Setting Goals

[John]

There have been a number of posts about marketing and a lot of different ideas.

An indie author has to take on many functions that a traditionally published author doesn't have to do, such as sales and publicity. The upside is that an independent author will receive more than 12% the book's wholesale price.

What most new authors want to do is to cultivate a "following" of readers who will want to read more. Call it a "franchise."

Writing is the easy part. The hard part is to get the work in front of as many people as possible. The ancillary challenge is how many $$$ will be needed to publicize the new book.

Some of you write for the love of writing and want to share what you've written with others. Your marketing goals may be different from another who wants to build a "following." In your case, your expenditure to market will be different.

Traditional publishing houses have a staff who take on the various roles needed to promote a book. They have a marketing plan and budget for each new release.

You, too, must have a marketing or business plan. I suspect that many authors at SIA don't have a business plan because they think like writers and not businessmen. Writing fiction takes a creative mind. A marketing mind is creative, too, just in a different way.

Many authors will spend scarce resources in ways that do not maximize results. You need to be skeptical of promises made about promotions and sales.

After your manuscript is ready to be published ask yourself about your goals. This is a question that requires an honest answer. Unless you have a gagillion $$$ in the bank, you will need to be judicious in your budget.

Remember this.

The self publishing revolution has brought with it a host of businesses waiting to take your money. Learn from others what has worked and what hasn't. Be skeptical and don't let these people tap into your dreams so they can tap into your bank account.

[Lila]

Well said! Thank you. It's very encouraging to know that marketing can be creative, too. :)

[Martin]

Please note: It is a mistake to believe that a traditionally published author will not be responsible for marketing their own work. Publishers do less for most authors they you think.

[Jane]

Martin wrote: "Please note: It is a mistake to believe that a traditionally published author will not be responsible for marketing their own work. Publishers do less for most authors they you think."

Martin is soo right. Being trad published won’t even necessarily get you into book shops

[John]

Jane wrote: "Martin is soo right. Being trad published won’t even necessarily get you into book shops"

Check out IndieBound. You can get access to their mailing list. Most are smallish independently owned bookstores.

[John]

Martin wrote: "Please note: It is a mistake to believe that a traditionally published author will not be responsible for marketing their own work. Publishers do less for most authors they you think."

Correct. Unless you are a Dan Brown, most authors with traditional publishers are responsible for their own marketing.

That was true for Cate. The marketing and publicity was mine. She had little interest in marketing. I took that on.

That work included getting endorsements (blurbs) for the jacket. I did manage to get nationally recognized people to write, but I'm not sure how much it helped.

Getting articles and reviews wasn't easy and as hard as I worked, most of the time I was not successful. She did get a few articles and reviews in nationally published magazines.

Our $$$ were spent on websites, marketing materials, legal work, etc. The university press did some, but the reality is small university presses are not flush with $$$ and what little $$$ they do have needs to be divided up among several books.

At last check, Cate's book is #276,367 Paid in Kindle Store and #234,205 for the hardcover.

Was it worth it? In terms of "psychic income," yes, but financially a wash.

[Kathleen]

The marketing is the most difficult aspect for me. Initially, I self-published after having a completed book with no vehicle to have others read it. I wasn't interested in sending my manuscript to publishers and wait in line for rejections. After all, I wasn't publishing to make money.

My perspective has changed. I thought about submitting my most recent book to publishers but, again, decided I liked having control of the book and my time. I didn't want to be jet hopping to a bunch of book signings all over the country, as I've noticed on websites of famous authors. Rather, I'd set them up myself locally. And I'll focus more on marketing so I can earn money on my sales.

The bottom line is that I have a lot of marketing shortcomings. I can barely get feedback despite giveaways on Amazon or Goodreads, and without good feedback, my sales will stay stagnant. As J.D. said, it feels good to see some income from sales, but it sure isn't easy.

[John]

Kathleen wrote: "The marketing is the most difficult aspect for me. Initially, I self-published after having a completed book with no vehicle to have others read it. I wasn't interested in sending my manuscript to ..."

