You walk into your local chain bookstore and see a table filled with cookbooks and a big sign that says “GRILLING COOKBOOKS.” BAM! Right in the front of the store as you walk in. Thousands of eyeballs see those cookbooks every week for a few weeks until the table gets turned into a “BACK TO SCHOOL” theme…

You walk into your local chain bookstore and see a table filled with cookbooks and a big sign that says “GRILLING COOKBOOKS.” BAM! Right in the front of the store as you walk in. Thousands of eyeballs see those cookbooks every week for a few weeks until the table gets turned into a “BACK TO SCHOOL” theme display. How does one get on the coveted book table? Why were those books chosen and not others?

The August Book Table Begins in February

The process for an August “Grilling” book table started back in February. The sales reps from publishing houses meet with the buyers in the corporate bookstore chain’s main office on a regular basis. Meeting with the buyer of each genre/category for a few minutes, they present all the relevant books they have coming out in summer and then move onto the next buyer to do the same.

The Marketing Department Weighs In

During the course of the day, one of the meetings that the sales reps have is with their marketing department rep. This marketing department staff member meets with “their” publishers and hears about the books that the sales reps want to promote. They also ask the sales rep to share which books the bookstore buyers ordered the most of and which ones they liked for displays. Ideas are exchanged and advertising dollar amounts are discussed in very loose terms.

A few months later, (April? May?) the sales reps hear from their marketing department rep with a list of displays and titles that were approved for August. What happened between the February meetings and the May emails? A LOT. The marketing representatives walked into a lot of small boardrooms and pitched the books they and their publishers decided that they wanted to display. Theme and display ideas were decided upon and tables and end caps assigned. It is decided that a “Grilling Cookbook” table will happen in August. Now the fun starts!

Who Makes the Final Cut

There are a bunch of marketing representatives in that room with their publishers. All of them have grilling cookbooks that they want on that table. There are 20 spots and 50 potential cookbooks vying for space. (There may have been 100 grilling cookbooks presented to the buyer last February, but only the ones that the buyer decides to order in large enough quantities will be eligible to even get INTO the fight for those 20 spots. Once the smoke clears, 20 titles have nabbed the spots on the August book table and 30 are left in the dust. That’s life in the big city.

Co-op Percentages Count

Why those 20? Is it because they were the best? Maybe. Or maybe one of the publishers offered a deeper discount on purchases and that will make the bookstore chain more money on every sale. A few of the publishers likely offered a higher co-op percentage (credits on purchases against display costs). Perhaps one of the publishers had recently purchased an entire book table and the marketing department wants them to stay happy with the chain so that they keep buying display space. Who knows? Not us—we don’t get to sit in that room. Usually what happens is that the best books with the greatest and broadest appeal end up on the promotional book table. (But keep those other scenarios in mind when asking chains and bookstores to display your book.)

How It Works at Indie Bookstores

Does it work this way at local and independent bookstores? Sort of. Typically there are merchandising, marketing and buying staffers who separate their duties in a very similar manner. Sales reps pitch to the buyers and the buyers meet with the merchandising/marketing person to finalize the displays. Co-op (a credit against purchases) advertising dollars are requested and when approved by the publisher, those books are slated for an upcoming display. It’s not as cutthroat, but it is a business decision with a lot more factors than “Is this the best book?” (See more on wooing book buyers.)

Unlike the chains, however, your local bookstore is often quite open to hearing display ideas and working with publishers to come up with marketing ideas outside of a larger marketing program that was created nine months ago and needs approval from upper management. (In many cases, the buyer and display merchandiser is the owner.)

Pay to Display

WHY do stores charge for displays? Because they can. They know that displays draw the eye and merchandising books on a table or in a window increases their appeal. It gives the book credibility and adds to the book’s overall sales potential. Publishers are willing to pay for these displays because they know the benefits as well. If you want to get into some of these displays at airport stores, in bookstore chains, or in your local independent retailer, you need to understand that you are not working only with the store, you are also competing with a group of publishers who have already offered the store some much-needed cash/credit to pick their books. Be ready to play on those terms and you can compete for the display spaces and opportunities.

