• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Self-Publishing
  • Author Blogging
  • Sitemap
  • Fonts/Typography

The Book Designer

Practical advice to help build better books

by selfpublishing.com

COACHING


PUBLISHING


WRITING


PRODUCTION


FREELANCE


WRITING JOBS

  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Contact
  • Shop
You are here: Home / Marketing / World’s Shortest Book Marketing Plan

World’s Shortest Book Marketing Plan

by Joel Friedlander on July 10, 2017 16 Comments

Welcome to the world of book publishing. When you decided to self-publish you became an author-publisher, and that implies a higher level of seriousness and responsibility than someone just messing around by putting a book out.

That’s why you need a plan for how to sell your book, even before you publish it. What you need is a marketing plan.

Trouble is, it’s time consuming to try to figure out how to create your own marketing plan, and costly if you try to get someone else to do it for you. That’s why many authors simply skip it.

However, studies show that the more you put into marketing your book, the more books you’re likely to sell.

So here is one solution, my pared-down, super-time-saving, and, in fact, the Word’s Shortest Book Marketing Plan.

(Just because it’s short doesn’t mean it isn’t a powerful tool to orient you in the right direction. Try it.)

Book Title ________________________

Subtitle ________________________

Estimated publication date __________________________

  1. Why publish this book?
    [Think like a small press publisher. Look at your manuscript. Would you invest $10–20,000 to license this property? Does the book, if it’s nonfiction, have a large enough universe of buyers to support the book? Does the book do something no other book does? Provide new information, new processes, does it do something better than existing books? In other words, what’s the reason this book needs to exist?]
  2. Who will buy and read the book?
    [How well do you know the kinds of readers the book will attract? Can they be categorized, and in what ways? What are their preferences in books? How much do they typically pay for books like yours? What exactly motivates them to buy books?]
  3. Where can you find those readers?
    [Resources are limited and need to be deployed to maximize return because unprofitable publishing businesses eventually publish no books at all. Are there online ways to find and interact with these readers? Offline? Are mailing lists or email lists available? Do your social networks include a high percentage of these readers? Do they know you as an author?]
  4. How can you put this in front of them in a compelling way?
    [What will please, delight, shock, amaze, or otherwise satisfy your readers, since you don’t want to be boring. What kinds of incentives work well with your audience? What’s never been done before? Can you compel your audience to act?]
  5. Who will help?
    [Is there a “network of networks” you can tap into that includes a lot of your readers? Do you have connections with, or can you reach out to media outlets that can spread the word? Do you have your own list of raving fans?]

There you go. Answer these five questions and you’re ready to get started. Good luck!

Photo: Pixabay

Filed Under: Marketing, Self-Publishing Tagged With: marketing plan

journal marketing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Wendy Anne Darling says

    November 7, 2017 at 10:05 am

    Excellent points! I’m committing them to memory!

    Reply
  2. patriciaruthsusan says

    August 11, 2017 at 4:21 am

    Good post, Joel. You’ve condensed it to the vital necessities. :) — Suzanne

    Reply
  3. Noelle A. Granger says

    August 10, 2017 at 7:14 am

    Thanks for this – I am downloading it for my critique group!

    Reply
  4. theinkcloud says

    July 10, 2017 at 11:52 am

    Hi Joel, I just wanted to say thank you for producing such an in-depth account of a marketing plan. It’s incredibly useful!

    Reply
    • Joel Friedlander says

      July 10, 2017 at 12:23 pm

      You’re welcome, ink, I’ve gone over this so many times with authors, I wrote this post partly to have a resource for people new to book publishing.

      Reply
  5. Frances Caballo says

    July 10, 2017 at 6:49 am

    I love this post, Joel. Even though your outline seems “simple,” it encapsulates everything an author needs to think about before writing a book. Great job!

    Reply
    • Joel Friedlander says

      July 10, 2017 at 12:26 pm

      As French philosopher Blaise Pascal is reputed to have said to a correspondent, “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.” In this case, I’ve been mulling these questions for so long, I am able to communicate them in very few words. Thanks!

