Essays Assistance » book sales

How To Get A New York Publisher

Essays — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:13:10 +0000

When you look at the numbers, it’s clear that the New York publishing scene is a tough nut to crack. The reality is that with 83% of Americans wanting to write a book, the competition for a publisher’s attention is steep. So what’s an author to do? Well, if your attempts for finding a traditional publisher aren’t bringing any results, maybe it’s time to think like a publisher, instead of an author.

Writing a book is the easy part, and while publishers look at writing style and voice, there’s a whole lot more that goes into a successful book than just how well it’s written. When it comes to success, a publisher looks at this much differently than an author does. Truth be told, a publisher gauges a book’s potential success largely by the author.

Now don’t misunderstand me, there’s market consideration as well, but the author’s “salability” is looked at very closely. What we refer to as a “platform” is something all authors need to have, regardless of their target market. A platform is not who you know, but who knows you. It’s your area of influence. A platform can be any of the following:

• Your business

• Your fan base

• Speaking gigs you have coming up

• Your email list of potential buyers (i.e. fans)

• Your website (if your site is drawing traffic and capturing email addresses)

• How well you’re known in your market

If you’re new to the book world (meaning this is your first book) you may not have a single item on the above list in your vault of marketing tools. That’s okay. Now’s the time to build them.

The next piece of this is to write for a market. Over the years I’ve seen countless authors write a book on something for which there is no market. They believe their book will create the market. This won’t happen. Ever. First, if you’re self-publishing a book you probably don’t have the funds available to you to “create” a market even if you wanted to. You may respond to this by saying, “Yeah, but new markets are created every day.” And yes, this is true; what’s also true is that while it may seem that these are “new” markets, they were in fact already existing but, perhaps, untapped. Finding these markets can cost you a fortune in consumer research, advertising, product/book placement, etc.

When a company like Coca-Cola decides to put out a brand new product, you can bet that millions of dollars has gone into this prior to the launch. When authors come to me and say, “I have a great idea and it’s never been done before,” I suspect there’s a reason why, a publisher will too. Now, let’s say that you’ve done the research, you’ve spent years working in this arena and you know there are readers out there. Millions of them. If this is the case then I’d suggest you show up armed with your (current) research and data.

The ability to self-publish your book has (thankfully) brought a number of books to the attention of a traditional publisher that might have otherwise gone overlooked. Why? Because publishers like what other people like. If you have a book that you’ve self-published and it’s done well, a publisher might consider this for commercial access as well. By “commercial” I mean consumer, trade paperback, mass market. The key is to keep a close eye on the track record of the book and document your success. This form of documentation will later become the resume you use to entice a publisher into considering your book.

I was talking to an author the other day who had a great idea. He had a hard time getting a traditional publisher interested in his book, so he self-published with the intent of getting a major house to publish him. With that he mind he solicited referral letters from bookstores. Why bookstores? Because if you can get a bookstore excited about your book and tell publishers it “flew off the shelves,” you’ll be a step closer to piquing a publisher’s interest. Why? Well many (if not all) publishers will solicit advice from booksellers on the sales potential of a book they’re considering. They do this because they know that the bookseller is front and center with the consumer every day. They see what sells and what doesn’t. Having a bookstore (preferably several) in your corner could be a tremendous thing for your future and the future of your book.

And finally, let’s be realistic. With 500 books published each day in the U.S., the competition is fierce for gaining the buyer’s attention. Your book is your resume and because of this, it needs to be letter perfect. You should never wait for a traditional publisher to come along and “polish” your book, it should be gleaming with perfection. Yes, there are always things you’ll want to change after it’s published, but having a book that’s edited with a cover that sparkles will not only get you noticed by a publisher, but by your reader as well. And in the end, it’s the reader we must reach. Once you do, the world will beat a path to your door.

