Recently, I spoke with an author who’d reached the point most authors eventually reach.
She’d finished her book. Her cover was done. She was updating her website, and she’d started a list of podcasts, associations, conferences, and social media ideas to pursue.
On the surface, she looked ready to market.
But as we talked, I saw several big decisions still hanging in the air. She hadn’t chosen the audience she most wanted to reach. She couldn’t tell me what she wanted to become known for. She had a handful of ideas about how the book might support her business, but no clear priority among them.
The book wasn’t the problem. She was missing the strategic foundation she needed to market it well.
I’ve coached nonfiction authors for more than 30 years, and here’s what I’ve noticed: most marketing problems start long before the marketing itself. They start with decisions authors postpone, blur together, or never consciously make.
Once the book is ready, authors want to move fast. They feel they should be posting, pitching, promoting, and selling. Pausing to nail down the fundamentals feels like it’s slowing them down.
It’s actually what makes progress possible.
These decisions shape what you say, where you show up, who you approach, which opportunities you chase, and how people come to understand the value of your work.
Before you build another marketing plan, pause and check whether you’ve made these 12 decisions clearly enough.
1. Who Benefits Most From Book?
Most nonfiction books could help more than one kind of reader.
A leadership book might serve executives, emerging managers, HR professionals, entrepreneurs, or association leaders. A wellness book might serve individuals, healthcare professionals, employers, coaches, or caregivers.
Range feels exciting, especially when you don’t want to exclude anyone.
But marketing gets much harder when you treat every audience as equally important.
Your first audience doesn’t have to be your only audience forever. It does have to be the audience you build your earliest, clearest decisions around.
Ask yourself:
Who’s experiencing the problem my book solves most urgently?
Who already knows they need help?
Who has the influence to act on what I teach?
Who can I reach most easily through my existing experience, relationships, or credibility?
A broad audience might buy individual copies here and there. A clearly chosen audience is far more likely to invite you to speak, recommend your work, hire you, or buy your book in bulk.
Your decision: Choose the primary audience you want your marketing to reach first.