Your Book Is Published. Now What?
What happens after the excitement of publishing your book wears off?
You’ve spent months, maybe years, writing it. You’ve edited it, agonized over the title and cover, launched it, told everyone you know, and perhaps even watched it climb the Amazon bestseller rankings.
Then comes the moment few authors prepare for.
You look at your book and think, Now what?
That question kept surfacing during my first Let’s Talk Book Marketing Live with Sarah Stone, founder of Creative Feng Shui® and bestselling author of Live What You Love.
Sarah and I met through the Substack Accelerator program and connected from the start. She’s also one of the reasons I decided to launch this Live series. She encouraged me, answered my questions, and, as I joked during our conversation, held my hand through the process.
Even after more than 30 years of speaking, teaching, interviewing, and hosting my podcast, doing something for the first time can still feel uncomfortable. A few minutes before we went live, I called Sarah and asked, “What do I do now?”
She talked me through it.
There’s something rather fitting about that because much of our conversation turned out to be about doing exactly the same thing with a book.
You don’t always have to know every step before you begin. But you do have to keep moving.
And as Sarah and I compared our very different book-marketing journeys, four lessons stood out.
Takeaway #1: Your Book Is More Valuable When You Stop Thinking of It as a Book
Sarah’s journey with Live What You Love began when she was rebuilding her life and business after moving from the UK to New York.
She had studied Feng Shui, but she didn’t want to approach it as people often do, with the focus on furniture placement and décor. She saw something much broader. She wanted to create a framework people could use to think intentionally about their lives, homes, relationships, careers, and businesses.
At first, she imagined turning the concept into a series of small books.
Her former business partner, who had started a publishing company, had other ideas. She had been trying to persuade Sarah to write a book for years and finally told her to stop thinking about mini books and write the real thing.
Sarah did.
What happened next is where the story becomes interesting.
The book didn’t remain a product she hoped people would buy. It became the foundation of her business and, in Sarah’s words, her “big fat business card.”
She gave copies to people she met. She sent books to magazines. She approached subscription boxes and looked for events where the book could introduce her ideas to people who might never have discovered her otherwise.
One of those opportunities led to an author event in the Hamptons. From there came clients, magazine exposure, an award recognizing her expertise, and invitations to write articles based on ideas from the book. Those articles eventually helped lead to the creation of her own Intentional Living magazine.
I loved hearing this because it reinforces something I tell authors all the time.
The sale of the book may be the least valuable thing the book produces.
A nonfiction book can become a credibility piece, conversation starter, speaker credential, media hook, client gift, teaching tool, partnership opportunity, or doorway into an entirely new part of your business.
The better question isn’t simply, How can I sell more copies?
It’s What could this book help me do?
That small change in thinking opens up a much bigger world.
Takeaway #2: Activity Without Purpose Is Just Activity
I asked Sarah whether she had mapped out all these opportunities before the book was published.
She laughed and admitted she had zero plan.
She had poured so much energy into writing and launching the book that she was exhausted. Her launch campaign worked beautifully and helped the book reach number one in seven Amazon categories.
Then the launch ended.
And there it was again.
Now what?
Sarah began experimenting, which is how many authors find their way.
Some ideas worked extremely well. Others sounded good but produced very little.
For example, she placed copies of the book in small community libraries around Long Island. It felt lovely and generous, and she hoped someone would pick up the book and connect with her message.
But as Sarah reflected on it during our conversation, there wasn’t much purpose behind the activity. There was no clear next step and no easy way for the book to create a relationship.
Compare that with sending the book to magazines, approaching subscription boxes, attending events, or contributing articles. Each of those activities could lead somewhere else.
That distinction is worth remembering because authors can spend enormous amounts of time doing marketing without asking what they want the marketing to accomplish.
Posting more isn’t necessarily a strategy.
Giving away books isn’t necessarily a strategy.
Being everywhere isn’t necessarily a strategy.
Before you invest time, energy, or money in a marketing activity, ask yourself:
If this works, what do I want to happen next?
Perhaps you want someone to invite you to speak. Maybe you want a company to order books for its employees, a podcast host to interview you, an association to introduce you to its members, or a reader to join your email list.
You don’t need to know exactly where every opportunity will lead, but there should be enough purpose behind your effort to give it somewhere to go.
Takeaway #3: The Best Time to Market Your Book Is Before You Need People to Buy It
When I asked Sarah what she would do differently if she were publishing Live What You Love today, she didn’t hesitate.
She would start building the audience much earlier.
And she would use Substack to do it.