Ten Ways To Use Video To Sell More Books

Essays — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:16:57 +0000

When it comes to convincing a reader to buy, sometimes there’s nothing more compelling than a good sales pitch. Yes, you can have excellent back copy, a stunning cover, but nothing makes a reader morph into a buyer quicker than a hefty pitch that pushes every single hot button (and even a few they didn’t know they had). Video as a means to promote a book is a great sales pitch, but only if it’s done right. What do I mean by “done right”?

With all the talk today about using video to promote your book, it’s easy to get caught up in a YouTube-driven world. It’s a great idea certainly but there’s one catch: you’ve got to make your viewer feel something. An example of this is a recent video posted to Yahoo videos (it also landed on YouTube) about a contestant (Paul Potts) on Britain’s Got Talent. While not an author (yet) the video shows us clearly what we mean by emotion. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.

.youtube.com/watch?v=exyJ2CSfrHo

The video became so popular (almost overnight) that within a few days it made it to the U.S. and into the hands of millions of viewers. Why? Well, let’s think about this. If you’ve ever watched an episode of American Idol or a version of the program you know that the most favored contestants are the underdogs, the ones who just show up and blow the judges away. That’s the biggest emotional hot button on any of these types of shows and that’s why the Paul Potts video made such an impact online. Of course he had talent, but talent in the absence of a true underdog factor wouldn’t have made this video as successful as it was.

In fact, not only that but every major media outlet is clamoring for an interview with Paul. He’s become a sensation. The video gave him exposure to people globally and it tapped into an emotion – but more than that, it tapped into the right emotion. That is key. If the Paul Potts video had been scary, or disturbing, or flat out boring, who would have cared? So if you’re considering doing a book video for your own tome, don’t sell yourself short by just “telling the story,” do it in such a way that grabs your reader, engages them and hits them right in their emotional hot buttons. Know the triggers your audience responds to and incorporate that into your video.

Check out this video that MonkeyCMedia did for a book we worked on: .redhotinternetpublicity.com/trailers/engaged.html

Here are some ways to make the most of your video:

1) Have you been YouTube’d? If you haven’t this is the #1 place to load your book video.

2) Put your video on your own website, don’t let a single visitor land on your site without getting the “touch and feel” of your book.

3) Send a sample of your book video to every media contact you pitch. Never let a press kit leave your office without a disc.

4) Got a social networking page? If you do (and you should) add the clip or a link to it on the page.

5) When you pitch the media, don’t forget to insert a link to the trailer in your email. Don’t send it as an attachment; chances are an overaggressive spam filter will have it for lunch.

6) Blog about it every chance you get. No, I’m not talking about repeating a blog over and over but blog on what success you’ve had thanks to your video. And oh, yes, add a link to the book video too.

7) Trying to get a signing but have been unsuccessful? Let your book speak for itself, literally. Drop off a copy of your book trailer to an as-yet-unconvinced bookstore person and I can almost bet you’ll get a signing in the store.

Ready for your close-up? There’s no quicker way to a potential producer’s heart than through his eyes and ears. Seeing a book come to life can sometimes be a great way to sell someone on the concept of turning your book into a movie.

9) If you’re doing a signing bring the book video to show while you’re signing books. I’ve known authors who’ve done this and they sold almost twice as many books. The video really pulls in readers!

10) Just like you can tell a book by its cover, you can often tell a book video by its packaging. Get your CD cover professionally printed, don’t skim on the first impression! In fact, why not have your video burned to a business card size cd that you can pop into the card slot of a presentation folder?

It’s Time For Independent Authors To Join Forces

Essays — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:36:47 +0000

Imagine the power of a website dedicated to Independent authors and their books. A place where readers could find over a million Independently published books at one online location. The time has come for Independent authors around the world to join together on the Internet at one location to sell our books. There is tremendous strength in numbers and with an estimated five million Independent authors worldwide the power of that one destination would change the face of publishing&ndashforever! Even with just 20% of those titles, that combination of forces would be a serious contender to booksellers around the world.

