Taking a risk

It doesn’t matter if you’re planning to self-publish your work or if you’ve been accepted by a publishing house who will do the publishing for you – getting your book published is a risk for whoever the “producer” is. As a matter of fact many publishing contracts include a clause referring to your marketing plan. Sometimes a publisher will request your plan as a condition of considering your work.



Don’t wait until you’re asked or already published to write out your book marketing plan. Do it as soon as your edits are complete and you start mailing your manuscript out looking for a home.



To start your plan, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Are you planning to self=publish or are you looking for a publishing house to back you? Does it matter if you book is published as an e-book or a print book or both?

2) Have you begun to build your “brand” online? (Your brand is YOUR name and your book is your product) Do you already have a working website (if not, get it now)?

3) Who will want to read your book? Who do you want to read your book? How will you reach out to that target group of readers?

4) What are your goals for your book? Did you write your book for just your family and friends? Do you hope to see your book sold to the general public through your website or online retailers? Do you want your book to be available through brick and mortar stores (actual storefronts)?

5) Realistically how many books are you looking to sell?

6) How much time do you have to market your book? What are you willing to do to market your book?

7) How much money do you have to invest in marketing your book? Or if your publisher is backing you, how much money do you need to follow your marketing plan?

8) What is your anticipated timeframe to market your book (six months, a year, etc)?



Make a list of venues to contact to arrange book signings, author talks, or hold book sales – and then make sure you contact the appropriate people. Don’t wait for your local bookstores or library to contact you as a local author and ask you to come in, that’s most often going to happen only for well-known and multi-published authors. Contact libraries, book stores, art centers, coffee houses, book clubs, and depending on the subject and appropriateness, schools, civic groups, church groups, etc.



Prepare a press pack including your bio, information about your book such as a sales sheet, synopsis, reviews, book cover and something interesting such as a back-story (why you wrote the book) or any connection to local history or current events. Put this together in an attractive folder and send it out to local media including newspapers, regional magazines, radio stations and local television news.



Most of your marketing efforts are little to no cost, but there are a few items you should budget for: a few copies of give-away books (donate to your local library to help spread your name, run a contest, or send to a newspaper’s book reviewer), bookmarks, business cards, pens with your logo, and other SWAG (stuff we all get). There are some inexpensive mail-order companies where you can build quite a collection (I use VistaPrint). Don’ forget to budget for travel, even driving to your local mall uses gas – depending on the area you plan to cover, make sure you have the proper transportation or money to cover it.



Don’t forget some obvious and no-cost ways to promote your book. Use an email signature, post on FaceBook, MySpace and/or GoodReads. Open a Twitter account and send tweets (tweet responsibly, promote only 20-30% of your total tweets. If your books are available through Amazon be sure to set u an Amazon Author Page. Many sites will link to others – when I make a post on my WordPress blog the title is automatically tweeted and every tweet shows up on Facebook.



And the most successful way to promote your book is to write another one.





Writing exercise: Write a love letter to one of YOUR fictional characters (can be in a completed work or a current WIP). Next write a letter FROM one of your characters to YOU as the author – write in the voice of your character.



Writing prompt: Pretend that you are interviewing yourself for a news-short. Come up with 5 to 10 questions that you feel your readers would be interested in. Now, answer the questions.