12 Ways to Use a Book Award to Sell More Books

Winning a book award feels great, but it’s time to put that award to work. Here are twelve ideas that will help you use your Literary Titan Book Award to sell more books and promote yourself as an award-winning author.

If you’re not an award winning author yet, enter your book into our Book Review Service. All books entered receive a guaranteed book review, author interview and entry into our Literary Titan Book Awards.

If you’re already an award winning author, read on!

1. INCLUDE IT IN YOUR AUTHOR BIO

You are an award-winning author, say so in your author profile and bio.

Anywhere and everywhere you are asked to describe yourself, be sure to include the fact that you are an ‘award-winning author’ and your book is an ‘award-winning book’.

Here is a list of some places you should update your bio:

Book Retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Books
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
GoodReads & Bookbub
Your website’s About the Author page
Your publisher’s website
Your email signatures
Your professional resume

How-to: To update your Amazon bio, go to Amazon Author Central, click the Profile tab at the top, scroll down to the Your Biographies section and click Add Bio.

2. ADD IT TO YOUR BOOK’S DESCRIPTION

Give potential readers confidence in your book by adding the phrase ‘award-winning’ into your book’s description on all the platforms where your book is sold.

Update your book description on Amazon, GoodReads, Barnes & Noble, your website, and any social media sites where your book description is available.

Tip: Try to organically work in the phrase ‘award-winning’ into the book’s description. But if you can’t, don’t worry. You can add a line like this at the end, ‘Recipient of the Literary Titan’s Book Award’ or ‘Literary Titan Book Award Winner’.

3. ADD THE AWARD IMAGE TO YOUR BOOK’S COVER

Place the award on your book cover so that you catch the attention of potential readers. This looks fantastic online and at book signings.

Literary Titan provides all award-winning authors with a free high resolution digital copy of the Literary Titan Book Award image. Literary Titan also sells physical stickers that can be placed on your paperback and hardcover books.

How-to: Use any image editing software or ask your cover designer. Then upload the new cover to Amazon and all platforms where your book is sold.

Tip: Having a book with an award on the cover displayed on your table at book signings and book fairs looks professional and is sure to grab people’s attention.

4. USE IT IN REVIEW REQUESTS

When sending a review request to bloggers or review sites be sure to mention that the book you’re submitting is an award-winning book. If you’re not submitting the book that won the award, you can mention that you’re an award-winning author who has written a new book. This will help your book stand out from other review requests and lets the reviewer know that your book is worth their time.

Tip: Follow the reviewer’s submission guidelines, but also remember that they probably get a lot of review requests, so make your submission stand out in some way, and the Literary Titan Book Award can help with that.

5. SEND A PRESS RELEASE

Sending a press release notifying news and media outlets about your award is a great way to control the narrative, establish credibility with reporters and build SEO traffic about your book.

Distributing a well-crafted press release provides the opportunity to rank high in search results, catch the attention of current and potential customers, and leads to direct engagement and sharing on social media channels.

You can include images in your press release so remember to add your book cover and award image.

Tip: Journalists are always on the lookout for a good story, make sure you tell them one they will want to share.

6. USE IT IN QUERY LETTERS TO PUBLISHERS AND AGENTS

When sending a query letter to publishers or agents for your future books, or your current book, be sure to mention that you are an award-winning author. This will establish your literary credibility and get their attention.

Tip: Query letters need to convey everything important about you and your book in a quick but meaningful way. Literary Titan offers a Query Letter Writing service that will create a professional query letter for you.

7. SHARE IT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Share the news on social media. Your friends and followers will be happy to hear the good news. They’ll cheer you on and share it with others as well.

