How to Market Your Book - Including a Book Marketing Plan Template

The Official Self-Published Book Marketing Plan

If you agree with that statement, then you may want to consider KDP Select. KDP Select is an incentive program where you agree to sell digital copies of your book exclusively on Amazon. In exchange for this exclusivity, Amazon offers authors a higher royalty rate and some options to promote their book, including a countdown deal , which allows you to offer your book at a deep discount for a short period.

Google, social media, and mailing lists are all great places to start. So having a high-quality website and an informative and engaging social media presence is of paramount importance. If you have the time, you can do it yourself. Make sure you have a killer, keyword-optimized author section on Amazon. Be sure to include a bio, and as many glowing reviews of your work as you can track down.

Define Your Goals

Once upon a time, a book tour was a useful tool to maximize your reach and sales as an author. While those days may be behind us for the most part, there are still some effective avenues to consider. Appearing on podcasts with a similar audience to your work is a great way to increase your exposure as an author.

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  • Book Marketing Plan Outline!

These appearances are also a great way to drive sales, as well. Seek out podcasts that make sense for your brand, and contact as many of them as possible about appearing on an episode. The end of the year is a great time to plan your marketing campaigns for the year ahead. You can review your marketing and set up new experiments and campaigns at any time. Get instant access to our in-depth training course for free to discover:. We love your privacy! Everything else will be tailored to them. This section is where you explore larger market trends and issues that could influence your book sales changes in technology, legislation related to your book's niche, trends in consumer behavior, etc.

This section of your book marketing plan is where you evaluate the competition and see how you stack up against them. This section is where you list your marketing goals or objectives. Below are some examples, but you don't have to use all of them and you don't have to limit yourself to them. This section explains, in broad terms, how you plan to meet your marketing objectives. Think of your objectives as problems that need to be solved, and think of your marketing strategy as your high-level solution.

Leave the specific steps and tools for later. This section is where you get into the nitty gritty aspects of meeting your objectives. List all specific marketing tactics, tools, or actions that will help you successfully execute your marketing strategy. If a tactic doesn't do that, put that time or money into something that will. This section is where you'll explore your marketing budget for this book and how you plan to spend it.

It's important to be realistic here. Make sure your tactics reflect what your budget allows. And remember that "I don't have a budget" almost never works. You'll spend money on something, even if it's small. Your website's domain registration, web hosting, a press release distribution service, a web template or custom design, a logo design, your cover design, travel costs for live events, webinar software or services, etc.

Keep Market Research Simple. Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer , and indie author. Jenn has 19 years experience writing for others, around 14 years experience in blogging, and over 11 years experience in indie e-book publishing. She is also an Active member of the Horror Writers Association. Subscribe to the All Indie Writers newsletter to get personal updates from Jenn in your inbox.

Free Book Marketing Plan Outline

What a valuable resource for authors! This post was thorough and precise. I am so grateful to have come upon this site. It really makes it seem possible. As an author of a poetry collection, who might my target audience be? Poetry is read by so many different people from all walks of life: Could you give me some examples of target audiences if the poetry was composed by a woman who was married, had children, lived a long life then passed away. Her poetry is mostly about love, loss, anger, happiness, reflection, nature, family and a few more. Your help would be appreciated! The same with any regional focus if such a thing exists in those poems.

Thanks — this is so helpful! Thanks so much for providing this information.

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Thanks so much, Jennifer. All comments are subject to moderation and the All Indie Writers comment policy. Your email address will not be published. If you're not a member of the All Indie Writers community yet, join today. This site and I are often quoted as an expert source, ranked as a leading resource, referred, recommended, and asked to contribute to industry publications.

Maximizing Your Marketing

Here are just some of those places:. This is a book marketing plan outline that you can use This book marketing plan outline is a short form "real" marketing plan for indie authors meaning it goes beyond a simple, and often untargeted, list of tactics. Describe current market conditions. Briefly summarize your target buyers and readers.

Reader Interactions

Subscribe to the Podcast. The digital world gives you the opportunity to do amazingly in-depth reader research in a way that authors 10 years ago would have only dreamed of. What distribution channels will you use? In other words, how and where will your book be accessible to readers? Emily DeCarlo on October 12, at 3:

Briefly summarize your goals or objectives. Summarize your marketing strategy. Your Target Market This section describes the ideal buyers of your book.

Book Marketing: How to Skyrocket Sales of Your Book

What are the demographics of your ideal readers age, gender, education, location, etc. Are there other groups of potential buyers you should target such as a children's author targeting teachers and parents rather than just trying to appeal to their target readers? What are the primary needs of your target market and how does your book satisfy those needs?

What factors and emotions are likely to influence buying decisions within your target market? You'll want your marketing messages to appeal to those things. In what ways, places, or media are your target buyers going to be easiest to reach? Market Analysis This section is where you explore larger market trends and issues that could influence your book sales changes in technology, legislation related to your book's niche, trends in consumer behavior, etc.

What are the critical issues facing you in reaching readers with your book? What are your keys to success where do you have the most opportunity to succeed? What distribution channels will you use? What larger market forces could affect your book sales genre trends, print book vs e-book buying habits, etc.

Competitive Analysis This section of your book marketing plan is where you evaluate the competition and see how you stack up against them. Who is your competition? How are top-selling competitors pricing similar books? How is the competition promoting and distributing their books?

What are your competitors doing well, or better than you? Where are your competitors struggling where can you do better than them? How many books do you want to sell? Your first month, 3 months, 6 months, a year, etc. How much do you have to earn to be profitable cover your production and marketing expenses and the time invested , and by when do you want to hit that target? How many reviews do you want, and by when?

How many total versus stars? Marketing Strategy This section explains, in broad terms, how you plan to meet your marketing objectives. How will branding play a role in helping you sell books?

Introduction / Summary

How will you position yourself among the competition selling low-priced books versus premium books for example? What kind of reputation do you want this book to have, or how do you want it to be seen in relation to other books on the market?

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Cover the 4 Ps of Marketing: