What is progressive elaboration? Per the Project Management Institute, in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PEMBOK), progressive elaboration is continuously improving and detailing a plan as more details and specific information and more accurate estimates become available. Progressive elaboration applied to self-publishing marketing means the marketing plan will be updated continuously as better information is discovered.
What Does IT Take To Self-Market A Self-Published Book
To self-market a self-published book, it takes time. Lots and lots of time. The worst time consumer is assembling the very basic marketing plan. Self-publishing a book on Amazon which no one sees does not sell books. To be purchased, the book must be seen by prospective buyers.
If You Build It, They Will Not Come
This is not an “if you build it, they will come” situation. The book will sit on Amazon unloved and unseen until someone (i.e. >you) takes the time to bring it to people’s attention. The person who must figure out how to use all the various Internet tools to promote your book is you. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, Blogs, Podcasts, radio, broadcast television, print media and cable all need to be engaged. Web sites and landing pages must be set up. The writer needs to engage their network to bring friends, family, frienamies, customers, and enemies into their self-publishing book marketing schemes. The writer must entice perfect strangers to put their money down and buy their book. Each time the writer completes a social media task, another is waiting in the wings. If an approach is successful, the marketing plan must change to exploit the newly identified opportunity.
New Tools
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitter all work very differently. Not many people are cognizant of how to effectively use them. As I am promoting my book, “NEVER A $7 Whore” (live on Amazon August 05, launching August 08), I have adjusted my marking plan at least five times as I learned new information and as circumstances changed. As learning continues, it becomes obvious which platforms attract your perfect readers. Your ideal reader may only be interested in Facebook, not Twitter. The self-published writer’s marketing plan must change if the data points in a certain direction. The marketing success of the book can change direction unexpectedly and not according to the original plan.
In Summary
The marketing plan for a self-published book cannot be stagnant. It must ebb and flow as new information is collected and incorporated into the plan. The marketing plan must be flexible enough to change as more details and specific information becomes available. The self-publishing writer needs to fully understand and have a detailed plan that encourages, wait for it, progressive elaboration.
Available on Amazon.com
August 5, 2018
