© 2025 Sarah Hamaker
We all want to grow our audience to reach more readers, but we often overlook the simplicity and fun of group promotions. From blog tours to newsletter swaps and Facebook parties to email giveaways, partnering with other authors in your genre can grow your readership and your newsletter subscribers.
Here are four reasons why participating in group promotions can be beneficial to you as an author, whether you have written dozens of books or only a handful.
- To grow your newsletter subscriber list
- To keep your name in front of readers
- To build connections with other authors
- To gain new readers
Group promotions come in a variety of forms. You can join a promotion run by a promo company, such as Booksweeps, Authors XP, or Celebrate Lit, or you can join one by an author, such as through BookFunnel.
If you’re a new or fairly new author, I recommend starting with one by a promotional company, as these are generally great ways to build your mailing list. Then branch out to promos run by other authors.
Before joining a promo, here are three questions to ask yourself.
- What is the genre being promoted—and do I fit? It’s never wise to join promotions that are not for your target reader.
- What does the promo promise to the author? In other words, what are you getting out of participating? Is it newsletter subscribers? BookBub followers? Book sales? Make sure it aligns with your marketing strategy.
- What do you have to do? All promotions require participating authors to do something, such as provide copies of a book to the winners, promote the contest on social media and in author newsletters, etc. Some, like those run on BookFunnel, create an author promo reputation that shows how well your marketing efforts helped the group promotion.
You can also set up your own group promotion. Some ideas for author-run group promotions include:
- Throwing a Facebook party with other authors using books releasing in the same month.
- Running a themed promotion around your genre, holiday, or time of year, such as cozy mysteries, Valentine’s Day, or summer.
- Conducting a blog tour with other authors.
- Swapping newsletter contributions with authors in your genre.
These are only a few of the many ideas you can come up with to leverage the power of group promotions.
_________________________
  Multi-award-winning and best-selling author of inspirational romantic suspense Sarah Hamaker loves writing books “where the hero and heroine fall in love while running for their lives.” She’s an AWSA certified writer and speaker coach and podcaster of The Romantic Side of Suspense. Sarah lives in Virginia with her husband, four children, and three cats. You can find out more about her on her website, her author Facebook page, or on BookBub.
|
