Where To Start Book Marketing? by author Claudine Wolk

It Gets Easier!...And Other Lies We Tell New Mothers 

Every new mom learns pretty quickly how difficult new motherhood is but also that nobody tells the truth about it. Author and narrator Claudine Wolk learned the same lesson after her son was born but decided to speak the truth about motherhood with humorous insight and reality-based suggestions. A few crucial tips can make motherhood a bit more controllable and a lot more enjoyable.

Purchase a copy of the audiobook on Libro.fm, Audible or Audiobooks.com. You can also add the book to your reading list on GoodReads.com.

 

Where To Start Book Marketing?

Book marketing can be scary for some authors. It represents the step of making their imagined book a reality. But it doesn’t have to be scary, especially if the author has a good starting point. The first step in book marketing, ironically, has nothing to do with book marketing.

The first step in effective book marketing is to identify your publishing goals.

How do you want to publish your book? Do you want to see it in every Barnes & Noble Store and on every online retail outlet? Do you want to simply create an eBook and pop it on Amazon? Are you an expert who wants to hand out a paperback to participants in your workshops and classes? Do you want a keepsake to hand out to family and friends? Take a minute to think about the answers to these questions. Once you know the way you want to publish you can start to think about the book marketing tasks that will best support that type of publishing. For most authors who would like to see their book in every brick-and-mortar store as well with online retailers, they will have to decide between traditional publishing and self-publishing. In a nutshell here are your publishing choices:

Traditional publishing: the publishing company (i.e., Harper Collins, Sourcebooks) handles everything to create your book. They then distribute it and sell it. The publisher owns the book. The author provides the manuscript, edits and supports the book marketing.

Self-publishing: You create your book, distribute it and sell it. You own your book. You could create a formal publishing company yourself (as a business) and THEN publish your own book in a traditional manner. I created a publishing company, for example, and called it New Buck Press. New Buck Press purchased ISBNs, hired an editor and a book designer, secured a distributing contract, and printed and fulfilled orders for my first book, It Gets Easier and Other Lies We Tell New Mothers in 2008. Today, (lol, just 15 years later) it is not necessary to create your own publishing company entity to self-publish but it is a business just the same – especially if you are serious about marketing and selling your book.

Book Marketing Step Two (Bonus)

Once you decide your publishing method you can move forward with your book marketing plan. Most first-time authors would like to try to secure a publishing contract even if they eventually self-publish. So, the next step in book marketing your book (you get a bonus here with step two!) is to create a pitch, query, and book proposal. Even if you decide to self-publish, I promise you, the time taken to create a pitch, query, and book proposal will be time well- spent. You will use the content from these items in every book marketing step you take.

To Sell Your Book You Need a Tool Box: Pitch, Query, and Book Proposal

The best way I have come up with so far is to explain the process of creating a pitch, query, and book proposal is through the use of analogy: a tool box. Every profession has a toolbox – items that are needed to complete a job properly. As an accountant, my toolbox included a computer, a ten-key (a calculator), an audit box, a GAAP manual, pencils, erasers, working papers, and working paper binders. A painter has his paint rollers, turpentine, paint, primer, thinner, scraper, etc. You get the idea.

A book marketer’s tool box includes the items that she will use to pitch her book to media/agents/publishers for interview, mention, or review. If you, as a book marketer, take the time to create the right tools with care, thoughtfulness and creativity, your marketing efforts will yield the best results for increased sales of your book.

The tools that you need in your book marketing toolbox:

Tool #1: Query | Pitch: A query is most commonly sent to an agent or publisher. It is a one-page pitch that describes your book, why it is needed, who it serves, and why you are the person to write it. You will use the ideas and persuasions that you include in your query again and again in your other tools so take the time to write, re-write, review, and edit your query. Writing a query is a great place to start to create the book marketing tools for your tool box.

Pitch: Elevator Pitch. A one-line description of your book that you could share in the time an elevator ride takes.

Tool #2: Book Proposal: A book proposal is a standard “book industry” document that covers a few of the aspects that you already included in your query plus a few more. It digs deeper than a query. It is a bit like a book report, forgive the pun. One of my favorite books to teach book proposal writing is Write the Perfect Book Proposal, by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman. It is a great book to help you with your book proposal. It includes standard book proposal components and their description plus actual book proposals that sold and why they sold.

Continuing with the book report analogy, a book proposal includes its own table of contents describing what will be in the proposal that follows. You generally start with an “overview” of the book (you will use what you included in the query) and add your description of the book and why you are the one to write it.

There is an “author” section that is all about you. Again, dip into your query a bit. You want to include why you are the perfect person to write this book plus other biographical information that hopefully demonstrates how your background will help sell your book. Are you a professional doctor, lawyer, psychologist or specialist who adds credentials to this book, for example? Perhaps you are writing a book about trees and you are a botanist? You get the idea.

With these first two steps completed you will be in great shape to market your book.

 

About the Author

 Claudine Wolk is a writer, radio talk show host, podcast host, and book marketing consultant. Her first book, It Gets Easier and Other Lies We Tell New Mothers has affectionately become “the perfect baby shower gift.” Claudine is working on her second non-fiction book aimed at helping writers who want to publish and market a book in the same fun, practical way as her first book. Claudine lives with her husband, Joe, in Bucks County, PA and has three grown children and a baby grandson. More at www.ClaudineWolk.com Other places you can find the author online:

https://ClaudineWolk.Substack.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/claudinewolk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claudinewolk/

Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/help4newmoms

Stories and Strategies for Woman Podcast: https://storiesandstrategiesforwomen.buzzsprout.com