comfortable with video)
Facebook groups (especially genre-specific ones)
Schedule only 15–20 minutes per day maximum, to:
Reply to comments
Comment on other authors' or readers' posts
Share/repost relevant content
Time-saver tip: When your scheduled 15–20 minutes are up, the task ends. Don't linger.
4. Use book promotion services (strategically)
Take time at the beginning of the year, or every six months, to schedule when you'll run promotions—for example, around a new book launch, or seasonal backlist sales. Rather than running paid ads with no guarantee of a return on investment, keep costs in line with your budget by pre-booking time-efficient, genre-specifc promo services, such as:
Freebooksy/Bargain Booksy
BookDoggy
BookFunnel promos
Written Word Media promos, ads or bundles
The Fussy Librarian
Pro tip: Group promotions on platforms such as BookFunnel give your book free exposure to hundreds or thousands of new readers for the price of simply sharing the event on your social media platforms and email newsletter. Some promos will even supply you with promotional materials you can use, but if not, they're easy to put together on Canva, and will satisfy your content-posting quota for a couple of days over the period of the promo.
5. Repurpose reader reviews
Once your book is out in the world, turn positive reviews into social proof content that you can use repeatedly to further promote your work.
Post review snippets on your website
Add them to your book's description on retailer platforms
Share them as images on social media
Use them in your email marketing
Bonus: Ask for permission and tag the reviewer if you're able—it increases engagement and builds loyalty. Additionally, you could encourage subscribers to either email or social post photos of themselves with your book wherever they are in the world, and ask their permission to share the images publicly.
6. Collaborate with other authors
Fellow authors are your work colleagues not your competitors (there are enough readers to go around but never enough good books). Form or join a small author collective in your genre by connecting through Facebook groups, writing forums, or social media. This provides a mutually beneficial arrangement that allows you to easily:
Cross-promote each other’s books
Host joint giveaways
Share newsletter space
Why it works: You pool resources and expand reach without each of you having to reinvent the wheel or pay a penny.
7. Create an evergreen freebie
If you write series or connected standalones, make the first book free or discounted permanently. This will be your low-barrier-to-entry introduction to your books.
Free first-in-series is a marketing tactic I've successfully employed for my Hoskins & Fletcher series, and it continues to bring in new readers even when I'm not promoting the books in any other capacity. With the addition of my reader magnet, a prequel to the series, linked at the back of the free book, it means I also continually get new subscribers and send out welcome emails with discounts off my other books—all of which is automated, and goes on without me having to get involved.
Time-saver tip: One great lead-in book does most of the marketing for the rest of your series, and even other books in your back catalogue too.
Finally...
The best marketing is that which doesn't overwhelm, cut deeply into your time, or exceed the budget. There's a lot of advice about book marketing out there, but the important thing to remember is you don’t need to master every tactic—just pick two or three to begin with that: suit your personality and strengths, serve your readers, and fit within your time commitment and budget.
You can always add more tactics as you become more adept with your marketing process. Likewise, there's no right or wrong way of doing this—if the tactics you choose are not working out for you after a period of time, switch them up and try something different.
Ultimately, writing your next book is still the best long-term marketing strategy there is. But with the right systems in place, your backlist will sell itself while you write.
Save time & money. Stay in control. Sell more books.
Download the Monthly Book Marketing Plan PDF:
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Tina Williams of Fiction Yogi is a copyeditor and proofreader who works with writers at all stages, giving them the tools to improve their manuscript and level up their writing so they can meet their publishing goals.
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