By: Kenneth Guentert
www.graphwest.com
Now you need to develop a definition of a marketing plan. Don't be
intimidated. This doesn't need to be complicated. In fact, it's better
if it isn't. Moreover, now that you know what your book is about, who
your readers are, who your buyers are and how you're going to find
them, you have a nice start on your definition of a marketing plan.
Here are the elements you need to include:
·
Who are my buyers?
·
How will I reach them?
(List three or four ways)
·
How many books will I
sell in each of those ways?
There are a
number of basic ways of reaching out to customers.
·
Direct sales.
This is the most effective approach. The more you can arrange to meet
your prospective customers face to face (or next best: talk to them by
phone or by personal email), the more sales you will get. Think about
ways you can do this. Look for opportunities to do readings and
presentations related to your book. Arrange for a table where you can
show your book at churches, fairs, or exhibits. Network with your
friends, family, business associates, fellow congregants, and so on.
·
Direct marketing.
Whereas direct "sales" implies interacting with your customer in
person (or by phone), direct "marketing" implies reaching out to large
numbers prospective customers via snail mail or email. Traditional
publishers can use direct marketing cost effectively because they have
many books to sell. However, the approach tends to be less effective
when you have only one book to sell. However, it is a good idea to
build yourself a "prospect list," composed of likely customers
(friends, colleagues, contacts in the childcare business) and try
sending them a postcard or a flyer about your book.
·
Internet marketing.
This is a new way of marketing, which involves pulling customers to
your web page so that they will buy your product. The advantage is
that it is relatively inexpensive to set up a web page and not even
terribly costly to set up a shopping cart. On the other hand, getting
people to come to your web page can be and is becoming increasingly
expensive. You can also get your book listed on other websites, like
Amazon.com or other bookstores, and hope people find you there.
·
Advertising.
Space advertising is tempting to
novice authors, but generally it is not cost-effective. If you have
small, inexpensive opportunities (more like publicity), go for it.
·
Publicity.
One of the best things you can do is to obtain "free" space about your
or your book in newspapers, magazines, church bulletins, and so on.
Publicity is not always free, though. One standard technique is to
send out press releases with review-copy request forms to a likely
list of reviewers or people who might say a good word about your book.
It costs money to send out the press releases, but by including the
"review copy request form" you are saving yourself the expense of
sending out books to people who don't want them and giving yourself
another chance to contact somebody who has expressed interest in your
book.
·
Resellers.
One way to get your book out there is to pay other people to do it for
you. This is nice in theory but a problem in practice for many
self-publishers. The reason: you're not printing as many books as a
traditional publisher, so your cost-per-book is high. In addition,
you're probably trying to keep your sales price down so that you can
compete with other books. Thus, you can't afford to discount your book
the necessary 40 to 60 percent to bookstores.
YouStill have a couple of good
options: the first is to convince a group to use your book as a
fundraising tool. Then you can sell them books on a non-returnable
basis for discounts of 20-30%. The other thing you should know about
is that stores like Barnes and Noble special-order any book in print
and you can arrange with them to buy single copies of your book up
front for a 20% discount.
Which
definition of a marketing plan will work best for you? Once you decide, estimate how many
books you will sell with that method in a year. Be conservative. Okay,
we know you'll have to guess, but you are at least thinking about the
basic elements of marketing and establishing some discipline for
yourself. If you can sell even a couple hundred books, you're in
business.
One last thing. Estimate how much it will cost you to implement each
definition of a marketing plan. If you add up these costs and they seem
reasonable to you, you have yourself a marketing budget. You're on
your way to success.