Marketing in itself isn't difficult. There are really only two components:

1. Your time
2. Your money

For most of us both are in short supply.

New authors can get noticed, but in my opinion they need to start locally and work that market. Speak at book clubs (Goodreads has lists), community organizations and assisted living centers. Call your local newspaper and engage the book editor.

If you have plenty of $$$ then you can market your book through firms that do that, but be wary and ask lots of questions. Oh yeah, don't expect too much.

It's a hard slog, but there's no short cut to success.

Good luck!

[Kathleen]

Great advice, J.D. I hadn't thought about speaking at assisted living centers or even calling the local newspaper. Guess I was waiting for invitations, rather than taking the bull by the horn.

Many of us say we like to write because we enjoy crafting a story. I wonder if that could be tied to personality types. Would most of us be introverts, re-energizing from within? Marketing ourselves could be challenging because we're not accustomed to tooting our own horns.

Of course we could throw money into marketing which could work, or may not. "A penny saved is a penny earned." I'm going to work on getting noticed locally and see where that goes.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

J.D. wrote: "Writing is the easy part."

Not for everyone. Certainly not for me.

[John]

Dwayne wrote: "J.D. wrote: "Writing is the easy part."

Not for everyone. Certainly not for me."

I didn't mean that writing is "easy" as in effortless. But, you will have to admit that marketing is arduous.

[Thomas]

I will add my 2cents:
To be honest, this "ask yourself about your goals" sounds like a fundamentally flawed concept. Goals only function when you can break them down into steps which need to be done to achieve them. From what I’ve seen, nobody has an idea on how to do that for new authors/books, especially not the new authors themselves.

On an example, a new author sets a goal ‘I want to sell 10 thousand copies of my first book’. Next he sets up some steps he guesses might help him get there, but odds are the goal will not be met. Then he gets depressed, because he failed his own goal and thus marks himself as a failure (notice that there is zero external input, it’s all in the author’s own head). I work in high-end IT consulting and I’ve seen this story a lot and I see no reason why it should be any different in self-publishing (and a lot of reasons why this should happen even more often).

What I do instead of setting up goals is making of systems – I roughly decide how much effort/time/money I’m willing to put to the publishing activity every week/month (I call this a system for a lack of a better word) and see where it gets me. I don’t know if I will end up being a successful author, probably not, but at least I will not stress myself over failing my own goals along the way.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

J.D. wrote: "I didn't mean that writing is "easy" as in effortless."

I'm not sure what you mean by "easy", then.

By comparison, marketing is much, much easier than writing, especially if you have the time, the money, and the patience for it. What makes it feel difficult is the expectations. If you set your expectations too high, expecting to sell a thousand copies tomorrow and you only sell two, yes - you're going to feel like a failure and you're going to perceive marketing as difficult. From time to time I see authors expecting to have a "following" before their first book is published. To them, yes, it may be a tough battle. The reality is, you may have to publish several books before you start gaining a following.

So, we come back to writing books. Several books. And taking care to make sure they are of quality or you'll never gain that "following". Writing is certainly not the "easy" part.

[John]

Thomas wrote: "I will add my 2cents:
To be honest, this "ask yourself about your goals" sounds like a fundamentally flawed concept. Goals only function when you can break them down into steps which need to be don..."

There are two distinct, yet very broad, goals.

The first is to write for the sake of writing. "Dance like no one is watching." It's not for commercial success. A writer may choose to share her work with others at little cost, but without worrying about marketing. If people find her work and enjoy it, she is happy with that.

The other goal is to be commercially successful. That's the difficult goal. Now a writer must make two decisions. To shop a manuscript to literary agents (long shot) or self publish. Most SIA members will self publish. That means that they will find themselves immersed in the business of publishing and will have to make complex decisions.

But, there are others before them and their ideas of what works or doesn't work are posted.

There will be decisions on how to allocate scarce $$$ and time to market a book, If a writer wants to develop a "following," then she may want to discount her book, yet be cognizant of discounting too much. Think perceived value.