      Reply
  6. Jonathan Gunson says

    July 10, 2017 at 2:55 am

    There’s a deceptively large amount of information in this article, but one thing stood out:
    “You need a plan for how to sell your book, EVEN BEFORE YOU PUBLISH IT.”

    Right on. The first book in my children’s series won’t appear until mid next year, so I could be forgiven for thinking that marketing doesn’t need to be top of mind right now.
    Au contraire! I’ve already begun to build a targeted audience following on Facebook in anticipation, plus growing an email list of potential readers and making connections with interested book bloggers.

    Excellent reminder thanks Joel.

    Jonathan

    Reply
    • Joel Friedlander says

      July 10, 2017 at 12:28 pm

      Smart move, Jonathan. The more you can do before you launch, the better off you will be. Also, check this out: When Should We Add the (Book) Marketing?.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to Embrace Book Marketing | Self-Publishing Advice Center says:
    October 9, 2017 at 7:51 am

    […] third step is to devise a marketing plan that maps out your goals and the steps you will take to reach them. It is essential that you plan […]

    Reply
  2. Bestselling author advice for marketing self-published books says:
    September 11, 2017 at 12:20 am

    […] do everything all at once, a good starting point would be Joel Friedlander’s mini marketing plan: World’s Shortest Book Marketing Plan, and you shouldn’t try to go it alone. If you want to reach out to others for support, read […]

    Reply
  3. Christian Editing Services | Best of the Blogs 22 July 2017 says:
    July 21, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    […] this short post, Joel Friedlander takes us through the five essential questions that need to be answered in a book marketing plan (actually, substitute “customers” for “readers”, and it will probably work in other […]

    Reply
  4. Writing Links 7/17/17 – Where Genres Collide says:
    July 17, 2017 at 4:01 am

    […] https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2017/07/worlds-shortest-book-marketing-plan/ Answer these five questions. […]

    Reply
  5. Kurz, knackig, effizient – ein Marketingplan für Autoren… – AUTHORS CHOICE says:
    July 17, 2017 at 12:55 am

    […] thebookdesigner.com […]

    Reply
  6. Die Woche im Rückblick 07.07. bis 13.07.2017 – Wieken-Verlag Autorenservice says:
    July 13, 2017 at 11:36 pm

    […] Joel Friedlander: World’s Shortest Book Marketing Plan […]

    Reply
  7. Top Picks Thursday! For Writers & Readers 07-13-2017 | The Author Chronicles says:
    July 13, 2017 at 10:02 am

    […] today. Kristine Kathryn Rusch explains how to define your target market, Joel Friedlander has the world’s shortest marketing plan, and Sarah Bolme tackles the dreaded […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Get the Advanced Publishing Kit

Topics

  • Audiobooks
  • Author Blogging 101
  • Book Construction Blueprint
  • Book Design
  • Book Printing
  • Book Production
  • Book Reviews
  • Cameras
  • Contributing Writers
  • Cover Design
  • E-Books & Readers
  • Editorial
  • Guest Posts
  • Interior Design
  • Interviews
  • Journey of a Book
  • Legal Issues
  • Marketing
  • Podcasts
  • Project Focus
  • Reports
  • Reviews
  • Samples
  • Self Publishing Basics
  • Self-Publishing
  • Social Media
  • Training
  • Video
  • Webinars
  • Writing
Self Publishing Platform
Self Publishing School

COACHING

Self Publishing

PUBLISHING

The Write Life

WRITING

The Book Designer

PRODUCTION

Make a Living Writing

FREELANCE

Freelance Writers Den

WRITING JOBS

Footer

  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Self-Publishing
  • Author Blogging
  • Sitemap
  • Fonts/Typography
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
Comment Policy
Guest Author Guidelines
Why?
"Writers change the world one reader at a time. But you can't change the world with a book that's still on your hard drive or in a box under your bed. This blog exists to help you get that book into people's hands."
—Joel Friedlander

Copyright Self Publishing School All Rights Reserved. © 2022