Your book is not just a book. Your book is an integral part of your business. It needs to be looked at like it’s own major project and

Writing the book is not the hard part. Yes, you’ve heard me right. I’ve preached this over and over because I think it’s one of the biggest myths of becoming an author. It’s super important of course. The book must get done. It must be edited and laid out professionally. THEN, you must follow it up with a multi-channel and multi-platform marketing plan. Meaning-Facebook or Instagram is not a plan. Those 2 social media platforms are KILLER and should definitely be added to the plan-but they are not the plan.

 

There is a certain element of creativity needed when marketing your book. When I created the plan for #52Questions Journal, I looked through so many colors, events, fashion magazines, travel books etc. just to get ideas and the theme of the entire project was VERY apparent. I bought a specific font that I used throughout, I had a 3 color scheme, and a dedicated 6 week push followed by another 8 week phase out that I discuss { here }

• Consider your audience. This is with EVERYTHING in your marketing plan. If it’s just about busyness… this messes everyone up. They think since they are active-going to a lot of events and collecting business cards-that business should be popping. But, I want you to think about actual business, your reader, your audience-where are they? Where are they online and live? What organizations are they a part of, what conferences are they attending, what industry journals are they reading, what blogs do they visit daily, what social media platforms get their attention, and what types of marketing engages them the most? Build your marketing plan around your reader and their preferences. This will help you to reach them and keep your busyness full of business.

 

• Add your book cover and link to all of your business email signatures. You can use a software like WiseStamp to create a signature with a picture, your website and your social media platforms. So, every email you send out is like a marketing message for you and yet another chance for you to get your book in front of potential readers. I used this software to create a pretty book signature in my email for the first 6 months of marketing #52Questions Journal.

• Create a pre-launch marketing campaign to get everyone ready.

• This is a ninja move with pluses and minuses. Sometimes-people want to pop out of the gate with a book from nowhere and if you have an audience like Beyonce, this could work. All jokes aside, if you simply have an engaged audience, this could still work. I didn’t announce either of my books and both of them have sold quite well. But there are some major pluses to letting your audience know that a book is coming.
• Letting your audience know in advance and getting their feedback along the way, can make them feel like they are apart of the process AND make them feel more engaged with your book project.
• Teach from your book. When I launched the Master Strategy Planner, I created a 3 part webinar series with lessons directly from the book. This gave the reader an in depth view of how they should use their planners to take action in their businesses. I also taught an online class before the planner came out ( pre-marketing without mentioning that I had a book coming ) then followed the initial launch with the 3 part post-launch webinar series that was invite-only to book buyers.
• Twitter is your friend. I point out this social media platform because a lot of authors ignore it. I have watched @Luvvie successfully market, re-tweet and sell her book. I used Instagram to heavily market and re-post the Master Strategy Planner, and for the #52Questions Journal, I created its own Instagram. But I’d definitely suggest creating a super ambitious Twitter campaign for your book. Tweets move quickly-so in your initial book marketing push-tweeting multiple times a day is not uncommon or odd. Because of this rapid movement on Twitter, I’d suggest that you create a series of tweets that you schedule to go out each day. I’d tweet a MINIMUM of 4 times a day on the timezone of your readers. There are multiple platforms that allow you to schedule your tweets including, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Buffer.
• Speaking. This one of the TOP ways that I suggest you market and sell your book. Once you step down from the stage-you are a bonafide expert and if you have a table in the back with books (with a solid conference marketing plan AND a volunteer to help you ) then your books are as good as sold. Books have the ability to enhance your speaking career or to launch your speaking career in addition to giving you a strong product to sell once you leave the stage. After speaking, the audience typically wants to know more about you ( depending on how well you spoke ) and this marketing channel and get the STRONGEST one to sell your book. I’ve seen authors hit their book sales goal monthly from focusing on their speaking…

 

Pre-Launch Marketing

• Set up your social media channels and start being active ( consistently ) on the topic that your book is about and that you want to be known for. I’d suggest at least 3-6 months of consistent marketing and building an audience with your social media channels beforehand.
• Start speaking and creating videos along the same vein… The topic that you want to become known for AND that your book is about.
• Start giving tips and tools in your specialized area.
• These are a few tips on how to pre-market and market your book, but a full marketing plan and a template to complete one is available here and I created an instant digital download on all thing self-publishing, launching and profiting to take your from idea to book in hand available here.

 

Remember these things.

It’s your job to create the momentum around your book.

It is your job to keep up the interest around your book.

It’s your job to be creative and keep your book in front of your ideal reader/client.

There are no limitations to how you market your book.