How Much Should You Budget to Promote Your Book?

To promote your book successfully, it’s important to budget funds for marketing of books. Although it’s certainly possible to make online book marketing on a shoestring budget, you will still need to invest in promoting your book.

The amount you should budget depends on your book marketing plan. Here are some categories of costs to consider and some money saving tips:

Blog / Website: Website design and hosting fees. If you use a blog-based site you’ll minimize the cost of online book promotion.

Graphics: design of website header and graphic design of printed materials, purchase of stock images to blog / website, and a photo shoot for your author photo. Services such as Killer Covers eCoverBee and can provide lower-cost website graphics.

Printing: Business cards, bookmarks, postcards, flyers and posters for personal appearances. In addition to local printers, check prices online for printers, such as Printing for Less.

Copywriting and editing: You may want to hire a professional copywriter to help you write effective sales copy for your website and other book promotion material. It’s also a good idea to have an editor or proofreader to review your website and marketing materials.

Email Marketing: You will pay monthly or per email fees to the company that manages your opt-in mailing list. Some of the services provided by Mail Chimp waive their fees until your list becomes a certain size.

Review Copy: Printing, packaging and shipment to the review copy sent via mail.

Publicity: There are several free online press release services, and such PRLog Free Press. To get a wider distribution of your most important publications, you must use a paid service like PRWeb.

Learning: There are a number of blogs and newsletters with useful book marketing information. But don’t forget to budget funds for books, teleclasses and other options for getting more in-depth instruction on publishing and marketing books, and fees for writing and publishing organizations. You’ll be more effective to promote your book if you know how to do it properly.

Administrative: You may need help to complete your book marketing plan, especially if you have a day job. There are a number of virtual assistants who specialize in working with writers. You may also want to invest in consulting services from a publishing or book promotion coach to help you develop your book marketing strategy.

Other costs: Additional costs may include travel, book fairs, Book Award entry fees, advertising and administrative expenses such as postage and Internet access.

The best way to develop a budget is to allocate an estimated cost of each component of your book marketing plan. Then you can divide your expenses by month, reaching a monthly budget.