Now is the time to ask your local store owner what holiday display plans they have and how you can participate. (Yes, they are thinking Christmas already.) Do you have some fun ideas for Thanksgiving, Kwanza, or Valentine’s Day? Start sharing those ideas now and follow up with an offer to give the store co-op credit against orders in exchange for displaying your books during the busiest retail season of the year. (See more ideas on partnering with bookstores.)

Are Stocking Fees Worth It?

For those of you whose local bookstore told you that they only stock books that pay a stocking/display fee, that is not what I mean when I say “advertising or co-op funds.” That is paying a fee to be stocked on a shelf that you might not get on to another way. There are good reasons to agree to pay $50 (or so) to have your book stocked in a popular store for a few weeks or months. Again, the gravitas and added credibility of having your book in a store combined with the number of people who see the book increases dramatically when it is on a bookstore shelf. But here’s another way to think about this practice: Books that are in a great deal of demand are going to be stocked because the store recognizes that they are going to be profitable. Stores don’t charge to stock successful books. Perhaps you might want to try a stock fee for a while. But please, first spend money and time making your book a “must have” title that people are constantly asking for. That is the best way to spend your marketing budget!
Happy Holidays! Get those display ideas out there!

*Previously published at BookWorks Aug 2017

Anna Termine spends an hour teaching us all a great deal about subsidiary rights and foreign language rights sales.  Watch this video and use the materials Anna so generously provided.

Publishers and Agents

A great resource for foreign publisher lists and sub agents are the book fair exhibitor directories – you can search by country and this also has agents listed as well. Here are a few examples:

London Book Fair (held in April)  http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/exhibitor-directory/  .

Frankfurt Book Fair (held in October): http://catalog.services.book-fair.com/en/exhibitors-and-directories/exhibitors-a-z/letter/all/xoffset/0

Book Expo (BEA held the end of May/early June) in NYC the end of May,: http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/The-Floor/Exhibitor-List/#

New York Rights Fair (held the same time as BEA) http://www.newyorkrightsfair.com/exhibitor/directory-listing

Other key rights fairs are:

Bologna Children’s Books Fair held in late March/early April

Gothenburg Sweden Book Fair for Scandinavia in September

Guadalajara Mexico  Book Fair held in late November

 Here are the basics that should be included in a pitch email:

Subject line should say Translation rights available (specify language if it is not a blast email ie: Translations rights available: Spanish Language)

Short description of the book and table of contents

Any reviews

Author bio

Links to the book’s Web site/Amazon/ publicity – radio/tv

Catalog

Offer to send PDF’s or hard copies if interested.

I was recently at the Dublin Writers Conference and met several authors who were curious about how to find quality editors. A few months ago, I asked Jerry Friends, the Publishing and Distribution Manager at Thompson Shore to sit down with me. Jerry and I met at AuthorU Extravaganza last September and I was impressed with his knowledge of self-publishing. Jerry has seen thousands of books succeed and fail in the last few years and so I asked him to join me.

Jerry and I both agree that it is very tempting to save money (and some hurt feelings) by letting someone who “gets” you read your manuscript. I mean, just because they are related to you does not mean that they are not qualified to edit a manuscript! What about authors who KNOW a professional editor?

In spite of all the “good” reasons to hire or use someone you know to edit your book, you should not do it. Ever. Nope. No exceptions. Nada. Sorry.

Editors need to start from a place of complete “zero” when approaching a manuscript. They have to read the writing from a position of complete ignorance about the writer or their decisions and suggestions will be shaded by what they know. The reader will not have the benefit of shared experience with the author and neither should the editor. No matter how tempted you are, give the reader the benefit of an edited manuscript that was reviewed by a complete stranger.

In addition, professional editing is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY when professionally publishing a book. If you want reviews and strong sales, hiring and using a professional editor with extensive publishing experience is NOT optional. It is a must.

