Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Writing Career, Part Two: Focus on Strategy

You’ve created your end goals in Part One that will be the driving force behind your writing career. This means you know what kind of car you want; now it’s time to put some gas in that car with strategy.

Strategy is the fuel that allows your goals to be achieved. Your marketing strategy will have to serve the primary, secondary, and short-term goals you’ve created. Without good strategy, you will be very unlikely to achieve the goals you’ve set.

Remember the primary goal is to sell your writing. Now this is where strategy is going to vary based on what you write and how you want it to be seen. If you’re self publishing, your strategy will include multiple self-promotional avenues. If you’re writing plays and screenplays, then the strategy will be networking heavy. If you’ve gained representation, the strategy will be promotional methods that can parallel the release from your publisher.

Granted, all three of these will come into play no matter what you’re selling. However, the methods of how you do so will be very important. You will have to decide whether you’ll have to focus on a few social media channels, or if you have capacity to focus on multiple social networks. Will blogging benefit you, or prove overly time-consuming with a focus that won’t resonate with readers? Which conventions and writing groups will have the types of people you’ll want to interact with who are successful in a similar genre or career path.

Now that you’ve filled out your end goals, answer these next questions and you’ll be able to start mapping out your strategy. There are questions below (and examples in parenthesis beside it. They’re examples, remember that it’s your book and your brand).

1)    How will I sell my writing? (Books via self-pub or traditional, scripts to producers, etc.)

2)    What are the best platforms to sell my writing? (Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound, your own web-based store)

3)    How will I capture readers and bring them into a purchasing transaction? (Social networks, book trailers, award submissions)

4)    What platforms will be best to increase viewership of my website? (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus)

5)    What platforms will not serve a purpose in pursuing? (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus)

What is your strategy? Chime in with the comments section. The conversation’s always live on Twitter @ThomasAFowler, use the hash-tag #WritersConquest. As always, keep checking my official website for the latest updates. Thanks so much for taking on the Writer’s Conquest.

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