Your Book Marketing Plan - Winning Strategies and Tips

Many authors hit a roadblock when it comes to putting together and implementing a book marketing plan. You know you need to have one, you have a vague idea of what it needs to include, but pulling it all together into a step-by-step plan of attack is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

A good starting point is to break your plan up into major categories. From there, you can further define and set up strategies for each area of your book marketing plan.

The first thing that comes to mind for most authors and self publishers is book store sales. Makes sense doesn't it? That's where people buy books don't they? It's true that making your book available to the general public through bookstores is a very vital component of your marketing plan.

However, it is just that -- one single component of your plan. There are many elements that will make up your book marketing plan and arranging to have your book available in bookstores is just one of them. Let's call that component #1:

Book Marketing Plan Component #1

Making Books Available in Bookstores

Now, it's one thing to secure placement for your book on the bookstore shelves, but now how are people going to know it's there? Customers can't (and won't) buy something they've never heard of. This is where the publicity component of your Book Marketing Plan comes into play. Setting up and ongoing publicity campaign is the number one way to drive customers to the bookstore to buy your book. We'll call this component #2:

Book Marketing Plan Component #2

Setting up and Implementing a Successful Publicity Campaign

Besides book stores, you can also sell your books to nontraditional book buyers like display retailers, book clubs, catalogs, gift retailers, volume buyers (think Costco and Price Club), corporations, foundations and foreign markets. We sell thousands of self published books to buyers like these all the time and targeting these buyers should make up a good portion of your book marketing plan. This will be component #3:

Book Marketing Plan Component #3

Non-traditional Markets

In this day and age, you would be making a big mistake if you didn't include the internet as a vital component of your Book Marketing Plan. The internet is the best way to directly reach your target customers. It is also the best way to sell to them since you cut out any third parties and retain 100% of the profits. There are many ways to research the internet to ensure that there is a demand for your book and the best ways to fill that demand.

Book Marketing Plan Component #4

The Internet - Your Book Website

These are the four most important components of your Book Marketing Plan. Now you must research each component individually to customize the approach you take for your book.

© Copyright 2004 Ink Tree Ltd.

Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. We have all the tools you need to succeed in book marketing and book promotion. Let us help you make your book a success. http://www.inktreemarketing.com/BookMarketingKit.htm

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Book Marketing Information:

Related Articles

Extend Your Books Life With a Sales Letter
Authors, publishers and business owners are great at getting their books written and launched. But after the initial one-year honeymoon, sales slow down.
Know These Five Audiences to Write a Top Selling Book
To create a saleable book you need to know your preferred audience or audiences before you write your book. This essential "hot-selling point" helps you write focused, organized, and compelling copy your audience will appreciate and talk about.
Plays Well With Others to Become an Instant Author
You wrote a tips booklet. Maybe more than one.
Distribute Your Self-Published Book - Part 1
Where is your book now? With a distributor? In a book store? Or, did it already die an early death after a few months? New self-published authors often believe they need a distributor to sell a lot of books. They want to use Ingram or Baker & Taylor because they think they need to get their book into the "brick and mortar" bookstores like Barnes and Noble.
Plain Speaking - 4 Secrets For Getting Your Book Purchased
What can be more infuriating to a potential purchaser of a non-fiction book than chapter headings which give no clue as to their contents? After all, if someone is looking in the non-fiction section of a book store, it implies they want facts, not a fancy and "clever" table of contents! Here are 4 sure-fire ways to make your text grab the reader's attention:1. Make sure the text on the front and back covers is compelling.
Increase Book Sales: At Book Fairs, Festivals and Trade Shows
Play a bigger game with your book sales by expanding your audiences at local or nonlocal book fairs, festivals or trade shows. Can't afford a booth or table, rent a space on someone else's table and volunteer to be back for their book.
Sell Your Book At Book Fairs, Festivals & Trade Shows
Play a bigger game with your book sales by expanding your audiences at local or nonlocal book fairs, festivals or trade shows. Can't afford a booth or table, rent a space on someone else's table and volunteer to be back for their book.
How to Create an Amazing Author Website
Without a website, an author is unknown.Without a website, an author sells fewer books.
How To Get The Most From Your Free eBooks Marketing Campaign
First, your ebook needs to have an attractive title.The title should grab the attention of your intendedtarget audience.
Self Publishing Success Starts With Marketing
Self-publishing is not for the faint of heart. The publication process is lengthy, involves a considerable number of detailed, administrative tasks and can be expensive.
Creating a Book Poster
Posters can be a great and inexpensive way to promote your book. But don't rush right out until you know the key items to include on your poster.
28 Reasons Why Publishers Will Buy Your Book
Editors will buy a book for one or more of the following reasons. By knowing what these reasons are, you can then design a marketing plan with those features in mind.
The Value of Negative Publicity
Extremely harsh criticism helped boost my book sales. I explain what they said, what I did and what results I experienced.
What Service Do You Need to Make your Book Sell?
Whether you are just starting or almost finished with your print or eBook, you wonder, "What step to take next?" Who can help me find the right publisher? Who can partner with me to make my book a solid seller? Check out your choices to be sure you get what you need. Many writers think that all they need is a good editor and their book will be ready for publishing and promoting.
Top Ten Basics on Internet Article Writing to Promote your Book
Whether you have already written articles and published them or not, you may want to check out the difference between writing for online ezines and web sites and writing for print media. While some writing concepts work for both, online writing needs a shorter, more focused approach.
Top 5 Book Selling Tips
TIP # 1Online reviews are paramount in importance when it comes to drawing attention to your book. And the best part is, you're in control of your own destiny!If you haven't yet submitted your own review on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, what are you waiting for? This should be one of the first steps for every published author.
How To Market A Suspense Novel In An Online Multimedia Format
If you haven't heard of the author C.F.
Book Marketing 101
Francine Silverman. Book Marketing from A-Z (InfinityPublishing.
Online Book Marketing: How to Sell Your Book Even If You Are Not a Salesperson
What you do after you have written your book is as much, if not more, important than the actual writing of it. You can take a great book and poor marketing and have very poor results.
Top Ten Getting Started Tips to Market Your Book and Business
Want to sell a lot more books? Want clients calling every day to find out more about your service? Most emerging businesses forget the #1 way to promote anything--the Internet. Specifically, writing and submitting articles.