Indie Authors Book Marketing Plan

03/29/2013 06:37

reply with, go to your local book store with your books, but ask questions. The reason is because there is a learning curve that you need to have at your side. I know that no one wants to be rejected. The most important questions to ask is; "Where did you get all of your books? Who did you buy them from?" The next question to ask is, "How do I contact them, myself?" The average person loves to help when being asked for help. So start your question with "Could you help me?" You will find good results and that they buy them from publishers and book distributors.

Book distributors are one of the keys. In order to sell your books to a distributor you first need to know what they cost. This is not POD, purchase on demend cost but what they really cost to make your book. Believe me the price difference between POD and regular book printers is very far apart! The best way to start costing a book is to go to local book printers and ask, how many for what cost with all of the particulars. Price out a small quantity and then ask what if there are more. Every printer has price breaks for volume production and you want to know what they are. Write down the informationand be sure to know how long it takes to do what… Each printer has a certain amount that they are able to produce in a week and each printer has lead times before they are able to print. This way you have an idea of delivery dates if you wrote an order today.

Once you have priced out some local book printers then you might want to price out the cost of importing books from another country. When pricing out books from another country producing them you have to make sure that they follow the country standards. That is important. There are ink and color regulations from one country to the next. Lead issues etc. Find out the lead time and the minimums along with price and shipping cost. Write everything down. Try to have samples produced from everyone that you have worked with that are acceptable to you. Be sure everything is to your liking and you are comfortable with those you might end up working with. This applies especially with importing your books. Please note I didn't say buy books from anyone yet!

Now you're ready to knock on doors and that should be with retail and distributor doors, again you are your best salesperson for your books. I know this might sound scary and guess what, it is at first, but you'll get the hang of it and find the right words to sale your books, the right face to put on when you are meeting a buyer etc. That's how I sold 250,000 books of my first 6 titles. You can most certainly do the same.

Online indie author book marketing is completely different. You have to play by web rules and they might not be what you think. You are one person and you don't have the time it takes there is not 72 hours to the day and it takes more than that for days and weeks and months even years. Sure you can sell some books but how many? That is the question. At Book-Spot.com {we are