While some authors plan to give their book to only friends and family, we know that many hope to share their book and message with the masses. To make this dream a reality, you'll need a plan of action - a marketing plan.

Without an effective marketing plan, you might end up wasting a lot of time, money and effort in a frenzied, unorganized attempt to sell books.

Now, that's not what you want to happen at all, is it? And we want to help you avoid that end. So, sharpen your pencils and open your notebook because here comes your crash course in book marketing 101: how to create a marketing plan to successfully launch your memoir.

What is a Book Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan spells out the actions needed to achieve your marketing goals. Before you start planning how to get somewhere, you should first know where you're trying to go. That's the reason we should first start with your goals.

Now, you may have lofty dreams and aspirations about your book, such as appearing on Oprah or hitting the top of the bestseller's list. These aspirations are yours to have - we're not suggesting that you give up your dreams.

But it's time to think about a realistic, attainable and definable goal, such as selling X number of copies, or making X amount of money - it's fine to set the bar high, just make sure that they are goals you can realistically achieve.

Once you know what goals you hope to achieve, you then know where you're headed, but you'll need a plan if you want to get there. The marketing plan encompasses all aspects in the life of your book, from the first inspirational idea for your book to the last promotional effort you'll make. A marketing plan is all-encompassing, so it's best to start with the basics, including defining your market, identifying your customers or target audience, identifying your competitors and outlining a strategy to attract customers. You've got to start somewhere, right? Starting with the basics will not only help define these traits for you personally, but they will help define your book for your audience as well as focus your marketing efforts later.

Get Started Early: Research the Memoir Book Market

It's never too early to begin thinking about your marketing plan. Before you even type the first sentence of your book, you can take the first step in developing a marketing plan, which is to conduct market research. This research will help familiarize you with the condition of the market. Check out the types of memoirs that are currently selling well. Visit bookstores to see which books receive the best shelf space and decide into what markets your book fits. Start networking and making connections with other authors to gain knowledge and advice. Connect with media members and begin compiling a list of contacts for future promotional opportunities.

If you've already written your book, don't worry. Wordclay has a slew of marketing resources to help you jump into the game prepared. Plus, even though you've already written your manuscript, you can still conduct research as well as analyze and define your manuscript from a marketing perspective. Start by making a few basic decisions regarding your book regardless of the stage of writing.

Five Questions Every Writer Should Answer Before Marketing Their Story

The first thing you need to successfully market (and sell) your newly-published memoir is a marketing plan, one that makes the most of your time, money, talents and energy. But generating a marketing plan is no easy task. It requires research, testing and defining your boundaries as an author. Here are five helpful book marketing hints that can get you started when you're publishing your memoir manuscript.

1) Define your target audience:

Memoirs are in a complex marketing position that can be considered a blessing as much as a curse. While celebrity memoirs (often written by ghost writers) fly off the shelf without thought or reason, yours might take more diligence and patience in order to sell and reveal the interesting story you've featuring about your life.

Essentially, no one besides friends and family know that you have an interesting story to tell, and you have to earn their trust with your clear, concise marketing efforts. Of course you want to direct your marketing strategies at readers who enjoy memoirs, but when you're defining your target audience, be sure to bear in mind the aspects of your story that clearly set you apart from the rest. For example, a memoir that focuses on the ply of a coal miner in the 40s might be successfully marketed not only toward other miners and former miners, but many readers who nobly labor in similar positions, i.e. landscapers, construction works, etc.

But remember, if you attempt to use secondary and moot marketing points to define your audiences, you'll most likely target the wrong group of people. Though you may be tempted to use a particularly "hot" topic that your collection touches upon only briefly as a marketing ploy, don't allow these tangential details to cloud the choices you make concerning your primary audiences.

Of course you need to define the most appropriate audiences you can target, but make sure you remember the strongest, most prominent points of your collection as you define your potential readership.

Even so, your voice is unique, and you are definitely trying to reach a certain audience. If your first thought is, "That's easy: Non-fiction readers!" then you might need to reevaluate your approach. The more specific and honest you are about your audience, the better your chances are that you'll actually reach them. Ask yourself about the age, gender, lifestyle, income, residence/location and education of your ideal audience members. Students? Cultural transplants? Korean transplants? Professionals? Other writers? Grieving writers? Emerging writers? Writers who love language? Writers who are also teachers? Writers who are also mothers? By clarifying your target audience, you're finding a niche audience, which will make marketing much easier and effective later down the line.

