Part Five
9.
DO: Be businesslike...
...The image of the writer as one
who lives on the edge of society, outside its rules, an amusing oddball,
will not serve you well once you make the transition from writer to
publisher. When dealing with bookstores and reviewers and anyone else
who will promote your book, you are no longer talking with people who
are in this for the love of the written word. They might have been once,
but now this is what they do from 9-6 or longer.
To work well with book industry
professionals, you must be impeccably professional yourself. Make sure
your letters are on clean letterhead, that you meet deadlines, that you
are organized and know what you want and, most importantly do not waste
their time. Be punctual, polite, and professional.
You are a publisher now, not an artiste...
DON'T: Expect to produce a best-seller.
It is extremely difficult to produce
a best-seller. Part of this is due to the way the best-seller lists are
organized (it is arcane and looks slightly fishy when you look closely
enough at the process).
If it was easy, why are there
several 'how to produce a best-seller' sessions on the subject at
every year's Book Expo America - an event attended by the major
publishers as well as a few indies?
The most common mistake I hear from
new authors the prediction that their book will be a best-seller. What
they really mean is 'this book is good and a lot of people will enjoy
it'. Not the same thing as becoming a best-seller.
Most first novels (from major
publishers) are printed in runs of 5000. Most do not make a profit.
Publishers count on a few big names, like Clancy, Grisham and King, to
make enough money to cover the new, interesting books they try out each
year.
So, if books with the clout of Simon
& Schuster behind them do not sell 5,000 copies, a self-publishing
author needs to be realistic. Your book probably won't sell 100,000
copies.
It is important to know this because
you need to budget accordingly. Don't spend $3,000 on your cover design
or taking out ads in Publisher's Weekly. When investing in your book, be
realistic about how much money you should put in and how much you are
likely to make back.
Having said all that, one of the
benefits of self-publishing is that you can give your book's promotional
plan the personal attention it would not receive at a large publishing
house. It is entirely possible that you will sell 5,000 copies faster
than you could have, published by Penguin. You may even go on to sell
10,000 or 100,000 copies. And if you are selling that many copies, you
may find the big publishers come knocking.
But even if they do, don't expect a
best-seller. Try to do all you can to get this book into as many hands
as possible. That way, a lot of people will get to enjoy the book. Which
is, let's face it, more important to most writers, than being on a
bestseller list.
10.
DO: Allow yourself to be happy when you reach
your personal milestones...
Some of the lessons in this series
have seemed, on the surface, a bit discouraging: don't expect to sell
more than 20 copies at a booksigning; don't expect a best-seller. They
are not mean to discourage, but to free you.
When you wrote your book you
probably weren't thinking about selling thousands of copies. You were
concerned with writing the best book you could. When you are published,
however, everyone from your neighbor to the TV anchor interviewing you
will ask 'how many books have you sold', as if this was the only measure
of success. You find yourself obsessing on how many copies have sold,
even if your initial aim was simply to produce a book you could give to
your grandchildren. You find yourself apologetically admitting
that you have 'only' sold 100 copies. Well, if your original audience
was meant to be 5 grandchildren, then you have sold 20 times as many
copies as you thought you would. Show me a major publisher who can claim
those stats. Plus, if you are publishing with a print on-demand service,
you may be in the black after selling only 100 copies. Show me a major
publisher whose books are as profitable so quickly.
It is important to remember your
goals, when assessing your success. Selling 10,000 copies is not the
only way to be successful. Set your own personal milestones. Throw a
party when you hold your book in your hands for the first time.
Celebrate when you are invited to talk to the local women's auxiliary.
Buy yourself flowers when you sell 1,000 copies.
Always keep sight of your personal
goals. Don't allow other people's questions about how many copies you
have sold, or whether you're being picked up by Random House, to spoil
your pleasure at meeting the more modest goals you may have set.
Celebrate every time you reach one
of your own personal milestones.
DON'T: Get discouraged if sales are slow...
The beauty of being self-published
is that your book will be available as long as you say it is. (If you
are using digital on-demand publishing, this is even more practical than
if you are self-publishing traditionally.)
In the world of traditional
publishing a book has to make a big splash in the first few months or it
will be dropped by the publisher's publicist, it will be returned by
bookstores, and it will not receive a second printing.
When publishing your own book, you
are in charge of the publicity. You know if there is a special date
every year when your book becomes especially relevant, and you can focus
on that (Valentine's Day, or New Year etc.). You can set up alternate
ways for readers to get hold of the book (directly from you or through
online bookstores) that beat the short shelf-life of the bookstore book.
You can promote your book anywhere
you go, any time you feel like it, because you are in charge.
***
Now isn't it about time you stopped
reading, and got out and published that book?
Part
I
Part
II
Part
III
Part
IV
***
If
you have any questions about getting published, email me at jd@jdwrite.com. If
I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does!
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