New Beginnings for Authors

As the new year dawns, millions of people will resolve to exercise, lose weight and spend more time with their loved ones. Authors can add one more resolution to their list – sell more books!

Like any resolution, you’ll need a plan to follow through and make sure you meet your goal. Here's a five-step strategy for selling more books this year:

1. Celebrate your successes. What have you accomplished so far in building your author platform and promoting your book? Which promotional tactics are most effective? How can you do more of those things?

2. Evaluate what's not working. Which activities seem to be sucking up time or money without much return, and why might that be? Should you modify your approach, gain more skills, or move on to something more productive?

3. Develop a solid book marketing plan to reach the right target markets for your book. If you've already got a written book marketing plan, now is the time update it for the new year. If not, now is the time to get started! Your book marketing plan should outline the target markets for your book and how you will reach them and encourage them to buy your book. It's a blueprint for how to best spend your limited resources of time and money and prioritize your activities.

To learn how to develop a plan specifically tailored to the type of books that you write, check out these three new training programs:

How to Sell More Novels - Thursday, January 3

How to Sell More Nonfiction Books - Tuesday, January 8

How to Sell More Children's Books - Thursday, January 10

4. Build book promotion into your schedule. Review your book marketing plan and schedule tasks for specific days, weeks and months. For example, your weekly goals might include submitting articles to other blogs and websites each Monday, making three new contacts on Tuesdays, writing next week's blog posts on Wednesdays, working on publicity or speaking opportunities on Thursdays, commenting on relevant blogs and forums on Fridays, and spending 10 minutes on social networks each day. Scale your own plans to suit your schedule and available time.

5. Don't give up! It's often said that book marketing is a marathon, not a sprit. Remember that everything you do will build on what you've already done, and over time your reputation, readership and sales will grow.

Reminder - Don't forget to update the copyright date on your blog and website at the first of each year. Having an old copyright makes your site look out of date. If your site has been in existence for several years, use a range of dates such as "Copyright 2008-2013" to indicate your longevity. I list my copyright notice at the bottom of the right sidebar column.

I wish each of you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!