source: http://www.newsletterjournal.com/information/book-marketing/your-book-marketing-plan-winning-strategies-and-tips.html

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

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source: http://www.publishingbasics.com/2010/03/19/your-book-marketing-plan-to-build-your-promotion-platform/

Launching your book needs a lot of pre-publishing work. You want your book’s audience to know you, like you, and trust you.  I urge new authors, and even experienced authors,  to do the pre-marketing and create a book marketing plan that makes their book a success BEFORE  it’s published, either online or in print.

Here’s Pre-Marketing Steps to Work on Now

1. Create 5-10 informational and how to articles for Ezinearticles.com or hubpages.com–these  high-traffic sites with many 1000’s visiting each day ( your site has about 50-300 a day) will show your audience  your information. Be sure to attract your best audience in your resource box with a compelling free eBook, newsletter, special report, or YouTube video tips at your site.  Submit each original article to one article site to stay within Google’s duplicate content rule and your own book selling site will get a lot more targeted visitors. If they read your article and visit your site, they are already pre-sold.

2. Create your book-selling Web site or add a sales letter to your business Web site. When your article readers visit your site, they also need a reason to buy, so be sure to put up a strong, short sales letter with plenty of testimonials.

3. Know the BIG 3 Marketing Machine that is still the # one way to get big sales. 1. Create a great selling Web site. 2. Submit once a week an article that shows you as the expert to high-traffic sites and blogs like HubPages  3. Write a stellar book that really engages your best audience– and shows you as the savvy expert.

4. Install Word Press or facsimile blog at your site. Put up valuable content that illustrates your expertise and pulls your audience to purchase your book or your service. Share this link at Twitter and other social networks.

5. Comment on other high-traffic blogs that reach your particular audience or join a few social networking groups at Linkedin and comment when you can to show your wisdom.

6. Create a twitter account and start sharing tips from your expertise. Also stay in touch with your core audience there or gurus in your field. Connect your twitter tweets to show up at your Facebook fan page and your profile page on Linkedin, using hootsuite.com..

7. Send how to tips ( 5-7) from your book as press releases. They’ll be more likely to get published. Media wants how to’s not promotional stuff.

8. Know and write your book’s 9 “Essential Hot Selling Points.” That will include a list of 5-10 benefits (not features), your best audience, and your best title and cover, the # 1 hot selling point that sells at least 25% more books.

9. Create a Facebook fan page where you can freely put your marketing messages, useful tips and links to your site to opt-in to free report or newsletter there. Know that when these interact, you multiply exponentially your success.

Know these nine tips before you even publish your book, so it speaks more personally to your audience. If you have many audiences as many beginners think is great, speaking to general audiences dilutes your message and the word-of-mouth sales that come from reader satisfaction.

While this all looks like a lot of work, your book sales will wither and die without these publicity, promotion, and marketing supports for your book’s success. Commit to this and get help from a mentor in this field who knows the business needs around books.

Judy Cullins is a veteran book coach and online marketing coach, who can help you create your best promotion platform.
Author of 11 publishing and promotion books, seminar leader for 20 years, and writing coach for books, articles, and web sales letter. Breakthrough session at bookcoaching.com/book-coaching.php
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Book and Internet Marketing Coach Judy Cullins helps  businesses get all the clients and sell all the books they want. Author of 11 business books including How to Write your  Book Fast and Advanced Article Marketing 3-Book Special. Judy offers free articles and eBook “Book Writing and Marketing Tips” with monthly ezine subscription at www.bookcoaching.com

Get fresh, free, weekly articles on book writing and article marketing on HubPage and Ezine Articles:
hubpages.com/profile/Judy+Cullins
ezinearticles.com/?expert=Judy_Cullins

Network with Judy on…
www.linkedin.com/in/judycullins
twitter.com/CoachJudy
www.facebook.com/pages/Judy-Cullins/40416616854
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[email protected]
619/466-0622

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Your Book Marketing Plan – Who Should You Be Promoting Your Book To?

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source: http://www.thearticlerepublic.com/6429/your-book-marketing-plan-who-should-you-be-promoting-your-book-to

As you write your book and develop your book marketing plan, one of the first priorities is to define your target audiences.

The primary target audience for your book is the “ideal reader” that the book was written specifically for. In your book marketing plan, define the characteristics of your ideal reader, asking questions such as these:

What is their age range, gender, and education level?
Where do they live?
What is their family status – single, married with kids, retired couple?
What is their income level and occupation?
What are their interests and hobbies?
What makes this person the ideal reader for your book?
What are their book buying habits?

In addition to the ideal reader, most books have several secondary audiences.  Your book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching audiences such as these:

Readers – people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic or genre.

Purchasers – people who buy the book for someone else. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, women buy men’s health books, companies and organizations purchase books to give away as gifts and premiums. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?

Retailers – companies who buy your book to sell it to others. If you’re selling through physical bookstores or other retailers, you have the task of convincing these resellers that your book will sell in their stores and demonstrating how you can help generate demand.

Influencers – people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. The influencers may be the most important category of all, especially in online marketing and media. Think about how much you can multiply your marketing efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers, customers, and networks.

Your book marketing plan should outline specific tactics for reaching influencers, including print, broadcast and online media. You can reach the media through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution.

Other important influencers include authors, consultants, and bloggers who cater to your target customers. These folks can mention you, your website, and/or your book in several ways, including blog posts, links, Twittering, ezine articles, and media sharing tools like Digg.

Here are some tips on working with influencers:

Search the internet to compile a list of the top websites, blogs, ezines, magazines, newsletters, online forums, books, ebooks, clubs, and association that cater to your target market or cover your topic.

Study each site to get a good understanding of what they do and how it relates to your book, and look for possible promotional opportunities.

Write a thoughtful, customized email or letter complimenting the prospect about their site, publication, or organization, and suggesting some specific ways that you might work together to your mutual benefit.

Read the top blogs and online forums on your list and look for opportunities to make useful comments about posts. When commenting, include a short signature such as “John Smith, author of How to Grow Roses.” See this article for tips on how to subtly promote your book by commenting on blogs.

How can you enhance your book marketing plan with strategies for promoting to all of your target audiences?

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Your Book Marketing Plan to Build Your Promotion Platform

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