I met a cordial group of writers yesterday who seemed to have an insatiable appetite for learning all they can about the world of book publishing. They have been involved in a 6-week workshop on self-publishing and I was invited to top it off by talking about book promotion—the topic of many of my blogs and my latest book.
I don’t think I’ve ever watched so many people write notes as fast as these authors were as I spoke. And that is heartening to me. This means that they are open-minded. They have a desire to succeed and they want to truly understand what it is going to take. Several of them bought copies of my book: Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. Those who go ahead with their book projects will be awfully glad to have the information that’s in this book. The thing is, the earlier you begin to study book promotion, the greater your chance for success.
Of course, you also want to study the publishing industry, how it works, your options, the possible consequence of your choices and all of your responsibilities as a published author.
Those of you who read this blog, who have attended my presentations or who have read my hallmark book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, have heard/read me say this time and time again. What does this mean?
1: It is highly important that you understand something about the publishing industry before you get involved. What does this require? You need to know, how to approach the industry in today’s publishing climate with a new book. How do you navigate the industry? Where do you start when you have a book to produce? What can you expect once you enter into the world of publishing?
You would not enter into any other kind of business without knowing something about the industry, how the product is produced and marketed, your customers, your suppliers and distributors, your competition… Now would you? And publishing, even if you are coming into it as a one-book author, is a business and should be approached as such. Educate yourself before you dive in. You’ll be so glad you did. I can’t even begin to tell you about the costly mistakes you can make if you don’t take this step.
2: Publishing is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. There are various options and many choices within each of the common publishing options. The absolute wrong approach is to go with the first self-publishing (pay-to-publish) company that you find in your first Google search. Learn what all of your options are. Explore the particulars of each possibility in each option and make your choices based on your head not your heart.
3: While conducting your thorough search of publishing options, you will discover some ugly truths about some of them. If you haven’t heard horror stories, you aren’t doing appropriate research. Use the Internet to uncover complaints and warnings as well as accolades for the publishing companies you are considering. Many authors are severely burned every year. Very often it is due to their lack of patience (they don’t want to take the time to do the research), their eagerness to be published (they sooooo want to believe that someone really does believe in their book) and their denial (they see the writing on the wall and the red flags, but ignore it).
4: It is imperative that you know what your personal responsibilities are and that you accept them before becoming a published author. Referring back to the business scenario—you wouldn’t become a shoe repairman and refuse to repair shoes. You wouldn’t open a bakery if you didn’t plan to do some baking. Books, especially in this publishing climate, do not sell themselves. You need to understand and accept the fact that no matter which publishing option you choose, you (the author) will be responsible for promoting your book. Over ¾ of authors today do not believe or accept this as truth and this is the number of authors who fail each year. This is how seriously important this is.
Start your study of the publishing industry by reading my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
And also purchase my latest book which will prepare you for the task of book promotion: Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. http://amzn.to/oe56Ia