Archive for February, 2013

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An Education for New and Struggling Authors

Friday, February 8th, 2013

I’d like to share a couple of reviews for my book “Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author.” And these are reviews from people I don’t know.
“This book is amazing for a number of reasons. One is that it is SO to the point; no words wasted, no fillers, just straight-forward information about how to promote your book. The second reason is the sheer quantity of ideas—staggering. Makes you feel like there is no way you and your book can fail. And third—an unbelievable list of resources like websites and periodicals.

I am putting a book proposal together and need to list marketing/promotion ideas. I feel this is the only book I need to read to accomplish this.

Furthermore, and this is truly a gift, you can hire Patricia Fry to help you with any aspect of your book!

In reading the book I get a sense about Patricia Fry: tremendous power, creativity, integrity and resourcefulness.

Highly recommended!

Here’s another one: “As a new author myself, I am intensely interested in finding good ways to promote my book. This book was very helpful to me. There were many new ideas in it that I had never considered or thought about. It was easy to read, with a good table of contents so you could easily find any particular aspect of publishing and marketing you wanted. I especially liked the references to the various web sites I could explore on the internet to help me market my book. This was well worth the money I spent.”

I assume these and the other reviews are helpful as sales for this book are UP.

There are numbers of reasons why you should write your book and this is one of them that I enjoy—having nice things said about you and your work. But most of all, I am thrilled to be able to help other authors. When the personal computer revolution and the digital printing phenomenon collided in the mid to late 1990s, and so many people jumped on the book-writing wagon, I began meeting dozens of them who felt they had failed. Each of them had a different story, but the basics were quite similar. The bottom line for most of them was. they had no idea about how to handle themselves and their projects with regard to the publishing industry. They didn’t understand it. And they certainly had no clue about the vast aspect of publishing known as book promotion.

My heart went out to these authors who had spent their money on their dreams and failed. That’s when I began my mission to educate the new authors bent on entering this highly competitive field before they got involved. As most of you know, I’d been writing for publication by then for about 25 years and had a few books under my belt.

I wrote my first book for authors in 2000 and I’ve attempted to keep new and struggling authors updated and informed through my writing and speaking ever since. If you are new to the industry, please do yourself a favor and read “Publish Your Book” and “Promote Your Book.” And congratulations, by the way, for following this blog. This is another good thing you can do for yourself.

Order these books from amazon.com in print or on Kindle and most other online and downtown bookstores. Also available here: http://www.matilijapress.com

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Two Things All Authors Must Do in Order to Be Successful

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

No matter what subjects I cover in this blog over these last nearly 8 years, we always come back to a couple of things. And many of you choose to ignore both of them. One is the importance of studying the publishing industry before getting involved and other is the subject of book promotion—marketing.

Every one of you will sooner or later do one of two things with regard to my posts on these topics. You will either realize how important they are and acquiesce, or you will continue to ignore them. Do you know how I can tell who makes which of these choices? By whether your book is a success or not.

It’s true. If you go ahead and write your book without considering your audience, decide not to spend the money on an editor, turn it over to the first company who agrees to produce it for you and then sit back and wait for customers to discover it and buy it by the truckloads, you will most likely fail.

If, on the other hand, you write the right book for the right audience, you study the publishing industry so that you understand your responsibilities as a published author, your options and how to make the best choices on behalf of your book, you are more likely to succeed.

Does this make sense to you or not? This week, I’d like you to look around your community or within your circle of coworkers, friends, acquaintances. Choose one or two who have achieved some measure of success in a particular field or interest. Consider how they arrived where they are. Did they spend time studying the field (go to college, trade school, work their way up in a company)? Did they do a lot of practicing to acquire the skill or technique needed in order to excel? Where there is an exceptional student, employee, sportsman, business owner or author, you’ll generally find someone who is focused, who knows what they want and how to achieve it, who understands their field/sport/hobby/product and who gives his or her all to their area of interest.

The hard facts for MOST authors who wish to be successful are:
• You must gain an understanding of the publishing industry. I so believe in this truth that I took over a year out of my life to produce a book on every aspect of the industry for new and struggling authors. It’s “Publish Your Book,” by Patricia Fry

• You must hire a qualified book editor. You will be surprised at the things you have missed in your book.