The key to improving our exposure to readers and increase book sales is to combine the efforts of Independent authors on a global scale at one online marketing platform. This will attract consumers interested in books not found in the traditional major bookstore or mass merchant. The website can market to readers and offer a selection of Independently published titles not found in combination anywhere. The future for book sales is the Internet, the only growth area in publishing is the Independent author, and the market is international.

The biggest problem for Independent book sales is a highly decentralized marketplace. This marketplace includes dozens of websites that sell books and services to other authors, as well as hundreds of thousands of author websites and is exactly the kind of environment that depresses our effort to market and sell books to a mass audience.

The six biggest New York publishers will always control the Barnes & Noble’s and Wal-Mart’s of the traditional bookselling world. They will spend whatever it takes and will never allow an Independent presence into their retail accounts. Let them continue spending their money in a market that has been consistently shrinking since the early 1990’s.

When Independent authors organize and guide readers to a central Internet location where books not found in bookstores are available, we’d start to see changes in the way books are purchased, on a massive scale. We will have created a market that the big publishers can’t touch. This would be an Independent marketplace, not controlled by a single online bookseller who takes up to 60% of our cover price.

There is a website that provides Independent writers and authors an opportunity to market their writing to readers who otherwise would not be exposed to our work and: (1) Offers a single global platform for Independent book sales, and (2) Gives the writer real independence from other online web sites in the traditional marketplace, thus giving the author tremendous exposure to readers and a far higher return on each book sold.

The website exists; in order to attract readers and increase sales we need to add more Independently published authors and their books. It takes lots of titles to draw book consumers to a single online location. That’s why it makes more sense to join forces globally rather than continue to divide an already highly fragmented market.

Stop Wasting Time And Money

Essays — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:30:43 +0000

Getting a manuscript published has never been easier; marketing and selling books has never been harder. Authors who pursue the smallest place for their Independent book on the shelf of a traditional bookseller is wasting valuable time and resources.

The six largest publishers in the world, all based in New York (five owned by foreign corporations), tightly controls the traditional world of retail bookselling. They pay an enormous price for prime retail space for all their titles. Space that is not only cost prohibitive, but space that also carries a huge financial risk for the successful Independent author.

Even if that retail shelf space was within the marketing budget of most Independent publishers or authors, the risk in returned product, shipping and handling charges, advertising allowances, and other assorted fees could bankrupt even the savviest small company.

Marketing is about finding ways to reach your audience with minimal cost and maximum exposure. Finding readers interested in your book is the essence of marketing. Why then would any Independent author concentrate on scratching out even the tiniest of space in the traditional world of bookselling?

The key for the Independent author to reach a global audience is to become a part of a growing movement, developing a community that will provide an online platform to market books and authors. A place where a global audience can easily find books not found in the typical neighborhood bookstore.

The only way to successfully market Independent titles to readers on a global scale is via the Internet with the creation of a single location for these books. The creation of an Independent marketplace on the web would substantially increase the exposure, availability, and eventual sales of these books worldwide.

I’m a 25-year veteran of New York publishing who became tired of the old model for bookselling. I love books, admire writers, and felt there had to be a better way to introduce new writers to readers. My goal is to help create a marketplace for Independent titles. Anyone involved with the Independent author marketplace cannot help but recognize the enormous opportunity for marketing and selling these titles to readers worldwide.

When I began speaking to writing groups and at writing seminars I quickly realized that an opportunity existed for the sale of Independent books. If an online marketplace could be developed that would present those titles and their authors in the right format to readers around the globe, the chances for success would increase substantially. An online platform representing a million Independently published titles would be an enormous advantage for the consumer, not to mention the author and small publisher.

Traditional publishers send authors on book tours to meet their audience and hopefully create a personal connection. Without the benefit of a book tour an Independent author can do the same by utilizing inexpensive audio and video. This would be the single most cost effective way for the Independent author to expand their readership. The technology exists, we just need to take advantage of the opportunities.

