How to Sell Your Book Without Feeling ‘Salesy’
You poured your heart into your story.
You stayed up late, rewrote chapters until your coffee went cold, and lived inside your characters’ heads for months…maybe years.
Now it’s time to share your novel with the world - but that’s where the panic sets in.
“How do I sell my book without sounding pushy?”
“Won’t people think I’m just begging for sales?”
“I’m a writer, not a salesperson!”
Many fiction authors feel uncomfortable with marketing, but selling your novel isn’t about pushing, it’s about inviting readers into a story they’ll love.
Reframe what “selling” means. You’re not tricking anyone into buying. You’re connecting with people. Think about your favourite author. When they share news of a new release, you don’t feel pressured – you feel excited! That’s the feeling you want to create for your audience.
In this post, I’ll walk you through how to sell your novel in a way that feels natural, authentic, and…enjoyable!
Step 1: Build Your Reader Community …Early
We know that writing your book is a priority, as is juggling the demands of life, but setting aside 30 minutes a day to start building your network is so important. Please don’t wait until launch day to start promoting your book!
To find out where you should promote your book, you should begin with identifying your target audience. Who is your ideal reader? Where do they go for book recommendations? Where do they shop in general?
You want to narrow down your audience as much as you can – it may seem counter intuitive and you could think your book is ‘for everyone’, but finding your core readers is critical to maximising your marketing efforts.
Your Action: Create a profile of your target audience and identify where to engage with them.
Step 2: Create a Sales Funnel That Feels Like a Story
Marketing is easier when you see it as storytelling. Think of your sales funnel as a reader journey:
1. Awareness – At the top of your funnel they discover you exist (through social media, community platforms, cross promotion with existing bloggers and writers).
2. Interest – Then they want to know more (follow your platforms, sign up for your email list).
3. Desire – Next connect emotionally (behind-the-scenes, teaser chapters).
4. Action – Then entice them to buy the book.
5. Loyalty – Keep connecting so they stay for the next one.
Your Action: Map out your own funnel (and if you need ideas and a framework, here is a free one we have created just for you!).
Ask: How will readers discover me? What will make them curious? What’s the emotional hook that makes them need my story?
Choose two online spaces where your ideal readers hang out and spend 10–15 minutes a day engaging genuinely. This is your Top of Funnel (Awareness). Don’t promote your book in your discussions, just engage in genuine conversation. If someone connects with you they will review your profile and that is where you can include links to your main communication platforms (coming up next).
Step 3: Use Content Marketing, Not Cold Selling
Emerging authors often get stuck at the Awareness stage of their funnel. They run a cover reveal, post a few launch countdowns, and… no sales.
The problem is that people don’t buy from authors they don’t know. The middle stage of your funnel is where you give followers the behind-the-scenes, personal and exclusive access that builds trust and loyalty.
If you skip this step, your audience won’t have the emotional connection that can often be the gentle push towards purchasing your book.
At this stage, your content should feel like you’re letting readers in on a secret – where you are sharing your world in ways that naturally tie back to your book. Some ideas to consider:
Instagram / Facebook / TikTok
Casual, interactive and personal is the goal. You could includes posts to:
Share snippets from your writing space.
Include fun polls like “Which dress should my heroine wear to the ball?”
Give 15-second “micro-readings” of a paragraph or line that made you smile while editing.
Share a visual mood board that captures your book’s tone.
Your Newsletter
Your newsletter will become a very valuable resource in your writer toolkit, and while you think no one is interested in what you have to say, you will be surprised at how quickly you can grow a following. Newsletters feel more intimate than social media and provide a direct link to your follower, unlike social media which will only show to a small percentage of your followers. Content could include:
An exclusive short scene or character interview.
Revealing of the inspiration behind a plot twist (without spoilers).
Asking for reader opinions; “Should this character survive?”
A Blog
Blogs are your home base for sharing the deeper side of your author journey. They give you the space to go beyond quick social media updates and offer rich, behind-the-scenes insight into your world. You might post excerpts from your work-in-progress, much like Andy Weir did while writing The Martian, to gather feedback from readers. Or you could share the highs and lows of your writing life, from celebrating a new milestone to reflecting on a setback and what it taught you.
We treat our blog as the central hub of communication: first publishing in-depth posts here, then repurposing highlights for social media and finally sending a weekly newsletter roundup so our followers can see what they missed. This approach saves time, keeps your messaging consistent and allows you to reach readers across multiple platforms while driving them back to your core content.
Your Action: Start mapping out content to post.
For every post that hints at your book, share two or three that:
Entertain (funny outtakes, bloopers from your writing process)
Educate (a quick tip about your genre or research topic)
Inspire (quotes from your characters or other books you love)
We also strongly encourage you to share one personal post for every two book-related ones.
Readers fall in love with authors as much as they do with books. Share your quirks, your passions, your writing rituals. The more human you are, the less “salesy” you feel, and the more your audience wants to support you.
Final Thought
When you focus on relationships, authenticity, and reader joy, you’ll find that how to sell your novel feels a lot more like sharing a passion, and a lot less like selling.
Remember:
Start early.
Share the journey.
Keep the focus on the reader experience.
You’re giving someone the gift of escaping into a world you created, and that’s something worth sharing loudly and proudly.
