What Really Counts IMHO In Promoting Your Book

[Clifford]

The art of successful marketing in ANY industry always centers on the “seller” correctly defining what the “buyer” really wants.

Figure out the buyer’s real problem, goes the rule, and the chances are that you will connect with your prospective customer and then make the sale – so long as you are offering a solution that actually fits (and solves) the buyer’s problem.

For the indie author, this can be stated as follows: if you (the seller) explicitly explain to potential publishers, agents, and readers (all three are “buyers”) why they will come out ahead by spending the TIME, not the money, promoting or reading your book, then you’ll make the sale and hook them.

Here’s what I mean.

In one of my past entrepreneurial incarnations when I raised capital for internet start-ups, I came to understand very quickly that when an investment group, whether small or large – even the largest of Wall Street investment banks – decides to invest in a company (not just buy shares but take a controlling or near-controlling ownership position), it does so with the awareness that 70% or more of their investments will not give them a positive return on their investments.

If they’re very lucky, maybe a third of that 70% (one third of the total invested companies) will actually lose them serious money. So they look to the remaining 30% of their invested companies to make them so much money that all the losses from the 70% will be offset, with plenty left over besides … the investors’ profit.

Actually, a 30% - 70% ratio of winners to losers would be a dream come true; it’s usually 10% - 90% winners to losers, meaning the pressure is on that lonely 10% to be VERY profitable.

The same holds true for publishers. And agents. And readers. Consider this:

“‘With most publishers an advance usually reflects your book's earning potential the first year it's on sale, less costs to the publisher. What does that mean? Traditionally when publishers run those elusive numbers they try to estimate how many copies a book will sell its first year in print, then they try to figure out how much it's going to cost them to make that book-design the cover, pay for paper, printing, binding, and shipping costs-and then they will figure out how much you might make on the book based on your royalty percentage. And that's your advance. It's your share of the book's profit its first year in print. Of course the publisher (and you) hopes you far exceed that number and that first royalty statement blows the advance out of the water.’”

“Rick Horgan, Executive Editor of Crown, an imprint of Random House, was kind enough to break down those ‘elusive numbers,’ which end up sounding like a complicated high school math problem. Horgan estimated a distribution of 25,000 copies on an average commercial fiction launch for an author's debut novel in hardcover. The publishing house might announce 50,000 copies, but this is a ‘gross exaggeration because publishers always over-announce,’ Horgan says. Of those 25,000 copies, 65% will sell through with the remaining 35% in returns. To put it simply, if the publisher ended up selling roughly 15,000 copies, with the author making 15% in royalties on a $25 hardcover ($3.75 per book), that equates to about $50,000 in author earnings on a hardcover printing.’”

Then later on in this article…

“‘I'm not signing a book, I'm signing a writer,’ says Kelly Mortimer, literary agent at Mortimer Literary Agency. ‘I look at the writer's potential... What kind of personality do they have? Are they a go-getter, or do they lack the skills they need to promote themselves?’”

“Faust (Jessica Faust, one of the founding literary agents of Bookends, Inc.) thinks marketability is the most valuable quality in a first novel. Whether the marketability derives from the writing or the author is inconsequential as long as there's something to pitch.”

“‘For a first novel, if you can come up with a really interesting hook, that's what's going to get you in the door almost more than anything else,’ Faust says. ‘Once you have a track record and your name itself is the marketable product, I don't think you have to worry so much about the hook.’”

(extract from a long web page well worth reading in its entirety (http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/a...

The bottom line in all this is that the agent/publisher’s prime problem, and certainly the reader’s, is whether the book will sell, meaning read well, ideally as the start of or part of a series, where the real money or reader payoff is in downstream sales and availability of the first AND subsequent books. That is EVERYONE'S ideal business model - agent, publisher, reader, and YOURS!

…which for you means that if you are writing more than one book, you have to tell all comers, differently depending on the audience (e.g. readers, booksellers, agents, publishers) that “There’s more to come!”. That rather than hearing how wonderful a given book might be, is where everyone’s respective satisfaction lies.

You must also be clear about how your books are the ‘first’ to do ‘x’ and that every successive volume will be an equal first of its kind … which means that your first book or your fifteenth is the first (whatever type of book, e.g. novel, creative non-fiction book, historical account) to achieve / portray / uncover / define … [finish that sentence yourself!]…’

Every author’s book has many firsts! If you don’t think yours does, rethink your answer. Why? EVERY AUTHOR’S BOOK HAS MANY FIRSTS!

More about me: http://www.cliffordbrody.com

[Brian]

Clifford,

Interesting read, but I was baffled a bit. You say, "For the indie author," but go on to talk a lot about publishers and agents. Huh?

I also completely missed your point. I must be clear about what my books are the first to do? Huh?

As a reader, I don't care about what a book does first. I just want to be entertained. I've read umpteen versions of the Hero's journey, but, as long as you can entertain me, I'm more than willing to go along for another one.

Perhaps this post was meant for people pitching non-fiction books to publishers and agents? If so, perhaps you should clarify that because I didn't see the relevance to me trying to sell a novel to readers. Or did I miss something?

Thanks.

Brian

[Jim]

First rule of life: Never complicate the obvious or trivialize the momentous.

The most difficult phase of selling a book is to produce one that is technically well-written and sufficiently entertaining to be commercially viable. Accomplish that and time-proven, traditional marketing efforts will take care of the rest.

Website - Dedicated to a specific book and its author. Updated regularly.

Push Cards, Business Cards, Thank-You Cards - Custom designed to include a picture of the book cover, author's name, and contact information.

Press Releases - Designed and timed to attract the attention of the targeted audience to whom it is sent.

Personal Appearances - Literary Festivals/Conventions, Public Libraries, Book Stores, and Book Clubs. Prepared to deliver a well-rehearsed presentation with book-signing pen in hand.

Active Participation in Literary Websites - Not only in threads designated specifically for self-promotion, but general discussions as well. Let members get to know you as a person.

[G.T.]

Clifford wrote: "The art of successful marketing in ANY industry always centers on the “seller” correctly defining what the “buyer” really wants.

Figure out the buyer’s real problem, goes the rule, and the chanc..."

Yes, you are right in your textbook analysis of marketing and insider info from publishers/agents. However, sometimes for a first time Indie Author all the talking-at-you about marketing techniques used in the business arena can be overwhelming. I'm no stranger to all the points you've made. As an Indie Author I've taken into consideration and modified many to dovetail with developing a plan on how to market my novel, Juror 1389: Dorsie Raines Renninger It's one thing to express the knowledge you have and another thing to implement it successfully in the self-publishing venue. All Indie Authors don't have the marketeer DNA factor. Some are young and haven't been in the business world long. Some may have never spent any time in corporate world. For those of us who do have the experience, it's up to us to translate success building marketing techniques in a manner that they can understand and put into use.

Please post again and outline examples of how-to-do it -- a case study profile would be fantastic.

[Kate]

An interesting author to study for her success is Barbara Freethy, who, after going indie, has sold over 4 million books and shifted the business model for everyone. Her old publisher can't pay her what she earns in a month. Have you seen The Economist article on her?