1. DO: Proof everything…
…especially cover copy, press releases and promotional copy.
Better yet, have someone else proof it (it is notoriously hard to see your own mistakes). If your promotional materials contain mistakes, editors and readers will assume that your book is also riddled with mistakes. This looks unprofessional and makes for an uncomfortable reading experience. It can discourage people from buying or reviewing your book.
DON’T: Advertise in Publisher’s Weekly…
Yes, it’s the industry bible, but you should target readers not bookstores. Why not sell directly to readers instead of ’selling’ to bookstores who may return your book unsold?
Advertise to readers, tell them to order the book directly from you or your supplier, and make more money! By selling directly you can avoid the 55% distributor discounts (saving more of the profit for yourself). You can also receive feedback faster, from the people who are actually buying the book. Wouldn’t you rather have your book in the hands of a reader than on a bookstore shelf?
Instead of advertising to the bookselling trade, promote your books in publications your audience is likely to read.
2. DO: Learn about the bookselling business…
You need to know the rules to know how to bend them.
Readers are used to buying from bookstores. Bookstores are used to buying from distributors at a large discount. Distributors are used to buying from publishing houses, at a colossal discount. Booksellers, wholesalers and distributors think they can order books on consignment, returning them at any time for any reason.
If you want to sell your books differently, it helps to know how things usually work, so that you can work out special deals with the trade.
DON’T: Think bookstores are the ticket to big sales…
Even if you get a bookstore to take your book, just placing it on their shelves is no guarantee of sales. Your book is sitting on a shelf showing a one-inch spine, blending in to thousands of other books’ spines. Why are people going to choose your book? They will look for it only if they have heard of it – which means promoting your book to readers is more important than promoting it to bookstores. If the store doesn’t carry the book, they can always ’special order’ it if readers ask for it. If readers don’t ask for it, there is no point in the bookstore carrying it.
And don’t think a large chain bookstore is going to feature your book on one of those tables at the front of the store. Publishers pay tens of thousands of dollars in ‘co-op marketing’ to place their books there.
Bookstores are good, but don’t think they naturally lead to sales.
3. DO: Get involved in online discussions, newsgroups etc…
The Internet has provided a way for people with shared interests to gather and talk about those interests. There are online groups for everything. Analyze your book and see what interest groups it caters to. If it features a psychologist, find newsgroups and online discussions for and about psychologists. If it is a mystery, find a mystery readers’ site (not hard to do).
There are newsgroups and websites for every imaginable interest and sub-category of that interest. I came across a newsgroup for disbarred lawyers the other day. Look long enough and you’ll find an online interest group for your topic, no matter how strange.
DON’T: Post blatant advertisements to newsgroups and message boards.
There is an etiquette (known as Netiquette) to participating in online discussions. First and foremost: do not post blatant ads to the groups. People are there to discuss their favourite topic, not to be bombarded with commercials. However, it is usually more than acceptable to mention your product or service after you have been participating in the group for a while, and have proved yourself.
Lurk for a while, get a feel for the group, then start posting helpful comments in response to people’s questions. Once you have been accepted you can start to include information about your book. Even at this stage, be wary of including the information in the main message. The best option is to include a signature file, after your post, that contains the equivalent of a ‘classified ad’ about your book.
4. DO: Include a signature file on every email and newsgroup post…
Signature files are a great way of repeating advertising about your product without spamming. If you send a helpful or friendly email answering a correspondent’s question, you should always include a signature file containing information about your book and where to buy it.
Advertising professionals swear that repetition is the key to sales. By repetition, they mean that someone has to see something not three but 18-20 times before they will buy. Signature files are a great way to remind people of you and your product. Imagine if, every time you met me, I said, ‘Hi, my name is Julie and I’m a writer’. After a while you would have no trouble remembering who I was (no more horrible moments at cocktail parties!). Signature files work this way.
Signature files should contain 4-6 lines of no more than 60 characters. Any more and people will not read them.
DON’T: Send a bulk email to everyone in your address book…
Even if you have reason to believe that they would be interested in your product, sending unsolicited commercial email is SPAM. Don’t do it.
If one person complains to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), your ISP is within their rights to cut off your Internet privileges and boot you off their servers. Just like that. No warning, no excuses.
Yes, I know you get loads of paper junk mail every day, but junk email is different. In the early days of the Internet users took a stand against junk email — mainly because, in those days, people paid for their Internet access according to how much data they transferred. Every piece of mail cost users a little. Although the days of paying per byte are mostly gone, the taboo remains strong today.
Even if you offer people a chance to unsubscribe, thereby staying within the law, you will be transgressing the ‘common law’ of the Internet. Some people will write you off forever based on one piece of spam.
Don’t do it!
Far better to build an opt-in mailing list, and invite people to join it (put an invitation in your signature file).