But how much does it cost? Editors and editorial services will do evaluations of a set number of pages for a small fee. Thompson Shore charges $100 to completely edit and evaluate the first 10-12 pages of a manuscript. Other editorial services are also out there and are a TERRIFIC investment even when in the middle of writing. How great would it be to get coaching on your writing tone, voice, and style BEFORE you finished?

Below are some services and organizations that will help you find the right editor for your book:

Proofed to Perfection Editing Services

I know so many talented writers. After almost 30 years in the publishing industry, I can easily remember the thousands upon thousands of talented writers that I have met in my travels and work. These writers have a way with the written word that I will never have. They can turn a phrase and shape a sentence with such deftness than I stand in awe. But they are not authors. Even though many of them have written books, they are, by my definition, writers.

Authors are writers who have made the decision and taken the actions necessary to join the publishing industry in a very specific role. Now, there is nothing wrong with being a writer. It is a terrific way to make a nice living and a great way to spend one’s time. Writers write. Professional writers write and get paid. Authors write and then work as a champion for the books that they have written. (THEN they get paid.)

Making the jump from writer to author means more than just deciding to publish a book or have it published. It means more than paying someone to turn your words into a book-shaped object. So much more. In 2003 I had my first book published by a professional publisher. In the first year, we sold a little over 13,000 copies. It was a minor success.

But in truth, I was not an author. I was a writer. Yes, I had written the book. But I was too self-conscious and nervous about promoting myself and my book; so I didn’t. I depended on the publisher to do all the work and my book never took off the way it could have if I had become an author when my book was published.

What I know now is that an author joins the corporate, business, financial, and marketing sides of the publishing industry and participates fully. And author promotes their work and connects with readers. An author leans into the process no matter how uncomfortable they are and reaches out to readers into the community to become part of the book’s success. With my first book, I was not an author. I stayed safely behind the line of “writer”.

With my second book, I decided that I was willing to step over that line and become an author. And what a huge difference it made. I was just as uncomfortable with the second book as I was with my first with self-promotion. I still felt nervous and afraid of what people would think. The difference? I did it anyway. And that has become the motto of my entire career: “Do it Anyway“.

Once you decide to become an author you will still dread seeing the reviews on Amazon that have fewer than five stars. Send out review copies anyway. You will still get nervous about what your hometown will think of you if you host a book launch party. Launch the party anyway. You will still worry about the money and how to afford to promote your book and advertise your book. Promote and advertise your book anyway. You will still dread sending out requests to journalists and bloggers to ask if they would like to interview you or review your book. Send out the requests anyway.

I do understand how hard these activities are for us. Our work and our words are our children. And I am suggesting that if we want to be successful, we have to take huge risks with our children. But let me ask you this: What authors can you name who did not take those risks? How many authors can you name that hide behind closed doors? The myth and yes, it is a myth, of “recluse writer” has been around for centuries. They don’t exist. Emily Dickinson wrote letters and had a very active time connecting with readers and the public with letters and correspondence. A collection of her letters at the Morgan Museum and recent studies cracks away at the myth that she was a recluse. Yes, she retired to her home and even her room in her late 30s. but even from there, experts have proven that her room was a hub of promotional and correspondence activity. Harper Lee? She was given a great deal of money by her friends to take a year off and do nothing but write her book. Her editor submitted her book to the Pulitzer Committee and Hollywood and the rest fell into place from there. But Harper Lee DID do interviews and DID have the money to pay a team to promote her book. She did not do it herself, but the money from friends and the book’s early success paid for its later success.

Being an author means that you have joined the business of publishing. And running a business takes time, focus, dedication, and money. You will notice that writing requires most of those things too. The difference between writer and author is that one happens in the privacy of one’s writing space and the other one happens out in the world in front of everyone.

I have a saying that I hate, but that does not make it less true: “Time. Money. Talent. Pick any two.” I am afraid that if you want to depend just on your talent to drive the sales and success of your book, you will be waiting a long time. Emily had the gift of time and Harper was given the gift of money. They both had talent. So do you. The question now is: which other element are you going to use to drive your success?

