Non-fiction Book Marketing

How you market your book depends on the subject matter, your ability to speak well on the message, your ability to attract attention for the book, current trends in the world market, and a variety of other factors. Regardless of how you specifically market your book, do not underestimate the time, energy, and tenacity it takes to do it well.

Among the marketing channels an author should consider are public relations (PR) kits and press releases to print and broadcast media, Internet marketing, speaking, exhibiting, catalogs, and special and premium sales marketing (markets other than bookstores). Your current client or prospect lists may be your best immediate source of sales. A book should be one piece of an overall personal or business marketing plan.

It is important for these three decisions to be made as early in your process as possible. Do some research and some soul-searching, and you will be poised to make the most of your hard work in developing your book.

Your marketing strategy should include what marketing activities you plan to undertake, along with your budget and timetable for those activities. What are you going to do to be sure your audience knows your book is available and the place where it's being sold?

Most first-time authors are shocked to find out that publishers do very little marketing on behalf of authors. The traditional publisher will get your book into its catalog, on its Web site, and into mainstream distribution and bookstores, but little else.

Publishers allocate a miniscule marketing budget of $500 to $1,000 for a new title with a new author, which pays for a few hundred flyers, press releases to the appropriate news organizations and magazines, and a few dozen review copies to go out on request. Only a few of all books at the major publishers have marketing budgets of $20,000 or more, the kind of budget needed to do a credible national marketing campaign.

Gail Richards is founder of http://www.AuthorSmart.com




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