book marketing

October 2025 Book Marketing Challenge Update

| C.E. Flores

So, how did I do updating my online presence?

Welp, I suppose it could have gone better. Let’s call this month’s challenge a work in progress.

I did manage to update a few things across the board, including some author bios, some book descriptions, and some keywords. Progress! I didn’t get around to adding more books to BookBub or Muted Muses (maybe next round), but I did run several free promotions this month, which gave some of my titles a nice little boost.

Then came the Amazon ads fiasco. My bank, the same one I’ve used for ten years,  decided to switch from Mastercard to Discover platform. No big deal, right? Wrong. Amazon Media Group doesn’t accept Discover as a valid payment method. Cue the sad trombone. 🎺

So, I had to turn off all my ads, and naturally, my sales nosedived at lightning speed. For now, I’m not running any Amazon ads until I figure out how to actually pay for them. Gotta love a good plot twist in marketing!

Book marketing is hard. Just when I think I’ve got a handle on it, something unexpected comes along to derail my momentum.

And that, friends, wraps up my October challenge. Onward to November! Let’s see what I can do next!

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Book Hawking: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Self-Published Book is your roadmap to turning your hidden gem into a must-read!

October 2025 Book Marketing Challenge

| C.E. Flores

Hitting Refresh: Revamping My Author Presence for the Fall 🍂📚

Whew. After a rollercoaster of sales and social media experiments, I’ve realized it’s time for a good old-fashioned author presence refresh. October feels like the perfect month to step back, take inventory, and make sure my online spaces actually reflect where I am as a writer right now and not where I was three years ago.

So, here’s what I’ve been working on (and what’s coming next):

1. Updating My Digital Homes 

First up, I’m giving my Amazon author pages, Goodreads, and websites some botox if not serious facelifts.

  • Fresh bios: It’s funny how fast your author bio gets outdated. I plan to rewrite mine to better reflect my current projects, interests, and focus areas. (Check me out on Amazon as C.E. Flores and Millie Flores)
  • Latest highlights: Adding updates about my current projects so readers know what I’ve been up to, what’s coming next, and where to dive in first if they’re new to my work. (See my latest adventures at Surviving Mexico.)

2. Making My Book Descriptions Work Harder 

While updating my author profiles, I realized some of my book descriptions were… let’s just say they weren’t doing me any favors. So I’ve been going through each one to:

  • Add stronger hooks that make readers want to click “Buy Now.”
  • Use keywords that help new readers actually find my books through search.
  • Inject a little more emotional pull because sometimes a well-placed line about transformation says more than a paragraph of details ever could.

If you haven’t checked your book blurbs in a while, trust me, it’s worth a refresh.

3. Expanding My Reach: Reviews, Reviews, Reviews 

Another big focus for this season: getting more eyes on my books. I’m adding another title to BookBub and also over at Muted Muses to gather more honest reviews and reach new audiences. Reviews are still one of the most powerful ways to build trust with readers, and I’ve been missing opportunities by not fully leaning into that. I also had an author reach out to me to review his book on book reviews, so that’s on my to-do list for the month.

Looking Ahead

This refresh feels like a reset button, a chance to polish what’s already out there, make my books easier to find, and reconnect with my readers in a way that feels more current. By tightening up my author presence now, I’m setting myself up for stronger sales and more engaged readers heading into the holidays and the new year.

It’s a lot of work, but honestly? It feels good to get organized and intentional again.

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Book Hawking: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Self-Published Book is your roadmap to turning your hidden gem into a must-read!

September 2025 Book Marketing Challenge Update

| C.E. Flores

September wasn’t the most productive writing month for me (life had other plans), but something surprising happened. My book sales actually went up! Maybe it was thanks to the extra push I gave my Lupita book marketing… maybe it was just good luck. Either way, I’m celebrating the win. 

I kept my Amazon ads running for both Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes and the Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico series, and I also showed up consistently on social media with some targeted posts focused on the Abuelita book. The results? Not too shabby at all.

Looking ahead, I’m maintaining my focus on my children’s book, Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes! (available in both bilingual and Spanish editions) for the next couple of months with more of the same.

So, how about you? What book projects or marketing strategies are you planning to roll out in the next couple of months?

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Book Hawking: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Self-Published Book is your roadmap to turning your hidden gem into a must-read!

September 2025 Book Marketing Challenge

| C.E. Flores

Bringing a Little Holiday Magic Early

The holidays might still be a ways off, but in my world, the Rosca de Reyes season starts now. Why? Because if you want a book in time for January 6th’s Three Kings’ Day celebration, you have to order at least three weeks in advance, and that means the marketing magic begins well before the wrapping paper comes out.

This month, my focus is seasonal marketing, lining up my promotions with special holidays and events so my books arrive right when people are ready to celebrate.

One of my favorite projects for this season is my children’s book Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes! (available in bilingual and Spanish editions). It’s a sweet, cozy story about baking, tradition, and family time, exactly the kind of book you want to share over hot chocolate on a winter afternoon.

