At Author Marketing Experts, our focus is exclusively on giving you tools to improve your book marketing efforts.  One thing that we often touch on is how your relationships can help you sell more books.  So let’s look into more detail about how you can build on your relationships with various groups of people you already know to sell more books.

• Family and Friends: So I admit, one of the things I’m constantly saying is that no one cares if you wrote a book besides your family and friends. What I mean by this, is that when you’re marketing your book to strangers, don’t focus on it as your accomplishment, but instead focus on its benefits to them. And that’s still true. But your existing relationships still have quite a bit to offer your book marketing efforts. Ask your family and friends to read your book and give you feedback; see if they’ll be willing to write Amazon reviews or blurbs for your website; ask if they’ll share your book on social media or tell their friends about your newsletter.
• Your Existing Fans: Speaking of newsletters, I also often talk about the benefits of newsletters, and of using them to turn your existing fans into super fans. So if you have existing fans, make use of your newsletter to share your new book with your existing fans. Give them a carrot – offer them free chapters, or even a free download  in a newsletter.  Ask them for a review – the power of the “ask” is huge.  Plus you can reach out and thank them individually for writing reviews after the fact. And, if someone you have no relationship with writes a stellar review, if they’ve provided their contact information, you can offer them the opportunity to review other books you have.
• Bloggers: If you write a blog (and you should!) to help connect with more people and utilize it for content marketing, then you’ve probably already started building a network within the blogosphere. Bloggers develop special relationships – and special connections – with one another, and they’re incredibly supportive of one others’ accomplishments. As you meet fellow bloggers, reach out and let them know what you’ve been working on, and see if they’d be willing to collaborate. Whether you provide guest content, or they feature your book and/or products in a post, bloggers are most often more open to working with other bloggers on products.
• Other Authors: If you attend conferences, you already know that networking is key to business success. But as an author, you probably also delight in meeting and supporting other authors. Just as bloggers support bloggers, authors are usually very happy to exchange reviews, or to feature one another’s books in their newsletters or social media. Offer to review another author’s book if they will review yours.

The bottom line is that relationships matter. Personally and professionally, of course, but particularly for indie authors. You can leverage your connections with friends, fans, and fellow writers to boost your book marketing efforts. If you make an effort to make personal connections and — most importantly — thank those who support you, then your existing relationships will prove most beneficial to your book marketing.