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Writing and Publishing, Part 17:
Creating the book:
About marketing the book:
Last week I discussed the book manufacturing process. Great! Now
we have a book. How do we let people know about it? How do we
get people to buy it? That is called marketing and distribution.
At this juncture, I must point out that I have not found the magic
formula for doing this. I have no secrets to offer you. Financially,
Wesoomi Publishing is not successful. As I have said, I can be
a publisher because I was somewhat successful in a previous endeavor.
To be sure, selling books and making money would be enormously satisfying. I will say, however, that I do not and will not measure success by monetary results alone. The thing which is just as satisfying and has kept me at it for four years is the pleasure which comes from being my own person. What you can read in my books and my essays are my thoughts and my ideas. I have a forum and I answer to no one. I bow to no one. There is something very powerful about being able to say that.
For those of you who want to try working through a publisher, we can study the traditional method. This model would have the writer offering his tome to the publishing house. If the tome is accepted, the publisher will produce the book and offer it to a large distributor. The distributor would agree to offer the book to their customers, the booksellers. The booksellers would then offer the book to their customers, the readers.
The publisher and author would then support the marketing effort through some traditional advertising, but mostly, and most effectively, through publicity. The advertising can occur in any of the normal advertising channels. Newspapers, magazines, etcetera. The publicity takes the form of press releases to reviewers and anyone else who will listen. In addition efforts are made to get the author on talk shows and the like. Along with this, promotional copies of the book are given to reviewers and influential people.
One thing to notice in this traditional model is the role of the author. If a writer is lucky enough to get his book accepted by a large house, he is not done. This is especially true for new writers. The writer will be expected to be the main hustler in the promotion of his book. A large publisher may have a large budget, but this money is not for promoting unknown authors. It is for promoting the sure sellers. You know which ones. You see their books on the front display tables of the big booksellers.
What a large house will put into a book by an unknown author is very limited. For sure, they will pay a small advance to the writer. They will also pay the cost of manufacturing a very short press run of the book. They are not likely to put a great deal of money into direct advertising. They may, however, make some effort to create publicity through press releases and promotional review copies to media people.
The publisher, in its own best interest, will try to create promotional opportunities for the book. The follow up on any of these efforts by the publisher is sure to fall on the back of the author. The author will be expected to be the main salesman in the books promotion. In short, the author had better be very good at exploiting promotional opportunities. The opportunities will be very few for a new writer. They will soon become nonexistent if the writer muffs the first one or two.
Here is the rub. Most really good writers are introverts. That is part of why they have chosen writing. Now, to actually become an accepted writer, this introvert must become a celebrity. He must sit on a stage and shoot off his mouth, just like an actor or a talk show host. It just doesn't seem fair, somehow, but that's the reality of marketing in publishing. Even the big timers must do it.
For the writer whose tome is accepted, and who becomes a good hustler, success really will follow. Talk show hosts like nothing better than a talkative, interesting personality. Their shows depend on it. For the author then, success at hustling will surely lead to more offers to be on more shows and sell more books. Dear, dear! When will you ever find time to write.
What I have just discussed is direct, brute force marketing and it does work. It seems to work great for the big houses with big budgets and celebrity authors. Even some unknown writers have managed to become celebrities through this model, though it is not extremely likely.
Well, what about the small publisher. The undeniable fact is, this traditional model does not work at all well for small publishers with small budgets and unknown authors, no matter how great their work. It has nothing to do with excellence. At Wesoomi, we have learned this through hard experience.
The small publisher is met, at best, with a stone wall of silence on every front. Distributors and booksellers sneer or look away. For example, I did not know it was possible to sneer over a telephone until I called a large Chicago based book distributor about my second book. What I heard was sickening; albeit, educational.
What else happens? Promotional copies are not even acknowledged. Follow up telephone calls are not accepted. Messages are not returned. Most reviewers will not respond. Press releases are trashed without even being opened. Put offs and evasions are the norm. Thus, the small publisher must be much more creative in his marketing effort. As I said, I have yet to solve that conundrum.
I have not and probably never will surrender. I will not concede this great universe of ideas and creativity to the thugs and neanderthals who currently control it. I believe that the golden era of the small independent publisher is just beginning. The big publishers will loose their advantage. To be sure, the big houses and big sellers will retain the mass market by providing the twaddle it demands. They can have it! The small publishers will prosper in the cracks by providing the thoughtful titles for thinking people. My current focus is in figuring our how to do that; how to get the books to the people.
Next time, I will get into my views of self publishing. That
will require a number of essays as I expect to cover most of the
previous concepts from the standpoint of the publisher. I will
cover, in great detail, the things which I know do not work in
marketing, including my most profound blunders. For now, I will
make the point that marketing is the key. Everything else in self
publishing is easy by comparison.
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