Here’s what I’m doing to get it out into the world:

  • Creating cheerful, holiday-inspired graphics featuring the book’s reviews.
  • Posting a gentle, once-a-month nudge for anyone who’s read it to leave a short review (seriously, it makes such a difference).
  • Keeping the conversation going about Día de Reyes now, so when the holiday shopping season kicks in, this story is already on people’s minds.

Seasonal marketing is a little like baking. You mix the right ingredients (timing, visuals, community buzz), let them rise, and by the time the celebration rolls around, you have something warm and wonderful to share.

So here’s to planting those festive seeds early. With a little luck (and a lot of Rosca), December and January will be filled with sweet sales and even sweeter connections.

Get Your copy today!

July 2025 Book Marketing Challenge Update

| C.E. Flores

When Ads Stop Working (and Trying Something New)

I’ve dabbled in Facebook ads before, but they’re just not for me. Instagram ads? Same story since my following there isn’t large enough to make a noticeable dent in sales.

Amazon ads, on the other hand, have historically been worth the investment. With the tracking tools Amazon provides, I could see they were bringing in results. But earlier this year, Amazon made some changes that threw a wrench into my progress.

In January, proposed tariffs put a halt to shipping print books from the U.S. (where mine are printed) to other countries. This completely shut down the small but steady stream of sales I had in Mexico. The trickle went dry. Worse still, I can’t even order author copies to Mexico, where I live, which is an issue I’ll have to find a workaround for.

Then in June, Amazon raised print prices and changed its royalty structure so that only books priced above $9.99 qualified for the 70% royalty rate. That meant I had to raise my print book prices. But knowing this would push some readers out of the market, I made nearly all of my titles available as Kindle ebooks for KU reads.

The results? Immediate, but not encouraging. KU page reads shot up, but print sales plummeted. I had my worst sales month ever.

Because of this, I’ve decided to reduce my overall ad budget. I’m keeping my Amazon ads for now, but they’re not pulling their weight. And given that Amazon reported a 41% drop in sales during July’s Prime Day compared to last year, it’s clear I’m not the only one seeing a slowdown.

So, I decided to try something different.

In July, Ultimate Bundles was running their Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle, and I just managed to get my submission in before the deadline. I offered my book The Mexican Apothecary: Traditional Cold and Flu Herbal Remedies as an ebook, which is one of my books that isn’t available in ebook form on Amazon.

I didn’t expect to sell many bundles (and I didn’t), but that wasn’t my main goal. My real aim was to introduce my work to a new audience, people interested in healthy living and herbs, who might not otherwise have discovered me. My hope is that some of them will enjoy the book enough to check out my main series, Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico.

The writing life is full of experiments, and this was one of them. Here’s hoping August brings more traction.

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Book Hawking: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Self-Published Book is your roadmap to turning your hidden gem into a must-read!

March 2025 Book Marketing Challenge

| C.E. Flores

Creating content that resonates with the target audience is a crucial step in any book journey. This month, the focus is on building engagement by sharing behind-the-scenes looks at the writing process, posting excerpts, and using creative tools like Canva to make quote cards and graphics.

Honestly, as an introvert, putting myself out there on social media feels daunting. But I also recognize that book marketing isn’t just about selling. It’s about connection. If I want my words to reach the right people, I must step beyond my comfort zone and engage meaningfully with my audience.

So, here’s to pushing past hesitation and embracing new ways to share my work. Whether it’s a simple teaser post, a quote graphic, or a live discussion (gulp!), every effort brings me closer to my readers. Let’s do this!

Month 3: Develop Engaging Content

  • Focus: Build content that resonates with your audience.
  • Actions:
    • Share behind-the-scenes looks at your writing process.
    • Post short excerpts, quotes, or teasers from your book.
    • Create graphics with tools like Canva (e.g., quote cards, covers).
    • Use polls, Q&As, or live videos to engage your audience.

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Book Hawking: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Self-Published Book is your roadmap to turning your hidden gem into a must-read!

2025 Book Marketing Challenge

| C.E. Flores

Along with my reading and writing challenges, I want to step up my game a bit on the marketing front this year. What’s the point of writing books if nobody is reading them? So, with a little help from AI, I have the beginnings of a 12-month plan to get my books into the hands of eager readers. 

What I’ll do is give you the marketing suggestions in the first post and then update you next month on how I did with them. Perhaps these ideas will help you in your own book marketing.

Month 1: Define Your Brand & Goals

  • Focus: Create a solid foundation for your marketing efforts.
  • Actions:
    • Identify your target audience (age, interests, needs).
    • Define your brand voice and message.
    • Set measurable goals (e.g., sales numbers, followers gained).
    • Optimize your author website with a landing page for your book.
    • Design a content calendar for the year.

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In Book Hawking: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Self-Published Book, you’ll learn about simple and inexpensive ways to let the world know about your book.

Amazon Ad Challenge with Bryan Cohen

| C.E. Flores

In January, I signed my author self up for Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ad Challenge. This was actually the third time around for me. The first time I was too intimidated to participate. The second time I did each and every assignment and attended each and every session. This third time, I tried my hand at creating ads for a different book, and man, has it made a difference in my book sales on Amazon.

