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Writing and Publishing, Part 46:
Becoming your own publisher:
Marketing:
Writer's and Small Publisher's Outlet (WSPO).
In a previous W&P essay I made a bit of a case for Amazon.com
as a potential answer to the small publisher's marketing dilemma.
I did make a bid to become part of their advantage plan. That
was just a short time ago. Even so, they have responded by accepting
all five of my books into the program. I have received the first
order and have sent the books to them. To be sure, it was a small
order; just two copies of each book. If the books sell, I'm sure
there will be more orders. We will see. As I promised, I will
keep you informed.
What I did not point out in my previous essay is the state of Amazon's finances. In fact, it is pretty dismal. It is well known in the publishing industry that Amazon has never made a profit. From the hype I have seen in other areas, no one else seems to know about their financial condition. The truth is, they have been posting quarterly losses in the millions of dollars since their inception. The total is sure to be in the billions by now.
Here is a good clue that they may not make it. Their stock once sold at around $100.00. As I write this essay a current quote shows the stock at a little over $12.00. That's down about 90% from the peak. This is just information I knew and neglected to point out. Now you know. Even so, at the cost of a few copies of my books, I believe they are worth a try. I personally hope they succeed and honor their promises.
I have also made the point that the current situation, where the small publisher is at the mercy of the giants, is unacceptable and must change. I continue to believe that. If Amazon does not come through, I believe someone else will. In this piece I want to outline how I believe that someone else will look.
What I visualize is a small publisher's outlet. This would be a well financed outfit. It would be either one very wealthy individual or company, like for instance Microsoft, or an investment group with several backers. To be sure, these people would expect to make a profit. The days when you can con investors with some kind of dot com pipe dream are over, thank goodness. This means that the company would have to be convincingly structured and well managed.
At the top of this company should be a manager with a proven track record in business management and marketing. He or she should be supported by a board of directors with experience in many different kinds of businesses. In addition, the top person should be able to select a management support team who can work well together.
I see the heart of the marketing effort to be a giant website, much like Amazon's website. On that site, products would be grouped by genre and cross indexed by author, publisher, and title. A person should be able to find a book by knowing any one of those three things. A person should also be able to find books of a particular plot or theme.
Of course the website must have credit card processing capability and same day shipping. There should also be a telephone order desk for those like me who do not trust the internet security. Shipping and handling must be reasonably priced. S&H is not a place to pad the profit. WSPO should want to please and keep customers, not annoy them.
Besides the website, there must be some kind of brick and mortar channels of delivery. I think this is where Amazon is missing the boat. One way to do that is to distribute through some well know national chain, like K-Mart. Another way would be to bring in the small booksellers as partners. The firm could sign up booksellers to be part of the outlet network.
The WSPO would not control the booksellers. They would not be franchises but independent partners. To be sure there should be an agreement as to how they represent the WSPO. There must be a mutually beneficial agreement which can be discontinued by either party. The booksellers must agree to stock some minimum selection of WSPO titles. For that, they would have the option of using the WSPO logo on their storefront and in their advertising.
To protect these outlets, the website cannot undersell them. Their discounts mut be sufficient to make them competitive with the website. In addition, there must be no special deals. Discounts to small booksellers and large chains must be the same. There must never be any hint of impropriety or favoritism. There can be no reciprocal agreements which exclude some groups. There can be no special deals for the big guys. Everyone gets the same deal. I visualize the WSPO to be what B&N should have been when they went online.
It is essential to not exclude anyone from this WSPO. To be sure, the goal is to market the self published books but that will happen if the firm is operated with integrity. It is not necessary to shut out the larger publishers. It is important to make sure they don't get special terms. If that happened, the WSPO becomes just another channel for the thugs where the little guy ends up on the brown end of the stick.
As I said, this would take a large capital investment. It will be essential to introduce this company with a very large and powerful media blitz. Besides the television ads, there must be a series of advertisements in the few remaining intellectual media. Of course the large city newspapers and the more powerful radio networks must be included. The idea is to show up on the scene with force and fanfare and to make sure the reading public knows that WSPO has the books of literary merit.
I think this is a viable plan. I wish I had the capital to implement it. For the time being I am several millions short so don't wait for me. Just go ahead. If you can make it work be sure to include Wesoomi Publishing.
Now here is a final thought that I have pointed out before. Before you decide to become a self publisher either think of marketing and how you are going to do it, or give up on the idea of actually making money. This does not mean you cannot be a self publisher and be very proud of yourself. But, if you do not think of marketing, you are not likely to make money. The alternative is to count on luck. That seems to be what I did. I had no idea of the difficulty I would face in getting my books to the readers. I had no clue at all. So here I am, but I still wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Indeed I am, very proud of myself and my work.
Next time I will begin by looking at some of the publishing
industry journals.
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