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Resources > Support for book authors & editors > Sales & Marketing

How you can help promote your book

While the Sage Marketing and Sales teams will be working hard to get information on your book out to key audiences and sales channels, what you do yourself can have a huge impact on your book’s success. Here are some ideas:

 

Getting your Book Recommended on Courses

  • Do you have any colleagues or contacts teaching courses that your book would be ideal for? Make sure that they know about your book.
  • If you send a list of teaching contacts to market@sagepub.co.uk, we can send digital inspection copies. For each contact, we need the following information:
    • Name, institution, department, institutional email address, and the name of the course that they teach
    • Don’t forget to include details of your book as well, so we know which book to send them!
  • A personal email from you to your contacts as well will go a long way to getting your book on their reading lists.
  • When a lecturer confirms that they are adopting a book for their course on our website, they have an opportunity to leave comments that will appear on the book’s webpage. Do encourage any contacts who have received a copy of your book to do this, as this can help with the book’s web discoverability.

 

Local Libraries and Bookshops

  • If you and/or other lecturers at your institution are recommending your book as essential reading for courses, your library may be able purchase digital access to your book for students. We have a wide range of institutional purchase options. Contact your librarian to find out if there is an institutional purchase scheme in place.
  • Does your institution’s bookshop or local bookshop have copies in stock? Bookshops are generally keen to stock books by authors/editors based nearby, and may have copies, but it’s worth checking, and asking them to order stock.
  • Bookshops and libraries often run programmes of events including author talks/ readings. Consider putting yourself forward as a speaker.

 

Your Institution

  • Share your book flyer with discount code (that you should have received from your editor) with your colleagues and students. Alternatively, stick it up on your office door and/or department noticeboard. Inspire your students by showing that you’re a published author!
  • If your campus bookshop is running a special offer or bundle including your book, ask them for a poster to promote the offer. If your institution doesn’t have a bookshop, find out about our Direct to Student Offer. If you can’t find your institution via this page, contact your local sales representative.
  • Does your university/local authority/organization have a newsletter? Ensure they include a mention of your new publication in the next issue.
  • Take advantage of your university profile page, and under Publications, mention and hyperlink to your book’s page on our website.
  • Your organization may have a press department who could send out a press release about your book or post about your book on your institution’s social channels.
  • If your institution has a VLE, add details and links to your book where possible. If your book has a companion website, also link to the additional resources.

 

Emails

  • Add a simple line of text and a link, or a signature with an image included, to your email signature, along with a link to your book’s page on the Sage website. Find out how here.

 

Online Bookshops

Amazon

  • Ask colleagues, contacts, and students to review your book on Amazon and vote good reviews as ‘helpful’. More reviews and ‘helpful’ votes increase visibility and sales. They don’t need to have purchased the book via Amazon to do this.
  • Create an Amazon author page via Author Central to bring your books together – you can add an author profile, which will appear on Amazon and in Kindle books, and access information on customer reviews and sales rankings.
  • If you have a website, you can sign up for Amazon Associates to earn commissions from purchases made from traffic you drive to Amazon. This can be for your book or other products. Find out more at Amazon.co.uk Associates Central

Bookshop.org

  • Bookshop.org is a socially-conscious way to buy books online. They dedicate most of their profits to supporting local, independent bookshops, authors, and publications that cover books.
  • Authors can become affiliates and earn 10% of every purchase made from their Bookshop sales - and a matching 10% will go to support independent bookshops. There are no fees, no set-up costs, and it takes about 15 minutes to create an affiliate account. Get started here.

Australia/ New Zealand

  • Woodslane are our primary distributor in Australia & New Zealand. Our discount codes are valid for purchases via Woodslane so don’t forget to share your book flyer with contacts in the region.

 

Social Media

You can use any social media platform to share news about your book with your followers. You should have received images to share on social media from your editor. Here are some suggestions of posts you can share:

  • During the writing process: Communicate progress updates: Have you completed a chapter or are particularly satisfied with a specific section? Writing a book is a substantial commitment, and providing updates to your colleagues and audience can be an effective way to sustain motivation and engagement as well as pique early interest with potential readers.
  • 5 months before publication: Share your book’s Sage webpage and cover image. You could consider adding these to your profile information or even using your book cover as your profile or banner image too.
  • 4 months before: Announce pre-orders on Amazon and/or other retailers.
  • 2 months before: Share your Amazon author page/Bookshop.org page
  • 6 weeks–1 month before: Post about checking proofs. Real life photos get great engagement on social channels, so why not print some of your proof pages and photograph them on your desk?
  • 2 weeks before: Share a link to a sample chapter – there should be one on the page for your book on the Sage website by now.
  • On publication: Share photos of your author copies and links to buy. You could even do an unboxing video when you receive your copies.
  • Post publication: Continue to share posts from time to time. Ideas could include:
    • Highlighting a particular chapter or feature in your book, with a comment on why it is particularly relevant right now.
    • Sharing feedback on the book that you’ve received.
    • Photos of you with your book at an event you’ve attended.
    • A video of you responding to frequently asked questions about the content in your book, or a blog post covering this content – or both!
    • Reflections on your experience of becoming a published author.
    • If you are on LinkedIn, you can create a blog post if you want to expand further on any of the above points or share an article that you’ve written related to your book.

