You’ve published your first journal article, your first book chapter, or even your first book. Congratulations! Now you’re probably wondering how to maximise its reach, readership and usage.
While your publisher will undoubtedly be busy behind the scenes doing everything they can to promote your publication, there's definitely a lot to be said about the strength of author marketing. Your networks are a key audience, after all, and no one is better placed to reach out to them than yourself, an expert in your field.
In this guide, we will look at:
Promoting your work can be an invaluable part of the research journey. It enables you to find and define an audience, maximise the reach of your work, and even build connections and future opportunities. In a sense, it’s the business of selling yourself. That can sound like a daunting task, but as we find ourselves in an increasingly digital-focused world, it’s never been easier to promote your work and make meaningful connections using the wealth of tools and platforms that are available. Even adopting just one or two of the methods we suggest in this guide can have an incredible impact on the reach and influence of your research. So feel free to cherry pick whichever method or methods you are comfortable with, and certainly don’t feel the need to do everything (although if you’re keen, this isn’t a bad thing)!
Take X (formerly known as Twitter), for example. At the Press, X is our main social channel, and over the years we have seen an exponential growth in not just our followers, but engagement. You’ll find that most, if not all, small and major publishers have an X feed. Your university will have one, too. So if you’re not on X, it’s probably a good idea to think about setting up an account. Of course, you’re mostly likely to know where your community gathers online – we’ve got tips on multiple platform options in our section on social media.
Building an audience by using a variety of digital channels can seem like a huge task, but it doesn’t have to be. First of all, you have to establish your audience – who are they? Think about the people who need to know about your research. Start off with your immediate network: your colleagues, personal connections and any existing following you might have online. Then build on this by taking a look at who those connections are engaging with (who are your colleagues following on X and LinkedIn, what blog outlets are your peers reading or even submitting to, what channels does your publisher use to promote your research?). From here, you can start to build a meaningful network by following and engaging with individuals and organisations that are organically linked to the network that you already have. Naturally, when you begin to tweet, post and talk about your work online, you will build an audience via those channels, too.
Here are some easy ways that you can help to spread the word about your article to people working in your field:
Websites
Social media
Your library and institution