How to Conquer Your Book Marketing Plan

Marketing. Most writers dread it. Because, after all, we’d rather be writing.

But gone are the days when the publisher handled ALL the marketing of a book for their authors. And the truth of it is, even in the “old days” traditional publishers didn’t allocate equal marketing dollars to every book.

Whether you are traditionally published or self-published, marketing your book is a fact of life—unless you don’t care if anyone ever buys your book.

Marketing isn’t a one time event. Maybe that’s what makes it so overwhelming. Or maybe it’s figuring out how to execute the many elements of marketing that intimidate and overwhelm you.

As I was considering the marketing plan for my new book Carried by Grace, it suddenly struck me how I could make it manageable. When faced with a big project, break it down into smaller pieces. Divide and conquer.

Once I applied this method, doing it that way seemed obvious, but admittedly, the obvious sometimes (okay, often) escapes me. I no longer felt overwhelmed, but excited.

The components

Let’s look at a number of the components that can comprise a book marketing plan:

Endorsers and Influencers

• Book reviews

• Blog book tour

Social media posts

• Twitter and Twitter parties or chats

• Facebook and a FB launch party

• Pinterest

• Giveaways

An author website/blog

• Author page- Goodreads/Amazon

Media interviews

• TV

• Radio

• Newspapers

• Blog talk radio

• Public speaking

Partnering with special organizations

Paid advertising.

I can hear you saying “I can’t do all that!”

Neither can I, and that’s a mistake many of us make. Thinking we need to do it all. I’ll show you how you can make doing it all more manageable in a later post.

Back to the task at hand.

The bulleted items above represent a further break down of a specific category.

I took these pieces and created a separate document within my Scrivener file (see image) for the categories I knew I wanted to utilize. Then within each category I began listing every idea I could think of. In the coming days, I’ll go back and decide which ideas in these categories I believe will work best for me and execute those ideas.

In my Scrivener image, the file labeled “quotes” under social media is a list of quotations I plan to use either as a stand-alone quote or an image. It includes both Bible quotes and quotes from famous personalities. I’ll also add quotes from my book.

Under influencers/endorsers are names of people I want to contact to either request an endorsement or who can help spread the word about the book in one way or another.

Under media interviews I’ll list local radio and TV stations and newspapers along with contact information so I can send a press release to each as my book release gets close.

You get the idea. Break marketing into logical categories, decide what ones you want to use, and then tackle them one at a time. By looking at each category separately, you are less likely to feel overwhelmed as you would be thinking “I’ve got to create a marketing plan.”

If you’re still in the process of writing your manuscript, create your plan while you write your story. When ideas hit, write them down in the appropriate file. You’ll have a marketing plan almost completed at the same time you complete your story.

As to what software you use, that’s up to you. MS Word or Excel are just as workable as Evernote or Scrivener.

What do you find is the most daunting facet of marketing your book? Share in the comments below. Maybe our readers will have an idea for you.