~ Sankalita Roy
As an author, I have previously mentioned the importance of book marketing that is in one word if the audience does know you, they will not buy your book. That is simple. It is important to write your book well but it is also important to market your book well using strategies like well-defined goals, careful planning, audience identification and determining the target media market.
Let us go into detail about what effective book marketing plan will help you become a successful and renowned author. They are as follows:
1. Research
This is one of the first and foremost things that you must do to come up with an effective plan. Follow the authors who have similar goals and target audiences like yours. Observe their book-promoting strategies and get inspired by them. let me share with you one of the best and wisest strategies, I found so far, It was of a friend of mine, who self-published one of her poetry books as an eBook on Kindle direct publishing. For the first two days, she allowed her audience to read her eBook for free. As a result, some of them reviewed her book which helped her to increase the sales of her book.
2. Define your marketing goals
Before you embark on any journey, you need to know your goals and then create your book marketing plan accordingly. Since every author and their book marketing plan is different, therefore it is important to know why you are writing a book and how you want to market your book. This includes whether you are writing your book as a hobby or for the media coverage that it can generate. Ask yourself these questions to gain clear perspectives about your goal.
To sell books?
Develop your author brand.
Use the book as a marketing tool.
All or some of the above?
3. Know your target audience
Marketing is all about knowing your audience that is your readers. It is the readers who make us the writers. You must know about the age group of the audience, what are the things that interest them, where you can find your target audience and how will you generate the buzz before you publish your book. You need to research and keep these details in your mind before beginning your journey as an author. Your audience needs to have an interest in your work.
Like the self-published book marketing plan itself, identifying the audience requires several steps and serious research. Many authors look to support from experts at book marketing services agencies to help them define these steps, create the plan and execute it. to maximize the number of potential readers for your book, build a plan to target those who are most likely to be interested.
Use keywords to define your book
You can start to determine your target audience for advertising by figuring out what sorts of interests they have that are related to your book. think about your book style and genre then do several Google searches around those words to determine what words are best associated with your book. knowing a few keywords can help you put a digital ad in front of those most likely to be interested in your book.
Find communities with interests related to your keywords
You don’t need to create a new circle of readers to sell your book instead tap into the readers who are interested in your book genre and subject. Find where your target readers get together to talk about their interests and discuss. This can be book reading clubs, spoken poetry clubs, any library, or social media groups like those existing on Facebook, WhatsApp and so on. There might be a yearly convention that discusses your book genre, Go there, join the conversations, know about your audience's interests, and the keywords they are using during these conversations and you will get readers in no time.
Get to know about these communities
While you are visiting these community events, you are likely going to come across the authors they love to read For example, if your book is a self-development book, your audience will most likely enjoy reading Brian Tracy or they may enjoy reading memoirs of several successful people. This bit of information gives you a structure about what you should include in your book and how you can generate the interest of your audience towards your book.
4. Define your budget plan
This is the most real thing that all of us know very well, that is money can help you do whatever you want in whatever way you thought to be. Before, creating your marketing plan, you need to create a marketing plan about reaching your audience keeping in mind the expenses. You need to save your money for your book marketing plans. If you want to advertise via Facebook and Instagram, you can do so with your money. Are you going to launch book trailers? Are you going to organize a book launch party with a press release? Write these little things down in your notebook. If you want to publish an interview in the local newspaper and online through interviewers, you can also opt for that.
Your budget plan should be not only for the book marketing but also for the book publishing process. This includes budgets for the book cover design, editing, manuscript design and illustrations. Are you going to publish your book in eBook version or paperback or hardcover? Know these little things first. Sometimes, you may also hire a marketing expert to promote your book.
The online book reviews also require some amount of money as well. Make a spreadsheet about all your potential costs and see how much money you will need to accomplish your goals.
5. Develop book promotion plan elements
Whether you promote your book alone or with the help of marketing agencies, you need to create your plan for book marketing. Before planning to market your book, you must keep several things in mind, first, is your publishing route (self-published, traditional, hybrid) and format (eBook, print, print on demand, or a combination). Whether you are going to self-publish or traditionally publish your book, do your research thoroughly before deciding.
