While writing a book is hard, marketing a book can be even harder as an author. Along with writing a great book (get a good editor, and ask friends for honest feedback), you need 5 book marketing plan strategies that includes Nominating Your Book for awards. 

Based on 20+ years of experience promoting books, here are 5 New Book Marketing Plan Tips to help you increase buzz and sales.

1. Write a Catchy Book Title and Moving Backstory

Your book marketing plan starts the minute you come up with your book idea. To be a successful author, you must first come up with a creative and unique title and explain your WHY. Together, this is your marketing plan foundation. There are hundreds of thousands of CEOs/Founders, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in your area of expertise, so you need ways to stand out.

To develop a memorable title, brainstorm, research your competition, and then share your ideas with friends and strangers at coffee shops – and ask for their HONEST feedback on what title connects with them most. Use catchy phrases versus one word book titles to increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) search results.

For example, instead having a book title called “Dieting”, make your title more specific such as “7 Healthy Eating Choices” to entice readers to buy your book.

For your backstory, think about a defining moment in your life or obstacle that you overcame that motivated you to write your book. If your goal is to just share your story without any mission to help others, that is called a “Vanity Project” and probably won’t sell books. Instead, define your personal WHY and how you want to help others with the tips in your book to gain more fans and book sales.

2. Launch a Memorable One-Page Book Website

To keep it simple, launch a one-page book website with a book summary, book cover graphics, testimonials, video overview, short author bio, and key bullet points with HOW your book can help the reader.

In the best case scenario, buy YourBookTitle dot com as your website. Even if you want to just include a page on your current website, buy this URL anyway from GoDaddy so that you own it. You can then forward that website to whatever website you plan to use as the ONE URL to give the media. Some authors share 3-5 URLs for where you can buy the book during an interview – please make it easy to remember and give out one URL only during interviews.

3. Create a Digital Marketing Plan and Content Calendar

As part of your book marketing plan, you must also create a digital marketing strategy. To attract a top 5 publisher, some book coaches recommend that you attract 30,000 followers before asking for a book deal. While this may sound overwhelming, you can hire a professional social media marketing team to help you.

Your digital marketing plan should include a Content Calendar that highlights content connected to key dates.

For example, you could feature countdown graphics for days remaining before your book launch day. If you wrote a health book, you could post health tips during August’s National Wellness Month.

And please post and engage with potential readers and fans. Ask a question in your post to attract comments. You can also take a poll and/or ask people to share your content to increase engagement.

4. Develop a Publicity Plan to Build Thought Leader Brand

In addition to your digital marketing, you want to create a publicity plan to attract earned media that is worth 3x the value of any paid ad. You can increase your thought leader credibility and attract more book sales by having TV, Print/Digital, Radio/Podcasts, and Video interviews that spotlight your work.

Yes, this is an investment to hire a PR agency or publicist, but the results not only boost buzz, they can positively change your life in the long run. For example, if you can say that you appeared on the TODAY Show, NPR and/or in Psychology Today about your book and area of expertise, these media credits add to your book marketing plan success.

5. Submit Book for Book Awards

The fifth element of a successful book marketing plan is to nominate your book for book awards. You worked hard on your book, and receiving recognition as an “Award-Winning Author” can also increase your thought leadership brand and book sales.

It’s way too easy to become an Amazon Bestseller today by asking all of your friends to buy your book on the same day to boost your rank. So consider submitting your book to 3-5 book awards. And if you win, post any announcements all over your social media.

For the Goody Business Book Awards, there is a panel of judges who actual read your book and compare it to others in 50 categories and 8 genres. You can Nominate Your Book here for these social impact book awards. It’s an easy 3-step process that only includes 1 main question, which is HOW is your book helping others?

So what are you waiting for to get your book marketing plan started? We hope you will Nominate Your Book as part of your overall author marketing strategy.

You can Nominate Your Book to Goody Business Book Awards, and don’t miss the deadline here: https://goodybusinessbookawards.com