Boost Your Book's Visibility: 30 5-Minute Daily Marketing Tasks for

Writing and publishing a great book are only the first steps to author success. The next step is getting it into the hands of readers. Unfortunately, having your book available for sale on the top book selling platforms isn’t enough. You can’t expect if-you-build-it-they-will-come mentality to sell books. You have to go out and find your readers to let them know about your books.

I’ll confess that I’m a work-in-progress when it comes to marketing. I know all the things I can do, but marketing is time consuming, sometimes boring, and often hit-and-miss on whether it works. As a result, I tend to be haphazard.

The answer, of course, is to come up with a marketing plan AND to schedule time for each element. As much as I try to do that, I still struggle. One solution I’ve found to be helpful is making a list of marketing tasks I can do in five minutes or less a day. Knowing I need to do something, I can check this list and quickly get something out each day.

Here is a list of 30 of those ideas in random order.

1. Social Media Engagement:
Like, comment, or share posts from fellow authors or readers in your genre. Respond to comments or messages on your own social media posts.

2. Update Your Author Website:
Make minor updates to your website, such as changing out a featured book or updating your bio. I can’t tell you how often I check my website and realize I don’t have info about my new release. It happened today!

3. Repurpose One Piece of Content into One or More New Formats
Depending on what you do, this could take more than five minutes, but it’s a great way to use what you’ve already got to post somewhere new. For example, transform your blog post into slides for TikTok or Instagram. Turn your teaser into a video. Post your TikTok or Instagram Reel on Pinterest. If you have a pro-Canva account, you can easily resize images for the various platforms. Using a tool such as Pictory, you can resize videos. Pictory can also take a blog post and turn it into a video.

4. Share Quick Updates:
Post a quick update about your writing progress or upcoming releases on social media platforms.

5. Update Your Follow-Up Email Sequence
Review your email sequence when readers subscribe to make sure it’s up-to-date. Add any new information or tweak it to increase opens and engagement.

6. Review Analytics:
Take a quick look at your website or social media analytics to see which posts or pages are performing well. This can help you decide what’s working to boost engagement and what’s not.

7. Research Trends:
Spend a few minutes browsing book trends or popular topics in the romance genre to stay informed. Or research marketing trends. Or check out what other romance writers in your niche are doing to market their books for more marketing ideas.

8. Engage with Readers:
Respond to a couple of reader emails or messages to maintain engagement and build relationships.

9. Schedule Social Media Posts:
Use a social media scheduling tool to schedule a few posts for the upcoming days. I really like Social Bee. I can schedule posts, but also set them up for reposting in the future. Since social posts have a short lifespan, this helps make sure posts have a chance to be seen by those who miss it the first time.

10. Share Reviews:
Share a positive review from a reader on your social media platforms.

11. Check your inventory of books, marketing materials, and swag
Don’t caught without enough books, postcards, or swag right before an event. Figure how much you have and what you might need to order.

12. Engage with Book Communities:
Join a book community or forum related to romance literature and participate in discussions or share helpful insights.

13. Create Quick Graphics:
Design a simple graphic using a tool like Canva to promote your latest book release, a sale, or an upcoming event. If you’re a pro user, you can create a spreadsheet of social post texts and bulk upload to create many graphics in one fell swoop.

14. Update Social Media Bios:
Review and update your social media bios to ensure they reflect your latest book releases or promotions.

15. Research Hashtags:
Spend a few minutes researching trending hashtags in the romance genre and incorporate them into your social media posts.

16. Collaborate with Book Bloggers, Booktubers, and Booktokers:
Reach out to a book bloggers and influencers in your niche to inquire about potential collaboration opportunities, such as author interviews or book reviews.

17. Share Behind-the-Scenes Content:
Post a quick behind-the-scenes photo or snippet of your writing process on social media to give readers a glimpse into your life as an author.

18. Participate in email swap:
Using Bookfunnel or Bookclicker, find other authors to do an email swap with. This is a great way to get in front of new readers. Just be sure to choose swaps with authors that right books with the same target reader as you.

19. Research Advertising Opportunities:
Spend a few minutes researching advertising options on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or BookBub to promote your books.

20. Plan Future Content:
Take a moment to brainstorm ideas for future social media posts, blog articles, or newsletters to keep your content calendar filled. Use a content marketing calendar to plan your posting schedule.

21. Reach out to local independent book stores about selling your book and/or having an event:
Support local business and let local business support you by negotiating having your book in the store. Better yet, see if you can set up a workshop, reading, or signing. Check out online independent book retailers such as Bookshop.org and IndieBound. Consider other local shops that might be willing consign your book. For example, if you have wine in your book, maybe a local winery will give space for your book.

22. Create Book Teasers:
Design a teaser image or quote graphic from one of your books to share on social media to pique readers’ interest.

23. Monitor Book Sales:
Quickly check your book sales or download reports on platforms like Amazon KDP or other distribution channels to track your sales performance.

24. Research Author Events:
Spend a few minutes researching upcoming author events, book fairs, or virtual conferences where you can participate or promote your books.

25. Engage with Book Clubs:
Join a book club or online reading group focused on romance novels and participate in discussions or recommend your own books when appropriate.

26. Update Author Profiles:
Review and update your author profiles on retailer websites, Goodreads, or author directories with any new releases or relevant information.

27. Add By Me a Coffee to your website
Let your biggest fans send you a few appreciative bucks to support your writing using an easy tool like Buy Me A Coffee.

28. Create One Piece of Merch
Using Canva for your design, which can simply be the cover of your book, use a print-on-demand company like Printify to create the merch. You can have a mug, tumbler, t-shirt or whatever you want created in minutes. Learn more about Merch here.

29. Monitor Industry News:
Spend a few minutes reading industry news articles, blogs, or newsletters to stay informed about trends and developments in the publishing industry. Don’t forget to check the News and Resources group here at WWH for industry news.

30. Set up a giveaway
Get your readers excited and engaged by having a giveaway. Using a tool like Kingsumo, you can not only take entries, but readers can gain more entries by sharing or signing up for your email, thereby increasing your following. Plus it can randomly pick the winner. Be sure to follow your area’s laws about contests.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to 5-minute marketing tasks, but there should be enough to get you started.

💡Want more ideas? WWH members can access a growing spreadsheet list of more 5-10 minute marketing ideas in the member’s only freebie page (you need to be logged in). Not a member? You can join for FREE!