Remember to tag our social channels so that we can like your posts. This extends the reach of your posts as our followers will see it as well as yours.

Our social channels are:

Not yet built your following on social media? Find more advice on using Social Media to promote your book here.

 

Academic Networking Sites, Online Discussion Lists, Groups, or Forums

If you are a member or participant in any online groups, networks, lists or forums related to your book’s topic, these may be suitable places to share news about your book. Do adhere to any rules for these sites and don’t spam users with messages about your book, but a personalized message where allowed can be a great way to spread the word. If you’re feeling shy, could a colleague post a recommendation instead?

 

Working with Influencers

If you don’t yet have a sizeable following, or even if you do, connecting with others working in your subject area who already have large followings on social channels (LinkedIn, X, Instagram, BlueSky, TikTok) can be a great way to get the word out. Influencers are often more responsive to direct approaches from authors. If you’d like a review copy of your book sent to any influencers who are interested in featuring your book on their channels, please do get in touch at market@sagepub.co.uk

If you are requesting a book be sent to an influencer, we’ll need to know:

  • Details of their social media account/ # followers
  • An email address to send a digital copy
  • Full address and phone number to send a print copy

 

Events and Speaking Engagements

Engaging in public-facing activities helps establish you as a trusted expert and thought leader. These opportunities build your reputation, increase your visibility, and often lead to new collaborations, media coverage, and professional invitations. They also allow you to share your ideas with wider audiences beyond your immediate academic or professional circles. Ideas to try:

  • Conferences & Symposia: Submit proposals to speak at academic, industry, or education-focused events. Look for calls for papers or speaker submissions well in advance.
  • Guest Lectures: Offer to speak in university courses related to your subject area. Reach out to course leaders or department heads with a short pitch and bio.
  • Panel Discussions: Volunteer or pitch yourself as a panellist for events hosted by universities, publishers, or professional associations.
  • Try to get recordings of any talks that you do and get permission from organizers to share these (or clips of them) on social media.
  • If you are booked for a ticketed speaking event or training course, suggest to organizers that they include a copy of the book as part of the course/event. Contact  orders@sagepub.co.uk to discuss special prices.
  • Include a PowerPoint slide with your book  in your presentation. You should have received promotional images (including an image with a discount code perfect for dropping into a slide deck) and a discount flyer from your editor. If you don’t have a discount flyer to share, please email market@sagepub.co.uk including details of your book and the event. Please give us 2 weeks’ notice to give us time to set up the discounts for you.
  • If you want to buy copies of your book to sell at a workshop/event you’re attending, get in touch at orders@sagepub.co.uk. Remember, you are entitled to a 35% discount off your own book!

 

Media

Positioning yourself as a thought leader is a great way to raise your own profile and also the profile of your book. You may want to think about:

Podcasts:

  • Reach out to shows that align with your subject area to pitch yourself as a guest speaker on a topic related to your new book.

YouTube Interviews

  • Reach out to creators or channels that feature authors, educators, or experts.
  • You can set up your own YouTube channel, too – we find YouTube Shorts get most engagement, and are easy to create. Learn more here.
  • If you do create YouTube content, please let your Editor or Marketing contact know (or email us at market@sagepub.co.uk) so that we can repurpose this in our marketing activities.

Magazines, trade publications, websites or blogs in your subject area:

  • Suggest an expert commentary piece on a topic related to your book.
  • Writing for The Conversation (if you are an academic) can help you to be discoverable by journalists and editors. Other sites you could consider include Times Higher Education and AdvanceHE’s blog
  • Sage have a number of blogs & sites that can host thought leadership articles related to your book. If you have an idea for a piece, please contact your Editor or Marketing contact, or email market@sagepub.co.uk
  • You can also create blog posts on LinkedIn to share your article with your network.
  • If you have your own website or blog, please let us know

National/ Local Media

  • If your work ties into current events or hot topics, consider pitching to local or national media outlets.

If you have a website which includes your bio and details of your publications and previous speaking/ media appearances, this can help. If you are featured in any magazines or on any podcasts, do let your Editor or Marketing contact know (or email market@sagepub.co.uk) so that we can feature this in our marketing activities and/or link to this from your book’s page on our website.

 

Create or Contribute to a Wikipedia Page

Why it matters: Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites globally. Having a presence there can boost your discoverability and lend authority - especially if your work is cited or referenced.

Ideas to try:

  • Create a page for yourself or your book (if it meets Wikipedia’s notability guidelines).
  • Contribute to pages related to your subject area to build credibility and visibility.

 

Goodreads

While Goodreads is predominantly focused around fiction titles, many authors, particularly of more practical professional titles, find that readers review their books on Goodreads. Goodreads offer lots of options for engaging with readers and promoting your books. Find out more: The Goodreads Author Program

Any questions? Check our FAQs at www.sagepub.com/book-author-faqs