• You must prepare early and work constantly at promoting your book. You’ll learn volumes in “Publish Your Book” about book promotion (as well as how to write a book proposal, distribution, choosing the right publisher, etc.). But I recommend that you also purchase “Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author,” by Patricia Fry.

Both of these books are available at http://www.matilijapress.com And at amazon.com as well as most other online and downtown bookstores. Yes, they are on Kindle, Nook and other ereaders.

Download your FREE copy of “50 Ways to Prepare for Publishing Success” at http://www.patriciafry.com

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The Five Necessary P’s to Publishing, Continued

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

Publish
Once you have Planned, Prepared, Proofed and begun establishing your Platform, it is time to start thinking about Publishing. You have a choice to make—you have options. Will you try to land a traditional royalty publisher for your piece of fine work? Will you go with a pay-to-publish company? Or will you self-publish (establish your own publishing company)?

People ask me, which is the best publishing option? My response is, “It depends on you and it depends on the project.” Your job is to study the publishing industry so that you understand all of your options and the possible consequences of your choices. My book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author provides a good start in that direction. If you are considering a pay-to-publish company, also read Mark Levine’s The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, wherein he rates and ranks 48 of these companies and scrutinizes their contracts for you. (You can get the ebook version of this book FREE when you join SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network—something you should do, anyway.)

Publishing is not free. If you land a traditional royalty publisher, you may not be required to put any money up, but you’ll receive only eight to fifteen percent of the selling price of the books and this doesn’t typically add up to much.

If you go with a pay-to-publish outfit, you could end up with as much as $10,000 out of pocket. And in many cases, you still have to purchase your books. Read and understand any contract before signing.

If you self-publish, you could spend anywhere from $1,000 (for a few copies produced at a business center) to $10,000 or more. My first self-published book cost me $25,000 to produce in 1983. That’s before digital printing and I ordered 5,000 copies.

Both the pay-to-publish option and self-publishing require that you hire a page layout and cover design experts, unless you can do this work yourself. Here, you could spend another $3,000.

So how do you recoup your money? By selling books. To this end, it is imperative that you plan ahead and develop an excellent marketing plan.

Promotion
Do not even consider producing a book for publication if you do not have the money, time, experience, interest, enthusiasm for and/or knowledge about book promotion.

In order to sell copies of your book, you must turn practically all of your attention to promoting it. This means identifying your audience, locating them and finding ways to effectively approach them with information that will entice them to purchase your book.

There are numerous ways to approach book promotion and, in my articles, courses, workshops and books, I outline various activities for each type of promoter—the bold and the bashful. I highly recommend that you purchase and study and continuously refer to my book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. Do not expect to sell books without promoting them. Your book will not sell itself. (Don’t laugh. I’ve met authors who believe that their books will do just that.)

One of the things you will learn from studying the publishing industry is that the competition for books is fierce. You may have already noticed that everyone is writing a book. Did you know that over 75 percent of all published books sell fewer than 100 copies? And lack of promotion is only one reason why so many books fail. What are the other reasons?
• Lack of appropriate planning.
• Improper preparation.
• Inadequate proofing/editing.
• Ineffective publishing methods.
• Lackadaisical promotion.

Put your P’s in a row before you even put your pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and you will have a much greater chance for publishing success.

Order the books mentioned above at amazon.com or most other online and downtown bookstores.

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The 5 P’s of Publishing Continued

Monday, February 4th, 2013

Preparation
Once you establish that your book is a viable product, begin outlining, organizing and writing it.

Keep your audience in mind the entire time that you are working on your project. Are you giving them what they want? Is it easy to follow and use? Is the material interesting? Will the story hold their interest? Have you smoothed out all of the areas that might cause the reader confusion? While you are writing your book, start putting away money toward a good book editor. And once you have written your book, hire that editor to put the finishing touches on it. This could make all of the difference in the world. Just ask some of my clients.

Platform
Your platform is your following, your reach, your connections. How many people would read your book just because you wrote it?

Work on your platform while you’re writing the book:
• Create a massive mailing and emailing list.
• Become known among leaders and followers in your book’s genre/topic.
• Write and submit articles or stories to appropriate publications.
• Develop workshops and seminars on your book’s topic and present them.
• Publish your own newsletter.
• Establish a blog and promote it heavily.

