Recently, Weaving Influence hosted our first #12MinuteBookLaunch challenge. For one week, we sent daily 12-minute prompts to authors of all types and saw some truly amazing results. The power of a challenge is that it engages a group of people for a set amount of time — participants are generally more motivated when they know they will see results right away, and that they won’t need to put in endless amounts of work to succeed.
For all of you who did not participate in the challenge, or even for those who did (these are all scalable!), I’d like to recap four of the most powerful prompts that you can execute right now to see immediate results.
Identify Your Networks
Your already existing networks are your greatest asset in book marketing. Your book marketing efforts will succeed (or not) based on your follow-through in reaching and mobilizing your networks.
Download this spreadsheet (or use a Word document or simple notebook). Brainstorm all of the various networks that you’re connected to. If you’re using the spreadsheet, list the networks in the left-hand column called “Networks.” Here are some places to start:
- Think about hobbies you have: are you in any book clubs? sailing club? rock climbing? dog grooming? It doesn’t need to relate to your book subject — just write it down for now!
- Where did you go to school? Are you a member of any alumni associations?
- Do you belong to a church or other religious community?
- Are you part of any online communities?
- What about your local neighborhood? Are you in any local groups?
- Write down any other key individuals in your life — clients, coaches, colleagues.
- Think about the people you invited to your wedding, if you are married. These are significant relationships. Are these people reflected in your list?
Spend some time (no longer than 20 minutes) writing down every network you can think of that you are connected to — you will come up with a far bigger list than you ever expected!
Surprised by your results? Most people are! It’s often only when we really sit down and make a list do we realize how many people can potentially help with our book marketing.
Plan Your Asks
Go into your spreadsheet and write out three asks in the “Areas for Help (Asks)” column — or simply make a section in your notebook titled “Asks” — and come up with three different requests you can make. They can be all in one network category or can be for separate networks.
There are an unlimited amount of asks you can make. You can call a friend to ask them to leave an Amazon review; you can email a co-worker asking them to post about your book on their blog; you can email a favorite influencer and ask if they’d be willing to review an advance copy of your book. No matter what your ask, be specific and personal. People are far more likely to respond to a personal, specific request than a generalized, mass message.
Send a Request
Go ahead and make an ask! Reach out to at least one person you identified in your brainstorming exercise and ask them for help. You’ll be amazed how eager people are to get involved when you make the request.
Create a Share Graphic
Create a book graphic that you can post on social media, send in marketing emails, and share with your launch team. 440 x 220 is a good size for a graphic, but any landscape-style graphic should work on most platforms. Here are a few examples.
This graphic was created by a professional designer and utilizes a testimonial about the book.
This graphic was created by the author and features a quote from his book. Notice how he also included his website url and Twitter handle — this is a great way to “brand” your graphic if you are less known as an author.
The fun part is . . . you don’t need any graphic design skills to create a share graphic! If you do have design skills, feel free to use whatever program you want to create your graphic. If not, visit www.canva.com (a free graphic design program) and create your image there.
You could do one of these four things per day for four days — or do them all at once! You will be amazed at the results you can achieve in such a short amount of time when you have the right system in place.
Interested in more practical and in-depth tools to use in your book marketing? Check out the Book Marketing Action Guide, our signature course for authors looking to market their books successfully, and hop on over to our free Book Marketing Facebook community!
Margy Kerr-Jarrett enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in nature with her husband and daughter. Born and raised in Indianapolis, IN, Margy has been living in Jerusalem, Israel for the past three years.