Let us join together to change the face of publishing and become a part of the new wave in Independent publishing; we will establish a voice for the Independent author.

What’s Wrong With The Big New York Publishers?

Essays — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:39:15 +0000

The traditional marketplace for book sales is shrinking. The six largest publishers are shipping more books and selling less than ever before, even though the distribution chain is saturated with copies that will eventually be returned. The basic laws of supply and demand are being ignored and no one is trying to do anything about it. What’s wrong with this picture?

Reports show that book sales are falling and have been for almost 15 years. In response, the six largest publishers in the country are romancing retail bookstores to take as much inventory as possible, often more than they can handle.

Experts say more than 800 new titles are published independently and traditionally every single day in the US. That’s over 290,000 new titles per year and the growth rate for the next ten years is predicted to be near 10-15 percent. With a growing number of new titles being published and forced into a shrinking marketplace, the difficulty of marketing and selling books is obvious.

This growth of new authors and books is the direct result of new digital technology, and the ability to print books inexpensively and on demand. This has spawned a new book making industry and a different kind of “publisher,” one whose business model is based on charging writers for printing and marketing, as opposed to selling books to readers.

This turn about in the industry has accelerated the growth of new authors, new books, and the print-on-demand publishing model. These companies make their money by printing books and selling services to writers. The problem with this new kind of publisher is that authors absorb all the cost and pay dearly for an opportunity to market and sell their book in the traditional marketplace.

If you are an Independently published author and your marketing efforts focus primarily on finding shelf space in bookstores, you should refocus your attention, save your money and your time. There is a better way!

There are two major factors that create the perfect ingredients for success of the Independently published book. (1) The only area of growth in publishing today is from the Independent author, and (2) The future for global book sales is the Internet. The key is how to utilize both facts with the creation of a single, online marketplace.

It’s time for the Independent Author to unite behind one goal, to market and sell more Independently published titles &ndash an online platform where you can profile yourself and your book, a place where readers can discover voices never heard and stories never told. The goal is to help the author create that personal connection with their audience, easily and inexpensively. Where readers can find titles they will not find in a typical bookstore right in one location.

This is ideal for writers who are tired of playing a marketing game controlled by the largest publishers in the world. It’s time for Independent authors to unite behind one goal and that is to market and sell more Independently published titles.

The first step toward total independence in the marketplace for bookselling is joining together as Independent writers and authors.

It’s A Great Time To Be An Independent Writer

Essays — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:55:02 +0000

The world of publishing is about to change. It’s an exciting time to be an Independent author. This long ignored group is beginning to organize and establish an entirely new marketplace for selling books. A community introducing voices never heard and stories never told to the world.

What they need is an on-line destination created for Independently published writers to promote and sell their books.

It is difficult to be an Independent author. The term “self published” is often used and misunderstood because major components of the publishing industry, including the six largest publishers, have been successful in attaching “poor quality” to the term “self-published.” The term Independent author best describes the decision many writers have made to publish on their own.

The fact that someone decides to become an Independent author does not mean their writing is not good. It means they have made the decision to publish Independently and remain in control of the work creatively and financially. Being an Independent author is hard, doors slam and there are plenty of “do not enter” signs, which is the reason many Independent authors give up in their quest to sell books.

Many Independent authors feel strongly that their pay-for-printing publisher does not care whether they sell a single copy of their book. The printer’s profit is made in the printing itself, not the final sale of the book. These authors cite instances where messages are sent proclaiming, “Buy this service and you will sell books,” only to find the statement hollow and without merit or success. In the end the only thing the Independent author has is an extremely fragmented market.

The hope for increased sales of Independent books is through banding together as a single community speaking from a single platform, authors helping create their own market for readers looking for new voices and interesting stories. As an Independent writer and author, trust in the fact that this community will be an opportunity to sell books and gain respectability in the marketplace we so richly deserve.

