Author’s Promotional Platform and Plan
Author’s Promotional Platform and Plan
Wiley provides these guidelines and a sample to their authors:
AUTHOR MARKETING PLAN GUIDELINES
Your aggressive marketing of your book to your audience is critical to your book’s success. Wiley can get great national and international retail distribution for your book, but for the most part, we can’t drive people into stores or online to buy your book. Your ability to reach an audience of people already familiar with your work is typically the biggest driver of sales for any book. We look for authors who have a pre-existing audience of 10,000-100,000+ people who know and respect their work, and are likely to buy their book. If your book is successful with your core audience, word-of-mouth can spread it a much larger audience. Please write a 1-4 page marketing plan describing how you would help get out the word about the book, including but not limited to, the following areas. The more detailed plans you can give the better.
1. Your Company’s Marketing Of The Book
If your company will help market the book, please give details of the activities it would undertake on behalf of the book. If your company has marketing partners, how would they help sell the book?
2. Email Marketing
What email marketing would you do to promote the book? What is the size of your list?
3. Other Online Marketing
Please provide information on your blog, or popular bloggers/websites related to your book who would be willing to help to promote it.
4. Public Speaking
Public speaking is often the single most important driver of book sales. If you do public speaking, training, or workshops, please include a speaking schedule for approximately the coming 6 months or the prior 12 months, including the dates, speaking topic, audience, and estimated size. About how many people would you address over the course of a year? Please copy and paste the table below into your proposal, and list your appearances for the last 12 months or the coming 6 months.
Month/ Date
Location/Event
Speech Title/Topic
Est. Audience
Size
January
1-7-07
Minneapolis/RE Investor Club Meeting
“Precision Marketing to Sellers”
25
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
4. Author Purchases
If you or your company would buy copies of the book to resell, use in promotions, or sell or give away to clients, is there some number you would be willing to commit to purchasing at the first print run?
5. Publicity
Please send any press clippings, web articles or discussion threads, or samples of media attention, you have received or that are directly relevant to the topic of your book.
6. Other Marketing Initiatives
Please describe any other author marketing initiatives that will help drive sales of the book.
7. Sales Estimate
Roughly how many books do you think your clients, audiences and customers would buy from bookstores/online/etc. as a result of your own marketing efforts during the first year of publication?
Please email your proposal and marketing plan to richard.narramore@wiley.com. Thank you!
(See sample Author Marketing Plan below)
Sample Author Marketing Plan
Where to Find the Next Real Estate Boom
By Dave Lindahl
My speaking engagements currently under contract have me appearing before approximately 50,000 people in 2007. (Note: “REIA” stands for “Real Estate Investment Association”, which are monthly meetings of investors.)
MonthDateCompanyLocationSize
Feb17Foreclosures EtcFt Lauderdale150
Feb18Foreclosures EtcMiami150
Feb 24-25Learning AnnexAtlanta6,000
March2Matt GilloglyAtlantic City400
March 3Learning AnnexAtlanta600
March 9Al CowgillLas Vegas200
March 10-11Learning AnnexLos Angeles8,000
March 17 – 18Learning AnnexSan Francisco8,000
March 24 – 25Learning AnnexToronto4,000
March 31Learning AnnexLos Angeles900
April1Learning AnnexSan Francisco900
April 15Long Island REIALong Island400
April 21, 23, 24Learning AnnexPhiladelphia7,000
May 18AgoraMiami300
May19 – 20Learning AnnexDallas4,000
June9 – 10Learning Annex Ft Lauderdale8,000
June23Tampa Bay REIATampa Bay200
June 24Learning AnnexFt Lauderdale600
June30Al CowgillAtlanta200
July12 – 14Dallas REIODallas350
The second half of the year is typically at least as busy as the first half.
Email marketing
My list is currently over 60,000 names, most of whom with full address contact information. None of the list is purchased. All of it is opted in, and comes from either individual internet requests for my special reports, or from my appearances across the country. I have had as many as 2,200 people register for a teleseminar of mine. I hold teleseminars twice each month.
•Autoresponder email series to my existing list, written by a professional copywriter. This series will offer a special, invitation-only teleseminar to my students that buy the book on a particular day after it is published. The goal is to hit Amazon bestseller status.
•Google AdWords lead generation campaign, using keywords relating to the book topic. The campaign will drive people to a website with a Special Report available for free. That report will be a sales letter for the book. People that sign up for the report will then receive an autoresponder series of emails, similar to the one above.
Online Sales Campaign
I have joint venture relationships with many other real estate experts, as well as a large number real estate investor associations around the country. I will offer them the same exclusive teleseminar in exchange for buying the book through online retailers on a pre-arranged day.
In addition, I speak before other groups of real estate investors constantly. Last year, I spoke before approximately 35,000 investors in 83 events. This year it will be even more.
I will offer the book as a premium in the Learning Annex events. In 2006, I spoke before approximately 20,000 Learning Annex attendees, and have contractual commitments in 2007 to speak on the main stage at 11 events. (According to the Learning Annex, I am booked to speak at more events than any other speaker.)
Publicity
I will hire a publicist for at least 4 months before and 4 months after publication of the book.
I will commit to being a guest on at least two radio programs a week to promote the book.
Please see two examples of emails I wrote last year in response to media stories about real estate markets. I will also be sending you an eight-page article that was written about me in Creative Investor Lifestyles Magazine
Because this is my first book, I am not sure what to expect in terms of results. I do know that I am very adept at marketing, have a large and responsive list, and a very large network within the real estate investing community.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010