Increasingly, agents and publishers are asking authors to help with the marketing of their books.

Many writers are taken by surprise when they receive a request for a “detailed marketing plan” – often before an agent has even taken them on.

Don’t be daunted. Treat this as an opportunity rather than a hurdle. Many successful authors draw up a marketing plan before they even start work on their book.

Your Marketing Plan requires research and creative energy – skills you already possess in abundance!

To get started, list your Marketing Plan under the following headings:

Book Category:

What genre/s does your book fall under? Choose books similar to yours at Amazon and see which category they are listed under.

Sub Categories:

What are its sub-categories? Again, use Amazon for this.

Market Summary:

Provide a convincing argument that there is room for a new entrant in the market.
If you can, obtain sales figures for your particular genre or subject area. (eg. 10 million romance novels were sold in the UK last year).

Is there a book similar to yours that has sold well? (eg. My book is aimed at the same market as xxx by yyy which sold zzz copies last year). Often, you can find this information using Google, as well as authors’ and publishers’ websites.

Closest competitors:

List your ‘competitors’ (in terms of content, focus & title) giving title, author, publisher, year, price.

Unique selling points:

Identify what is unique and different about your book.

In Part 2, I’ll show you how to add more detail to your marketing plan. Don’t be daunted. Break down the plan into simple steps and you’ll find it much easier than you expected.