What are the essential aspects of an author marketing plan, and are you doing your book justice?
It’s great to get caught up in the excitement of self-publishing and releasing your first book, but have you thought about an author marketing plan and what comes next? When you self-publish through sites like Amazon KDP, IngramSpark Publishing, and many others, publishing your book is just the first step. As a self-published author, one of the most complex parts of the self-publishing journey is marketing.
Regardless of whether you’re self-publishing, using a hybrid publisher, or traditionally publishing, a lot of the marketing is going to be up to you. It’s easily one of the hardest parts of the self-publishing journey. First, you get your book published, and then it’s just one of the millions of other books available, and you need to find a way to ensure your book stands out from the crowd.
That’s where an author’s marketing plan comes into effect. Before we discuss your author marketing plan further, if you need assistance with marketing, social media, or setting up your author social media and marketing plan, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us directly.
Check out The Best Self-Publishing Platforms for Canadian Authors, where we discuss the best self-publishing platforms for Canadian authors looking to self-publish their books.
Our friendly and professional Canadian marketing team is standing by to help you! If you’re interested in author social media, then don’t forget to read our article 6 Social Media Post Ideas for Authors! It’s packed with great ideas for author social media posts.
What Are the Essential Elements of An Author Marketing Plan?
Right now, you may be asking, ‘What is an author marketing plan?’ and don’t worry if you don’t know. We’ll break it down for you now and explain it so that when it comes time to hit that ‘publish now‘ button officially, you’re prepared and ready to hit the ground running.
Your author marketing plan is a structured schedule outlining how you intend to market and sell your books after publication.
Once your book goes live, the real work starts, regardless of what genre you’re publishing in. Unfortunately, it’s very rare for a book to get published and for copies to start flying off the shelf unless you’re already a very established and well-known author.
As challenging as marketing can be, having the right plan in place makes the process significantly smoother.
What Elements Should Your Author Marketing Plan Include?
1. Plan Ahead, Don’t Wait!
The first important thing to consider is that planning shouldn’t start when your book is published. Your marketing plan should already be finished and in place before the book goes live. However, just because you don’t have the book ready doesn’t mean you can’t start putting your marketing plan into place ahead of time.
Before your book is available, you should be building an audience of readers who are eagerly anticipating its release. Some things you can do pre-release include:
- Show, Don’t Tell – Showing your audience the behind-the-scenes of your book writing and production process, including writing, editing, cover design, illustrations, and inspiration.
- Involve Your Audience – Engage your audience in key decisions, such as titles, cover design, and illustrations.
The sooner you build your audience and anticipation, the better your release day will be.
2. Focus On Launch Day
Launch day is the biggest day of your book’s life and also one of the most essential parts of your marketing plan. This is the day you and your readers have been waiting for!
Some of the activities you can focus on during launch day include:
- Launch parties, both in-person and virtual.
- Author interviews.
- Countdowns.
- Giveaways.
- Blog tours.
- Social media takeovers.
If you can funnel a lot of your book sales into one day, then the chances of your book ranking well in its category and even making the bestsellers list are much higher.
3. Marketing, Marketing, and More Marketing!
It’s important to remember that marketing for your book should never stop. Sure, there’s a peak on your launch day, but after that, your marketing plan needs to continue chugging along and pushing your book if you want your book to remain relevant.
Too often, new authors get all pumped up about their books, see a spike in sales, and then relax, thinking the hard work is done, only for their book to start slipping down the ranks into obscurity slowly. The more sales you get on sites like Amazon, the higher your book will move up the ranks in its specific categories, and the more exposure it will get to potential new customers.
Any chance or opportunity you have to promote your book, reach out and take it with both hands! These opportunities won’t last forever.
The Essentials of An Author Marketing Plan | Conclusion
You don’t have to go from zero marketing to hundreds of posts overnight. In fact, pacing yourself to post on social media consistently is better than posting sporadically. Pick one social media platform to start with, focus on creating posts for that platform, and once you have a few posts and author social media post ideas ready to go, consider adding another platform. Some platforms, such as Threads, Instagram, and Facebook, which are all owned by parent company Meta, work well together and allow cross-posting, which can save you a lot of time and add value to your social media campaigns.
If you are writing a book and need any assistance with paperback or ebook formatting, cover design, professional editing, uploading to self-publishing sites such as Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, or Amazon KDP keyword and category research, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We also offer children’s book illustrations and formatting services.
For Canadian authors still considering whether or not Amazon KDP is the best self-publishing platform for them, check out The Complete Guide to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for Canadian Authors, where we cover everything you’ll need to know about getting started on Amazon KDP for the first time.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below, and we’ll do our best to answer them or point you in the right direction.