I highly recommend the Amazon Ad Challenge for anyone looking to get some more publicity for their book. Bryan does an excellent job explaining how to read the Amazon Ad dashboard, create ad copy, and launch a low-cost ad that gives results. 

This isn’t an instant rocket ride to stardom by any means. In fact, Bryan cautions authors that they must be like the Zen lemur and cultivate patience. However, I have been delighted with my modest results. 

This process works best for series since your royalties will increase exponentially due to the phenomena of “read-through.” This means a reader buys your book or reads it on Kindle Unlimited because it was featured in an ad. Then, they like your book so much, they buy the next book in the series, and so on.

Over 1,500 authors have registered for the Free Amazon Ad Challenge. I’m one of them! Want to join me? Click here to register for next week’s event: https://AuthorsAdvertise.com

I will warn you that these challenges (which are free and offered quarterly) are intensive. You won’t get any other writing done. But the benefits are worth it! 

The next FREE Amazon Ad Challenge is set for April 12. I know I’m blocking off the time on my calendar. If you are serious about earning royalties, I suggest you sign up too!

Blog to Book Project — Six-Month Book Launch Timeline

| C.E. Flores

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After you’ve finished your book, done extensive proofreading, had another set of eyes look at it for editing issues, and check your formatting, you should organize your book launch. In this chapter, you’ll find a six-month book launch (six months before and six months after), but you can adapt the timing and suggested marketing to fit your needs.

Before your book launch, you should have your Author Website, Facebook Author Page, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts already set up and be sharing interesting non-launch information regularly. If not, time to get on the stick about it. Continue sharing value-filled content during the entire launch period, with sporadic promotional posts.

Six Months Before Launch

  • Post a cover reveal across your social media sites.
  • Conversely, if you haven’t decided on a final cover design yet, you can poll your followers. Ask them which design do they prefer and why.

Five Months Before Launch

  • Add your book blurb to your Author Website and share it on your social media channels.
  • If you’ve already uploaded your manuscript to the publishing platform of your choice, make it available for pre-order.

Four Months Before Launch

  • Spark some interest in your newsletter.
  • Offer an incentive for readers to opt-in. You could send them a sample chapter, a character description quiz, a useful checklist based on your upcoming book’s topic, set up a challenge for your readers, or offer exclusive content in the form of a webinar or audio file.
  • Make sure to include a reference to your soon-to-be-released book someplace in the newsletter and on the opt-in page.
  • Share the opt-in lead magnet on your social media networks.

Three Months Before Launch

  • Update your author profiles on all your social media platforms. Include information about pre-ordering your book.
  • Continue providing content through your newsletter and Author Website.
  • Share a glimpse of your author’s life while you were writing the book.
  • Talk about the inspiration behind the book.

Two Months Before Launch

  • Create some marketing images. Use images from your book or your book cover. Add quotes from the book, author quotes, or testimonials from others if you have them.
  • Remember to provide a way for readers to pre-order your book as you post them on social media.
  • Send out the call for ARC (Advanced Review Copy) readers. Get your book into their hands as soon as possible.
  • Contact Book Bloggers to see if they would be interested in an ARC to review on their blogs.

One Month Before Launch

  • Create some countdown social posts using Canva. One month, one week, x days until the launch.
  • Share your book trailer.
  • Post an excerpt or first chapter on your Author Website. Generate some anticipation.
  • Create a Pinterest board about the book. Think outside the box here. If you are writing historical fiction, pin relevant facts, locations, even period furniture. If your book is non-fiction, pin articles you used in your research.
  • Begin your book blog tour.

Launch Day

  • Send out a launch day newsletter.
  • Post “Launching Today” posts across your social media networks.
  • Update your social media headers to highlight your book.
  • Email your ARC and Beta readers letting them know the book is ready for verified reviews.
  • Hold a launch party. Broadcast snippets live or share them afterward.
  • Post public thank you for event coordinators and share pictures of you and your book enjoying the party.

One Month After Launch

  • Continue your book blog tour.
  • Contact other authors to do some cross-promoting.
  • Keep posting to your Author Website.
  • Set up a live Q & A session on Facebook or Twitter.

Two Months After Launch

  • Take your book on the road.
  • Do book signings at local bookstores.
  • Talk to libraries about getting your book on the shelf.

Three Months After Launch

Four Months After Launch

  • Publicly thank readers who provide feedback or leave a review.
  • Find an organization that relates to your book topic and see if it would be interested in having you speak at an upcoming event.

Five Months After Launch

  • Make recommended reading lists on Goodreads or your Author Website that include your book.
  • Keep publishing engaging content on your Author Website.

Six Months After Launch

  • Release the print or audio version of your book. Use the new format to do another mini-launch.
  • Start generating interest in your next book.

You might not want to include all of these suggestions, but the more publicity there is about your book, the more likely you’ll sell some copies of it. So try to complete as many as possible, as often as possible without being spammy.

Assignment: Plan your book launch.

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