And on the subject of a marketing plan for your book ….

(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2011).

Marketing a book is no different from any other sort of marketing. You know the sort of thing, what can I do to get my book/product/service/dog noticed by the right people at the right time who are likely to take the action I want them to take, such as buy book/buy product or service/take the dog off hands etc?

What you need is a plan, no, let’s make that a PLAN, note the capitals as they are important. This is the tool that will help you to rocket your way to the bestseller lists, or at least get your book noticed by the people who are most likely to buy it.

I’ve already mentioned knowing who your likely audience is, that is who will be interested in reading your book. For some books, it may be really obvious but for many, it won’t necessarily be the case. For a recap, you can read the post again here: The good, the bad and the downright ugly of marketing a book.

I’d now like to introduce you to my favourite poem, those that know me well will have heard variations on this theme many times over the last few years because I trot it out with vigour for almost everything when it comes to helping to give a business – or in this case a book – exposure.

‘I keep six honest serving men, they taught me all I knew
Their names are who and what and why
And where and when and how‘

I have marked in bold the keywords. Rudyard Kipling did us a great service when he penned these words and I’m certain he did so with people like me in mind.

A Marketing Plan of any description needs to know:

1. Why anyone will be interested in what you are doing
2. What you want to achieve
3. Who is likely to be interested in what you are doing
4. Where can you find those people
5. When will you be able to locate them
6. How are you going to engage with them

Your book is no different and your BOOK MARKETING PLAN needs to have 6 clear sections that details

1. Why anyone will want to read your book – this is its Unique Selling Proposition
2. What you want to achieve by setting some realistic goals
3. Who is likely to want to read your book
4. Where are those people? Are they online, offline, in a shop, a factory, a business meeting
5. When are you going to make time to meet them
6. How are you going to get them interested

And that my friends, is a Book Marketing Plan in a nutshell.

Now for quick tip no.1 – Make links in blog comments specific

Many of you will be commenting on blogs and other such things. And, if you are doing so then why not add a link to a specific page on your website instead of the home page? You could even link to your Facebook Page, your LinkedIn profile or your Twitter account if you want to. The problem with linking to your home page all the time is that if people follow that link they will end up somewhere that requires them to search for something interesting or relevant, and they may not find the piece of information you really want them to know!

Image by S. Hermann / F. Richter from Pixabay