Is your book marketable? Many first-time authors get lost in a great idea and rush to publish before ever considering this question. But this is the most important question you’ll need to answer before you begin the publishing process. Ideally, you’ll know the answer before you even finish writing your book.
So, Is Your Book Marketable?
My job as a publishing consultant is to get my client’s books up to professional publishing standards, guide them through the publishing process, and to build a marketing plan so they don’t waste their time putting out a book that will never be read.
The first thing I do when taking on a new client is to begin assessing whether their book is marketable or not. I do this by first reading the manuscript. This tells me if the book is up to professional standards and if it fits firmly into its genre. Of course, some authors don’t quite know what genre their book fits into, but I can help them determine that. This, by the way, is an essential part of figuring out if your book is marketable because it will reveal if it has an audience and, therefore, shape your marketing strategy.
It should be noted that first and foremost, your book needs to be up to professional standards before publishing. This means that it’s gone through all necessary editing rounds and that all publishing essentials are complete. For instance, elements such as metadata not only meet publishing requirements, they also make your book discoverable to your audience.
But before you spend time and money on all that you’ll need to know if your book is marketable in the first place!
To determine if your book is marketable, you have to understand what that means. Unlike with traditional publishing, marketability is less about what’s hot at the moment, or the potential for hitting best seller status, and more about positioning. Determining a self-published book’s marketability all comes down to quality and positioning. By answering the questions below, you’re already beginning the process of positioning.
You can read my detailed blog on the topic of positioning here.
1.Does Your Book Have an Audience? Who are They?
Many new authors make the mistake of believing their book could be for everyone, when really, they should have a specific audience in mind. Knowing your audience is the first step. Because you can’t sell a book to an audience that doesn’t exist.
To find your audience you must be certain of your genre. Then you’ll need to know who reads in that genre. This is your audience.
Knowing your genre and even your subgenre is absolutely critical because it will help you find your audience, and it will be the foundation of your marketing strategy. You may have written something totally unique, but it still needs to fit within an existing genre. As a matter of fact, you can’t even include the necessary details to publish your book(BISAC codes and other metadata, for example) if you don’t first know your genre.
So, if you don’t know your genre, you can’t find your audience. If you can’t find your audience, you have no one to market your book to. If you’re unsure of where your book fits, do the research and find your comparable titles. These are 3-5 books written in the last 5 years that share similar themes.
2.Does Your Book Offer Something Familiar Yet Unique?
Your book won’t be for everyone and it doesn’t need to be. But once you know your genre you can determine what sets your book apart from the other books like it. Using your comparable titles, you can determine its unique value proposition.
How does your book stack up? What is your book’s promise? What is it about your book, in particular, that makes it worth reading?
Being able to answer these questions will help you pitch it. It will also allow you to see if there will be a demand for your book, or if there’s likely to be little interest. For your book to be marketable, it needs to be unique but also familiar.
3.What’s Your Pitch?
A good test to quickly find out if your book is marketable or not is to see if you can pitch it. Can you describe it in a succinct and compelling way?
Your pitch, sometimes called a logline or an elevator pitch, is a one or two sentence promo for your book that will grab attention. It can lay out the stakes or focus on the protagonist, or what sets it apart from other books in your genre. You can use comp titles in your pitch too! There are a few formulas for crafting a standard pitch, but knowing your unique value proposition and your comp titles is a good start.
Your pitch needs to tell enough about your book that it will hook someone who knows nothing about it.
If you’re finding it difficult to pitch your book, or it’s too convoluted to distill into a sentence or two, your central idea may not be as strong as it needs to be.
4.How Does it Stand Up to Tests? If Your Book Is Marketable, Others Will See its Appeal
A final way of determining if your book is marketable is to test it with others. You can ask your friends what they think. Give them your pitch and ask them for feedback. Does the book sound compelling to them?
You can also consult beta readers in the early stages of your process. They can often provide valuable feedback that’s reflective of what your audience may think as a whole. You may also have to consider if your manuscript could be improved with the help of a good editor? Developmental editors find the big flaws that may be holding your book back and offer guidance on how to correct them.
You can read all about betareaders and what to expect from the process here.
Wondering what kind of editing you may need? Read this post on the topic.
A Marketable Book Lives Up to Standards and Audience Expectations
These are all the questions you need to ask yourself to determine if your book is marketable. This needs to be your first step in the publishing process because being confident that your book is indeed marketable allows you to move forward.
Oftentimes, answering these questions will help you shape your book into something that is marketable. You can use this as a guide to improve your book’s quality, to adapt it to fit firmly into your genre, and to find your audience. Then, you’ll be prepared to publish a book that is up to their standards and expectations.
