Maps are nice for inside the covers, and for keeping readers up to date on where things are happening in your story, but they can also be a huge marketing draw for your book.
Here are seven ways to use maps in your book marketing:
- Make posters of your map
- Maps make great graphics
- Pre-order goodies
- Instagram posts
- Share your worldbuilding process
- Turn it into a puzzle
- Coloring pages
Make Posters of Your Map
Maps make terrific posters. Very little needs to be done with most maps to change them into perfect posters, so it also generally involves very little work. You will want to add details about the book to the poster and perhaps add your name and color to the map, but often, those are the only changes that are needed!
Need help turning your map into a poster or printing it? I can help!
You can hang up your posters, give them away to fans, and share on social media to draw excitement for your book launch.
Maps Make Great Graphics
Maps make great graphics to help advertise your book. You can use them as a background to words about your book (or maybe a quote!). If you need examples of what that can look like, you can find a whole bunch of map-based graphics all around my site. What can I say, I’m a map maker!
Need help turning your maps into graphics? No worries, I’m a professional graphic designer. Maybe soon I’ll make a post about turning you map into a graphic, but for the moment, you can get my help here.
Pre-Order Goodies
This is a spot where you can pull out that poster you made! Or any other type of map swag. Pre-order goodies encourage buyers to commit to the book before it is totally out, which can be very helpful in terms of figuring out how many copies of the book to order.
Instagram Posts
Posting on Instagram is always helpful in generating traffic and interest in you book. But what do you post on instagram? You can post your map! Just make sure you find a good way to make it fit inside a square.
Share Your Worldbuilding Process
Tell us all about how you built the world! Tell us what it is based on, what your primary considerations were, how the folk there deal with their trash, etc. You can make this a blog post (or many) or instagram post, or maybe even a special letter from the author.
Turn It into a Puzzle
People love a challenge, and what could be a better challenge than one related to your book? There are many websites that will allow you to turn an image into a digital puzzle that you can use to generate interest (or as a game in an online launch party). If you want a physical puzzle, I can help you print it! A physical puzzle can be put in a giveaway, used as part of launch, or be present at a book signing.
Turn It into a Coloring Page
Coloring pages aren’t just for kids (though they still can be, anybody writing middle grade?). Coloring pages for teens and adults are often a bit more complicated and are used for stress relief and entertainment. A black and white version of your map can be used as a coloring page!
You can offer it as a free download (perhaps for joining your email list), as part of a giveaway, pre-order goodies, or have them available at a book signing to color.
You can even take a video of you coloring it and post that!
I hope these ideas help you think of how to use your map as the valuable marketing piece that it is. Happy writing!
Leave a Reply