5. DO: Always carry business cards or postcards…
…that contain book and ordering info.
Hand these out to anyone and everyone you meet—especially if you tell them you are a writer and they express any interest whatsoever.
Ideally, you should print the cover design of your book (in color) on one side and the title, author, and ordering information on the other side. You can use the post-cards for direct mailing or to advertise signings and appearances. You can put them in stacks at the local dry-cleaner’s, in your barber’s shop, at the local supermarket’s notice board…
These pieces are eye-catching and useful for many different events and promotional efforts.
DON’T: Pay for advertising…
…until you have exhausted every possible opportunity for free publicity.
Paid advertising carries much less weight than editorial coverage. Try to obtain editorial coverage in newspapers and magazines by sending not just an announcement about your book, but a story idea the reporter can use. If you need ideas for this, subscribe to the Publicity Hound newslette and the Marketing Minute.
But there are many more sources for free publicity than print publications. Ask local businesses or clients if you can include your information in their direct mailing. Offer a free copy as a contest prize to an organization whose members might be interested in your book. Give online chats about your book, publishing, your area of expertise, anything – just make sure ‘author of…’ appears in the promo materials.
Paying for advertising should be your last resort. To be effective marketing has to put your product’s name in front of the customer between 3 and 18 times before they will buy it. Can you afford to rely of paid advertising for all that exposure?
6. DO: Ask people to send reviews and feedback
…that you can use in your publicity materials.
Save every piece of email or mail you receive that says anything remotely flattering about your book. Ask the sender if it would be OK to quote them in publicity materials. If they give permission, save that communication too. Not only does this give you protection against accusations of using someone’s words without permission, chances are they will add some other glowing comment in the reply!
If you meet someone who has read your book don’t just ask ‘what did you think?’. That question is too broad. Ask which character they liked best, what in particular they liked and disliked about the book, who they think would enjoy it. As long as they don’t recoil in horror, ask if you can follow up with a note or email asking for a written quote (don’t put them on the spot for a quote right there and then).
It is hard to ask for compliments, but if you are willing to accept honest feedback, it can be very useful.
DON’T: Harangue people…
… if they haven’t yet read or ordered your book.
I know they said they were going to, but asking ‘have you read it yet?’ every time you meet them, is only going to make them less and less likely to read the book. Instead, they will probably start avoiding you.
If people have read it, great!
If they have not read the book, politely leave it alone. Change the subject, ask them how the family is, or how their business is going. The more people like you, the more likely they are to want to read your book!
7. DO: Remind bookstores to order POD books well in advance of events…
Bookstores usually contact a distributor or wholesaler for a book, a couple of weeks before a signing — assuming that the wholesaler will have it in stock, or be able to get it very quickly. Even if the preferred wholesaler doesn’t have it in stock, chances are someone, somewhere will, and the store can arrange to have copies rushed to them.
If your book is being produced Print On-Demand, it may take longer and there is no back-up stock…but the bookstore clerk probably doesn’t know that.
Contact your POD firm and ask how long books normally take to ship. Double that, and tell the bookstore that is how far in advance they must order books. If they say ‘no, it’ll be OK’, be firm. Tell them that it might not be OK. Tell them a POD book is not like a traditionally-published book, that things can go wrong and, if they do, there is no alternative stock of books to order at a pinch.
POD is new, and you should expect to have to educate book stores, librarians, and sometimes readers.
DON’T: Expect to sell more than 20 copies at a signing…
In the traditional publishing world, the average book signing shifts 20 copies. Of course Howard Stern sells more, and John Grisham sells more, but the average author does not.
Don’t be discouraged if your book signings don’t make you rich. That’s not what they are for. They are one more way to get your name and your book’s title in front of readers.
Conventional advertising wisdom says repetition is the key to advertising success – your client (your reader) must see your product’s name over and over…and over again, before they will even notice it. It takes many more repetitions before they are interested in buying it.
Book signings are an inexpensive way to create some of that repeated exposure. Not only will readers see your book during the event, but most bookstores will display posters of the book or an announcement for a couple of weeks before the event.
8. DO: Send customized press releases…
Every book has many themes, events, and characters that you can highlight in press releases for different audiences – and don’t forget that you, the author, are interesting.
Editors are drowning in press releases. If yours is to make the cut, it must tell the editor something that will appeal to his or her readers. Don’t just announce your new book and expect the world to be interested.
Instead, tell the editor of a child-care magazine how your novel features an inspirational ‘everywoman’ character who encounters all the same challenges and triumphs of raising a family that the magazine’s readers face.
Sell the editor of a regional newspaper on a ‘local author makes good’ story.
This doesn’t have to be as much work as it sounds. Write a standard press release with bio and summary information that will not change. Next research your market, and write a customized introductory paragraph just for them. Last, try to think up a snappy headline, related to what you have just written.
