All
authors should have a business plan for every book they write,
regardless of whether the author plans to self-publish or pursue
traditional publication. In many cases, the business plan can even help
to clarify the choice.
Traditional business plans have seven components:
1. Executive summary
2. Business description
3. Market strategies
4. Competitive analysis
5. Design and development plan
6. Operations and management plan
7. Financial factors
The business plan for a book parallels this structure, with a few changes.
First
of all, the business plan is not a book proposal. The proposal is a
tool non-fiction and some fiction authors use to sell a book “on spec”,
before the book is written. By contrast, a business plan is the
author’s personal, often private, “road map” for writing, marketing,
publishing and promoting a work.
Each section of a successful one-book business plan should contain:
Traditional “Executive
Summaries” contain a half-page synopsis and summary of a business plan.
In many cases, they’re written last, or written first and revised when
the rest of the business plan is complete. In the author’s one-book
business plan, the executive summary will contain a one-paragraph
description of the book itself, along with a description of its genre,
target audience, current status and other “at-a-glance” relevant facts.
The
Business Description (perhaps better renamed “book
description”) contains a longer synopsis of the work – one page, or
possibly two.
Marketing Strategies will normally contain three
sub-sections or components: pre-release marketing, release week (or
“around release”), and marketing efforts after the initial release
publicity push.
A Competitive Analysis requires the author to look at
competing or similar works in the marketplace, analyze why readers
will (or should) want the author’s book instead, examine strategies the
author can use to maximize advantages and minimize weaknesses, and
acknowledge and address potential weaknesses in the work and the
marketing plan.
The Development Timeline (a change from the
traditional “design and development” label) includes multiple timelines.
The first development timeline covers the writing process: the
deadlines (contractual or self-imposed) for writing the book. Authors
pursuing traditional publication but not yet represented by agents will
want a plan and timeline for obtaining representation, whereas
independent authors will need a timeline for the production and
publishing process. Marketing and appearance timelines may also prove
useful, especially for authors with complicated or busy schedules.
In
an author’s business plan, the Operations and Management Plan may be
simple or very complex, depending on the level of organization the
author needs and the amount of assistance he or she anticipates.
Finally,
the author’s business plan must consider various Financial Factors. As
with Operations and Management, this may be simple or may be very
complex. This is a good place to assemble information about the costs of
publishing – traditional or independent – and to create a marketing and
travel budget. Solid research here can help the author put valuable
marketing dollars into places where they make a positive difference,
rather than simply throwing money into a project without knowing whether
or not results will follow.
