The key to your book’s success is creating and executing a fully developed marketing plan. You can have a wonderful marketing platform, an ideal niche market and an engaging and well-written book, but without a fully developed plan to market that book, you will waste your time, your effort and your money. On top of that, you’ll have only limited results.
A specific marketing plan has focused outcomes. Even if you do not currently have the marketing platform to generate enough sell-through at bookstores (both online and physical) to reach bestseller status, you will still benefit from reading the generalized plan here and in the next few blogs. You can then create a similar, more specific marketing plan for our own book. And before you begin your next project you will also understand the amount of time, effort and money that go into a successful book promotion. Remember – you wrote the book. Now you’re in the book-selling business. So in a way the hard work has only just begun. Overnight success is rare in any industry, but it’s especially rare in bookselling.
Think of your marketing plan as a map. Let’s say you’re driving from Orlando to Seattle. As you look at your map, you go over various routes for different states, with their varying terrains through which you’ll be traveling. You’ll notice where along the desolate where you should stop for gas, what climates you’re encounter, plan some possible sightseeing stops, and calculate the overall time it should take you to get to your destination.
Similarly, as you lay out your marketing plan, you will not only map out your strategy for getting from Point A to Point B, but you will also note the ground you must cover to get to your destinations. What difficulties will you face two weeks into your marketing campaign? Will other events in the coming months distract attention from you and your book? What resistance are you likely to face?
In our next post, we’ll continue to look at your book marketing plan.