Are you in the process of writing your book?
Or do you have a publishing contract in hand?
No matter the answer, you can begin developing your marketing plan right now.
But there’s so much that goes into marketing it’s overwhelming and time consuming. How do you make it more manageable?
Start by breaking your plan into smaller pieces.
Then establish a time line for your marketing.
At least 6 months before your launch date:
- Build your platform
- Purchase a website domain if you don’t already have one. Readers need a point of contact and that’s what your website is. Whether you decide to blog is a decision you need to make prior to choosing a hosting service.
- If you’re new to social media, do some research and find out where your readers hangout most of the time. Then create a profile, learn the basics of that social network, and begin posting. Don’t try to use every social media network available. It’s time consuming and wasted effort if your readers don’t use that particular network.
- If you use Pinterest, create a secret board for your book and begin creating pins. Make the board public the week/month of your book launch.
- Contact potential endorsers. They need time to read your manuscript and write their endorsement. Your publisher may need those endorsements sooner, so ask them what their time line is and adjust accordingly.
Four months prior:
- Contact potential influencers to ask for reviews (for posting on Amazon and Goodreads) or to schedule a blog book tour.
- Contact publications that print reviews.
- Begin generating ideas for and writing guest blog posts.
- Develop a list of local media and their contacts.
- Develop a list of affiliate organizations that can benefit from your book’s topic (nonfiction) or aspects of your novel. For example, the setting for author Melody Balthaser’s book Seeking Sophie was a Maine lighthouse. She contacted lighthouses that also have tourism centers and garnered a partnership with Pemaquid lighthouse where she held a launch book signing.
Two months prior:
- Schedule book signings
- Schedule speaking engagements
- Create a media kit for your website
- Plan your book launch event (online, live, or both)
One month prior:
- Begin creating social media posts and images to post during launch week/month. Create a document with your posts so all you need to do is copy and paste them into your scheduler.
- Continue any prep work for your book launch.
Month of launch:
- Send press releases announcing your launch to the local media and any affiliate organizations.
- Send out notice of launch to your existing email list.
- Post notice of launch on your social media site(s).
- Invite people to your launch party.
After the launch:
- Continue to seek reviews, speaking engagements, guest blog posts, and media interviews.
- Research and apply to book awards.
- Continue to create and schedule your social media posts.
- Be sure to engage with your social media followers. Don’t make your posts all about buying your book.
Work on each of these elements as you write and you’ll have a book marketing plan ready to copy and paste into your book proposal when you’re ready to submit to potential publishers.
Once you have a specific launch date, go back and assign the necessary dates for each of these steps.
If you have a traditional publisher, coordinate your marketing efforts with them. If you are self-publishing, all this will be your responsibility.
By breaking your marketing into smaller pieces and adding a time line you can be more focused and efficient and accomplish more. Your book marketing becomes manageable rather than overwhelming.
What have you found to be the hardest part of developing a marketing plan? What helped you conquer it? Leave your comments below.
Related post: How to Conquer Your Book Marketing Plan