Marketing guru Sarah Wilson debuts advice from her upcoming live SW Webinar (rescheduled for Oct 21, 12-1pm). This month, I’ve been working with Monique Fields, winner of the She Writes Passion Project, to help her build out the marketing plan of her book proposal. As I mentioned in my first post, in the old days of publishing, an author shared little responsibility on the marketing side for a book. However, in the market today, the question "How Are You Going to Market YOUR Book" is at the top of the list for every publishing house. Books don't sell themselves; they need their authors to help them. Monique and I began our work together by focusing on three things--re-ordering her book proposal’s table of contents so that all marketing items are grouped together, making a list of every organization/group she can ask to reach out about her book’s message, and obtaining quotes about her book from professionals/luminaries to include in the book proposal. This week, we began a discussion on "Promotion By The Author"--a section that is often skipped over quickly by the author writing the proposal, since this is an afterthought to publication. In actuality, though, it demonstrates to the publishing house your commitment to promoting your book. Here are my suggestions in terms of how to begin thinking about promoting your book (yes, even though it may not be finished yet, and may be a year or more from publication): 1. Make sure your website is as good as it can be. (Yes, you have to have one, and no, it does not have to be difficult or expensive.) Include press mentions, past author speaking engagements, an up-to-date bio and speaker sheet, video and links to/a listing of any other published works. Consider placing an excerpted chapter or two of your book on the site. This should truly serve as a home base from which to launch your book. A basic website should NOT be a big expense. There plenty of very simple (Yahoo.com), inexpensive (GoDaddy.com), and even free (Joomla.org) resources out there to help you. 2. Social Media is an obvious "must include" item, and to do it justice, it requires several separate blog posts--which someone else is going to write. :) I'll sum it up for you--pick a few social media channels (not all of them), and then commit to them, show up – and engage. Build your community of readers, contribute to the conversation, and grow your base. 3. Video! There is no reason in this day and age every author shouldn’t have at least one video-–and ideally at least two--for her book--- for a plethora of reasons, starting with search and book sales. (Your website is 80% more likely to show up on the first page of Google search if there is a video on it!) This doesn’t have to be a big budget item--check out Pixability.com for an extremely affordable way to get the video you need to promote your book. 4. Take some time to think about what makes YOU unique. Do you have access to unique people/places/events/organizations? Think through how you can leverage this to give your book its own distinct marketing edge. 5. Start small by testing the waters. In a crowded and clustered media environment, different campaigns will work for different types of personalities and different types of books. One author may be a radio darling, watching her book’s sales numbers tick up after every interview. Another may be a digital media star. Another may attract individuals to speaking engagements in an age where getting a book event audience is more difficult than ever. Start small--local events, blog talk radio, blogger outreach--and evaluate results prior to committing significant resources of time and money. You’ll be glad you did! And then make sure to elaborate the above into the marketing plan of your book proposal--so that a prospective publishing house will KNOW that you have a strategic and impactful plan for getting the word out about your book! For more on this subject, join me for a “How To Write a Marketing Plan Publishers Will Buy” webinar on Oct 21, 12-1pm.