Beef Up Your Proposal Marketing Section

When writers take personality tests, the majority are introverts. They prefer to write more articles or books instead of spending the time to market their books. Yet the marketing section of your book proposal can be the difference between rejection and acceptance. Every writer has to learn these marketing skills.

P.T. Barnum said, “Without promotion, something terrible happens. Nothing.” Publishers create well-designed and well-edited books that they distribute to bookstores. These companies make large investments in the production of these books. Yet the sale of these books or moving them from the bookstore into the hands of readers is largely up to the author. If you self-publish, then you have all of this responsibility. Even if you self-publish, you still need to craft a book proposal (nonfiction or fiction). This proposal is your business plan of how you are going to put together your book. From my years in publishing, I know the critical nature of this document and in particular the marketing section.

As an author, you have to show your passion through action. Successful authors will continue to market and promote their book long after others have given up. For example, I’m still promoting and marketing radio interviews about  my Billy Graham biography even though it released four years ago.  I continue to market this book every day.

Here’s several ideas for the marketing section of your proposal:

• Create practical plans which you can execute on your own timetable. From my book, I pulled 10 Facts about Billy Graham into an info-graphic. These facts became a bookmark on one side and the other side includes the book cover and a brief endorsement. Can you create this type of practical tool for your book then distribute the bookmark to bookstores for bag stuffers? 

• Read book marketing books like 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer or The Book Marketing Coach by Brent Sampson or then apply what you are learning to the marketing section of your proposal.

• Every publisher is going to want to see how many readers you can directly reach. Social media numbers are good but do you have an email list? How large is that email list? The larger the number for your email list you can include the better.

• Commit to tell others about your book every week. Most authors do nothing so if you are actively talking about your book, your efforts will pay off. As marketing expert Sarah Bolem says, “Consumers generally need to be exposed to a new product seven to twelve times before they will purchase it.”

• Who can you get to write the foreword for your book? Do you know people who can endorse the book (in your target market). Include this information in the marketing section of your proposal. The right endorsement for your target reader will help you sell books and the attention of a publisher.

Build these types of marketing plans into your proposal for it to shine for editors and agents.

W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. Get his free Book Proposal Checklist at: http://terrylinks.com/bookcheck Terry is the author of Book Proposals That Sell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success  and he has written over 60 books and for more than 50 magazines. He has over 200,000 followers on twitter. http://twitter.com/terrywhalin