I recently heard someone share that she was writing a book in order to leave a legacy — and then she specifically mentioned that since she had decided not to have children this was something beautiful she could leave in the world.

And this metaphor of “birthing” a book is not unique. Clients often describe the process of writing a book to birthing a baby, as they have many similarities. Something new is being created and brought into existence. The effort is intense, time-consuming, and becomes all encompassing; however, these are both endeavors that feel WORTH the effort. And obviously, we at Worthy Marketing Group agree that clients should indeed go to the trouble and effort to share their worthy messages.

Yet because the process of creating a book is just SO HARD, we recommend that authors create an entire “Book Launch Team” to maximize the return on their effort and investments. Did you know that most nonfiction books only sell about 250 copies in their lifetime? But of course, some of them make the New York Times best-seller list too, so how do you figure out where you fall on the spectrum? A lot of it comes down to your hustle and who you have on your team helping you spread the word.

street team/insiders

We recently wrote a post about all the people, your “super fans,” that can help you share your message– social media followers, friends, colleagues, family, etc. Read more about how they can help here.

marketing team

We serve in this capacity — making the book the best it can be and holding your hand so you can know what to ask of the publisher (and when to ask about it). Or, if you are self-publishing we help you coordinate with folks that are found in a traditional publishing house, like editors, designers, and more. We LOVE when we come in early enough in the process to be able to advise in the early stages, especially with the important book cover design and endorsements. In the later stages of the process we help with targeted outreach to non-traditional publicity (bloggers and podcasters, usually) for both traditionally or self-published books. We also help some clients with social media. Speaking of…

social media expert

We have clients who come to us with tens of thousands of followers on social media while other clients don’t have platforms set up at all. Whether you work with us or your own social media expert, you want someone who will study your voice and imbibe your content to create posts in your voice. At book launch time it’s important to review your style of messages, hashtag use, interaction with other thought leaders on social media, channel presence/visuals, and general social presence.

One of the most important services we can offer is working with you to create targeted ad campaigns to build and engage your list of followers who will become your brand ambassadors. We do not work with clients just to build their “numbers” as we have seen time and time again, high numbers with no engagement will not help you when it’s time to sell the book or launch a course.

publicity team

We specialize in non-traditional media, while other firms have a niche in traditional media (TV, radio, print magazines). We’ve recently been partnering with Smith Publicity (Jayme was on their podcast here), a traditional publicity firm. They landed one of our clients on the Megyn Kelly show! If you’re looking to create a national impact, bringing on a PR team will help.

publisher

We’ve shared before what to expect from the publisher when you write your book, which is why these additional people play such a significant role in making your book a success. Of course, you don’t have to have all of these people on your team to write a book, but they certainly make a huge difference!

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Clients often come to us after they’ve finished writing and have hopes that all of the hard work is over, but from our perspective, a lot of the work is still getting started (see our timeline about the book launch process). Writing a book is the first step in sharing your worthy message with the world and having a great team help you “birth” your book will help you get the message to as many people as possible.  

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Who Should Be On Your Book Launch Team? | The Worthy Marketing Group Blog