I choose to use my time. So every day, I dedicate a small block of time to promote my self as an author. I hate every minute of it. But I do it anyway. Nobody wishes that it was possible to become a successful author without having to “putting it out there” more than I. But I have had to learn how to promote my words and my writing despite how I feel. I’ve had to learn to do it anyway.

When people ask me what the best decision I ever made was I would have to say that it was the decision to do things that made me uncomfortable.

The truth is, I am naturally a terribly lazy person. I would rather watch TV and play with my dogs while planning a motorcycle trip than spend time online or on the phone promoting my books. I don’t want to write the emails to bookstores and libraries. I don’t want to ask for reviews. I don’t want to book trips in hot climates during the summer months to stand in a room with seven people and talk about myself. But I do these things anyway. Because I don’t want to be an author, I want to be a successful author.

Which brings me to the other line in the sand I’ve had to recognize and step over. There is a difference between a talented author and a successful author.

If I’m going to be honest, I’m not even a particularly talented author. I do not have the natural writing ability and the way with words that I so admire and others. Writing does not come naturally to me and it is not a talent that I possess in spades. At best, the gods have been meager-handed when handing out my writing abilities. I am a good storyteller and I have advice to give that would change lives. But I am not a great writer. So a lot of what I advise and a number of my stories are imparted through video and in person at events. But some people want and need a book. So I continue to put my stories and advice into books as well as other venues.

In spite of my limited talent as an author, I am somewhat successful because I have adopted the practices and habits of successful authors. I wish I had taken on these habits and practices earlier in my career, but it is my hope that they will help you. Here is a list of some of the things that I have learned separate the authors from successful authors:

Successful authors spend time every day writing

Successful author spend time every day promoting what they have already written

Successful authors ask for people’s opinions

Successful authors take those opinions and honestly consider them, setting aside their own ego and desires.

Successful authors spend time learning everything they can about the publishing industry.

Successful authors immerse themselves in that industry and in the publishing community.

Successful authors don’t give up when things get unpleasant, boring, or difficult.

Successful authors read books in their genre

Successful authors know who the big books and authors are in their categories at all times.

Even after years slogging through the swamp of freelance writing, I’m still challenged by the process of marketing. I started with nonfiction articles, progressed to a handbook, and now concentrate on fiction. The marketplace for publishing is crowded with hundreds of thousands of books, all screaming for readers’ attention.

Marketing takes about fifty percent of a creator’s time, an artist once told me. Other experts ballpark the time at one-third of the hours you spend writing. In any case, writing a book is only the first step. Once you sign with a publisher or decide to self-publish, you can be sure your workload will skyrocket.

Over the decades, I’ve seen the marketing landscape change from definite targets—newspapers, publications, posters in high-traffic areas, announcements on radio and television—to the internet and electronics. Connecting to these, using them, is a new game for me. I’ve started comparing my process to competing in an obstacle course.

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals,” said Henry Ford. An obstacle course requires the competitor to have a versatile skill set of strength, endurance, and speed. In addition to developing the skills, I have to be willing to take risks, use my brain, and set priorities. The most basic tenet of marketing still applies. Fill the market’s needs.

To accomplish this, determine your writing genre to reach potential readers with similar interests. What type of tales do you enjoy? In your heart have you always wished you could be a cowboy? A spy? A sexy lover? Are you still a child? Somewhat intellectual? If so, you probably read and write in a genre like children’s books, westerns, mystery, romance, or literary.  Publishing is defined by specialized categories of book, which also identify readers by age, gender, interest, locale. The process helps greatly in marketing books as you try to ensure readership.

Determining a genre enables you to take the next step: locating people who specialize in the genre who might spread the news about your work. This means an internet search. My new novel, Never Retreat, Imajin Books, is women’s fiction of the light romance variety, so I sifted through hundreds of book bloggers and review sites on that topic. There are some sites that centralize many bloggers for easy access.

Two of them are:

Book Blogger Listing    http://bookbloggerlisting.blogspot.com/

Book Blogger List.   http://bookbloggerlist.com/

Each blogger has his or her own requirements. Most expect an advance reader copy (also known as an ARC) as well as organized details (fact sheet anyone?), a cover image, author’s image, author’s biography, a book overview or blurb, and publication information. I don’t bother approaching mystery bloggers or cookbook sites because I know they won’t be interested in my work. I’m also spreading out my promotion over the period of several weeks, scheduling blog submissions according to the blogger’s needs and deadline.

