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The Book Marketing Formula

ONCE upon a time, an author would write their book and the world would flock to read it. Those times have changed, given the sheer enormity of new books entering the marketplace each year. With all the demands on a reader’s attention coupled with hundreds of thousands of new book choices to sort through each year, authors need to capture the attention of their audience in order to break through in this crowded marketplace.

Planning a book launch is the starting place for your marketing plan. Both first-time authors and those with existing “platforms” will benefit from the use of a series of events to systematically spread the word about your book release.

What is an author platform? Today’s highly sought-after authors who receive sizeable advances on royalties from traditional publishers have built an audience who is hungry for their writing, which is what people in the book industry call an author platform. Examples of author platforms include activities such as hosting a radio show, syndicating articles, hosting a popular podcast show, social media followings or robust speaking sche