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I saw you recently launched a book, what were some of the differences in launching a software product/feature vs. a book?

Shardul Golwalkar
Shardul Golwalkar
JotForm Product Marketing ManagerApril 20

At Jotform, we've launched a book (and another one in progress) and many products and features. 

Here's the difference in our specific use case: 

For book launches: 

  • Find the right book-market-fit, who is most likely to read your book? What type of customer are they? Is this a TOF exercise or BOF? What are the places where we should spend the most time? 
  • Can the book be marketed on the author's back? In other words, is there built in marketing that you don't need to do? 
  • Are there snippets from the book that can taken out and used as promotional material? Either screenshots or short anecdotes? What parts of this can be product promo? 

For product launches: 

  • Who are the users, why do they care about this feature/launch? 
  • How do we promote and increase adoption? 

The main difference is a change of audience and message. However, we treat book launches as product launches so there is a lot of similarity between both types of launches, but the audience and core messaging differs. 

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Div Manickam
Div Manickam
Mentor : Workplace Wellbeing | Authentic Leadership | Product Marketing | Formerly Lenovo | Dell Boomi | GoodDataJanuary 18

I took all my learnings and experiences from product marketing - ideation to book design and creatives to book launch. Each step taught me a little more into the world of self-publishing.

I encourage you to take it one step at a time. As a PMM, I love wearing multiple hats aka roles and enjoyed every step of the book writing to editing to self publishing - ebook | paperback | audiobook. Sharing my experience below.

  • Self-narration | Audiobook - https://divmanickam.substack.com/p/audiobooks
  • Self-publishing - https://divmanickam.substack.com/p/bookisborn
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