The launch of your book is on the horizon. You have this great story, but no one knows about it. This is bad, so you start thinking about advertising and Twitter and reviews.

The book is done. The hard part is over, right?

Why does it feel like the hard work has only just begun?

Why am I crying and rocking back and forth?

Sound familiar? I haven’t begun rocking and crying just yet, but I’m currently starting to think about Book Marketing. I understand marketing, but Book Marketing…well, this is new territory.

A book launch holds the same principles as any other launch, though. The point is to get people to take notice and buy the damn thing. Easier said than done.

 

The Principles Of A Book Marketing Campaign

Before we move forward, the tips I’m about to discuss are relevant to all campaigns – not just Book Marketing ones.

They won’t tell you any super secret recipes

They won’t tell you whether Twitter or Facebook is better

What I hope they do is provide clarity. As the key to any good campaign, Book Marketing or not, is staying on top of things. It needs purpose, structure, and a super focussed way forward.

If you’ve read How To Build An Author House, those are words that probably feel familiar.

 

This Is How I Prepare For A Campaign

The following process is what I follow. I’m currently running a couple of small campaigns during July, and this is the process I followed when creating them. In the coming months I’ll be preparing for my 1st Fictional Book – Beyond Parallel – and again, this is the Process I’ll use.

Campaign Name: no big news here. All you need is a name

Duration: how long will this thing take. A Month? A Year?

Purpose: what do you want to achieve. What is the purpose of the campaign?

Issues: if you’re creating a campaign, certain problems exist. What are they?

Targets: between now and the end of the campaign, what do you hope to achieve? We need some specifics here. Numbers, dates, etc

Strategy: this is where you look at the specific things you have to offer. Are you going to entice certain emotions? If so, which ones? Who is your target reader? What’s the overall plan to get them? Simply put…what’s the message?

Communication Mix: now, and only now, do you think of the actual channels to use. Twitter, Facebook, email, adverts, etc

Budget: cringe time I’m afraid. How much can you spend on this thing?

Tracking: whatever you do in marketing, measure it! What things can you track, how can you track them, and how often should you do it?

Schedule: create an action plan and add it to a calendar of some kind.

Some campaigns are small and won’t need much bulk work. Others, however, are huge and require folder after folder of info. If you’re about to embark on a Book Marketing Campaign, it will no doubt be a very large entity.

You’ll have campaigns within campaigns

things can get messy…FAST

The above process is step 1. Don’t complicate things. This is a one page spreadsheet of bullet points. It looks at what you hope to achieve, how you will achieve it, and what you plan on doing to make it happen.

This is not a work of art!

 

Why Do You Need This

Staying organised is vital. This process can help do that. Like may things, people will look at their book and think about creating a website and a special Twitter handle blah blah blah

Hold Your Horses

Decide what you want from it all

Give yourself some deadlines

Create specifics, and then, and only then, add some communications

Without a Great Message, little else matters.

This process is not a miracle worker. As I say, some campaigns will have so many levels and sub campaigns it’s easy to lose your mind (first hand experience from that). This adds clarity to that mirky water. It makes your Book Marketing digestible.

 

What are you doing for your Book Marketing?

Have you just launched your book?

Share your experiences in the comments below…

Turndog Millionaire – @turndog_million