Creating your website is imperative for every book marketing plan. Writing a blog once or twice a week is important as it generates search engine optimization. Do not be disheartened when you cannot reach your target audience. with time, people will slowly discover your blog and start reading it. websites help you to build your brand as an author and generate your target audience as a result you develop your brand as an author. You can also guest blog on other websites so that people can know about you and follow your website and social media handles. Encourage your audience to sign up for the subscriber form of your website which allows you to send them your email campaigns and provides your audience with all the latest updates.
Social media is also providing an important aspect of book marketing. It is significant for you to know your target audience and which social media app they use the most. For example, the young audience prefers Instagram, on Facebook, you will find the mature audience. This small detail adds up to big things. While promoting your book, you must be mindful of the time when your audience uses their social media accounts the most to post your content accordingly to reach a wider audience. Sometimes, you can also collaborate with other authors, influencers, bloggers and interviewers to reach your audience. Social media provides a great platform for you to build a relationship with your potential readers and book buyers.
You can also start your book launch parties, book signing sessions or start appearing as a guest lecturer for example in libraries, schools, colleges and so on to spread awareness about who you are along with your journey as an author and your purpose of why you want people to read your book.
Book reviews also form a part of the book marketing element as mentioned earlier. Here too, you can offer a free copy for an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads, your website or anywhere else where your book is sold or searched. Reviews are a great way to show the audience that your book is talked about and it is a powerful word-of-mouth promotional tool.
Apart from the above-mentioned options, you can also start your podcasts on channels like Spotify, iTunes and so on. They have become a great platform to create and distribute your work.
6. Determine the best marketing targets
According to an article on the internet, marketing is defined as a conduit to spread the word about a book to the general public or specific target market.
Like reader audiences, no book is suitable for every type of media.
As I have mentioned before, social media platforms are for young audiences who prefer genres like romance, thrillers, mystery and so on. On the other hand, on Facebook, one would find a mature audience with an inclination towards self-help, biographies, memoirs etc. LinkedIn is widely used by people who are job-oriented and likely to look for books like entrepreneurship, business and so on. Sometimes, you may give a glimpse of behind the scenes of your book and allow your readers to know the real you. Remember the best and most authentic version of you is what builds the trust amongst your audience.
Determine your media targets, then compile targeted lists.
7. Implement your book PR and publicity plan
Once your book has been released, you will have to make all these elements run together on all cylinders.
Creating an effective book marketing plan and then executing it are significant commitments, and as a self-published or traditionally published author, you must be educated in all these aspects. If you are hiring a marketing expert, you are likely to prevent from making mistakes but if you are working alone to market your book, you must come up with an effective plan to execute it. for instance, Savi Sharma, the author of Everyone Has a Story used Facebook ads to reach wide audiences. She shared excerpts and quotes from her book to generate interest amongst her audience including the readers who have not read her book. Consequently, she was able to sell around 1,00,000 in 100 days. Ultimately, the author must have a high level of commitment as the book’s success depends on their involvement in each stage of the process.
8. Prepare advertising material
Once you start your book marketing, you’ll most likely have multiple marketing channels where you should be posting daily to weekly – it’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed. Don’t put yourself in that position instead start to plan your content and schedule your post accordingly. You may choose to post thrice a week to expand your readers gradually.
Take a moment to analyze what type of content will involve the most out of the audience and what they will enjoy most. Who doesn’t love entertainment and involvement, right?
Here are some of how you can involve the audience:
You can giveaways for a free book where your followers tag their friends and have them follow your entries. Let us imagine a book named ‘Gratitude’, where the author as a marketing strategy shares a reel about a contest where people will share their own stories related to the title of the book. The best five people receive signed copies of the book.
You can tease your cover design and do a big book cover reveal across all your channels.
Preparing a media kit is something you can give to bookstores where you have all the information, they need to market your book. your media kit should have a press release, your back-cover blurb, a list of your book signings, where to buy your book and the publication date. Sometimes, they may also need the photos of your book.
Make a list of blog-post topics and create a template for your email list. When it's time to start your book promotion, you will have to schedule all your content ready for you to hit send.
Hope all these strategies and advice help you in your book publishing and book marketing journey.