Home

Search form

  • Home
  • Getting Started
  • Inside Publishing
    • Editing
    • Design & Production
    • Marketing & Publicity
    • Rights
    • Distribution
  • FAQs

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Fri Sep 5, 2014

As businesspeople we recognize the importance of planning. As book publishers we understand the process of writing a book. What if you combine these concepts and write a plan as you would a book? It would have characters, plots, sub-plots, action and a climax. Here are the Top Ten Tips for a New Way to Plan.

  1. Traditional planning techniques are less relevant. They assume a static industry with little change from last year and little opportunity to grow.
  2. Publishers must compete by re-shaping their opportunities and expanding from their core business into unfamiliar territory, such as non-bookstore marketing.
  3. Write your plan as a manuscript, a narrative with a cast of characters (distributors, competitors, consumers, retailers, non-retail buyers), a plot (expanding from your core business) and sub-plots (negotiating large, non-returnable sales).
  4. Your narrative can help you focus on the causes of change (changes in consumers;’ reading and buying habits) as opposed to the symptoms (low profits).
  5. Your manuscript should describe roles (printers, distribution partners), interactions, definitions of value at each level and how opportunities are (or cold be) linked.
  6. Create a structure narrative describing how different business units interact (operations, finance, production, marketing) and reinforce each other.
  7. Write a business narrative with three main elements: a) main characters (authors, distributors, retailers, buyers), b) the links between your opportunities and the actors and c) present and future sub plots (scenarios).
  8. Create different scenarios by changing the roles and interactions of your characters. For example, instead of selling books to corporate buyers, become a consultant to them, helping them solve their problems using your books.
  9. Consulting instead of selling can turn your backlist into a new revenue stream.
  10. Use your manuscript as a way to reinvent the architecture of your business rather than simply doing more of what you did last year, or doing the same things differently.

Now that you know what to do, in the next installment I will give you ten tips for how to write your business-plan manuscript. Do you want to sell more books in large quantities? Attend the APSS book-selling university in Phil, Oct 24-25 http://tinyurl.com/kxucber -- sponsored by Bowker.

Tags: 
Entrepreneurship
Category: 
Inside Publishing
Other Resources
Getting Started
  • Obtain ISBNs (click here!)
  • Convert your file to ebook (click here!)
  • Acquire a bar code (click here!)
  • Increase discovery (click here!)
  • Purchase a QR code (click here!)
  • Register your copyright (click here!)
  • Find out who you write like (click here!)
  • Promote your book online (click here!)
 
Book Selling University

Recent Articles

Is a Copyright Needed for Each ISBN?

Tue, March 21

Generating Sales After Self-Publishing: Five Things You Must Know

Tue, March 14

Short-Term Actions to Reach Long-Term Goals

Tue, March 07
Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in the articles published on SelfPublishedAuthor.com are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of R.R. Bowker LLC. The information provided on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.

© 2021 R.R. Bowker LLC. All rights reserved.
Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use |