The dynamic of the market for book sales is about to shift and the Independent author is in the right place at the right time to take full advantage. There has never been a better time to be an Independent author. Countless opportunities are opening that offer more exposure to a wider audience than ever before.

Strength is in numbers, so we need to have a gathering place for writers and authors, a community where we will be heard by readers searching for voices never heard and stories never told. The world of traditional brick and mortar publishing is struggling, over the course of the past fifteen years the market has been shrinking. The six largest publishers are forced to push more copies of a handful of authors out into stores each and every month. This is negatively impacting overall sales at a time when book retailers, wholesalers, and distributors are consolidating and demanding change. The problem is that the big companies do not have answers.

They constantly search for new writers but the demands of the business make it harder for them to create successful authors. The marketplace has been structured by their own hand to allow only a small window of opportunity for new authors to make their presence known. Retailers are geared towards instant success and immediate sales, while the system is not in place to allow that to happen. As a result the big publishers are in a quandary.

At the same time, Independent authors are about to make a statement that will surely rock the traditional world of publishing. They are on the verge of making a huge impact never before witnessed in the industry. No longer will Independent authors and small publishers have to struggle in the old ways of selling books. A truly limitless, global audience waits.

Independent writers and authors are about to emerge from the shadows and take their rightful place in the market. This is a brave new world for readers clamoring for voices never heard and

stories never told.

They need a site that will introduce readers around the world to books they might never have found, and provide an opportunity for the Independent author to expand their audience like never before. The site exists, and is welcoming Independent authors and their books.

It is extremely difficult for major publishers to sell all of their titles. What chance does an Independent author have of making a real dent and sell enough copies to warrant continuous shelf space and sizable reorders? Not impossible but not probable either. The future for the Independently published book is sales through the Internet. There are tremendous possibilities in those areas without having to fight and scratch for inches inside a traditional bookstore.

The big six have not figured out how to utilize the Internet to their advantage, but when they do, they will monopolize your opportunities. Beat them to it. Join the new community, the online market for your books. The future for substantial sales of Independently published books is not the local bookstore, but at the independent author’s online bookstore.

Selling Your Books In Bulk

Essays — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:51:30 +0000

Have you ever dreamed of selling your book to a large corporation? A sale that would register several thousand copies of non-returnable product on the book sale meter? What’s that? You’ve never thought of it, you say? Well, never fear! It’s not too late to pursue this avenue, especially if you have a book ripe for a particular market.

Before you embark on this project, it’s important to understand the possibilities out there. Start being aware of incentive items you might see and understand how they are used. Many are offered as consumer gifts or incentives while others are used as training tools or morale boosters for employees.

Some examples of premium sales might be:

• Books offered at yearly company sales meetings

• Books offered to consumers at a discount (consumers are usually asked to send in product UPC’s to qualify for these specials)

• Books offered to new customers at financial institutions

• Books offered to new home buyers

• Books offered to new magazine subscribers

To determine the market segment you want to go after, study your book first for obvious clues. If you’ve mentioned or recommended companies or products in your book, those will be the first tier you’ll want to go after. Next, think about the message of your book and how it aligns with particular companies within that industry. Company web sites and ads will offer great clues when trying to match a company or organization up with your book.

If you’re going after the magazine subscriber bonus segment, you’ll have a bit more flexibility. Generally, if the book fits the reader demographic and aligns itself with the message of the magazine, it will be considered. For example, you might offer a home organization book to Good Housekeeping or a fitness book to Self or Redbook. Before you approach these magazines, read them for about three months so you get a good sense of what they’re about and who their audience is.

If you’re going after a particular market and are trying to locate companies within that industry, try doing a Boolean search in Google. Your search should look like this: “your industry and companies.” Another resource is .thomasregister.com. This site will link you to companies nationally and internationally within your industry.

