By the way… Funds are being collected for author Sandi Rog's uninsured cancer treatments — she was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma on the same day her debut novel released in November of last year. This is the last week to donate, as the fundraiser will close on Christmas Eve, but there is some big stuff going on these last seven days. First of all, all donors will be entered into a drawing for one of four Amazon.com gift cards, which will be awarded on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Every $2 you donate gets you one entry into the raffle. Also (many of you writers will want to click over and learn more about this) one donor will be awarded with their registration paid in full for the 2012 ACFW conference this September in Dallas. And just today, a $1000 matching donation was pledged, meaning that all donations between now and Thursday will be matched, up to $1000! Please consider clicking over to donate and bless Sandi and her family (husband and four children) as she fights for her life. It's been a very scary and faith-challenging year for them. You can help make 2012 a year of blessing and health. Thanks.

Now that you've done all your research and planning — you've figured out WHAT you need to do, WHERE you need to do it, WHEN you're going to get it done, WHO you're going to be reaching, and WHY you're going to all this trouble — now you need to go do the work. If you created a calendar, this is easy… you simply look at the calendar, figure out what needs to be done, then go get the tasks accomplished. Instead of worrying about what steps you need to take in order to market your book, you can begin working through the plan you've spent weeks creating. No more seat-of-the-pants, no more guessing what activities to do. You've done all the background work; now you need to put it into practice.

Authors tend to come in two types when it comes to marketing… Some will want to take several weeks and just market full-time. They'll set their current writing projects aside, and suddenly become marketers. Others will want to set aside a chunk of time each day for marketing, leaving themselves with a few hours to continue writing. There's no "right" way to plan this — it depends on what you're comfortable doing. 

I'm frequently asked how much time an author should spend on marketing each day or each week, but of course the answer lies in what your plan calls for. If you do the things that are on your plan, the amount of time required will become clear to you. Some authors set aside an hour or two each day to do some marketing. That time can increase as you have a new book come out — so you might find yourself spending half your time on nothing but various marketing activities. If you're focused on a new release, and there are a dozen things to do each day, your marketing efforts could suck up your entire day. 

At this point, you're probably wondering what else there is to do with a marketing plan. Take heart — we're almost to the end of the process…

Once you've written down everything you want to do, you need to tie each activity to a calendar and a budget — or, as I like to say, every activity has a date and a dollar sign. So, for example, if you are planning to send out a bunch of copies to a "big mouth" list in order to get people talking about your book, you pick a day when you're going to write the notes, address the envelopes, and get them in the mail. Then you figure out the cost of envelopes, mailing labels, and postage. If you're planning to write several freelance articles to support your book, you mark down the days you're going to write them, the days you're going to query and send them, and the days you're going to check back on them. If you're going to hire a freelance marketing consultant to help you schedule radio interviews, you pick the days you're going to be available for the interviews, you mark the dates you're going to talk with the consultant, and you write down the costs involved with hiring him or her. 

Again, for EVERY activity, you choose a date and, if applicable, the dollar amount it will cost you. So if you're going to try and schedule a blog tour, you write down on your calendar the dates you plan to fill up with blogging conversations, as well as the dates you plan to contact bloggers in order to schedule those visits. There may not be any dollar amount tied to this activity — that's fine, but you want to make sure to track EVERY date and EVERY dollar, so that you have a record of what you've done to market your book. 

Why write out

Okay, you've come to the point in the process where you really get into the details… you've done a bunch of research. You know who you are, and what it is you want to say. You've figured out who your audience is, and done some research on how to reach them. You've made choices about the general strategies you'll use to get your words in front of potential readers, and you've decided what your specific plans are — where you'll go and what you'll say. Now you've got to write it down. 

Put down on paper all the things you want to do. All those tools you were choosing yesterday? Write them down. All those places you want to reach? Write them down. Get down on paper everything you want to do. Force yourself to get everything in one place, since it will make it much more real (and therefore more likely that you'll actually DO it). 

So if you're going to do a blog tour, and visit 30 blogs in 30 days, here is where you write down the goal, the blogs you intend to target, and make notes on what you're going to talk about. If you're going to be focusing on talk radio, here's where you right down the places you want to hit — the cities, the regions, even the shows and stations if you know what they are. Write down notes about what questions you expect to be asked, and how you plan to answer them. Prepare stories — both long and short stories, that will get your point across and entertain listeners. If you're going to be sending out copies of your book, write down who you plan to send them to. 

Don't leave anything out. In fact, you're better off writing too much, and having to delete some aspects of your plan later, rather than not planning enough. Again, perhaps only one-third of

Now that you've figured out which basic strategies you're going to use, you need to select that actual "tools" you'll use — that is, the actual WORK you will do to help you market your book. For example, if you decided that three of the strategies you were going to use were (1) sending out review copies, (2) writing articles to support your book, and (3) doing blog tours, then in this step you will list…

1. Who you're sending those review copies to,

2. What articles you're going to write, and who you're going to send them to, and

3. The blogs and groups you're going to reach on your tour. 

In other words, you start to create the details of your marketing plan. Remember, every choice you make at this stage reflects your earlier decisions. The core of marketing is to figure out where your audience is, then go stand in front of them, so you want to go back and remind yourself just where, exactly your audience is going to be. If you're doing a nonfiction book on lowering cholesterol, you do your research to discover where those interested in the topic go to seek information, then you target those magazines, websites, blogs, e-zines, journals, associations, chat rooms, etc. If you're writing an Amish novel, you do your research to determine where those interested in Amish culture and Amish stories go, then you make those destinations the focus of your marketing.

Fortunately, the world wide web has made this process MUCH easier than it used to be. Instead of having to snail mail things, or go to a marketing research company, or spend your day at the public library (like we all used to do), the information is all available, right there on your screen. It just takes some work to dig it out. So choose your tools to hit that target audience, focus on using your

If you were taking a class in marketing, this is the process you'd go through in order to create a marketing plan. So once you "know yourself," "know your strengths and weaknesses," and "know your goal," the fourth step you'll need to complete is to know your target audience. 

Three quick notes on my weekend…

First, I finished Sara Miles' book Take This Bread. Wow. What an AMAZING read. You won't agree with everything in her theology, but what a powerful, thoughtful book. This may be the best spiritual book I've read since Blue Like Jazz. It's not for everyone (she tweaks the "WWJD" phrase to be "WTFWJD," which may be a bit too salty for some), but it reminds me of Anne LaMott's Traveling Mercies — one of those fabulous books no Christian bookstore will carry because they don't like the language. 

Second, I heard great news on longtime friend and fellow literary agent Lee Hough. Lee, who has been battling a brain tumor, got great news from his doctor this week — he's cancer free. Yes!

And third, yes — to answer the questions of those who have been writing, I have a new book out. It's called 40 Ways to Get Close to God, and it's published by Bethany House. Be aware that it's written under my given name — Jerry MacGregor. And no, I don't just do religious books… this was something I had wanted to say for a long time. Thanks for asking. Buy a copy and make my Christmas!  :o)