The 4 Ps of Marketing For Self-Publishers

In my research for another blog post, I recently came across a concept called “The 4 Ps of Marketing.” 

According to Forbes Magazine, “Marketing encompasses every part of a plan to turn a prospective consumer into a happy and satisfied customer. It includes everything from market research to advertising.”

It goes on to describe the four Ps of marketing:  Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

The crazy thing about this is that the first 3 Ps of marketing all take place BEFORE you even produce the book!  They are all about choosing the right product (story), setting the right price and finding places where you can sell that product to customers. 

When most self-published authors think about marketing, they think about what they can do AFTER the book is complete to promote it…but that’s only ¼ of the marketing puzzle.  And I would argue, it might be the least important part.

In this post, we’ll look at how taking the time to work on those other three Ps can do more to ensure your success than promotion after the fact ever could.  

Product  

Marketing begins with deciding what product you’re going to produce and sell.  That means that before you even begin writing, you need to think about whether the book you’re going to create is something that customers want, and that you have the ability to create and sell.  

You know how traditional publishers reject thousands of manuscripts each year?  This is why!  They know that not every idea for a book is worth pursuing.  And they only want to invest their time and money into the ones they think are the most likely to succeed.  As a self publishing author, you need to be just as judicious.  Just because you have a cute idea for a book, doesn't mean it’s a good idea to invest thousands of dollars into publishing it.

Here are some things to think about at this stage of the marketing process. 

• Is this a book that thousands of people want/need?  Or just something YOU want?  

• What gap in the market does this book fill? 

• Research comp titles.  How is your book different from everything else out there?

• Are people searching for this kind of book? Publisher Rocket is a great tool to use to answer this question. 

• Are you the right person to write this story?  Do you have the talent and skills necessary?  If not, are you willing to take the time to learn?

• Think about the quality of the product you want to produce…do you have the resources to create it?  Can you afford a truly talented illustrator?  How will it be printed?  Can you afford that? 

At this point, you might have to make some hard decisions!  

Maybe while doing market research you discover that there are several similar books out there already.  Maybe you realize that no one is really looking for a book about your chosen topic. You might have to make the hard decision to put that idea aside and come up with something else - or go into it knowing that you will have a lot of competition, which will make it harder to succeed. 

But, maybe you’ve confirmed that you’ve got a great idea!  This means it’s time to actually write a manuscript!  So, go ahead!  Start writing!  But you’re still not done with the first P!  Now, you have to turn your story into a high quality picture book.  (Product!)

How do you do that?  

Here are some tips: 

• Hire a professional editor who specializes in picture books.  (No, your friend who is a teacher doesn’t count.)

• Take your time! Revision is hard work.  

• Research your freelancers and get references.  

• Remember that when it comes to professional illustrators and book designers…you get what you pay for.

• Don’t settle for “good enough.” 

As you can imagine, all of this costs money!  Which brings us to the second P:

Price

Once you have a manuscript, you should have a pretty clear vision of what you want the finished book to look like.  

So, you need to consider whether you will be able to:

• Produce it at the quality you want 

• Sell it at a price the customer will pay

• And still make a profit!  

Obviously, this requires some estimating and some educated guesses, but doing the research beforehand will ensure that you aren’t doomed to failure before you even begin. 

Here are some things to think about at this stage of the marketing process. 

• Think about the story.  Will it make a good paperback book?  Would it be better as a hardback?  Does it need to be a board book? (Which costs much more to print!) Here is a link to a great post with some things to consider.

• Get some editing quotes.  A professional picture book editor should cost several hundred dollars or more from start to finish.

• Get some illustration quotes.  A typical 32 page picture book should cost you between $3,000-6,000 for illustrations, but there is a huge range.  

• Get some printing quotes.  

• Take other costs into consideration….promotion, ads, a website, etc. 

• See what other books are selling for to estimate what price you could charge.  

Skipping this step can lead to costly mistakes.  For example, one author I know paid for an illustrator and fully designed her book only to realize that because it was for babies, it needed to be a board book. Board books can’t be printed on-demand, so she had to offset print.  That cost was beyond what she could afford at the time.  So, she was stuck printing it in paperback…which simply didn’t make sense, and it didn’t sell well.  

Maybe your book is meant to be a gift book, and you want it to be beautiful with a dust jacket and other high end features.  That costs money!

But, if the math seems to be mathing, then you can move on to the third P.

Place

The third P in marketing is having a place to sell your product.  For many self-publishers, that place is Amazon.  But that’s just one option.  

Here are some things to consider: 

• Do you want your book to be in physical bookstores?  If so, how will it get there?  (Many brick and mortar stores are hesitant to carry self-published books.)

• Will you have a website you sell from? Can you handle all the shipping yourself? 

• Will you sell primarily at school visits or other local events?  

• Will the places you have in mind sell enough copies for you to make a profit?  

And NOW…finally… you’re ready for...

Promotion

After the first three Ps are solid, you can finally start thinking about how you might promote your book.  

• PPC advertising

• Social media

• Influencer outreach

• Launch teams

• Live events 

• Press releases

• And much more can all be important parts of your marketing plan.  

But, no amount of marketing and promotion is going to help you if the product itself isn't high quality, priced right, and in the right locations! You have to start with the first three Ps!

The Bottom Line

If all of this seems like a lot of work to do before you even decide if you’re going to publish that book you’ve been dreaming about…it is!  Doing the hard work up front is how successful self-publishers become…successful!  

If YOU want to be a successful self-published author, we can help! Join our Profitable Picture Books Program and get a comprehensive course that teaches you everything you need to know as well as a private and supportive community of writers to help you on your journey!