Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shōn Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Building the Author’s Ethos – Part Two: Developing a Marketing Plan

In last month’s article, I talked about developing a writer’s philosophy. Once you have a grasp in who you think you are as a writer and what you bring to the literary table, it is important to think about MARKETING. It is important to think about this even before you go about looking for agents and editors because there are some agents who want to know how you plan to promote your work.

As we all know, these days, writers must be marketers and publicists for their works.  Gone are the days where a writer could sell a lot of books solely based on the strength of the writing within the book.  Because of this, it is a good idea to create a marketing plan.  A marketing plan shows an agent or editor that the writer is serious about his or her work and that not only has the author seriously thought about his or her work, but he or she has also shown their vested interest and ultimate participation in the implementation of the marketing and publicity for his or her work.

What I want to offer you this month are components that are important to think about and develop so that you have a clear idea of how you can market your work and more importantly, agents and editors will have an idea, too. These components are not written in any order.

ABOUT YOU

Yes, it is important to know who you are and what you do, so with that in mind…

• Bio. It’s a good idea to have a short and a longer bio written in third-person. This should not be an ALL ABOUT ME bio that tells your whole life story. We want to know what makes you unique, interesting. Depending on the genre you write, this bio might serious, comical, saucy, etc. For example, if you write erotica, your bio might be saucy; whereas, a literary author might write a more serious bio. If you have published other works or have done anything that relates to your current project, you will want to address it in the bio.

PRODUCT

• Short book description – think of back copy. Also make sure you state the genre
• Themes of the book – these will be relevant in marketing book
• Competition – what books on the market fall in the same group as yours? How does your book stand out from the pack?

AUDIENCE

• Who is the audience for your book? Sure, we all want to say EVERYONE, MY BOOK’S UNIVERSAL, but that won’t cut it. Envision your ideal reader, sitting with your book, voraciously reading and flipping pages. What does this reader look like? What does he or she do? This is a good place to think about your genre and to think about the themes that arise in your book. These themes might introduce niche audiences you can market your work to.

BOOK MARKETING

These thoughts/ideas are in no order, but they are aspects of the marketing fun that every writer should consider when pushing their wares.

• Who do you know? Generate a contact list of all the people you know who might be beneficial to the marketing of your book – these include possible book reviewers, bloggers, people who can write blurbs, book clubs, general readers/audience, etc. You want to start developing a strong e-mail contact list that you can use when sending material about your book and who can be your electronic “street” team, helping you to push your wares.
• Website/Blogs – These days, everyone has a website and a blog, and many times, both are one and the same. You want your site/blog to be well-constructed, with consistent pages, relevant information, navigable links, etc. You want your site to have the basics – about, info on books, links to purchase, events/news. Many authors use their blogs as a way to put a face to the writing. They talk about their writing process, they talk about the every day, mundane moments of their existence, they share news about future projects and contests, etc. The website, the blog is your HOME away from home. Make sure the viewer can get the information he or she needs when he or she needs it. And the viewer can’t get the information, there’s contact information so that the viewer can contact you or your web designer.
• Letting your voice be heard…and face be seen. Podcasting and video logging (vlogging) are great ways to add further dimension to your presence. You can share excerpts of your works, conduct interviews with yourself and others, share snapshots of your everyday life, bring the reader closer to you so that the reader is that much closer to buying your book.
• We can’t get away from social networking—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blog Talk Radio, virtual worlds and communities. All of these places offer opportunities to promote your work. Your goal is not to join and participate in each and every form of social networking. The goal is to select those places where you feel you can effectively communicate and market your work. Once you have selected those places, you have to also figure out HOW you will use the sites and WHEN. You don’t want these sites to zap you of time for other endeavors. You want the sites to work for you—not the other way around.
• Blog Tours/Interviews – I’m a fan of the blog tour. And if you have great content and can connect with popular, well-visited blogs, you can make a voice for yourself…and for your work. Earlier, I stated the importance of knowing the genre and themes that are found in your book. Your first step will be to research blogs and online communities where audiences of your genre and themes are located. Then, you’ll want to contact the blog owners, and when you do, you want to have some type of agenda in mine. For example, I often get people who want to be featured on my blog, ChickLitGurrl (http://chicklitgurrl.blogspot.com), and when they contact me, they pitch a few things: they request a review and interview by me; they tell me they have written an article about a theme developed in their book so they want to submit it to the blog along with book cover, description, and purchase link; they pitch an interview with their main character, etc. The point is there is more than one way to present you and your book on these blogs. Be creative and have fun. Also, when contacting bloggers about your blog tour, be sure to organize yourself so that you’re not over committing yourself.
• Tried and True – can’t get away from book signings, book clubs, and book reviews. Just with all the suggestions, it takes leg work in order to book signings, to have clubs read your book, and to have reader review your book. First, you want to think LISTS. Make a list of places you might want to do book signings. And don’t just think bookstores. Consider your genre, the themes in your book. What businesses, organizations, etc. might be interested in hooking up with you to sign your book? Make a list of book clubs you want to read your book. If you can travel, let them know that. If you can’t, let them know you’d be up for a Skype chat during the club’s discussion of your book. Make a list of reviewers of review teams, like APOOO (http://apooo.org), where you submit your book to the organization and one of the team’s reviewers will read and review your work.

The cool thing about a lot of this material is once you’ve done the legwork in collecting information, you will forever have it, and it will be just a matter of updating the material.

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; if you have questions or have more ways in which writers can promote their works, leave a comment here. Or, if you would like, you can e-mail me at sdb6812@hotmail.com.

Come back next month – I’ll be talking about finding agents and editors and keeping track of who you send material to…

ChickLitGurrl ~ signing out

Shōn

Related Posts

• Developing a Poetry Collection by Shon Bacon
• Being Social: Promoting Your Literary Wares through Social Media by Shonell Bacon
• Advice on Self-Publishing by Shon Bacon
• Finding Agents & Editors by Shonell Bacon
• Building the Author’s Ethos – Part One: Writing Philosophy by Shonell Bacon