iUniverse 5 Questions Every Writer Should Know About Their Book

Launching a book is like launching a business in more ways than one. You can't even dream of hitting the bestsellers list if you don't have a plan that outlines the key steps for getting the word about your book out there. iUniverse give five simple questions to help you identify the best path to take in promoting your book.

1. What is your book’s goal?

What do you hope to achieve by writing your book? Is your goal consistent with your resources? Key promotional decisions depend on the alignment of these two things. The amount of investment needed to fund a marketing campaign for a few book copies for your immediate relatives or members of your local community will be vastly different from making copies of your book available to an entire state or country. Regardless of the scope, ensure that your goals and resources are within the bounds of what you are able to commit.

2. Who is your audience?

Knowing your audience will help you decide how to sell your book to readers. Consider your audience’s demographics to determine your marketing focus. If you find your target to be a very small niche, marketing will need to be very focused. Aiming for a small niche of, say, Young Adult fiction with a strong interest in vampire-themed books may be better than aiming for a bigger slice of the broad fantasy fiction genre. Business books are marketed and priced with this strategy in mind. They focus on small niches but price books higher than fiction or most other genres. Conversely, you may want to expand the appeal of your book by making some changes to its scope so as to increase your customer base.

3. What is Unique about your book?

Know as much as you can about what appeals to your target market? Position your book as an alternative with a specific difference. Perhaps your book belongs to the Self-Help genre on marriage counseling. Then identify what sets it apart from other titles by "writing against the grain". Maybe your book can contrast itself from most books with Christian views about marriage by writing a book that focuses on inter-faith marriages.

4. How does your book fit within your industry?

What makes your book appealing to your readers that no other book currently provides? This question can make or break your book's appeal to your target audience. For example, if you are writing a cookbook, it may fit in with healthy eating rather than down home barbecuing or cookbooks featuring celebrities. Start by identifying who your competition is and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Focus on their weaknesses where your book can highlight its strengths, because this is where you can position your book as a compelling alternative.

5. Where does your target audience go?

In today's digital world it makes sense to begin your search for your target readers on the Internet. Search for websites with related interests to your book. Use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter. Take advantage of online book cataloguing sites like GoodReads and Shelfari and submit copies of your book as contest giveaways while encouraging book reviews on your social media profiles, website and blog. With online distribution becoming a favorite feature among most e-publishing formats, your book can also be sold and downloaded through the Internet, so it makes sense to start your marketing efforts where a growing population of readers is frequenting.

For more book marketing tips, head over to the iUniverse Writers Tips and learn from the experience of iUniverse self-published authors.