Review: The Nonfiction Book Marketing and Launch Plan by Stephanie Chandler

A good, comprehensive overview of the many ways to market a nonfiction book. I must admit I was initially put off by the book cover, stock photo images, and typography, which all look a bit amateurish. The intro is also a bit cheesy and generic. That said, the content after that is clearly presented and well-worth reading for any nonfiction author.

I’ve written three nonfiction books already, so I was familiar with much of the content of this book, but I still found a number of new insights and ideas:

• The trade-offs between book websites, author websites, and magazine-style websites.
• Creating communities around your book (on your website, or FB, or LinkedIn).
• Mastermind groups: a regular meeting with a small group of people with similar goals (e.g., other nonfiction authors or business owners) and discuss challenges and ideas.
• How to find Amazon reviewers and blogger reviewers.
• Book awards for nonfiction books.
• Tools for finding media contacts, media sheets, and how to craft a pitch.

The biggest drawback is that this is a book that covers all nonfiction books, which is a massive category. There are certainly many techniques that apply to all nonfiction books, but many of the techniques really only make sense for “popular nonfiction” (trade books) marketed at mass audiences, whereas I write technical nonfiction books (programming, DevOps) targeted at a very specific niche of coders.

Rating: 5 stars