You may send fewer releases in the end, but 100 well-targeted releases will be worth more than 1000 box-standard press releases that don’t give the editor a story angle, and are destined for the circular file.
DON’T: Burn your bridges…
…By insulting the agents and editors who turned down your first book…You may need them for your second book, once you have proved yourself!
9. DO: Be businesslike…
…The image of the writer as one who lives on the edge of society, outside its rules, an amusing oddball, will not serve you well once you make the transition from writer to publisher.
When dealing with bookstores and reviewers and anyone else who will promote your book, you are no longer talking with people who are in this for the love of the written word. They might have been once, but now this is what they do from 9-6 or longer.
To work well with book industry professionals, you must be impeccably professional yourself. Make sure your letters are on clean letterhead, that you meet deadlines, that you are organized and know what you want and, most importantly do not waste their time. Be punctual, polite, and professional.
You are a publisher now, not an artiste…
DON’T: Expect to produce a best-seller.
It is extremely difficult to produce a best-seller. Part of this is due to the way the best-seller lists are organized (it is arcane and looks slightly fishy when you look closely enough at the process).
If it was easy, why are there several ‘how to produce a best-seller’ sessions on the subject at every year’s Book Expo America – an event attended by the major publishers as well as a few indies?
The most common mistake I hear from new authors the prediction that their book will be a best-seller. What they really mean is ‘this book is good and a lot of people will enjoy it’. Not the same thing as becoming a best-seller.
Most first novels (from major publishers) are printed in runs of 5000. Most do not make a profit. Publishers count on a few big names, like Clancy, Grisham and King, to make enough money to cover the new, interesting books they try out each year.
So, if books with the clout of Simon & Schuster behind them do not sell 5,000 copies, a self-publishing author needs to be realistic. Your book probably won’t sell 100,000 copies.
It is important to know this because you need to budget accordingly. Don’t spend $3,000 on your cover design or taking out ads in Publisher’s Weekly. When investing in your book, be realistic about how much money you should put in and how much you are likely to make back.
Having said all that, one of the benefits of self-publishing is that you can give your book’s promotional plan the personal attention it would not receive at a large publishing house. It is entirely possible that you will sell 5,000 copies faster than you could have, published by Penguin. You may even go on to sell 10,000 or 100,000 copies. And if you are selling that many copies, you may find the big publishers come knocking.
But even if they do, don’t expect a best-seller. Try to do all you can to get this book into as many hands as possible. That way, a lot of people will get to enjoy the book. Which is, let’s face it, more important to most writers, than being on a bestseller list.
10. DO: Allow yourself to be happy when you reach your personal milestones…
Some of the lessons in this series have seemed, on the surface, a bit discouraging: don’t expect to sell more than 20 copies at a booksigning; don’t expect a best-seller. They are not mean to discourage, but to free you.
When you wrote your book you probably weren’t thinking about selling thousands of copies. You were concerned with writing the best book you could. When you are published, however, everyone from your neighbor to the TV anchor interviewing you will ask ‘how many books have you sold’, as if this was the only measure of success. You find yourself obsessing on how many copies have sold, even if your initial aim was simply to produce a book you could give to your grandchildren. You find yourself apologetically admitting that you have ‘only’ sold 100 copies. Well, if your original audience was meant to be 5 grandchildren, then you have sold 20 times as many copies as you thought you would. Show me a major publisher who can claim those stats. Plus, if you are publishing with a print on-demand service, you may be in the black after selling only 100 copies. Show me a major publisher whose books are as profitable so quickly.
It is important to remember your goals, when assessing your success. Selling 10,000 copies is not the only way to be successful. Set your own personal milestones. Throw a party when you hold your book in your hands for the first time. Celebrate when you are invited to talk to the local women’s auxiliary. Buy yourself flowers when you sell 1,000 copies.
Always keep sight of your personal goals. Don’t allow other people’s questions about how many copies you have sold, or whether you’re being picked up by Random House, to spoil your pleasure at meeting the more modest goals you may have set.
Celebrate every time you reach one of your own personal milestones.
DON’T: Get discouraged if sales are slow…
The beauty of being self-published is that your book will be available as long as you say it is. (If you are using digital on-demand publishing, this is even more practical than if you are self-publishing traditionally.)
In the world of traditional publishing a book has to make a big splash in the first few months or it will be dropped by the publisher’s publicist, it will be returned by bookstores, and it will not receive a second printing.
When publishing your own book, you are in charge of the publicity. You know if there is a special date every year when your book becomes especially relevant, and you can focus on that (Valentine’s Day, or New Year etc.). You can set up alternate ways for readers to get hold of the book (directly from you or through online bookstores) that beat the short shelf-life of the bookstore book.
You can promote your book anywhere you go, any time you feel like it, because you are in charge.
Now isn’t it about time you stopped reading, and got out and published that book?
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