Whether a writer is a "failure" depends on the goals set. To start out by wanting to be the next J.K. Rowling is unrealistic. To start out by writing a novel, releasing it, writing another and all the while improving is realistic.

Spending thousands of $$$ to promote yourself and your work will not usually work. The landscape is too vast and the $$$ required to put up a virtual billboard big enough to be seen is too much for new writers. It's often too big for mid-list authors at publishing houses.

Don't kid yourselves. Literary agents are all over Amazon and looking for self published authors to sign. That's why goal #1 is realistic and doable. Write, polish, rewrite, rewrite until your work glows.

Full disclosure:

I am not a writer or an author. I know something about marketing and the publishing industry. I want to help writers with dreams not get bamboozled out of $$$ by hucksters who promise them things that can't be delivered.

[C.B., Beach Body Moderator]

J.D. wrote: "I am not a writer or an author. I know something about marketing and the publishing industry. I want to help writers with dreams not get bamboozled out of $$$ by hucksters who promise them things that can't be delivered. "

How do you know that writing is the easy part and marketing is the hard part if you don't do one of those things?

If you already know something about marketing, I would think that marketing would be the easy part of this equation, at least in theory.

Just Curiosity the Elf here.

Writing and Promoting are two completely different animals. They both drink at the same waterhole with the same friends, so it is always good to look for crocodiles when you mix your metaphors up with animals. What am I talking about again?

[Moronke]

J.D. wrote: "There have been a number of posts about marketing and a lot of different ideas.

An indie author has to take on many functions that a traditionally published author doesn't have to do, such as sale..."


Well said. Thanks

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

C.B. wrote: "How do you know that writing is the easy part and marketing is the hard part if you don't do one of those things? "

I'm wondering the same. Writing is a bit more than tapping away at a keyboard until you've hit x number of words and hit publish. There's rewriting, editing, proofreading, beta reading, more editing, more rewrites, more rewrites... it can be a long process and can take a great deal of mental acrobatics. This isn't even to mention the time spent reading, taking courses on writing, studying books, etc. It's a skill that you can spend a lifetime working and never truly master. There have been some wonderful novels written, but none have been perfect. Writing is a great deal of fun and satisfying work, but it's not easy work.

[John]

Dwayne wrote: "C.B. wrote: "How do you know that writing is the easy part and marketing is the hard part if you don't do one of those things? "

I'm wondering the same. Writing is a bit more than tapping away at ..."

No one, not even me, said that writing is "easy." But.... I've seen several posts about writing outdoors, while listening to music, drinking coffee, etc. You get the idea.

Have you seen any posts about the joys and satisfaction of marketing? You know, the thrill of writing and calling book editors, trying to get radio and television interviews, working to get noticed without going broke. Don't forget about the fun of asking bookstores to stock your book.

You see, writing is work and it's certainly not easy. I'll grant you that. I watched Cate work weekends for over three years writing a book, while although commercially successful, earned only enough to cover her marketing expenses. See above.

My point, broadly, is that you enjoy writing.

How many times have you heard the executive tell someone that he worked hard that day? Of course you have. Compare his "hard" day with that of a coal miner from West Virginia.

From each man's perspective each man had a "hard" day.

[Christina]

J.D. wrote: "Have you seen any posts about the joys and satisfaction of marketing? You know, the thrill of writing and calling book editors, trying to get radio and television interviews, working to get noticed without going broke. Don't forget about the fun of asking bookstores to stock your book. "

Yes, and if you were to read through older posts, you would too.

The point of groups like this one is to give authors a place to workshop with each other on all aspects of being an indie author. The reason we don't allow for self promotion and folks who want to hock their services is because that is a known factor. Anyone can "hire a professional" to do any part of the process (yes, including the actual writing). We are the professionals. All of us who write, edit, publish, and market our books.

