Book Marketing in the Era of Coronavirus

Many authors have had their book sales impacted by the #Coronavirus. One of the main ways authors market their books, via a book launch, has been impacted. Book marketing is hard at any time, but during a pandemic, it is so much worse. Any author publishing a book in the first half of 2020 will almost certainly have had to cancel their book launch or they have launched online. Many again have had to postpone book tours as well.

Anyone who loves to read enjoys seeing a 'Coming Soon' sign. This means that their favourite author has another book about to be published. This year, with the unprecedented changes caused by #COVID19, many readers have had to wait longer for their new books. As with movie and music producers, a lot of authors have postponed their launch dates.

I was one of them. The launch of my books was scheduled for April this year at Berkelouw Books Leichhardt, an inner-west suburb of Sydney. This launch is to be rescheduled for late September when hopefully restrictions will be lifted enough to allow a crowd of more than fifty people. However, watch this space for more details as currently, Australia is going through a second-wave of #Coronavirus. I am hoping the launch will go ahead as not only will I be launching my debut novel, The Decision They Made and my sci-fi short story, Xenure Station: A Billion Light Years, I will have the Italian version of the novel as well. I am also working on the second instalment of my sci-fi trilogy, Xenure Station: The Revenge, which may be ready as well. This will be a novel-length story as will the third book.

Businesses have had to adapt during this #Coronavirus #crisis and the economy has taken a hit. Selling books is not easy even in good economic times and 2020 has proven to be a challenge for all authors. Australian authors already have an uphill battle as our market is quite small. So, when you're next in a bookstore, think about the person who writes the story because this is their livelihood.

Happy reading everyone and remember to support #aussieauthors.