Book Marketing Plan

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I can not help but quote the late, great James Brown … "Please, please, please … (Please, please do not go.)"

I beg you please do not take your book to market if you have not developed a marketing plan. That includes:

– defending your target audience (visualize specific individuals you foresee purchasing the book)

– making a list of specific organizations that might

– hosting a book signing or speaking engagement

– developing promotional materials – sales sheet, web page, post cards and book marks

– writing an enticing book description

– determining ideal outlets for selling your book (internet retailers, your web site, independent book stores, speaking engagements, etc.)

What's the worst that could happen? You could be one of those authors who never sells more than 99 books!

Marketing should not begin after the book is produced; it must begin before the book goes to press. Why not wait until the book has been printed? First of all, you'll miss several critical marketing opportunities. Secondly, if you wait until the book is in your hands you'll feel under the gun to sell it and planning probably will not be a priority for you.

Another good reason to think of marketing before your book is printed or published is the book cover. After all, you can not expect your readers to judge a book without its cover!

MARKETING PLAN

In regards to your book cover, the marketing plan will help you determine the appropriate design, key words, and the content for the back cover. By developing a marketing plan, you'll be forced to consider:

Spec specific target markets

The their interests and desires

The their trusted and frequent information resources

Armed with this information you'll be able to write a back cover description that entices prospective readers to open and purchase the book.

Target Market

Once you understand your target market, where they purchase books and which opinions they trust and admire you'll have enough information to identify the appropriate sales avenues (internet retailers, book stores, conferences, etc.). I've included a sample target market analysis at the end of the book.

Here's an example: I mentioned the client who's writing a young adult fiction novel. She told me her target market was teens and young women aged 15 – 35. That's a great start, but it's not enough. With my help she was able to expand this description …

Prim Primary target: black single women and single mothers ages 23- 30;

Second Secondary target: black young adult women & college students age 18 – 22

T Tertiary target: black high school teens 15-18

Notice that we did not just say readers, but that we were specific about their sex, age, marital status and education – single women, single mothers, college students and high school students.

We also considered geography. The author lives in Atlanta, GA therefore this is her primary geographic target. We expanded this to include the Southeast region of the US since it's easy for her to travel to neighboring states for book signings and speaking engagements. She also has extensive contacts in New York so we included the Northeast as a secondary geographic market. Segmented the market this way does not mean prelude the author from pursuing national sales, it just helps her focus on specific regions.

Do not worry if the thought of writing a formal marketing plan, causes some apprehension. Instead consider using a tool that my clients and I have found extremely helpful – the book proposal. Traditionally, book proposals are only necessary for authors in search of an agent or a traditional publisher, however I've found the proposal to be an incentive help to all authors.

In the process of writing a book proposal you will:

Clar Clarify the subject hook (short, compelling book description)

Pres Present the book hook (title, selling handle and length)

Id Identify specific benefits and features

Id Identify competitive titles

Address Address marketing strategies and tactics

While writing God is My Consultant I found myself a bit confused about how to position the book, how to make it different and better than other spiritual / self-help books and the book's major selling points. After two re-writes I still like it was not quite right. So I stopped working on the manuscript and turned to writing the proposal. By the time I finished writing the proposal I was able to delete a lot of external information from my manuscript, I had a full-fledged marketing and promotions plan and I knew exactly what to put in query letters to agents and publishers.

I also used the book proposal format to help a client edit her novel and write a book description to use on the back cover and in promotional material. To solve this problem we wrote the subject hook and the target market sections of the book proposal. In doing so, she was compelled to focus on the book's main theme and why it appeared to her target readers.

Source by Tara Coyt

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