You can get several social media posts out of one book award. Here’s some ideas:

Retweet Literary Titan’s award notification on Twitter, and reshare it on Facebook and Instagram
Create your own social media post that includes the award image only and a quote from the review you received
Create another social media post showing the digital award on your digital book cover
- Example: “Hey everyone, I just added my new award to my book cover! Let me know what you think.”
Create a post showing the physical award sticker on your paperback or hardcover book
- Tip: Make sure to setup the book with an interesting background, like at a park or on your mantle
If you ordered a custom Literary Titan Book Award certificate, frame it, take a picture of it and share it on social media
Share a video showcasing your book and award. This is a great way to reach a large audience, especially on TikTok and Instagram. Don’t have video skills? Use Literary Titan’s Book Trailer Service to create an engaging video

Make sure to spread your social media posts over several days or weeks to get exposure over a longer period of time. Tools like Crowdfire let you easily manage and schedule social media posts.

Tip: Include @LiteraryTitan and #WritingCommunity and other relevant hashtags to increase your exposure.

8. UPDATE YOUR AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

Your Amazon author page is focused on you and your books. Now get it to focus on your literary accomplishments as well by adding your Literary Titan Book Award image to your author page.

Add the award image to your Amazon Author Page via Amazon Author Central.

How-to: Go to Amazon Author Central, go to the Author Profile page, and Upload Media in the section labeled Photos and Videos.

Tip: You can also add a book trailer video to your Amazon Author page. If you have a book trailer, be sure to add your book award in the video. Do you need a book trailer? Use Literary Titan’s Book Trailer Service.

9. WRITE A BLOG POST

If you have a blog, write a post about the book award experience. Write about how you entered, the review you received, and how you felt when you realized you won. People love feel-good stories.

Writing a blog post that gets lots of attention, and just so happens to mention your book, ensures that Google will index the page and your book title and author name will rank higher in search results.

Tip: Your blog post should include relevant keywords that will help search engines identify what your post is about and add it to appropriate search results. If your book is a memoir, say so, if your book is a fantasy adventure novel, say so. Include any of the niche or sub genres that your book belongs to as well.

10. EMAIL YOUR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS

If you have an email newsletter, make sure to notify your subscribers. Literary Titan sends you a nice-looking award notification email, you can share that or create your own.

Tip: If you don’t have an author email list, get one. This is a great way for your current fans to opt-in to be notified when you release future books.

11. ADD IMAGES TO AMAZON’S A+ CONTENT

Amazon now allows self-published authors to add A+ Content which was previously only available to big publishers.

You can add images to your book’s product page on Amazon that will appear in the section labeled ‘From the Publisher’. This drastically improves your ability to market your book to potential readers.

Create a graphic that includes the book award image and a short quote from the review you received from Literary Titan.

How-to: Go to Kindle Direct Publishing, click on the Marketing tab at the top, and then scroll down to the section labeled ‘A+ Content’.

Tip: Think of some other great images or graphics that will help sell your book. If you have a fiction book, you could use some art that illustrates scenes from your book. If you have a non-fiction book you could use an info-graphic that points out important facts and figures from your book.

12. DISPLAY YOUR AWARD CERTIFICATE

A framed certificate looks professional and brings attention to your literary accomplishments wherever it is displayed.

Recipients of Literary Titan’s Book Award can order custom certificates, with the author’s name and book title prominently displayed, framed or in a certificate holder.

Tip: People are attracted to shiny things. Place your award certificate front and center at book signings or book fairs and readers will be drawn to your table.

Here are some ideas on how to display your award certificate:

Hang it where you write as a motivation to keep writing
Display it at book signings to instill confidence in prospective readers that your work is worth their time and money
Hang it up at home for personal satisfaction
Display your certificate at book stores and leave a stack of your bookmarks below it
Hang it up at the office for professional recognition

BONUS: UPDATE YOUR BOOK METADATA

Metadata is a set of information that describes your book. Metadata helps readers find your book, and it helps retailers categorize your book.

Adding ‘Literary Titan Book Award’ or something similar to your keywords could put your book in the ‘Award Winners’ book category of some retail sites that have a section like that. This will also help serve your book up when a customer is looking for award winning books. You can also update the Citations and Book Description in your metadata with your award information.

These are just a few ways you can use the Literary Titan Book Award to promote your book. Get creative and think of new and interesting ways you can share your accomplishment with the world. If you think of any cool ideas, share it with us on Twitter or Instagram @LiteraryTitan.