THE Group for Authors! discussion
Publishing and Promoting
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OPEN SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS OF ALL GENRES
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Has anyone had experience with this company?
Janna wrote: "Has anyone had experience with this company?"It is a reputable company but there's a catch: you have to do loads of marketing yourself and (in my assessment of what's required for success) emotionally blackmail friends and family to part with money, to the point where they block your number and cross the road when they see you coming. 'Quick! Run! It's an Inkshares author' is actually an unfair overstatement to be honest because placing a book with them can also be fun. Seeing how many orders you get is good feedback, telling you whether your blurb will work in the public arena. You can also see what other writers are doing.
From an author's perspective, the business model for Inkshares is that you pitch your manuscript on their crowdfunding website and people can then order copies in advance of publication - if your pitch is interesting enough to them. If pre-orders reach a certain threshold (a few thousand pounds), Inkshares take over and commission a (usually beautiful) cover, then take their business cut and publish it. If it makes a further profit, the author receives payments.
It can work, if you can persuade 250 people to pay £10 in advance, which I for one would be unable to. If you don't make an effort to push sales yourself, you won't be published by Inkshares because casual interest on the website by crowdfunding angels you've never met (often other authors also on Inkshares) won't add up to enough pre-orders, unless your pitch is unbelievably interesting. However, if you are naturally good at marketing/advertising (see Jasper Fforde) and want to try Inkshares, there's nothing to lose and you can always withdraw your manuscript and publish elsewhere without penalty. I hope that helps.
Thank you, Faith, that's a very helpful answer. I sometimes wonder if I miss out by continuing to be self-published. It's the marketing that takes the time, but if you still have to do the marketing with a publisher, then it's certainly not for me.
Anna wrote: "It's the marketing that takes the time..."I agree. Many people write their first book then devote all their subsequent time to marketing and encouraging star ratings instead of writing their second book. Marketing stops you writing. An indie author's calling is writing, not displacement activity.
I learned long ago with regards to marketing, all authors must get out and talk up their books. If you're lucky enough the publishing company will grant you marketing money as part of your deal, but many, and maybe most, traditionally published, are not granted that money. I attended author forums as well as personally talked to authors as I was writing my first novel to learn how to market. I listen to bestsellers on radio programs and they were there pushing their books like the rest of us. That author laughed at no matter how it appears you're successful as an author you have to market yourself. So save money for that part of your book if you want to sell.
I'm an Indie of four books that sell decently well with the most selling at in-person events (remember in-person?) i.e. book parties.
If you're an author published by a company or self-published and want to sell, you must get out there and talk it up. I'm staying an Indie and continue to market in my own way - using my other talents and abilities to attract potential buyers.
Thank you, Faith, for that detailed answer! It is very helpful.
Faith wrote: "Janna wrote: "Has anyone had experience with this company?"It is a reputable company but there's a catch: you have to do loads of marketing yourself and (in my assessment of what's required for s..."
Yes, Faith, many thanks for putting it all in a nutshell.
I'm not good at the marketing game, alas, so I'll concentrate on the writing instead.
Thank you, June, for the very practical advice.
June wrote: "I learned long ago with regards to marketing, all authors must get out and talk up their books. If you're lucky enough the publishing company will grant you marketing money as part of your deal, bu..."I'm published by a small press and do almost all my own marketing. You're right on June, and I've heard even mid list authors with a bigger publisher do a lot of their own marketing. Takes energy and constant learning. And $$$.
I am feeling very discouraged today. I have been running Amazon ads on my books and even though I have taken several free courses, somehow I end up losing money on the deal. Right now, I can't get to schools to sell my books because of Covid (I'm a children's author) and so I feel the only way to sell right now is through ads and they are just not working for me. Has anyone figured them out? Or is it just a losing proposition?
It's a losing proposition for me. They used to work well but they are swamped now with trad publishers paying more than most Indies can afford. An ad used to cost about 15c /10p when they first started, now to get any visibility you must expect to bid over $1 or 70p a click to get on pages that get lots of hits.I don't know what the answer is.
Wanda wrote: "I am feeling very discouraged today. I have been running Amazon ads on my books and even though I have taken several free courses, somehow I end up losing money on the deal. Right now, I can't get ..."Don't use Google ads because some website owners (who are paid per ad click) put your add on their own website and click it a couple of hundred times a day with no intention of buying anything. I haven't any feedback on Amazon ads. I set up a free download period for an ebook and spent £260 on advertising on 8 free book promotion services that it was available for free, trying to generate word of mouth. That resulted in about 4,750 free downloads of the ebook and 0 sales of the paperback. My impression after this was that adverts don't pay for themselves, so it's really an investment by the author in the feel-good factor that many more people are reading it. I don't know what you should do if your primary aim is profit. Maybe cook up a crazy publicity stunt that the media might cover? It's hard anyway.
My experience has been that except for the extreme high earning authors, who will be granted the lion's share of a publishing company's marketing budget, all authors have to do some sort of promotion. However, most of this is developed while the book is in the editing/pre-production phase after the book has been accepted for publication. In traditional publishing, acquisition of a book is a calculated risk - anticipating the sales numbers of a title. The model of trying to lock down a fixed number of sales prior to acquisition is rather unusual, but that does not mean it's unworkable.
I don’t want to send anyone in the wrong direction or raise hopes that don’t turn out. Having said this, I do want to share an experience. By accident, I joined the Online Book Club, a service I paid for. To my surprise, I received a beautiful, insightful review of my novel and — sales. Not sales in the hundreds, but more sales than I’d received from any other site. If you would like to check it out, please do. And please keep in mind that mine is only one experience. You might want to ask others in the group if they have had positive experiences with this book service before committing money of your own.
did you upload your whole MS to the Online Book Club or just list it?
A., because I’m not very tech savvy, I’m not sure how to answer. My MS is with the woman who typed it for me, on her computer. On Monday I will contact her and ask her what she did. I’m sorry I can’t give you the information before then. Online Book Club must have had the manuscript because the first step in their process is to have the reviewer read the novel and give the author a complete summation of the plot. I was able to read what she wrote and approve it before going further.
Please check reviews of the company on Google to see what others have said about it. I don’t want you or anyone to be disappointed.
I paid Online Book Club my money and never heard back from them. So...extrapolate from there.
I sent my manuscript for my new novel Unforgettable Voyage to a lady from this groupby the name of Sanniz Tok. That was over two months ago and after sending me messages in reply to mine kept saying she would return my manuscript, has not done so and now does not answer my emails. Should anyone have been in contact or had any dealings with her, please contact me. Colin Guest
In reply:A., it was my whole manuscript that went.
Wendy, when I paid I put the charge on a credit card. If you did the same, can you discuss the non-response with your credit card company?
Colin, I'm not an attorney, but legally that ms. is your intellectual property. Can you contact the owner (I believe his name is Scott) and ask about this?
Join fellow novelists in submitting your partial or finished manuscripts to the Inkshares All-Genre Manuscript Contest, open November 7th through February 28th, 2021. There is no fee to enter the contest. Inkshares will select at least three authors to grant publishing deals (and representation in TV/film, audiobook, and foreign rights). The top three books will be determined through a combination of community engagement, our proprietary technology, Story Machine, and independent evaluation by the Inkshares Story Board.
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