Summer is the best, isn’t it? Life slows down, schedules fade away, the kids are out of school. It’s a great time to relax by the pool, take a vacation and read a good book. We get it. We all need time to rejuvenate. That’s important.
At the expense of sounding like taskmasters, we’re going to discourage you from going completely off the grid. Amid the summer fun, try to carve out a few focused hours each week to work on your writing and publishing career. Many of you are already doing this, but other authors go completely awol each summer. It’s tempting, we know…but it’s tough to maintain or build momentum, if this is your practice.
Yep, we’re killjoys, but we have the best of intentions. The fall/holiday selling season (September 1 through December 31)—when two-thirds of all books are sold each year—starts in about 6 weeks. Preparation is key, and we want you to be prepared. If you take a little time to set things in motion now, you’ll reap the rewards this fall.
Here are few things you could (should) work on this summer:
- Simple Marketing Plan—This doesn’t have to be complicated. It should include your goals for the fall season through December 31 with relevant deadlines, specific promotional efforts you plan to undertake, dates, costs and requirements (content, ads, alerts, price changes, etc. needed to support the promotion). You’ll want to track the outcome of your efforts and measure your success, so make sure to put a tracking system in place before you undertake each promotion. This can be a simple spreadsheet that lists the promotions, the cost of each promotion, the number of books you expect to sell and the number of books you actually sell as well as the revenue numbers associated with the effort.
- Content Calendar—To support your marketing efforts, you’ll need engaging content. You don’t want to be scrambling, so set up a content calendar that will show you what you’ll be sharing (blog posts, quotes, images, promotions, book bubbles), when you’ll be sharing it (date and time), and where you’ll be sharing it (your website, your newsletter, specific social channels, etc). Try creating a few “content buckets”—for example, your blog goes out on Mondays; Wednesdays are for sharing inspirational quotes; Thursdays are for book bubbles; Saturdays are when send out your newsletter, etc. Include special opportunities and shows on your content calendar (for example, holidays and events like Black Friday). Make sure that your content calendar fully supports and aligns with your marketing plan.
- Audience Development—Communicating NOW with reviewers, bloggers, social followers, fans and potential readers about what’s coming this fall will improve your chances for success. If you need reviews to be live on October 1, you’ll want to have ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) in reviewers’ and readers’ hands now. You could be pitching media outlets about your September launch. You could schedule all your fall price promotions while they are still available at places like BookBub, Bargain Booksy and Book Gorilla. If you need any help getting your book ready for release, you can visit Bublish’s Author Services Portal or email us at info@bublish.com. We can help.
Okay, now that we’ve poured hot black coffee right over your cold, refreshing margarita by the pool, head over to bublish.com to create a book bubble for our Weekend Reader Marathon and Floating Bookstore. Let those readers know what’s coming. Get them excited! The deadline for this week’s event is tomorrow (7/13) at noon ET. If you’ve already created a book bubble this week, you’re all set. It will automatically be included in this event, which is free to all authors on Bublish.
Categories: audience, author branding, author services, author voice, blog, book marketing, book promotion, content abundance, contextual serendipity, editing, personal branding, public relations, publishing, readers, research, social media, startups, strategic serendipity, technology, writing
