Now that we’re through the editing phase of the book, the word marketing seems to be coming up a lot more often. I’ve mentioned this in past posts, but to lend a bit more specificity to the vague allusions, here’s what we’ve been working on.

Our two main marketing documents—the marketing plan and the tipsheet—were completed quite some time ago. These provide the framework for all of the marketing efforts we’ll undertake going forward. Now the time has come to start executing some of the plans and ideas contained in those documents.

One of the first major projects will be soliciting blurbs—the endorsements you usually see on the back of a book. Last week, we finalized the letter we will send out and went over our contact list one more time. We are also finalizing the description and short author bio that will go on the back of the book. We have had several drafts in the works, but now we are finessing them into one final, polished bit of text to draw readers in (no easy task!). Finally, we are also starting to work on designing postcards to promote the book.

If that sounds like a diverse list of projects to cram under the marketing header, that’s because almost everything is marketing in one way or another at this point in the process. Design, endorsements, and back cover copy can all impact a potential reader’s first impression of the book. And how we spread the word (through designed postcards, for example) certainly impacts how many people hear about the book in the first place.Going forward, it’s safe to assume that just about anything we work on will have a marketing component to it. Next week I’ll talk about sales kits (and you guessed it: that’s marketing too).

- Laurel Boruck