Simply put - choose the most obvious readers. For instance, if your memoir focuses on your experience of living in Manhattan , being a young woman of Korean descent, struggling to understand the American culture, then you may want to target young urban women living in New York, perhaps even cultural transplants. Or maybe your memoir focuses on your experience as a mother, raising a family of six during the depression. Then don't only consider those who braved the depression, but also think about different types of mothers and (eventually) how to reach out to them.

Targeting too broad an audience can present an array of problems as well. Hence, the reason you need to be specific. When narrowing your target audience choices, consider readers who will both respect your writing and express enthusiasm about your book (and your life). That's the audience you want after all.

You may also effectively market this book with the same thematic and epic points as you would a novel, but never lose sight of your audience. Always ask yourself: Who will want to read my memoir? And why?

If your memoir has a cultural (or sub-cultural) bent that helps define your voice (and your life experience), paving the way for a variety of marketing avenues, then you definitely want to hone in on the culture you're describing. For example, if your memoir focuses on your time as a hip-hop artist, then be sure to list hip-hop enthusiasts and DJs among your targets. If your story reveals a cultural phenomenon, such as immigration and Americanization, then you definitely want to select the culture affected. For instance, take Donald Keene's memoir Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan (soon to be published by Columbia University Press ), which includes his experience as a thoroughly American man adjusting (and absorbing) Japanese culture. Obviously, among his target audiences will be memoir readers, but also Japanese transplants as well as Americans who have studied Japan.

No matter your memoir's message or style, there's undoubtedly an audience for your work, an audience just waiting for your new, rich material. All in all, once you have your target audience(s) defined, you can then search out the means of reaching them and begin your marketing endeavors.

2) Research how to reach your target audience(s):

Often times the way you present your memoir is just as important as what you're showcasing. Now that you've defined your audience, you must think about how you can connect with them. Ask yourself (a) where do they hang out? (b) to which magazines and journals do they subscribe? (c) where do they attend readings? (d) what other type of events do they frequent? or even (e) what talk shows do they spend their time watching?

Just as a novella writer wouldn't attempt to publish a story in a magazine specializing in flash fiction, you must find (and eventually secure) the marketing avenues that best suit your voice and style. As a memoirist, you may want to publish chapters or excerpts of your work in magazines that specialize in non-fiction. Or perhaps submit a stand-along segment of your book to non-fiction contests - whatever you can accomplish before you publish will only help you with marketing later down the line.

Other avenues to explore include: Where can you publish an advertisement for your memoir? What events can you attend (and possibly read during) that will contain people interested in your subject matter? What bookstores and retailers might take an interest in your stories? In what communities, online and otherwise, should you register as a member? What book groups have appropriately reviewed memoirs, and would they be willing to review yours in the future? Where might you distribute free copies of your book? Neighborhood coffeehouses? Local literary centers? Libraries? Or other organizations?

List these questions and generate your own statement of purpose. Once you have a detailed mission, with specific areas and platforms to research as possible avenues of visiting your audience, you can begin to develop your marketing goals and predict where and when you can sell copies of your book.

3) Identify your competition:

Non-fiction readers can only buy (and read) a finite number of books, and as a self-published author, the task of making your target audience aware of your collection falls to you. Luckily, Wordclay is here to supply services and advice to help you succeed, but you've still got to take the first steps. Think about other recent memoirs similar to yours - that's your competition. Maybe your stories and style are different or more entertaining, but how is your audience supposed to know? Especially when these alternative books have a marketing plan that lifts their voices above the crowd of other writers? All the more reason for a sound, specific marketing strategy that sets you apart from your competitors.

Another added hurdle to marketing your memoir is your celebrity. More often than not, a memoir by a renowned (or even despised) individual already has a popularity built into it. How many people do you think would buy a memoir by Britney Spears? Even if the quality of the Spears memoir might leave readers questioning why they purchased the book, they still, in fact, purchased the book. As an emerging writer, you'll have the difficulty of competing with famous writers and celebrities for shelf space and recognition.

