Your Personal GMC GOAL MOTIVATION CONFLICT. What do you want? Sales? Recognition/Fame? To afford to live a creative life?

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1 Your Personal GMC GOAL What do you want? Sales? Recognition/Fame? To afford to live a creative life? MOTIVATION Why is it important to you? Financial security? Felt unrecognized since childhood? Currently in static, non-creative career? CONFLICT What s stopping you? Fear Lack of knowledge No time/energy/support?

2 SMART Goals Specific You know when it s been accomplished Measurable Quantities: sales, subscribers, clicks, etc. Attainable Reasonably achievable, given your history, abilities, and career stage Relevant Time- Related You can see how it s related to what you want (Goal) Time frame: a month, six months, one year

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4 PROLIFIC Can write/release 3-6 books per year STEADY Can write/release 1-2 books per year GAP Can write/release book every 2 or more years

5 Traditional Publishing Publisher handles the costs of editorial, cover art, formatting, as well as distribution Publisher retains most rights Author gets percentage royalties Indie or Self-Publishing Author handles all costs and distribution Author retains all rights Author gets larger percentage of royalties Hybrid Publishing Author has some traditionally published titles, some self-published titles

6 BRAND: I can always count on your novels to. Brand quality: (Example strong heroines) 1 Emotional need served: (Wants to feel admiration, inspiration) 2 Brand quality: Emotional need served: 3 Brand quality: Emotional need served: 4 Brand quality: Emotional need served: 5 Brand quality: Emotional need served:

7 SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths Writing: example, dialogue Marketing: example, public speaking Personal: example, patience Weaknesses Writing: example, action scenes Marketing: example, social media Personal: example, time management Opportunities Things in the market that could provide a boost example, successful film or TV shows in similar subgenre Threats Things in market that could be problematic example, supersaturation of genre.

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9 Identify your audience by what emotions they want to experience as they read. Brand Element Visceral Emotion Example: Fast plotting Example: Twisty mystery plots Example: Sweet, small town Emotion: excitement Emotion: challenge Emotion: innocence

10 Find Your Comps Identify the genre for your novel Identify authors/titles that fulfill a similar brand promise Research authors (and their fans) See where authors have interviewed See what fans have to say what they like/hate See where fans hang out.

11 Create a Super-Fan Composite Example: Urban Romantic Prefers women s fiction/chick Lit. Likes the relationships between women, likes the love story, likes the character growth of a female protagonist. Likes city settings rather than suburbs or small towns Relationships between women Love Story Growth of female protagonist Cities Emotional need: likes community, friendship Needs hope, visceral emotion of falling in love. Needs arc, show of strength. Wants speed, bustle urban sensibilities. Sophistication. Possible hang outs: Smexy Books and Dear Author book blogs; Goodreads; prefers Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest; probably watches shows like New Girl and Two Broke Girls; likes movies like Bridesmaids or Crazy Sexy Love.

12 The AIDA Sales Cycle AWARENESS A reader becomes aware of your book. Possible ways: word of mouth, recommendation by Amazon, sees book cover, sees title on social media. INTEREST Reader investigates to see if your book fits things she is interested in. Possible ways: reads back cover copy, checks genre, checks reviews. DESIRE Reader is now interested, but needs more motivation to go from could buy to want to buy. Possible ways: pricing, excerpt, testimonial quotes, social proof (exposures on social media) ACTION Reader is ready to buy as long as it s fairly easy to do. Possible ways: Lots of distribution options, easy to click sales pages, links from social media/guest posts/etc.

13 Create a Marketing Calendar Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun 1. Start by blocking out any weeks you absolutely can t promote mark it in RED. 2. Create a one day buffer one day before and after, when you shouldn t promote and mark it in YELLOW. 3. Highlight the dates that you have releases or you want to run a launch. Mark those in GREEN. 4. Once you have the dates you will not promote, and the dates you need to promote, you can work backwards, looking at the lead times for different tactics and plugging them into the blank spots on your calendar.