Next, don’t overlook companies in your own backyard. Think about industries, companies and organizations in your area that might work well for your book and begin going after them. Many times, local companies will welcome the opportunity to support hometown authors.

Once you’ve put your list together, you’ll want to contact them and pitch them the idea. Or, in some cases, our company will send them the book and proposal before we even make phone contact. Sometimes the companies you’ve targeted will be on the lookout for incentive items, other times this will be a new (and exciting) area for them. If you’re going after employee incentives, it’s interesting to note (and mention in your sales letter) that employee incentives increase individual performance by 27 percent and team performance by 45 percent.

Be open and creative with your pursuit of premium sales! Many times, companies will want to put their logo on the cover or include an extra page in the book with a letter from the President or CEO. Check with your printer or publisher on whether this is possible for you and what the additional costs will be before you start pursuing the premium sales arena.

So, how long does this process take? We’ve seen premium sales turn around in a week, while others take a year or more to complete. Oh, and the most important part… how many books can you plan to sell? Anywhere from one thousand to several thousand depending on the deal and the company. We’ve even got a deal in the works for a half a million copies of one book.

Discounts and negotiations vary. Often, we’ll negotiate volume discounts of 50 percent to 70 percent on bulk orders. Again, make sure you’ve got these figures ready when you pick up the phone to make your pitch.

With the right book, premium sales are not only a great way to gain exposure of your book, but in the end, they make great “cents.”

The Write And Wrong Way To Promote Your Book

Essays — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:12:56 +0000

Did you know that if you’re marketing your book to sell books, you may be marketing for all the wrong reasons? Why? Well frankly, marketing a book to make sales will rarely ring the cash register; in fact, most of the time it amounts to what I call the “anti-sale,” the sale that always seems to elude you.

If you’re looking at your last 12 months of marketing and wondering what went wrong, ask yourself one question: “What was the driving force behind my book marketing choices?”

In a recent coaching session an author told me: “I spent $30,000 on advertising and I don’t know why I haven’t sold a single book.” Why did the author advertise? Because she thought it would sell books. Now you might think that $30k is extreme, and perhaps it is, but she isn’t the only one. Most of the topics of conversation during coaching calls, consultations or classes I teach are: “I’ve spent all this money and done all this work, what am I doing wrong?” What you’re doing wrong is selling the book and not the message or the benefits. In other words, you’re marketing your books for all the wrong reasons.

It’s not that dissimilar from scheduling a slew of book signings because you think you “have to” or because you’re hoping to sell scads of books. If you hate doing them, and they’re not working, why bother?

Let’s take a look at the example of our $30k author more closely. She had a book about child rearing, she was a noted speaker, a child psychologist and was quoted extensively in the media. The odd thing was, when you walked into her office her book was no where to be found. “I don’t want to be boastful about my book.” She said, “I think selling my book to my patients is unethical.” Well, perhaps she’s right, but still, she was missing the point. The point was that she had her buyers in front of her all the time and yet she overlooked them in search of the almighty book sale.

In fact, I found out later that she wasn’t even selling her book at her speaking sessions. Why? Because she thought the ad space she bought would be enough to carry the momentum of the book. When we finally broke down her marketing campaign and her options, she realized that she could sell thousands of copies of her book and it wouldn’t cost her a dime. She had at her disposal hungry buyers she wasn’t even tapping into.

So are you missing your buyers? What piece of your campaign have you overlooked in an attempt to “sell” your book? To distill this even further, let’s go through an exercise together to help unearth some marketing opportunities you might be overlooking. When you do this exercise I want you to remove the notion of book sales from your vernacular, what I mean is I want you to start looking at your efforts through a different lens:

On a separate sheet of paper, list all the marketing that you’ve done for your book. This may take a while, but seeing it all on paper will be helpful. List everything, even the minutiae.

Now that you have your list, let’s take a hard look at it. First off, I want you to cross off the marketing you’ve done that has just been a total waste of your time.

