Many authors leave devising their book marketing plan until after their book is published. This is a grave mistake. How you plan to market your book will affect how you write and even publish your book.

Prioritising the development and implementation of your book marketing plan will help to ensure that your book is a best-seller. The alternative is that your book is to left languish on a book store shelf or even returned to the publisher to be turned into confetti.

So here are three questions to ask before you write your book.

1. What will be the title and sub-title of your book?

The title of your book should normally average at about 1-4 words long. It should be catchy and memorable. While the final title of your book may not be finalised until your book is nearly complete you'll want to have some possible book titles to work with. Author and expert book marketer, Rick Frishman, recommends having at least 10 potential book titles to choose from. And you should register each potential title as a domain name.

Actually, the fact that a title might not be available as a domain name can be a deciding factor as to whether or not to choose that particular title. You want potential buyers to be able to easily find your book online. They will not be able to do so if it is associated with some obscure domain name or worse yet you haven't got a domain at all and have to refer individuals to the your book's URL on your publisher's website.

The sub-title of your book will reveal to a potential reader what they will gain from reading the book. In other words your book's sub-title should be benefit-rich and designed to persuade a prospect to want to read your book. Many authors omit a sub-title. This is a lost opportunity to promote the message of your book.

2. Will you publish a hardcover version of your book?

There's no question that authors who publish hard cover versions of their books are seen to be more prestigious. A hardcover version of a book is generally released first and is, of course, more expensive than the later soft cover edition. It is often seen as a collector's item. Whether or not you print a hard cover version of your book will partially depend upon your target market.

If you're planning to publish more than one version of your book, then you may want to consider multiple book launches. In other words, you want to create buzz around the publishing of each version of your book. So this should be taken into consideration when drawing up your book marketing plan.

3. Will you make your book available in digital format?

There are numerous advantages of having your book available in digital format but there are some disadvantages as well. Whether or not you want to offer prospects a digital version of your book is a deciding factor in the type of publisher you work with. There are some traditional publishers who will not allow you to make do this.

If your book can be accessed in digital format then it will be more readily available for individuals to review. With the growing popularity of digital book readers such as the Kindle and Sony Reader you would be exposing yourself to another revenue stream regarding your book sales.

You can also create special promotions using the digital version of your book that will help to increase the sales of your physical book. One possible disadvantage is that people might share your book without your permission. You can prevent this by choosing a digital format for your book that allows you to control who can actually and by using tools such as Product Padlock to prevent digital piracy.

Alternatively, you could see the viral marketing of your book as a good thing as it reflects that people thought your book not only worth reading but also worth sharing. Within your digital book there should be, at the very least, be directions for readers to link to your website. In this way you'll indirectly gain sales even through unofficial viral marketing of your book.