My book marketing plan

Let the fun begin

Oh hi!

Leave: A Postpartum Account comes out on February 25. (Preorder link coming soon!) That puts us about 6.5 months out from pub date, which means I am officially in Book Marketing Mode.

I am a marketer by day, though I mostly do B2B marketing and have never marketed a book before. Still, the general principles of marketing apply — understand the audience and what they want, figure out where they get their information, and then use those channels to build awareness of what you’re offering.

There are some book-specific steps in my marketing plan, like sending out ARCs and requesting blurbs, that are unlike anything I would put in a marketing plan for a client. But the general process for each of those is pretty similar to submitting work to literary magazines, querying for an agent, and sending a book on submission. I feel pretty confident that I can do this, as long as I stay organized.

Extreme organization is the key to fun! Yes, my moon is in Virgo!

The spreadsheet

You knew this was coming.

The spreadsheet has nine tabs:

• The Plan: where I’ve laid out all the action items with their approximate deadlines

• ARCs: a list of people I think might be interested in reviewing the book or interviewing me, so I can send them advanced reader copies

• Blurbs: People I’m going to ask for blurbs!

• Earned Media: Magazines where I plan to pitch book-related essays

• Events & Podcasts: Reading series I’d like to take part in, podcasts I plan to pitch

• Stockists: Bookstores I’m going to personally with a pitch to stock the book — since it’s an indie book, they may not encounter it as part of their normal purchasing process, so I’m going to reach out with info about the book and direct their attention to Asterism

• My Network: All my owned channels (my newsletter list, my snail mail list), unowned channels (my Instagram and Twitter followers), institutions that have educated me or supported my work (alumni networks, writing conferences), and friends in the industry who may be able to help get the word out

• Cohort: People who have books coming out around the same time as me, like Erin Dorney and Arianna Rebolini

• Audience: Research on the types of people who might be interested in my book — in my day job, we call these “buyer personas” and usually I’m research their pain points and objections during the sales process, but for my purposes here I looked at where they buy their books, which podcasts they might listen to, and which online magazines they might read

Bookstore redacted in case they say no :D

The Plan tab is my home base, the place where I dumped every little thought I had about book promotion so that I didn’t forget it and then, over the course of months, shaped that mess into a project plan. 34 action items. Deadlines are mostly squishy.

I figured I’d share it all here, in case any of it is helpful to anyone else who is trying to get a book out there, but also in case I am missing anything. Please feel free to comment and point out glaring holes or share great ideas.

Alright, here’s the general plan, by month.

August

• Write back cover description

• Determine whether any chapters can be submitted as excerpts

• Craft pitch email that can personalized for possible reviewers, interviewers, podcasts, etc.

• Request blurbs

• Approach [bookstore redacted] about a launch event and pre-order campaign

• Send ARCs

• Submit ARC to Netgalley (pretty sure I can do this as an author?)

• Submit to trades for review (Autofocus does this)

• File for CIP with Library of Congress (Autofocus does this)

• Register book with copyright office (Autofocus does this)

• Submit to Independent Book Review

• Submit to NY Times Book Review (WHY NOT?!)

September

• Pitch podcasts

• Find more people who have books coming out around the same time and reach out

• Submit a round of book promotion essays

October

• Add preorder info to website; link the page on social and add to email signature

• Send preorder postcard (sign up here to get on my mailing list!)

• Schedule readings in Philly, Chicago, Rockford, etc. (a mini tour, basically just a handful of readings in places where I know I can pull a crowd)

November

• Create Amazon Author Page and link book

• Claim book on Goodreads

• Submit book to award programs (not sure if we’ll do this, but this would be an Autofocus thing)

• Notify institutional networks of publication so they can put it in their newsletters

• Send email to non-writer friends and family with ways they can help

December

GO SILENT! ENJOY THE SEASON!

January

• Send second preorder postcard

• Figure out AWP booth signings and off-sites

February

• Print something (e.g. a bookmark or a postcard) to bring to AWP

• PUB DAY!

March

• Submit to Brooklyn Book Festival

• Submit to Texas Book Festival

• Promote at AWP

What am I missing? More importantly, how did your recent favorite books find you?