But don't fret - as long as you define your audience(s) and target them in a smart way, your book and its merit will undoubtedly get acknowledged.

Document your competitors' marketing efforts in a spreadsheet and mimic those that are the most successful . Actively compete with them on every level. Start by engaging your regional competition and then branch out once you've solidified a core readership at home. You can't hope to tackle your competitors without a strategy, but in order to develop any kind of attack plan, you first need to identify who you're up against!

4) Identify how your book is different:

List the unique points of your voice and your memoir. In order to define your exclusive selling position, you need to understand the differences between your work and your competitors'. Essentially, you need to think about why customers should buy your book instead of another. What makes your memoir special and unique? Your voice? Your regional flair? Your politics? Your unique take on love and the erotic? What insight and experience featured in your book is quintessential or "only yours?" Think about the selling points of your book, especially in relation to other similar memoirs on the market.

Tip: List at least eight details that really set your book apart from others in your market. The stronger your selling points, the stronger your marketing plan, allowing you to out-market your competitors. Now's the time to narrow the description of your book and hone in on those unique selling points that will really appeal to readers.

While this may seem obvious, especially after defining your target audience(s), there are finer points you should explore. For example, you may know that you have published a memoir that examines the Korean-American experience, but there already exist a good number of memoirs that can make the same claim to cultural examination.

So why should readers invest their time and money in yours?

Obviously, since you've set aside the time, money and energy to publish your book, you must feel that your work is different than what's currently on the market and your writing deserves to be read. In the case of the Korean-American memoir, consider how your stories can be differentiated from others. Picture a reader holding two books, weighing yours against another with the same cost and same claim to cultural explorations, now which should he or she choose?

Imagine you're writing the blurb on the back of your book, or better yet, you're writing a review of your own book, what would you tell readers? Reminiscent of whom? Sounds like what? Utilizes what techniques? Innovative in what area? List points that talk specifically about your book and grab your readers' attention. Consider the finer details of your memoir. Do you experiment with timelines? Do you slip in and out of a foreign language? Perhaps your memoir centers on your interaction between you and your Korean mother in California - then be sure to list that point.

And don't be afraid to compare yourself to popular writers. Your background and your experience, not only with writing, but with your subject as well, especially when it comes to memoir, can reinforce your literary authority and further differentiate you from others. You know your voice is unique, and you need to convince others with your own words.

5) Outline a budget:

Let's talk about what's ideal and what's feasible. While it would be wonderful to devote an unlimited amount of money to your marketing campaign, you're just one writer, and although you have a unique voice, you still have bills to pay.

That's the reason you must clearly outline your marketing budget. You need to devote a certain amount to your marketing fund, but nothing that's going to cause you financial uncertainty. And, you'll be surprised at the amount you can accomplish with only a little money.

Readings rarely cost more than the gas to drive to the venue. Flyers with your cover images can be affordably purchased at the Wordclay Services Store. Publishing in magazines is often free. Entering contests might earn you great recognition as well as win you some funding to spend later in your marketing campaign. However you approach marketing, defining your financial boundaries and making a detailed list of your expenses is a must for any successful author.

Active Memoir Marketing: Following Through with Your Marketing Goals

Say you've identified your target audience(s) and you've listed a wealth of marketing avenues you can tap to reach them, say you've even booked a few advance readings and have an advertisement coming out soon, you've just clicked the "Publish with Wordclay" button, now what?

The next step after publishing is following through with your marketing goals. You want to reach your audience, not only to turn a profit selling your book, but also for the satisfaction of having your book read.

But you have to get the buzz going first.

Strategize how to implement your marketing plan. You can refer to the Four P's of Marketing - product, price, place and promotion - for guidance. Have a press release written and distributed in your area. Contact your local media outlets that would be interested in your memoir and suggest reading an excerpt in the morning. Print flyers detailing your upcoming reading and post them in coffeehouses, art galleries, wherever you believe your potential readers might frequent.

Once your book becomes a tangible product that people can order and hold in their hands, that's when the legwork begins. Engage your audience. Just as you researched and arranged promotions in advance, keep discovering new forums for spreading the word about your book. Stay active, stay afloat and stay in the minds of your audience, because the moment your marketing plan withers and loses momentum is the same moment your readership and sales will diminish. Adhere to these marketing basics and always remain true to your vision.

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