Another decision: don’t get discouraged by the sheer volume of potential sites. As I faced literally hundreds upon hundreds, my enthusiasm dissipated to intense depression. Then I recalled the words of Edward Everett Hale. “I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” I vaulted right into the heap of options. To evaluate what ones to approach, my publisher suggested looking at numbers of comments on a blogger’s site. More comments equal more readers of the blog.

Review sites also exist, some of them free, many of them paid. The really big reviewers, like Library Journal or Publisher’s Weekly, may be obstacles to go around. They rarely take small or independent publishers’ products, and I believe they’re not worth chasing. If you’re lucky enough to have local media that still carries book reviews, don’t overlook this blessing. You can spend a fortune tracking down review sites that charge. If you have the time, inclination, and money, you might try a few at a time, tracking numbers of sales after each paid review as an evaluation.

The line between blogs and reviews is hazy in my mind, like trying to decide which lane to select in a footrace, but it’s worth a search for the more specialized areas. Again, genre is a good place to start, and there are sites that aggregate other review sites. For example, mystery writers can visit L. J. Sellers pages to find a list that will reduce your hours of research (also known as “training”) (http://ljsellers.com/mysterysuspense-review-sites/). Be aware that many review sites want a pitch and ARCs up to four months in advance.

If you’re small, you’ve got to be tough and creative. Mull over your “race” strategy, even considering off-the-wall ideas. Here are some I’ve thought of:

• Send notices to every group I’m affiliated with and ask them to put a notice about my book in their newsletter, FaceBook or elist. Yes, I’ll send to my local romance group. But I’ll also see if my city councilman’s monthly news would carry my information.
• Tailor the notice to the group’s interest. My city councilman features local businesses and interesting people. I qualify as both. I don’t expect him to simply run a puff-piece. I’ll insert a hook that applies to the neighborhood.
• Social media, social media, social media. I get sick of 20 tweets a day from the same author with a new release. However, I’ve had to resign myself to some social media. An author’s Facebook page is free, as are several popular social media sites. If you’re new to the game, try just a few at first.
• Give-aways and contests are popular with romance authors. I’m still feeling my way, so I haven’t done much of this. You might start with Good Reads give-aways because they’re easy enough that I’ve done them.
• Ask friends and connections to push your book on their social media. Be sure to provide ready-made news release and publication information.

In the obstacle race of book marketing, your sustenance for energy and strength isn’t snacks and chocolate but the emotional equivalent. Surround yourself with supporters, cheerleaders, enthusiastic fans. Recite encouraging quotes like “never give up” or “I think I can.” Use prayer, chants, spells, and favorite songs. Whatever helps you. In any case, drop those detractors and nay-sayers who only bring you down. Like an armchair quarterback who’s never played a football game, these folks are always ready to criticize and do you no good. You can reserve their analyses for a later time when you’re in the evaluation stage of your entire race.

“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” Moliere. If you’re ready, take your position. On your mark, get set, go!

Bonnie McCune’s newest book is Never Retreat. A feisty single mom clashes with an ex-military, macho corporate star at a business retreat in the wild Colorado mountains, where only one can win a huge prize. But when a massive flood imperils their love and survival, they learn the meaning of true partnership.

Bonnie McCune has been writing since age ten, when she submitted a poem about rain rushing down the gutter to the Saturday Evening Post (it was immediately rejected). This interest facilitated her career in nonprofits doing public and community relations and marketing. She’s worked for libraries, directed a small arts organization, and managed Denver’s beautification program.

Simultaneously, she’s been a freelance writer with publications in local, regional, and specialty publications for news and features. Her civic involvement includes grass-roots organizations, political campaigns, writers’ and arts’ groups, and children’s literacy. For years, she entered recipe contests and was a finalist once to the Pillsbury Bake Off. A special love is live theater. Had she been nine inches taller and thirty pounds lighter, she might have been an actress.

