Like an imaginary airline named “EasyJet,” I meet many authors who are looking for the easy aspects of publishing. I’m going to give you the truth upfront: it doesn’t exist. After being in this business for years, each aspect of this work contains aspects where your book can crash and not succeed. The unfortunate fact is many of these details are outside of anything the author can control. But don’t worry. In this article, I’m going to give you some insights and resources for your publishing journey--in particular follow my links in my bio at the end.
In the last ten years, the publishing world has changed. In the past, self-publishing was the poor stepsister to traditional publishing. These self-made titles often looked poor and were not accepted in libraries or bookstores. As book production has improved, this attitude is shifting. There are still poorly made self-published books and the average self-published title sells less than 200 copies during the lifetime of the book.
My bent in this area is to get the largest distribution
and produce the best book you can produce. It’s why I continue to encourage authors
to create a book proposal and work with traditional publishers as well as explore
other models like Morgan James Publishing (where I’ve worked for over ten years).
While there are many ways and companies to help you
create your book, at the end of the day, the key question relates to sales of that
book. Is it selling? Are people buying it on a consistent basis? Are you as the
author promoting your book consistently? One of the best ways to learn about publishing
is to consistently read how-to books about writing or marketing. As you read these
books and take action from the information, you will grow as a writer. I’ve got
stacks of these types of books that I read.
Books that last and continue to sell in the market
are rare. Traditional publishers are known to be fickle in this area. I have seen
it when I’ve worked inside publishing houses (not Morgan James). You work hard to get a book published and into the market,
then for whatever reason it does not sell, then a publishing executive writes a
letter to the author or literary agent
and takes the book out of print.
New Books Need Reviews
Several weeks ago, I was skimming on Facebook and
noticed one of my author friends was talking about a new book. I wrote this friend
and offered to review her book. She was going to ask her publisher to send me a
book. I promptly pressed on to something else and almost forgot about it. Then the
review copy arrived this week. I’m eager to write a few words of review to help
my friend.
The publisher launched this book on March 1st. As
a part of my process of getting ready to review this book, I checked the book page
on Amazon. Nine days after the launch, it looked like my review was going to be
the first one. There were no reviews for this book. Reviews are important to every
author because they are social proof that readers love your book. It’s why I work
as an author to ask others to review my book and also review books for others on
Amazon and Goodreads.
I emailed my author friend about her lack of reviews.
Now this author has sold thousands of copies of some of her other books. She has
a full-time job—not as an author. Despite her years in publishing, I found her response
interesting. Her email blamed the lack of effort on the marketing department
of her publisher.
One of the best ways for you to take responsibility
is to create your own marketing plans. Whether you self-publish or have a traditional
publisher to get your book into the bookstore, these plans are important. Whether
your book is launching soon or has been out for a while, you need to be creating
and executing your own marketing plans.
A marketing plan from the author is a key element
in every book proposal. The proposal is your business plan. If you have such a plan,
are you taking action to execute it? Does your plan need adjustment and updating?
It Takes Author Activity
to Sell Books
Before I began working inside a book publishing house,
I had written more than 50 nonfiction books,
ranging from children to adult books. I have only self-published one book and in general worked through traditional publishers.
However, I was unaware of the financial production
numbers for nonfiction books and I found it shocking—and something critical for
potential authors to understand. The author never sees these figures for their books
as the publisher doesn’t reveal them throughout the contract negotiation process.
A publisher will produce these financial calculations as simply a part of good business
practices. As an author, understanding these numbers helped me see publishing as
a business. Authors have huge amounts of time and emotional investment in their
words. When I saw these production numbers, I understood that the publisher, not
the author, has the largest out-of-pocket cash investment in a book.
Inside the publisher, the editor will gather a sales
projection about how many copies the sales department believes they can sell of
your title the first year. That sales figure will be used to calculate the production
costs of ink, paper and binding for various amounts of printing (5,000, 10,000 or
15,000 copies). As the initial print number is raised, the cost per book decreases.
You may ask, “So why not print a large volume each
time?” The answer is, if the publisher prints a large number of copies, then he
has to store those copies in their warehouse (read cost and expense), plus make
sure they actually sell those copies within a year’s time frame. The cost of tying
up financial resources in storing and warehousing books that aren’t selling is large.
Also the federal government taxes publishers on each copy in storage. These tax
rules have forced publishers to think long and hard about how many copies of each
book to print.
Inside my former publisher, we calculated the overall
printing details of the book (paperback with general publishing look or hardcover
with jacket) and the number of books to print before offering a book contract. In
short, publishers pour a great deal of work into their books and financial projections
before they call you and offer a book contract. Understanding this process helps
you see some of the reasons it takes such a long time for an author to receive a
publishing contract.
Many writers focus only on the creative aspects of writing a book and getting it published, but the executives inside a publishing house are businesspeople who want to sell books and turn a profit at the end of the day. It’s a delicate balance between creating the best possible product and assuring that each product has the best opportunity to sell on the market and reach the target audience.
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