Chrissy Siggee

Chrissy’s Marketing Guide for the Self Publisher

This Marketing Guide will give you, the self-published author, guidelines to successfully market your book. The key to the successful marketing of any product is in the element of timing. This document is not a guarantee of sales, but it will help you make effective decisions to ensure that your writing project receives maximum exposure, in order to help with the generation of sales. After all the hours you have spent in the research and the writing of your novel, memoir, or other work, it would be a shame to lose sales because you skipped the essential step of marketing.

Excuses abound for not marketing a product, but being shy, quiet-natured or even lazy is no excuse for a book or publication not to sell. Most of my suggestions don’t even require face-to-face marketing, except for radio and television. Media marketing will be covered in Part B of the Marketing Guide, currently under construction, and will be designed to meet the needs of the individual in a contract form, giving you the option of proceeding independently or with myself as your marketing manager. As the user of Part A, you will discover that the work involved can be organised within your usual daily schedule and using your very own tool to market and sell your book. You! Who else can promote your book better than the author can, especially, if it is your memoirs or a topic close to your heart?

Page three of your purchased Marketing Guide will provide a list that will help the self-published author to determine how to best promote his or her product. For example, for my teen novel, “Out of the Shadows – Jenna’s Secret”, marketing focused around youth groups, youth ministries, and ministries where eating disorder issues are common. However, younger teens don’t have finances, nor do they prioritise their spending on books, so I also focused on women’s groups and conferences where parents of teenagers would be in attendance. My poetry and devotional gift book has a completely different marketing approach.

Remembering your marketing audience will be your first priority when reading the list on page three. Highlight the major marketing suggestions that will benefit you the best; then proceed to the minor marketing areas suggested. Never exclude the minor marketing areas; two of the places I least thought my first book would do well proved to be an ongoing source of steady sales.

Your marketing plan should be in place before seeking quotes for a company to print your book or product. Formulate a marketing diary and set your goals. I suggest that Part A of this Marketing Guide should be completed within a three-month period, with the target sales goal you wish to achieve. Remember, a goal is a tool to keep you on track; if you fall a bit short of your goal, but have followed through on your plan, your attempt is not a failure. Be realistic also; the chances of your book becoming a best seller are probably one in ten million.

Online bookstores and bookstores in general will accelerate sales, but you will need to decide if the priority is in the number of copies sold or in the profit level. Having your book available in as many places a possible will ensure you get the maximum coverage possible.

The Marketing Guide merely outlines and summarizes. You need to work through each marketing step so the best outcomes will be achieved. If you purchase this prospectus at the higher rate, I will be available for assistance throughout the process and will offer additional suggestions for different situations, or if the level of marketing needs to be adjusted to suit the individual.

Before you decide to purchase the rest of this five page Part A Marketing Prospectus, please consider that this is not a guarantee of successful marketing, especially if you don’t have confidence in your book. However, I believe this Marketing Guide will help you, the self-publisher, in the promotion of your book.

The cost of the complete Marketing Guide For the Self Publisher – Part A, is $AU50, with an additional $AU25 if you require continual assistance throughout the three month process.  Some minor assistance is availablle free of charge. Plus addition information will be sent at no extra cost once location of self publisher is established as some information will vary from country to country. Send emails in regard to purchase and further information to chrissy@chrissysiggee.com

Part B is under construction and will take the form of a contract to meet the individual needs of the client.

Read what others have to say about the Marketing Guide:

As a fellow-author, I had the privilege of helping to edit Ms. Siggee’s Marketing Guide for the Self-Publisher. I want to go on record and say that I believe the information contained in this guide is excellent and will make the self-published author’s job of marketing his or her project an effective and prosperous adventure.  Cheri Hardaway

Thank you Chrissy for the Marketing Guide. There is so much in it on how to promote your book that I had never even thought of. It truly is a ‘nuts and bolts’ guide to marketing your book as the self publisher. Lynne Churchyard