You probably know that sentence, “Fail to plan, plan to fail”.
I know it’s a cliché but I just love it! I feel much more grounded and aware of what comes next if I take the time to plan my objectives and how I’m going to achieve them. So why not plan the marketing for your book? The hard part is done. You wrote the book! Now you just have to do a few tweaks to sale it to the people who actually want to buy it and will love the story. Just like you did.
How do you do that?
You start by writing a book marketing strategy!
Please don’t panic! I’m not telling you to write a comprehensive 60-page document with a step by step on your marketing plan. You could do that if you are an obsessive planner like me, but you might actually end up overwhelmed with all the planning.
To have a book marketing strategy you just need a few steps:
First, have one channel where you’re going to market your book. You can choose Amazon reviews, Goodreads, Facebook/Instagram/Tik Tok, Email marketing… There are so many options. But do yourself a favor and choose only one for now.
The next step is to answer a few questions:
What is the book about?
Of course, you already know this question, you wrote the book! But you would be surprised with how many authors feel the horror creep in when they are asked this question. How can you summarise almost 200 pages in one sentence? My book is about so many things!
I don’t doubt that!
But you don’t have limited time to sell your book to strangers. You need to be very clear about the main areas of interest in your story. What genre is your book about? What tropes are in it? How does you book make readers feel? You need to have all of this in your mind so that you are able to draft the messaging for your marketing.
Who is your ideal reader?
Are you trying to sell your book to everyone? Stop right there! I’m here to tell you that not everyone is going to buy it. Not everyone like the same type of books. Hell! Even in the same genre, not everyone will read the same books. If you try to get me to read Nicholas Sparks and Danielle Steel, I can already tell you that the book is not for me. I don’t have a problem with those books, I’m just not the right reader for them.
You need to know who your ideal reader is before you start your marketing. Try to think of who would like to read a book like yours. Teenagers? Older moms? Nerdy guys?
You need to know your audience before you try to market the book. And once you know who they are, you can understand where they hang out so that you can find them more easily.
Who are your comparable authors and titles?
Do you know of other writers who write similar books to yours? Then you need to study them! Where do they do their marketing? Where does their audience hang out? Have you been able to reach these fans? Can you find ways of collaborating with these authors and present your book to their audience?
Authors in your genre are not your competition. They are your best marketing strategy. Indie authors are finally understanding this and maximizing their marketing by finding new and innovative ways to collaborate. You can do joint giveaways, cross-promotions, joint events, and email list swaps. The options are endless!
And finally…
What is your book’s unique value proposition?
This one is a hard one!
A unique value proposition is a short sentence that explains how unique your book is and why a reader should buy it. A well-crafted UVP should make the reader’s brain go “Yes, I would totally read that!”
To know this, you need to know all the answers to the above plus, how different your book is from everything out there. Why would a reader choose to read your book among so many other options?
Once you know the answers to these four questions, then you’re ready to start crafting marketing messages that will actually convert readers into buying your book.
