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copywriting :: Internet Marketing :: Copywriting
Writing a Book’s Marketing Plan for Maximum Profit
In today's world, it seems that almost
any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this
article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought
were settled are actually still being openly discussed. Is there
really any information about articles and marketing that is
nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something
relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to another.
Much has been written about book proposals. But less has been written about book marketing plans. This is wrong!
What happens after your book is published has a great deal to do
with whether you become published and profitable… or just published.
A book proposal is a direct-marketing
document intended to persuade publishers to edit, print and distribute
your book. It’s a sales piece intended to communicate the inevitability
of your book’s success.
Your book’s marketing
plan, however, is intended for an audience of one – You! It’s not
intended for your publisher. Rather, it’s intended to identify the
revenue streams that you will develop after your book is published.
Your marketing
plan should describe profits you will earn above and beyond royalties
from sales of your book. It should describe in detail your market and
the steps you will take to earn this income.
The reason to prepare your marketing plan now, before you sign a publishing contract or write your book, is that the success of your marketing plan depends on the way your book publishing contract is negotiated.
Coaching and consulting
Let’s assume, for example, that you plan to use your book
as a way of enhancing your visibility and credibility among your target
market. At the simplest level, you will want to include your web site
address at several points in the book. Knowing this goal, you can
insist that the publisher agrees in writing to include your web site
address in specific locations in your book.
Remember: promises don’t make it! Let’s take the worst case
scenario. You and your acquisition editor agree that you can include
five mentions of your web site address in the book. However, as often
occurs, the acquisition editor, after signing the contract, fades out
of the picture.
The new development editor then informs you that author’s URL’s can
only appear in one place, in the author biography hidden toward the
rear of the book. When this happens, what happens to your coaching and
consulting plans?
Likewise, you may have planned to buy books in case lot quantities
for resale and/or distribution to your prospects and clients.
Understanding this before you sign the contract, you can include the
right to purchase books for resale at trade discounts in your contract,
ensuring your ‘book pipeline’ won’t get turned off.
If you know you want to offer telephone coaching at $75.00 a call, for example, you can negotiate written permission to promote this service within the body of your book.
Remember: promises are written on air. Only written agreements count!
Other back-end profit opportunities based on your book’s title include:
* articles, columns, newsletters
* Yearly updates
* Special Reports
* Teleclasses and seminars
* Speaking and training
* Audio/video recordings
* Choosing a web site address based on your book’s title
* Free downloads of sample chapters from your web site
* Fee-based web site services
The possibilities are endless, but nothing can happen if, after signing the contract, the publisher limits your ability to promote your business and your website in your book.
Thus, it’s imperative that you start by preparing a marketing
plan that analyzes post-publication profit opportunities and describes
the steps needed to make them happen. Only then are you in a position
to decide if the publisher’s ‘boilerplate’ contract meets your needs.
The stronger your book proposal and the more experienced your
agent, the more likely you’ll get what you want (need) in your
contract.
Jay Conrad Levinson says the first volume of his Guerrilla marketing
series earned him thirty million dollars. But only about $35,000 came
from the book itself. All the rest came from back-end profits.
That’s how important this issue is!
About The Author
Roger C. Parker is the $32,000,000 author with over 1.6 million copies in print. Do you make these marketing and design mistakes? Find out at www.gmarketing-design.com
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