Her true passion is fiction, and her pieces have won several awards. Never Retreat is her third novel and her fifth book of fiction. For reasons unknown (an unacknowledged optimism?), she believes one person can make a difference in this world.

Visit her at www.BonnieMcCune.com, Bonnie@BonnieMcCune.com, twitter.com/bonniemccune, facebook.com/authorBonnieMcCune, www.linkedin.com/in/BonnieMcCune.

The Canadian Publishing Landscape Webinar

Amy Collins www.newshelves.com and Lloyd Kelly www.kellyconsultingagency.com

• How big is the Canadian Market really? Why isn’t it approximately 10% of the US market?
• 37M population of Canada – 8M or 21% speak French as their first language
• 2% of the population reported speaking a language other than English or French

Retail and wholesale environment/makeup/footprint

• Indigo/Chapters/Coles: Canada’s leading bricks & mortar book retailer with 97 superstores branded as Indigo & Chapters and 190 mall-based stores under the Coles and Indigo Spirit banners
• CA: Canada’s leading internet retailer
• Costco: 85 warehouses
• Wholesalers: Mass Merchant/Retail (CMMI & News Group)
• Wholesalers: Library (United Library Services, Library Services Centre, Whitehots, & Library Bound)
• Independent Book Stores
• Non-Traditional Retail: Hardware, Gift & Religious stores

2016 Canadian book retail market share

• 33% on-line Amazon
• 38% Indigo/Chapters/Coles
• 18% non-traditional bookstore market (merchandisers) Costco, Walmart, Supermarket, Drug Store and Hardware chains
• 5% Library wholesalers
• 6% Independently operated bookstores

• McNally Robinson – Canada’s premier independent bookstore located in Manitoba, they also operate an educational wholesale div. Skylight Books
• Vancouver Kids Books – Canada’s premier independent children’s books store

Wholesale Mass Merchant/Retail:

CMMI – Wholesaler handling the books category for Walmart, Staples, Rexall and PharmaPlus

annually distributes approx. 100 million magazines, 10 million books, 50,000 creatively packaged promotional book displays, as well as a select number of niche packaged goods products

The News Group (TNG) – Wholesaler handling the book category for Loblaw, Overwaitea Food Group, Safeway, Shopper’s Drug , London Drugs, Home Depot and Loew’s

Costco – 88 warehouse stores in Canada

• Who are the major players? And who are the Canadian publishers?

Penguin Random House, Harper Collins and Simon & Shuster dominate about 65% of the Canadian market primarily with what they import from their US & UK parent companies. They also have Canadian publishing programs that develop and publish indigenous books. However, they also look to purchase Canadian rights to internationally published titles especially if there is a strong and/or unique Canadian angle to the book.

After that, there are a number of Canadian based publishers who make up the balance of the Canadian market.

It may be worth exploring making a separate Canadian publishing deal with multinational and indigenous publishers, for separate Canadian rights, rather than just having the US edition imported and distributed into Canada via the US publisher.

• What would make your book attractive to Canadian publishers?

US platform vs Canadian platform – what is the Canadian angle for your book. Booking Canadian media appearances, interviews or speaking engagements are key.

Need to confirm that the demographics are similar for your book in Canada

Have you had previous books that were distributed here? It may be time to seek out an agent who can help sell Canadian rights to a Canadian publisher.

• What are typical unit sales numbers for the Canadian market?

Discuss Booknet Canada (similar to Bookscan in the US) which is where we get CDN POS data.

• The 500 bestselling titles (of ~400,000 total titles) accounted for almost one-quarter of the total value of sales!
• The average Canadian authored, Canadian Published book sells less than 500 copies net (after returns) – this includes thousands of self-published books that may only sell 50-100 copies

This report, prepared for the Department of Canadian Heritage by Turner-Riggs, provides a profile of the retail book market in Canada.