This will be a busy and enjoyable period in the process of becoming a published author. You will sometimes think that these eight to thirty-eight (or so) months during which you are writing the book are the hardest you’ve ever experienced. But I want you to hold this thought: You ain’t seen nothing yet! Most authors say that they thought the writing process was hard until they got involved in promoting their books.

It is for this reason that I recommend working on your platform while you are in writing mode. You’ll be more well-prepared for what is to come.

Proofing/Editing
Once you’ve completed your manuscript, you’ll become involved in self-editing. Proof and edit as thoroughly as you possibly can.
• Check for inconsistencies and repeated material.
• Make sure your spacing and punctuation is correct.
• Examine your manuscript for muddy writing and run-on sentences.
• Eliminate those sneaky mistakes that aren’t picked up by spellcheck.
• Correct any misuse of apostrophes or words.

Once you have done your self-editing, hire an experienced book editor for your final edit. Yes, this is necessary and the expense must be factored in. Hiring a good editor is an investment in your publishing success. But I must repeat—this should be an experienced book editor.

Plan to pay an editor from $800 to $3,000 (or more). This depends on the size and scope of your manuscript as well as the condition of it. I offer these services.
http://www.patriciafry.com

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the last two P’s—Publishing and Promotion.

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The 5 P’s of Successful Authorship

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

What does it take to become an author? Notice that I didn’t even insert the word, “successful” in this sentence. Success is relative, anyway, isn’t it? I know authors who don’t believe they are successful until they sell 100,000 copies. And then there are authors who celebrate their success if they earn back enough to pay their printing costs.

But what does it take to become an author—to accomplish the requirements of authorship? During my forty years as a career writer and author; after 37 published books and after having worked with dozens and dozens of clients on their book projects, I’ve narrowed it down to 5 P’s. Ask any author who has been around the block and they will tell you that it takes:

• Planning
• Preparation
• Proofing
• Publishing
• Promotion

There are no shortcuts. One cannot deviate from this established path to authorship. If you want to become an author and experience whatever measure of success you desire, you must consider each of these 5 P’s. (It wouldn’t hurt to throw in the word Patience, either.)

Planning
Before you start writing the novel or the nonfiction book of your dreams, put some thought into the potential for your project—a lot of thought. I suggest writing a book proposal. You wouldn’t open a business without a business plan. Consider the book proposal a business plan for your book. At the same time, look at your book as a product. If you view this project any other way, you are already starting down the wrong path.

Before proceeding, ask yourself, “Why do I want to write this book?” and “What is the purpose of this book.” If your responses are valid and reasonable, move forward. If they are frivolous and emotionally-driven, reconsider your project.

Now sit down and write a book proposal. There are many resources to guide you, including Herman and Adams, “Write the Perfect Book Proposal” and my “How to Write a Successful Book Proposal.” There is also an extensive section and guidelines for writing a book proposal in my most recent book on publishing, “Publish Your Book.” http://amzn.toTze53Z

What will you learn as you progress through the book proposal process? Here are the most important questions that you need to answer through your book proposal.
• Do you have a valid book at all?
• Who is your audience and where are they?
• What else is out there like your book?
• Is there actually a market for this book?
• What are your qualifications for writing this book?
• Do you have a strong enough platform to generate sales for this book?
• How will you promote this book?

What you learn from a well-researched, well-developed book proposal will guide you in making your next decision. Is your original idea a good one or do you need to tweak it a bit in order to make it more marketable?

This could be an important turning point in your project. Make an emotional decision (I love my idea and I’m sticking with it even if I can’t justify producing it) and you may fail. Make an educated decision based on the facts revealed in your book proposal, and your book has a fighting chance.

What about a book proposal for a novel? While the book proposal process is designed with the nonfiction book in mind, I recommend preparing one for a novel, as well. You should establish your genre, have a plan for your story, know something about your audience and how to reach them and you must be prepared to promote your book once it is a book. The fact is that no matter which publishing option you choose, you—the author—are responsible for promoting your book. So you’d better start building your platform—your following, your way of attracting readers.
Tomorrow we will discuss Preparation and Proofing.

