Building Your Readership #17 – Implementing Your Plan

Before I share more tips on building your readership, I want to thank you for taking time each week to read this newsletter. You are here every week which means you are ready to build your readership and that puts a smile on my face. I know how hard it is to be consistent especially when it comes to book promotion.

I’ve given you a lot of things to do to start building your readership and I’m sure it might feel a little overwhelming. You might still be feeling like you don’t know where to begin. If you followed the action steps, the hard part is behind you and hopefully you have your book promotion plan. The fun part begins – implementing your plan.

Implementing your plan is always about your goals. What are your goals for your book promotion?

For this issue, I will use myself as the test author.

My main goal – Visibility. I want readers to know about me and my books. Readers buy who they know. If they don’t know about my books, they will never buy them.

My next goal – To find the episodic readers and introduce my book to them and the Kindle Vella platform.

My last goal – To get the product (book) completed so the readers have something to buy.

Do they sound like good goals?

For me I think they are good goals to start out with. However, here’s where I tell you that your plan or your goals are not set in stone. You can change your plan or goals anytime you want, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to do it.

For instance, when we went into the pandemic a lot of my clients had literary events and visits planned on their plan. They were excited to meet readers in person. I’m sure you heard this word a lot during the pandemic – pivot. So many authors had to do big pivots during the pandemic. There #1 goal was to meet readers in person and that was not going to happen for a while.

How were they going to meet the readers if they didn’t meet them in person?

I tell my clients to ask themselves this question all the time. How can I meet readers?  This is one of the questions I ask my clients when it comes to the book promotion plan.

I had to ask myself this question too. I’m currently writing books on the Kindle Vella platform. It’s a platform for episodic books. I’m writing a nonfiction book called Building Your Readership and a fiction book called Love In Space.

In 2023, I attended multiple events, live and online with readers. The readers were interested in my books, but they weren’t interested in having another platform to read on. It was disheartening but it taught me to know what my readers expect when it comes to reading my books. They wanted an eBook and a print book. Which means I had to do a lot of pivoting when it came to promoting my book.

I’m currently promoting my book on social media. I decided I would not do any more events until I had an eBook and a print book to offer the readers at the events. I’m currently working on this issue and hopefully will have one by July.

Since I’m focusing on social media right now. I had to implement social media campaigns to reach new readers. Let’s go back to my goals:

Visibility = Podcasts, blogs, social media.

Readers = Social Media campaigns.

Product = Books in print and eBook format.

Here’s my plan:

I’m doing an educational social media campaign to introduce readers to Kindle Vella and my books.

I’m pitching my book to podcasts.

I’m blogging twice a week.

I’m creating more videos.

I’m doing this newsletter.

I’m creating an email funnel.

I’m working on a reader magnet.

That’s my plan for the summer. I took out my calendar and scheduled my days for the social media campaign. I scheduled days for blogging and pitching to podcasts. I scheduled days to work on my email funnel and reader magnet. I picked two days to work on videos.

I used to be a multitasker trying to do everything at one time. Over the years I’ve learned to do things in batches. I use Monday and Tuesday as my marketing scheduling days. I like to repurpose my content, so I schedule it using Meta Business planner. This helps me stay consistent and makes me look like on social media all the time.

My calendar keeps me in the know on what I need to do with my book promotion. I use highlighters to mark off things I need to do each day. I like looking at to see how productive I’ve been for the week.

Yesterday I researched podcasts to pitch to. Today I will take time to see which ones are still accepting guests. Tomorrow I will send out pitch letters. Friday I will work on my email funnel and reader magnet.

For me batching works because I can get a lot done and move on to the next task. I’ve found I get stuck when I’m trying to do everything on the same day. I hear authors say all the time, I don’t have time for promoting. I believe it’s a matter of changing your mindset to how much time can I give to my promotion. As I always say, start with 15 minutes then add more time as you go.

Building your readership takes time and consistency. Using your plan with your focus on your goals will help you reach new readers daily.

Action Steps:

Look at your goals and promotion plan.

What are your top three promotion goals?

Create a schedule for each one.

Choose how you will work your schedule.

Start implementing your plan.

Reflect on your progress and adjust your plan as needed for the upcoming weeks.

If you know someone who needs book promotion tips, share this newsletter with them.

Remember book promotion starts with YOU. Make sure to subscribe to get the next issue.

https://www.subscribepage.com/byrnsl

See Ya On The Net,

LaShaunda

P.S. This summer I’m offering private book promotion training. DM if you need training.