CHAPTER II Post # 10

THE BUSINESS PLAN

Every successful self-promotion campaign begins with a plan. You are the general of this campaign. You have to attack the markets with military precession.

FYI: Plan early.

A plan should include scheduling, budget, time and desire.
First decide what you want to do with your book. This might seem like a rhetorical question however most of us do not think of exactly what are our expectations for our book.
I don’t think there is anyone who would not love to see their book on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Do you want to make selling your book a life long hobby?
I know one author who says she will be selling her book for the rest of her life.
Do you want to soft sell over a couple of years?
For those of us who have a full time job this might be the only option. Promoting on the weekends. Better still coordinate an extended vacation around the publishing date of your book.
Self-published or Print-On-Demand (POD) authors have that luxury.

If you have a brick and mortar publisher, like Dell, Random House or Simon & Schuster or any of the medium or smaller publishers your options will be limited. You will not have the luxury of a leisurely campaign. You have to start off with a big bang, a media blitz. You want to create what we affectionately call a BUZZ. Why? Because a book has a life span. Usually three months. If a book does not have legs, if it does not move off the shelves after three months it will be sent back to the publisher to make room for newer books. These books are the returns slated for the remainder pile. Returns are the ban of all authors. For authors and publishers there is no sight as sad as a box of their books with their covers ripped off heading back to the warehouse destined for the recycle bin. If there are no books in the bookstores then even an appearance on Good Morning America or Oprah will be for nought.

FYI: A book has the shelf-life of a banana.

Walk into any bookstore and look at all the books they are trying to sell. As important as you book is to you it is only one to the bookseller. You want to make them more aware of your book. Enroll them into helping you sell your book. Local and regional campaigns can be very successful at enrolling.

Chapter II Post # 9

You Are An Expert
You have become an expert. Whether you have a series of PhDs from top universities or not your are an expert in your field. You are a published author and your book is about something. What is it about? Identifying your expertise is especially important for fictions writers. Is your book a Sci-fi on space travel? A murder mystery involving poisons? You have written a book on it and are now an expert in that field. Think expert in space travel, an expert in poisons used in homicides. There are radio and TV stations and magazines that want you to share you expertise with their audience. Identifying your expertise is important when you pitch your media spots and events. More on pitching the media later

Continuing Education
Educate yourself on the industry; actually three industries: publishing, promotion and book selling. Go to your local library and read sections of the Literary Market Place. Read back issues of Publishers Weekly to help you understand the complexities of the publishing industry. These references will help you with your planning giving you new ideas and possibilities. Knowledge about the publishing industry will help you in your pitches to the media. You want to talk the talk, drop key industry words, and sound professional. Busy people do not have the time to educate the initiate. Below I have listed a few of the scores of books on book publicity.

With your ideas in place you can begin to formulate a business plan.