Tag: book marketing plan

Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized, Writing

Summer Writing Goals Check-In

Earlier in the summer, I encouraged you to take advantage of the summer to achieve your writing goals. I recommended you set goals related to starting and finishing your manuscript, publishing your book, and marketing your book. Well, there are only a few weeks of summer left. (Sad, I know.) Now is the time to check-in and hold yourself accountable.

1. What were your goals?

Take a look back and see what your goals were. Did you want to start a new project? Begin the self-publishing process? Focus on promoting your book?

2. Where are you now?

Have you accomplished your goals? How much work do you still have to do? Do you want to add new goals to your list? Also, consider why you are where you are. Were your goals realistic? Motivating? Clear? Measurable? Take these things into consideration when re-evaluating your goals.

3. What are you going to do with the rest of your summer?

Whether you’ve exceeded your goals or lost sight of your vision, August still offers plenty of time to accomplish your summer writing goals. Update your goals based on your progress, and start working on achieving them before summer ends. You can do it!

I’d love to know, how much progress have you made towards your summer writing goals?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized, Writing

Summer Writing Goals

Summer is the perfect time to set and accomplish writing goals. Many people have time off work. The extra daylight makes you feel like you have more time in the day. The season is filled with inspiration. Whether you haven’t started your book or your book is already published, here are three ways you can make your writing dreams come true this summer.

1. The new project.

You’ve been dreaming of publishing a book, but you haven’t found the time or motivation. Well, now is the perfect time to start. Commit to the goal of finishing your manuscript by the end of August. Use small daily goals, such as writing for a certain amount of time, to help you achieve your dream.

2. The published book.

Perhaps you have a manuscript that is ready to be published. Now is the perfect time to start the publishing process. Your goals should include:

  • Research and choose a publisher.
  • Edit your manuscript.
  • Start thinking about cover design.

3. The successful book.

If you’ve already published your book, now is the time to focus on marketing. A great marketing plan is the key to a successful book. No one can buy your book if they don’t know it exists. Set marketing goals such as:

  • Research summer events where you can display (and sell) your book.
  • Set up and maintain social media pages.
  • Contact local news sources.

I’d love to know, what are your summer writing goals?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks, NaNoWriMo, Uncategorized

NaNoWriMo – 6 Month Check-in

It has been six months since NaNoWriMo. Yes, six months! Time really does fly. As you probably know, I spent a great deal of time back in November sharing about my experience with the NaNoWriMo challenge. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but when I hit the 50,000 word mark, I saved the working document and haven’t looked back…not once!  For me, the six month mark is a chance to reflect on my project and set goals to refine and further improve my manuscript.

If you’re in the same boat, here a few things you should ask yourself as you reflect on your NaNoWriMo project:

How is the book coming along?

Since the challenge ended, what have you done with your manuscript? Have you continued working on it? Is it sitting in a (virtual) drawer somewhere collecting dust? Now would be a great time to open it back up and finish your manuscript. With six months passed, you can look at the manuscript with fresh eyes and bring new life to the project.

Is your manuscript done?

You may have finished writing the manuscript, but is the project truly finished? Maybe you still need to edit. Maybe you need to come up with a great title. Maybe all you have left to do is publish and market your book. Now is a great time to set new goals for your project so you’re ready in six more months to start a new novel all over again.

Are you ready to publish your novel?

If your manuscript is complete, now may be a great time to look into publishing options. Research self publishing companies. Talk to other authors. Figure out your goals and choose an option that is best for you.

Are you ready to market your book?

Even if your book isn’t yet published, it is never too early to begin marketing your book. You can share the news with family and friends. Set up social media sites. Talk to your local press. Begin making a marketing plan now, and you will have a much easier time promoting your book once it is complete.

I’d love to know, what have you done since NaNoWriMo?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Elise Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book

3 Things that are Wrong with Your Book Marketing Plan

If you’re following the advice that you find on every site that talks about marketing a self-published book, you have already created a book marketing plan. From this, you may have tried to use various marketing methods (i.e. virtual book tours, book signings, etc.). However, your sales statistics aren’t showing any signs of improvement.

How could this be? You are following every piece of advice you have received to the letter. It may be that your book marketing plan’s structure is, in fact, costing you sales. This is actually a fairly common problem among self-publishing authors.

Here are a few ways that your book marketing plan is working against you:

  1. You haven’t clearly defined your target market. When you wrote your first book, you knew that everyone would love it. It would make you the talk of the town (or maybe even the talk of the nation or globe). It would be the “it” book that everyone would want to read. That’s a Book Marketing Planrather lofty goal. Even the most successful authors (Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer, etc.) aren’t able to reach EVERYONE with their books. That’s fine for them, though. They have developed a very loyal audience of readers who are committed to them and their books. That’s the type of audience you want to seek out. Figure out who will love your books and focus on marketing to them. If you don’t, you may find yourself wasting quite a bit of effort attempting to turn someone who loves horror books into a romance novel lover.
  2. You don’t know what differentiates your book from the other books available to your target market. Can you tell me why your book is better than any other book on the market? Is there a lesson taught in your book? Are your characters easier to relate to? There has to be a reason why I want to read your story about vampires versus reading Twilight. Find out what makes your book special and use that as your unique value proposition.
  3. You don’t update your book marketing plan on a regular basis. The book marketing industry, like any other, is changing rapidly. If you don’t keep your plans up to date, you can easily become irrelevant. I recommend that authors review and update their book marketing plan at least once per year.

Have you been making any of these mistakes? How did you bounce back to have a book marketing plan that “sticks”?

Elise Connors ABOUT ELISE L. CONNORS:
Elise works as the Manager of Author Support of Outskirts Press.  She also contributes to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com. Elise and a group of talented book marketing experts assist not only published Outskirts Press authors, but also all authors and professionals who are interested in getting the best possible exposure for their book.
Self Publishing Saturday, Uncategorized

Self Publishing Saturday: What Happened this Week?

On weekend mornings, I enjoy nothing more than reading the paper to find out what has happened this week (now I primarily read the news online) in one place without searching many places. With many “tweeps” (Twitter slang for “people”) using paper.li to put together information, you can keep track of things pretty easily. What if you don’t have a Twitter account? What about the sources the things that weren’t mentioned?

Here we aim to feature things that are going on in self publishing so that you don’t have to find out on your own. Plus, we want to share other resource with you so that you can be well-advised on the publishing process.

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week’s digest.

Have you written something our readers can benefit from this week? Post a link in the comments.