It is not a place for people who feel that they are somehow more of an expert than others to hold lectures and workshops. We've had plenty of folks in the past who wanted to use this forum to "help" authors. All they were really looking for was a way to part inexperienced authors with their money. All of them have left our group to start their own. We will continue to enforce our rules here. If you want to continue to make assumptions about what authors need, think, or do, I would recommend setting up your own Goodreads group to do just that.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

J.D. wrote: "Writing is the easy part."

J.D. wrote: "No one, not even me, said that writing is "easy.""

Oh?

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

J.D. wrote: "Have you seen any posts about the joys and satisfaction of marketing? "

Many, actually. I've also seen many posts from authors who find certain aspects of writing to be frustrating, difficult. We have had posts from people who are actually considering quitting because they find it too hard.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

J.D. wrote: "SIA moderators, whose books rank in the millions on Amazon ... can't even give away their content"

Col. John,

Due to the tone and verbiage in your initial post, I regarded you as a flim-flam artist. We've all seen adds and have all gotten emails with the same sort of message... "well, you've written a book... now comes the hard part... visit [dubious website address]... blah blah blah..." Forgive me. Perhaps you're straight as Robin Hood's arrow. Maybe I'm misreading you.

Taking pot shots is petty and low. Not really a tactic I'd expect from someone who understands marketing and not the kind of behavior we endorse here and does not display "support" in any stretch of the imagination.

Comment deleted.

[John]

Dwayne wrote: "J.D. wrote: "SIA moderators, whose books rank in the millions on Amazon ... can't even give away their content"

Col. John,

Due to the tone and verbiage in your initial post, I regarded you as a f..."

Thanks, Dwayne.

I like people and I think that in general terms most are pretty good. I don't want to see unsuspecting people get hurt. Especially good people who aspire to publish a book or two.

It's a tough business and unforgiving, Many of your SIA members are desperate to be read and I admire that very much.

What I have seen are the hundreds of companies who promise this and promise that. It doesn't usually work, yet the allure is there and people put up their $$$ and they take their chances, most often to be disappointed by the results.

I've never said that I'm a writer because I'm not and never will be. I don't have what it takes. But, I know about the publishing business because I was my wife's business partner.

She had a New York literary agent. He asked her to write the book. I fired him because I didn't like his attitude. I briefly (and I mean briefly) looked at self-publishing.

I talked with a few more literary agents (nibbles, but nothing more) had a tickle from Random House, but her book wouldn't have fit. We were signed by a university press.

They were a great marketing partner, but we put up hard $$$ to really get going. Their marketing budget is modest.

Cate's book could be found at bookstores and seeing it in an airport was a treat.

I hustled and got articles in the VFW magazine, Christian Science Monitor and Guideposts. Look up the title of her book, Dwayne, and you will see the extent of coverage.

Yet, yet....

Why is this important? Because all of the people working behind the scenes and $$$ spent she has a book respected commercially, but not a list buster. She never came close to cracking the NYT's sub-list for animals and now her book in is the low 6 figures sales rank on Amazon.

So, my advice to others is to be careful and wary about spending $$$ on promotion. That's great advice because I've lived it for the past 2 years.

As far as taking "pot shots" are concerned, nothing could be further from the truth. If there was something in the deleted comment that wasn't true, I'll apologize.

I am a "straight arrow" as you put it. You know who I am and I'm sure that you've read articles about me and what I do. Dig deep enough and you'll find an article on how I tripped up a scam artist from Nigeria.

It takes guts to be a writer. I'd rather take my chances going back to duke it out with al Queda than putting myself "out there" the way you and thousands of SIA people do.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

J.D. wrote: "You know who I am and I'm sure that you've read articles about me and what I do."

All I really know about you is you've been booted from the group more than once, but you keep coming back and I'm baffled as to why.

[John]

Dwayne wrote: "J.D. wrote: "You know who I am and I'm sure that you've read articles about me and what I do."

All I really know about you is you've been booted from the group more than once, but you keep coming ..."

I'm a "free speech" kinda guy.

Again, I appreciate Ann's vision. Her intentions are good.

I have some experience. If what I offer is not valid, then by all means. censor my content.

Just sayin'.