Next, go through and star everything that worked really well. Remember, by “really well,” I don’t mean book sales, although that could have been a result of your efforts; I mean star the items you really enjoyed doing that seemed to get you great feedback.

What you have left will be a list of mediocre things, marketing ideas you tried that did reasonably well (at least enough so you didn’t feel you needed to cross them off with the first batch). Take a hard look at the starred items, what do you see? Quite possibly you see a list of things that a) you loved doing, and b) that sold you some books despite the fact that you didn’t think it would.

Now let’s expand on that starred list. For example, if you have “book events” on this list, how can you expand this?

Next, I want you to make a list of the items you’re missing. If you are brainstorming an expansion of your star list these missing pieces might be self-evident or they may require some additional brainstorming.

The idea behind this exercise is to become very clear on what’s working and what isn’t and to focus on the stuff you love doing. Generally the stuff you love is dialed directly into your audience. And if you love it, you’ll probably do more of it, and hopefully this will lead you to book sales.

In author coaching I’ve found that we often set aside the stuff we love because we think book marketing should be hard. Let me tell you, it doesn’t have to be. And if you’re doing stuff that’s hard, you’re probably marketing for all the wrong reasons, anyway.

In a recent interview, media darling Rachael Ray cited that for years she did only local media. She would do cooking show after cooking show, often losing money on each one (when you factored in her time, gas, supplies, etc.). So why did she keep doing it? Because she loved it and because it’s what she wanted to do. Now, of course, she’s on everything from your local cross-town bus to any and all kitchen supplies. I’m not saying that her way of marketing is a recipe for success. Certainly, it worked for her, but the bigger message is that when you do what you love, you’ll keep at it, and that’s the key. Whatever you do, you must love it, and you must do a lot of it.

This coming year can be a revelation for your campaign if you take the time to figure out what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d love to do more of. Do it because you love it, and the sales will follow. You can bank on it!

How Long Is Too Long To Market A Book?

Essays — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:03:14 +0000

So how long is too long to market a book? According to some studies (both formal and informal) marketing (and seeing the results in the form of book sales) can take anywhere from six months to two years, it all depends on what you want to get out of it.

Ideally though, you should plan to market your book ongoing — if, that is, being an author is a career choice and not a hobby. If it’s a hobby then don’t put any more time into it than you have to, or you might not choose to market it at all. For some, having the finished book is sufficient. But generally authors don’t write and publish a book just to see it “done;” they publish it to further dreams of seeing their careers flourish. If that’s the case then your marketing plan should last as long as your career does and hopefully, that’s a really long time.

But how long should you stick to marketing one book before moving onto the next? The answer depends on a lot of things. Topic, for one, will often drive the wheels of a campaign and it’s often said that the best way to market your first book is with your second and third and forth and well, you get the idea. But now comes the most challenging question: if you’re extending a marketing campaign beyond what you originally had on your marketing outline, what on earth will you do to promote it?

If your book is new and your promotional wheels are just hitting full steam the answer to how you might promote your book should be easy. But if it’s a year down the road and you feel you’ve done everything you can do to market your book you might be asking yourself: what’s next? This is a great time to assess what you’ve done, what’s worked and what hasn’t. It’s often in our nature to stare at a closed door begging for it to open, but if the doors you’re knocking on still aren’t opening, then perhaps it’s time to move on to marketing items better suited to your book.

By this I mean that when you go through and evaluate all you’ve done, it might be easy to say, “You know, I spent a lot of time on this and it’s still not doing anything for me, I’ll think I’ll invest more time on it and see what happens.” This might seem like a good idea. Certainly the folks at Oprah might not want to hear from you the first 20 times you pitched but on 21, you could strike gold. The likelihood is, however, that you’re just barking up the wrong tree and need to move onto greener pastures.

