It couldn’t be simpler – if you want your book to be successful, the hard work happens before the book launch. Yes, you could wait until the day of launch, but you might be scratching your head in bewilderment – why didn’t all those sales happen? Writing the book is just one tiny part; promoting it is what will sell it.

Book promotion requires very careful planning so that you get the most bang for your buck, as they say. And that is the reason why you need a book marketing plan – once you have a truly great book, of course. If you don’t, then all the work you are about to do will be a waste. So, if you think your book is ready for the market, get a pen and paper and start writing your plan as you read this.

Your Plan

You can have a piece of paper, a spreadsheet, a presentation, however you want to write your plan; just write it somewhere, not just in your head. Ready?

Step 1: Define Your Target Audience

Yes, yes, I know, you already know who your audience is. If that’s really true, then this is going to be so easy for you. Do NOT skip this step though. It is the most important step and it will be the lynchpin of everything else that you do – that’s why it’s the first step! The other 12 steps in your plan are going to be based on you finding your audience, those people who really need what you offer, and then convincing them to buy your book.

If this isn’t your first rodeo, then you already have a pretty good idea who your book is aimed at. Today's digital world is wonderful for giving you the tools to do complex, in-depth research in a way that we just couldn’t do a decade ago. Go to Facebook, go to Goodreads, or Amazon and look at the people who read your books.  If this is your first book, do some research; look at similar books and see who is reading them.

You should be able to define a core audience. Even if your book is ideal for everyone, it must be more targeted to one audience than another and that is the audience you are looking for. It could be anyone:

70-year-old retirees who love golf

Working moms in LA

Trainee accountants

You get the gist; this is the single most important part of your plan, I cannot say it enough. Now all you’ve got to do is find these people and sell them your book. Questions you need to ask are:

Who is going to buy my book? – if your book is aimed at young children, your target audience is the parents; if it’s a legal publication then forget the lawyers, you want the law librarians.

You can see where I am going with this – what you think is the obvious audience for your book may not be; think outside the box a little. When you’ve done this, we can move on to step 2.