Just like creating a grand structure, book marketing relies on architecture. We plot out goals and examine your existing materials. Then we set a schedule for the marketing program. I help you develop your target audience, so you know how, where, and when to communicate with them.
There are also ways to expand your audience to additional readers who might be interested in your book. A branding strategy helps. Your foundation is your consistent, effective messaging across websites and your sales platforms. Your messaging content helps readers discover and engage with your brand. This is Editorial Marketing. I work with you to create and spread it.
Build a Launch Team
Building a Launch Team positions you for success. Your team, working well in advance of the book's release, helps with beta reading, writing early reviews, posting and sharing content on social platforms, as well as blogging about you and your book. You help the team create digital content to share, through your newsletter and a blog, so you give them something to aim their followers at. I help you create and implement this team strategy, as well as content for it.
Your Author Platform
An Author Platform includes your website, a blog, your online selling strategy, promotions, and the four kinds of author media. Books which rise up from Real Self Publishing are discovered through personal recommendations that flow from these types of media.
Earned media is reviews and interviews; these include bloggers and podcasters. You pitch.
Paid media is advertising and paid reviews. The reviews plant a home ground of recommendations. You control the distribution of this media.
Owned media is the assets you control to spread the word about your book. It’s your author website, blog, and an email newsletter, along with your YouTube channel. Anything you use to reach readers directly is owned media.
Social media is a special kind of author media. You don’t pay for it, and you can’t control where it's seen, but you use it to connect and promote.
The allure of social: Social media poses interesting challenges and opportunities for an author. Social media waves your flag — but the social accounts of better-followed authors, as well as book bloggers and reviewers, are your primary target to building a social following. Social media relies on expanding and exploiting an author’s ever-growing network of influencers.
You post on social to make your presence known, but you must limit the direct pleas to buy your book. Your goal is to engage and exchange, building your tribe one click at a time. We build a smart campaign that aims to connect you with influencers.
Building from a sound marketing architecture is the best plan for a successful book launch. It takes work from an author, aided by my expertise — and it relies on your talents for its magic.
