Academic Book Visibility Tips

There are a number of techniques that can be employed to maximise the visibility of your academic book and a mixture of conventional scholarship promotion and digital marketing methods are needed to get the best results of both offline and online tactics. The guide offers practical advice on how to extend its reach into academic circles and beyond.

Pre-Publication Visibility Strategies

An academic book’s anticipation is built long before its release. Let people know how leading is on your mind for your reader as a relevant step to their success, or other “takeaway” value (Goodall, 2006; McNee et al., 2002). Spread your competence through planned pre-publication initiatives that help make your book a “gotta have” in your field. Create a publication schedule with frequent updates of your book’s progress. Disseminate findings from your research via blog posts, academic newsletters, social media. It’s an approach that grows an audience engaged in the work and eagerly anticipating the release of your book.

Using Academic Networks for Book Promotion

Collaborate with your institution’s marketing and communications office to market your book through institutional channels (Majhi et al., 2023; Park, 2018). University press announcements, faculty spotlights, and institutional social media channels may also be important tools to extend the reach of your book. Build relationships with academics who are likely to review your book for academic journals (Aksnes et al., 2019; Caon et al., 2020; Moed, 2005). Good reviews in known publications make your book look more serious and are encouraging to people.

Engage with professional associations in your discipline by:

  • Presenting at annual conferences and workshops
  • Contributing to association newsletters and publications
  • Participating in panel discussions and roundtables
  • Volunteering for committees and leadership positions

Digital Marketing for Academic Books

Book selling in the academic market is becoming mostly about digital marketing, about meeting scholars where they read academic work. Create a strong digital presence that highlights your authority and promotes your book across all platforms. Author original content to educate your Asian American readers about both the importance and the usefulness of your book. It can include summaries of research, use of research, teaching tools, or commentary on issues in your field. Regular content creation builds your thought-leadership and keeps your book in front of book buyers’ eyes (Rovira et al., 2018; Schilhan et al., 2021).

Email Marketing

Create a list of email addresses of colleagues, contacts, and student audience. E-newsletters featuring research summaries, book excerpts and scholarly analysis provide a visible and engaging way to stay fresh in your target audience’s minds.

Learn more in Titles and Metadata

Explore more insights on Increase Book Citations 

See the Cover Design Tips  for more resources

Further Reading: Platforms for Marketing 

References

Aksnes, D. W., Langfeldt, L., & Wouters, P. (2019). Citations, citation indicators, and research quality: An overview of basic concepts and theories. Sage Open, 9(1), 2158244019829575.

Caon, M., Trapp, J., & Baldock, C. (2020). Citations are a good way to determine the quality of research. Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine, 43(4), 1145-1148.

Goodall, A. H. (2006). Should top universities be led by top researchers and are they? A citations analysis. Journal of documentation, 62(3), 388-411.

Majhi, S., Sahu, L., & Behera, K. (2023). Practices for enhancing research visibility, citations and impact: review of literature. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 75(6), 1280-1305.

McNee, S. M., Albert, I., Cosley, D., Gopalkrishnan, P., Lam, S. K., Rashid, A. M., … & Riedl, J. (2002, November). On the recommending of citations for research papers. In Proceedings of the 2002 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work (pp. 116-125).

Moed, H. F. (2005). Citation analysis in research evaluation. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Park, M. (2018). SEO for an open access scholarly information system to improve user experience. Information discovery and delivery, 46(2), 77-82.

Rovira, C., Guerrero-Solé, F., & Codina, L. (2018). Received citations as a main SEO factor of Google Scholar results ranking. Profesional de la Información, 27(3), 559-569.

Schilhan, L., Kaier, C., & Lackner, K. (2021). Increasing visibility and discoverability of scholarly publications with academic search engine optimization. Insights, 34(1).