Writing and Publishing News

My new book is up at my website. If you have a book to promote, please do yourself a favor and order it. It’s Talk Up Your Book (Allworth Press) 300 pages, $19.95. http://www.matilijapress.com/TalkUpYourBook.html

Speaking of book promotion, an interesting story came across my desk yesterday. It seems that a publisher was interested in producing an anthology of stories from members of a particular writers group. The publisher had already published some of these members’ stories, however. And, since no one seemed interested in promoting their work (sales were dismal), the publisher decided not to go ahead as planned. This group of authors lost out on an opportunity because they did not promote their work.

Promotion is such a very different animal than most hopeful authors realize. Some of them don’t understand that promotion is part of the publishing game. They aren’t aware that, along with writing for publication, comes the HUGE responsibility of promotion and marketing. While most authors hear this and read it many times throughout the process of writing their books, they either don’t believe it, choose to ignore it or think that their situation is different—somehow special.

And then there are those people who just don’t know how to go about promoting a book outside of telling a few friends about it.

Many authors go right back to work writing another book after producing one. These authors are probably the worst promoters. What would you rather do, sit at your computer and write or go out and beg people to buy your already published book?

It doesn’t take an author long to realize that just reminding friends and twitter/facebook/discussion group followers to buy your book isn’t enough. In order to sell numbers of books, authors must launch a plan—organize projects to promote their books. They need to step outside their familiar box and organize events and activities, learn about events and opportunities and get involved.

The fact is that you won’t sell a copy of your book to everyone you talk to or everyone who hears about your book. The percentage of books sold per your efforts is probably around 8 or 10% at best in this competitive bookselling climate. Now, if you’re talking about friends and family, your percentage might be close to 50%. Sales to acquaintances (co-workers, fellow club members, neighbors, etc.) might amount to 6%. That is, for every 100 acquaintances who know about your book, six might buy it. And that’s if you are promoting to them personally. It’s much harder to sell a book from the background. Your customers will be more apt to buy your book from you in a face-to-face situation.

The reality of bookselling success is that it is time-consuming, energy-draining and hard, hard work. An author who wants to be widely read—who wants to profit from his or her publishing venture—must be willing to give promotion his full attention for at least three months. But I have to warn you, your book will only sell for as long as you are promoting it. Stop promoting and it will die.

The group of writers who were so thrilled to be published and then were excited about being involved in another anthology, really blew that opportunity with their publisher. It will be interesting to see if they learned something.

Let’s hope that each and every one of them will begin to take book promotion more seriously—that they will buy books on book promotion and study them, take courses/webinars on book promotion, read the many book promotion articles in the magazines and newsletter they subscribe to, bring in speakers on the subject of book promotion, attend writers conferences and sit in on sessions on book promotion.

If you are new to publishing, this is also what you should be doing. Start by reading my series of books.

Publish Your Book helps you to understand the publishing industry, all of your options and your responsibilities as a published author. http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html

Promote Your Book offers way over 250 tips and techniques for promoting your book. This book provides a treasure trove of ideas for the hopeful, new and struggling authors. http://www.matilijapress.com/PromoteYourBook.html

Talk Up Your Book shows you how to use your personality to sell your book in many different ways. This is a must-have book for any author who wants to or who should be doing signings, interviews, book festivals, public speaking, workshops at appropriate conferences, readings and so forth. http://www.matilijapress.com/TalkUpYourBook.html

You wrote an amazing book, designed it to perfection and even managed to get it published. But it isn’t selling as well as you thought it would. What went wrong?

1: The author wrote the wrong book for the wrong audience. Way too many authors write the book they want to write without truly considering their audience. It’s no wonder they fail in their attempt to promote the book.

There are two things this author can do:

• Start marketing to the right audience.
• Create a book that actually appeals to his target audience.

2: The author doesn’t know that he is responsible for promotion. It’s never too late to promote your book. Start now soliciting book reviews in appropriate magazines and at related websites and set up speaking engagements, for example. Read my new book to learn how to use your personality to sell book: Talk Up Your Book. Available at Amazon.com. (Use my name with the title in order to bring this book up at Amazon.) “Talk Up Your Book Fry.”

3: The author neglects to establish a platform. Many new authors don’t know what a platform is. It’s the author’s following, his reach, his way of attracting his audience. Most successful authors today have a platform in place before they produce a book.

How can you play catch-up with regard to your platform? Start now getting exposure and establishing credibility in your field. Participate in online forums on your topic, submit articles to appropriate magazines and newsletters, set up speaking engagements, write letters to the editor of pertinent magazines, make news by starting a volunteer organization, for example, and then tell the press about it. For fiction, get exposure and establish credibility as a novelist. Submit stories to publications your audience reads, blog regularly, use social media to become known and so forth.

4: The author gives promotion just a lick and a promise and then wonders why his book didn’t “take off.” Authors need to understand that book promotion is ongoing. It should start before you write the book and continue for as long as you want to sell books.

Remedy this mistake by establishing a solid promotional plan immediately. Start by compiling a mailing and emailing list. You’ll use these lists to announce your book, publicize any specials you’re running, inform folks of new additions to your products or services, let them know about upcoming appearances and so forth.

5: The author gives up. I can’t tell you how often I hear this from disillusioned authors, “I can’t sell my book, so what’s the use?” There’s one thing for sure; you won’t achieve the level of success you desire if you quit. Successful promotion takes time, energy, patience and lots of persistence.

There’s a lot to contemplate when entering the huge and competitive business of publishing. And promotion is a major consideration. Whether you land a traditional royalty publisher, self-publish (establish your own publishing company) or go with a pay-to-publish service, it is up to you—the author—to promote your book. And the time to start thinking about promotion is before you ever sit down and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.