Your Book Marketing Plan – Winning Strategies and Tips

Many authors hit a roadblock when it comes to putting together and implementing a book marketing plan. You know you need to have one, you have a vague idea of what it needs to include, but pulling it all together into a step-by-step plan of attack is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

A good starting point is to break your plan up into major categories. From there, you can further define and set up strategies for each area of your book marketing plan.

The first thing that comes to mind for most authors and self publishers is book store sales. Makes sense doesn’t it? That’s where people buy books don’t they? It’s true that making your book available to the general public through bookstores is a very vital component of your marketing plan.

However, it is just that — one single component of your plan. There are many elements that will make up your book marketing plan and arranging to have your book available in bookstores is just one of them. Let’s call that component #1:

Book Marketing Plan Component #1

Making Books Available in Bookstores

Now, it’s one thing to secure placement for your book on the bookstore shelves, but now how are people going to know it’s there? Customers can’t (and won’t) buy something they’ve never heard of. This is where the publicity component of your Book Marketing Plan comes into play. Setting up and ongoing publicity campaign is the number one way to drive customers to the bookstore to buy your book. We’ll call this component #2:

Book Marketing Plan Component #2

Setting up and Implementing a Successful Publicity Campaign

Besides book stores, you can also sell your books to nontraditional book buyers like display retailers, book clubs, catalogs, gift retailers, volume buyers (think Costco and Price Club), corporations, foundations and foreign markets. We sell thousands of self published books to buyers like these all the time and targeting these buyers should make up a good portion of your book marketing plan. This will be component #3:

Book Marketing Plan Component #3

Non-traditional Markets

In this day and age, you would be making a big mistake if you didn’t include the internet as a vital component of your Book Marketing Plan. The internet is the best way to directly reach your target customers. It is also the best way to sell to them since you cut out any third parties and retain 100% of the profits. There are many ways to research the internet to ensure that there is a demand for your book and the best ways to fill that demand.

Book Marketing Plan Component #4

The Internet – Your Book Website

These are the four most important components of your Book Marketing Plan. Now you must research each component individually to customize the approach you take for your book.

© Copyright 2004 Ink Tree Ltd.

Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. We have all the tools you need to succeed in book marketing and book promotion. Let us help you make your book a success. http://www.inktreemarketing.com/BookMarketingKit.htm

Author: Joni Hamilton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Deborah H. Bateman encourages other believers in their walk with Jesus Christ through Bible study. She is a Christian Author, Blogger, Website Designer, and Book Publishing Coach. She is the Founder of Christian Daily Resources a Christian online ministry dedicated to "Sharing God's Word". Deborah is the author of more than thirty books in the Daily Bible Reading Series and one book about self-publishing called: Self-Publishing Simplified: How to Publish a Book on Kindle. Deborah shares Daily Bible Reading lessons here on her blog at http://DeborahHBateman.com/blog Her website: Christian Daily Resources is at http://ChristianDailyResources.com She shares a Daily Bible Verse on her blog Bible Verse Tweet at http://www.bibleversetweet.com/. Deborah has a family favorite recipe blog called Recipe for Life at http://deborah-bateman.blogspot.com. She invites you to check them out and subscribe to the ones you like.