Ready-made Marketing Plan

Assuming you have been following these blog posts since November 2009, you have now been through all six steps in How to Write a Nonfiction Book: From Concept to Completion in 6 Months. A recent post contained a detailed promotional plan with three strategies and a long list of tactics to achieve them. Before I leave this topic, I want to explain how I developed my plan.

I began with three statements.

1. My book is about reflections on the writing life from a 40-year veteran.
2. My ideal reader is anyone who works (or wants to work) with words in his or her life and career.
3. My book's purpose is to motivate my ideal reader to take his or her career to the next level despite inevitable obstacles and setbacks.

The three strategies to achieve my book's purpose and reach my ideal reader are ...

1. to increase visibility and credibility on-line
2. to increase visibility and credibility off-line
3. to drive traffic to WriteANonfictionBook.com

In the Promotion section of How to Write a Nonfiction Book are many suggestions for letting potential readers know about your book. The question I asked myself was this: Would those suggestions work with my strategies? The answer is YES.

Here's what I did: I copied and pasted the whole section into a new document, cut out all the superfluous words, and created a long list of brief, bulleted statements. Then I put each bulleted statement under one of my strategies. I admit the plan is long, and I may never get to everything. On the other hand, it is thorough and organized. While I can't guarantee that every tactic will work with your strategies, I think most of them will fit somewhere.

This approach will give you a good start on your promotional plan, and you can always cull the list if it is too long. If you haven't read the new expanded, redesigned edition of How to Write a Nonfiction Book, you might want to check it out.

Words to Write By

The summer is over … or practically over, anyway. A minute ago it was Memorial Day; suddenly, I’m staring Labor Day in the face (I still haven’t bought a barbeque grill!), and what do I have to show for it besides a tan and an improved flutter kick?

But I’m not being fair. Since my life is measured by statistics — my rankings on Google and Yahoo, marketing strategies that pay off, and number of words written, articles published, and books sold — I have accomplished quite a bit. This has been a summer of writing. In fact, I don’t seem to be able to stop.

It is hard to explain this obsession to people who think they can’t write, would rather die than write, or know they can write but hate doing it. As I tried to think of something profound to say, I decided to seek some help from noted writers past and present. Here are some observations that really resonated.


“If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire is not to write.” Hugh Prather

"There is no perfect time to write. There's only now." Barbara Kingsolver

"A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage." Sydney Smith

“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it's like drilling rock.” Ernest Hemingway

"Writing itself is an act of faith.” EB White

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.” C. J. Cherryhr

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything good.” William Faulkner

“Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say.” Sharon O'Brien

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.” Isaac Asimov

"The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes." Agatha Christie

"You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke." Arthur Polotnik

May you be as inspired as I am by these words.