For example, let’s say you’ve done some speaking engagements in the past year and every time you do them you get tons of new sign-ups for your newsletter, you sell lots of books and best of all, you get asked back! So why don’t you do more of them? Well, probably because the rest of your book marketing is taking up so much time that you’re unable to devote as much time to this as you can. Now you’re in a perfect position. Why? Because you can dump the stuff that’s not working so well and focus on the things that are working well, like your speaking engagements. The same is true for media, if you get a lot of it when you’re pitching it, then why not pitch more?

For many of us, deciding what to do and when to do it can be confusing, but after you’ve spent months doing everything you’ve ever read or heard about, the obvious successes start to clarify themselves and then, what you need to do becomes crystal clear.

If you’ve only got one book to promote, here are a few tips that might help extend the life of a campaign and give you more ways to market:

* Creating spin-off products: special reports, eBooks and audio product are a all a great way to get some additional mileage out of your book. Creating products that lead to a product line can help leverage more sales. Often when consumers buy one product in a line, they’ll buy all of them.

* Speaking events: speaking on your book’s topic can really lengthen a campaign. By setting up speaking engagements you’re getting the message out there on your book, selling books to the audience and keeping the wheels on your campaign turning.

* Gather your evergreens: an “evergreen” is a topic that’s consistently viable from year to year. This means that if you have a news peg on the topic of Labor Day, you can trot this pitch out year after year and the media will love it. Understanding and building these evergreens into your campaign will greatly help extend your marketing campaign.

* Updating your book: with the exception of fiction, most books could stand a refresher every so often. For some books it’s yearly, while others can wait a bit longer. The updated version is a great way to capture additional promotion. I update my books yearly and provided that I’ve added new content (and not just changed a few URL’s) I will re-promote each of these as they come out — just like I would a new title.

Create Your Own Market For Independent Books

Essays — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:50:54 +0000

There’s an estimated 3 million Independent authors worldwide. If these writers join forces the potential impact is staggering.

As of right now, the print-on-demand companies estimate that over 90% of their authors sell less than 30 books per year. The question is: how do you expand the position and exposure in the bookselling market and offer Independent authors an opportunity to sell more books?

The traditional brick and mortar marketplace has an established base of approximately 10,000 retail locations large enough to warrant the attention of major New York publishers. Unit sales of individual titles are in decline and some experts suggest readers are tired of the same old thing &ndash the market lacks new authors and new titles.

Total book sales in all markets (excluding schools and textbooks) is estimated at around $20 billion dollars. One percent equals $200 million dollars. All that is required for Independent titles to capture this one percent in sales is to form an online market, a central location, totally independent from any established publishing entity. That new creation would allow the Independently published book to be shopped by readers from around the world. The potential increase in sales is dramatic. The key is the development of this community, a destination for readers interested in purchasing the finest Independently written and published books from around the world: A place where the potential for Independent writers would open up to the world.

The concept is to open the market for Independently written books and offer readers the opportunity to shop for new titles, never before seen by the public at large. One community, bringing voices never heard and stories never told to the world.

The biggest problem with selling more Independent books is that an individual cannot imitate what the bigger publishers do in a market they control. The best opportunity to sell more Independently published books is to create your own market. Big publishing houses don’t use the Internet to sell their books. Exploit their weaknesses, and help establish your own online destination for selling book(s).

It is not economically feasible to establish a brick and mortar presence for Independently published books. The hurdles to even the smallest market share is cost prohibitive. The best strategy is through the use of technology, the Internet, to create a combined web presence, a community, where writers can market themselves and their book(s).

The strength of the Independent writer and author is the combined size of the group. When we create the community and develop a following, the old adage “build it and they will come,” will ring true. Major New York publishers relish in the fact the market for Independent books is fragmented and floundering. The last thing they want to see is a joining of forces into one location where readers can shop for books. The creation of a single community of Independent authors would send shock waves throughout the business! Let’s create our own market and stop trying to break into theirs.

It’s free, and the first step toward total independence in the marketplace for bookselling.

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