Not by constantly promoting the book before it exists, but by sharing the thinking behind it. She would write about the themes, questions, problems, and ideas woven through the book and give people an opportunity to become part of the conversation long before publication day.
This is where I think many authors get book marketing backwards.
They spend months working quietly on the book and wait until it’s ready before they begin thinking about the audience.
Then publication day arrives and suddenly they need people to pay attention.
What if the relationship came first?
You could begin talking about the problem your book addresses while you’re still writing it. You could test ideas, ask questions, notice what people respond to, and start gathering readers who are interested in your point of view.
By the time the book arrives, you aren’t walking into a room full of strangers asking them to buy something.
You’re continuing a conversation they already care about.
That feels very different.
And it takes some of the pressure off the launch because publication day is no longer the beginning of your marketing. It’s simply another milestone in a relationship you’ve already been building.
Takeaway #4: One Good Conversation Can Be Worth More Than 1,000 Random Impressions
Our conversation eventually brought me back to my own first book, Exhibiting at Trade Shows: Tips and Techniques for Success.
When it first came out, I remember walking into a bookstore in Cincinnati and seeing it sitting on the shelf. Naturally, I pulled it out and turned it face forward so people could see the cover.
At the time, I thought selling books meant selling them one or two at a time.
Then I started asking a different question.
Who already has access to the people who need this information?
That led me to companies serving trade show exhibitors.
One ordered 2,000 copies.
Another wanted a version designed specifically for its customers. I adapted the book for them, and they ordered 250,000 copies.
Then they reordered another 250,000.
Eventually, half a million copies were distributed around the world in five languages.
I share this story not because every author is going to sell half a million books to one company.
The lesson is in the question.
Instead of asking, Where can I find more individual readers?
Ask:
Who already reaches my readers?
A company?
An association?
A conference?
A nonprofit?
A professional organization?
A school?
A healthcare organization?
A community?
One well-chosen relationship can create far more movement than months of trying to reach strangers one by one.
Sarah described this beautifully during our conversation when she talked about making an opportunity feel like an “easy yes.”
When the book, audience, and organization fit naturally together, the conversation changes. You’re no longer trying to convince someone to help you sell a book. You’re showing them how the book can help them serve the people they already care about.
That’s a very different proposition.
The Ripple Often Starts Much Smaller Than You Expect
Someone participating in our Live mentioned wanting to get beyond Amazon and into physical bookstores.
That led us into another idea I come back to again and again.
I call it the Ripple Effect.
Drop one stone into the pond and watch what happens.
Start with one bookstore, one library, one association, one local organization, one speaking opportunity, or one company.
One conversation can lead to another. One introduction can open a door you didn’t know existed. One small event can create a relationship that leads somewhere much larger.
Sarah made an important point here too. Don’t put a cap on where an opportunity might go.
You don’t need to predict the fifth ripple.
You need to create the first one.
And then you need to keep going.
My bulk book opportunity didn’t happen overnight. It developed over two years through conversations, follow-up, flexibility, and perseverance.
We tend to forget this in a world where we see everyone else’s results and rarely see how long it took them to get there.
Book marketing rewards consistency far more often than it rewards impatience.
Perhaps the Most Important Lesson Came at the End
As we began wrapping up, I asked Sarah what one piece of advice she would give authors.
She said something I hope every author takes to heart.
Your book is part of your legacy. Don’t stop talking about it simply because time has passed.
Maybe your book came out last month.
Maybe it came out eight years ago.
The ideas are still there.
The people who need those ideas are still out there.
And most of them probably haven’t heard about your book yet.
Sarah encouraged authors to keep showing up, talking about the book, and becoming its voice.
That brought me to one of my own favorite ways of describing the author’s role.
Stand in front of your book, not behind it.
Your book can establish credibility, explain your ideas, and open extraordinary doors, but it cannot walk through those doors by itself.
It needs you.
You’re the one who starts the conversation.
You’re the one who makes the connection.
You’re the one who asks, Where else could this message belong?
Which leaves me with the question I’ve been thinking about since Sarah and I finished our conversation:
What could happen if you stopped treating your book as something you published and started treating it as something you can put to work?
That’s exactly the kind of conversation I want us to keep having in Let’s Talk Book Marketing.
Not more marketing for the sake of marketing.
Not another list of things authors are supposed to be doing.
But thoughtful conversations about what works, what doesn’t, where the real opportunities are, and how one book can create a ripple far beyond the number of copies you sell.
Because publishing the book may feel like the finish line.
In reality, it may be where the most interesting part begins.
Here’s how to connect with Sarah
Here’s how to connect with Susan Friedmann -