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Get More Valuable Exposure for Your Book

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

I promised I would talk about exposure today. Exposure is one of the most valuable benefits you take away from nearly any of your promotional efforts. The exposure benefits are especially prevalent and important to authors who get out and speak to their audiences. Whether you are speaking to a group, talking casually with people at a signing, book festival, flea market or conference or you’re just chatting it up with potential readers, you are getting exposure. One or 1001 people (or more) now have the opportunity to learn about your book. This may be the first or twenty-first time they’ve become aware of you and your book. It doesn’t matter. If it is a book they can use or would be interested in reading, they will eventually do so, but only if they know about it.

Stay hidden behind your computer reaching only those people who happen across your website, stop in once in a while to read your blog, subscribe to the newsletters you write for, communicate with you via FaceBook, etc., and you will miss out on a lot of valuable exposure.
The fact is:

• People are more apt to buy books from an author they meet and like.
• The power of persuasion is more effective in person.
• When someone bothers to hold a book in their hands, they are more apt to buy it.
• The memory of a real-time experience is greater/stronger than that of one occurring online.

While some people purchase books they’re interested in on the spot without much contemplation, others need time to consider the book. The more times they see, hear, read about or are otherwise aware of you—the author of the book they’re considering—the more apt they are to eventually purchase it.

Exposure has other positive side-effects, as well. I’ve known many authors who have attended book festivals, signed books and spoke to groups, for example, and were disappointed because they didn’t sell many books. Some of them have vowed never to do that activity again because they sold so few books. What these authors didn’t consider, however, were the benefits outside of making that on-the-spot sale. For example,

• Awareness of you and your book expands every time you speak to new groups and individuals.

• You are reaching even more people when you publicize these activities and events.

• While out talking to people, you may meet someone or your publicity might reach someone who wants to purchase your book in bulk for an event, who invites you to speak to a large group of your potential readers, who has a radio show and wants you to appear, etc. It happens. I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count.

The next time you speak before a group, are interviewed on the radio, do a signing at a small bookstore, reserve a booth at a book festival, etc., don’t view this so much as a bookselling opportunity as one for exposure. Look at the bigger picture—how widespread can you direct the publicity? What opportunities might present themselves beyond just making those immediate sales? But you have to do your part.

You must get out of the office and mingle with your readers. You have to direct the publicity far and wide. You need to keep an attitude of gratitude which will help to open you up to whatever comes your way. And stop thinking so much about sales that you miss those opportunities that can lead to greater success.

For more about how to have more successful speaking engagements, book festivals, signings, etc. be sure to order your copy of “Talk Up Your Book.” It’s available in print and on Kindle at http://amzn.to/ZMJndK

Posted in Book Promotion, Bookselling | 1 Comment »

Bookselling Opportunity for Authors

Friday, February 1st, 2013

SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) is offering some major book-promotion opportunities right now. Join SPAWN ($65/year) and you can sign up to sell your books at the gigantic Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in the SPAWN booth. $203 per day instead of the $1,000 (or so) you would pay for a booth of your own. Event dates: April 20-21, 2013.

If you don’t live near Los Angeles, you are a member of SPAWN and would still like to participate in this event, you can send one copy of your book to us for display in our booth. They typically get around 140,000 visitors to the event, which is now held at the USC campus. The fee for this opportunity with SPAWN is $20 per book.

Another level of promotion we offer members is an entry in our SPAWN Catalog of Members’ Books and Services. For $37, you can have your book featured in our catalog, which is online all the time and which we print to hand out at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books as well as other events throughout the US over the year. This year, it will also be distributed at the Tucson Festival of Books as well as several other events in Southern California, Texas, Louisiana and possibly others.

There are countless other reasons, of course, to join SPAWN. Read about them here:
http://www.spawn.org/member.htm

Join here: http://www.spawn.org/join.htm

Sign up to participate in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books—share booth space, display books and/or place book in catalog. http://www.spawn.org/latfb.htm

See the lovely SPAWN Catalog of Members’ Books and Services here: http://www.spawn.org/catalogofbooks.htm

Deadline for Catalog entries is a firm February 15, 2013.

I want to remind those of you who scoff at the cost to sell books at an event such as this, about the value of exposure. I’m going to talk about that in tomorrow’s post. Don’t miss it.

Questions: Patricia@spawn.org

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