In the post Book Marketing Timeline I shared numerous book marketing tactics and when to implement each of them. Essentially a book marketing timeline is the blueprint for which to get started on creating a book marketing plan. Wondering how to write a book marketing plan? This article will share how to write a book marketing plan and why it may be necessary to revamp your plan if what you’re doing isn’t working.

What Is A Book Marketing Plan?

A book marketing plan is a sound strategic plan you develop prior to your book being published. It will help you to identify and create a relationship with your audience, create goals, and provide milestones you’ll need to hit prior to and after your book’s launch.

How To Write A Book Marketing Plan!

Your book marketing plan can be hand written on paper or constructed in a word processing program such as MS Word, but make sure you can visually see what you are doing on a day-to-day basis with your book. It is very important that your book marketing plan is written out so that you can see what needs to be implemented and whether your book marketing strategy is working. It is also important that you understand the goal of your book marketing plan. Goals could include selling “x” amount of books, developing a social media presence, branding yourself, getting book publicity, etc. If at any time you discover that any of your book marketing tactics aren’t helping you to reach a specific goal, don’t be afraid to revamp your book marketing plan and use another book marketing strategy.

Write A Book Marketing Plan And Learn When To Revamp!

 

Every author will write a book marketing plan and have an ideal book marketing strategy they want to employ. For some it may be blogging, others Twitter or Facebook, and some may do better at traditional marketing. It really has more to do with the author, their comfort level and the time they are willing to invest than it does with the platform itself. Yesterday, I posted video of author Teri Woods, who was successful at using book guerrilla marketing tactics to sell her novel on the streets of New York. Will that work for you? Possibly.

I’ve seen many different social media platforms yield great results for authors but what works for one author may not work for another. That’s why it’s really important to be attune to which platform is providing you value.

Once you start to write a book marketing plan, there may need to be tweaks. Sometimes its necessary to revamp your marketing plan because you may decide that you are not comfortable with a platform, it requires more time than you’re willing to invest, or its not providing the results you thought it would.

I began to write a book marketing plan two months before my debut novel The Buzz was released. There were many components to my plan and social media was at the forefront, namely Facebook. After a few months of marketing my title I realized that Facebook wasn’t my platform of choice.

Now it’s the exact opposite. I spend the majority of my time on Facebook.

I remember the first time I logged on to Twitter. I remember thinking, “I just don’t get it.”

Believe me, I wanted to because people were just oohing and aahing over Twitter.  I tried tweeting but I didn’t have a clue how. So I sought out people who were using Twitter successfully. I wanted to fully understand how it could be useful to me as an author. Before long, I better understood how Twitter would be useful in my day-to-day book marketing. From that day forward, my focus shifted.

I am also a freelance entertainment writer and since 2005 I have ran an entertainment blog in addition to freelancing for a magazine. In running a blog I understood the time it takes to run a successful blog, so blogging was NOT a part of my marketing plan because initially I felt that it would require too much of my time. If you’re reading this, then you know I changed my mind. I later saw the benefit in blogging as an author. I realized that I had a lot to share with my audience.

I share these examples to show a marketing plan is not set in stone. As interest in your book grows and book sales increase, so will your focus. What may be a time-sink in the beginning may be a non-issue later. For example, the amount of time you spend in the beginning getting followers on Twitter, won’t be as important once you have thousands who seem to be really tuned in to what you are saying. Finding readers of your blog will be a less of an issue once your popularity grows and site statistics soar. You can then focus your time and energy somewhere else.

A book marketing plan is really just a work in progress…

As you’ve read, I’ve revamped my marketing plan a few times and will continue to do so as my goals are met and my focus changes. If you’re a new writer, be prepared to tweak your marketing plan as the buzz grows and if you’re an established author it may be time to pull out the old marketing plan, dust it off and come up with a few new ideas to market your book. It’s never too late. There’s always someone who hasn’t read your book yet.

If you’re looking for additional resources or help with how to write a book marketing plan, check out my eBook Marketing And Publicity For The Author.  In the eBook I will go into more detail about social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogging for authors and how to write a book marketing plan that produces results!

Did you write a book marketing plan? Have you had to revamp it? If so, what changes have you made? Please share in the comment section below.

NEXT: Easy Book Marketing Techniques For Writers