• A key argument in the report, is that “the supply of books in the Canadian market is growing much more quickly than is consumer demand”
• Almost 17,000 new titles were published by Canadian publishers in 2015, a substantial increase from the 12,000 new titles published in 2008.
• In addition, American publishers produce approximately 300,000 new titles each year.
• The traditional book retail channel – physical stores – still accounts for the majority of consumer book sales in Canada”. The book retail sector is highly concentrated, with a “shift in market share from the independent bookstores to a single national chain throughout the country and regional chains in Quebec”.

• In 2015, nationwide sales of print books through traditional channels stayed relatively flat compared to 2014 levels.
• 2015 saw a decrease of 11% in units sold and a 4.6% decrease in sales revenue from 2014.
• The average list price for trade and mass market paperbacks remained steady at $18.75 and $12.15 in 2015.
• Juvenile Fiction was the best-selling genre in Canada in 2015, with a 29.6% share of total unit sales through traditional book retailers, representing 20% of the value of the total book market.
• General Fiction came in second with a 28% share of units sold, and the same percentage in sales volume.
• These books join the many millions of already published titles that are now virtually all available to consumers via improved search and ordering tools in bookstores and online retailers.
• Nearly 50% of Canadian book consumers purchase books from Amazon.com rather than Amazon.ca, primarily due to better pricing and wider selection.
• The currency-price relationship has created a situation where Canadian retailers can very easily source books outside of Canada at lower cost. This appears to have contributed to a recent spike in parallel importation within the Canadian trade.
• Retailers have set aside more square footage for non-book product over the past decade which generally means less room for books.
• Additionally, book retailers have more space available for higher-margin product, including remainders and retailer-published book inventory. The remainder trade has been characterized as a highly liquid component of inventory in a Canadian bookstore (i.e., it’s rapidly changing and sells quickly at deep discounts from the list price).

A client of mine (I will call him “Jeff”) hired an independent copy editor to edit his book. Then the edited manuscript was turned over to a professional layout and design firm who did a terrific job laying out his book and creating a killer cover. The problem? Dozens of small and not-so-small errors were introduced into the manuscript during the layout process. This is COMPLETELY NORMAL and to be expected. Computers create weird spaces or glitch and swap a few letters around with punctuation.

Jeff thought that because the book had been through a review before the layout, he did not need to spend the $2 a page or so to have a professional proofread after the layout. He went to print without it.

What He Should Have Done Instead

Once the book was laid out, Jeff should have either had several people/volunteers read it carefully and make notes of errors and corrections OR he should have hired a professional proofreader to finish the job. Once you spend ALL of that time writing the book and ALL of that money publishing it properly, WHY would you skip this vital step?

What He Then Did

Jeff “unpublished” his book, took it off sale and brought the laid out file to a professional proofreader. She read and re-read the book several times over the next 10 days and made over a HUNDRED notes that Jeff agreed with.

Here is the thing… Jeff’s manuscript was well written; it was beautifully edited, it was professionally laid out… it just needed that last final step to be considered a professionally published book. There is no need to “rush” to publish. All that does is satisfy the lesser side of our natures. Take the time to do it right and you will be SO glad. The satisfaction that comes from publishing properly, setting goals and creating plans to achieve those goals and “doing it right” will save you time and money in the long run.

Previously Published as part of a larger whole at THEBOOKDESIGNER.com. For the original article, CLICK HERE

In this article, we are focusing on how consumer book sales can tell us what readers want. A lot of the choices we publishers make are based on what we want or what we think we SHOULD do. Here are a few recent examples of insight gained by authors for us all to learn from.

Zach Obront from Book In a Box recently analyzed the 272 books that have sat at #1 on the NYT Nonfiction Bestseller List over the past 7 years. His primary goal was to understand the ideal range for length, in order to better inform nonfiction authors. Zack found that historically there was a pretty widespread with most books falling into the 250-450 page range. But when he looked at recent years, he found that the average book length had almost fallen in half since 2011. In 2011, the average NYT #1 Nonfiction Bestseller was 467 pages. Now it’s 273.

And there is also fiction to consider. The average page count of the NY Times Fiction Bestseller List in 2011 was 502. This week, the Paperback List average page count is 398. If you look at the lists for fiction and nonfiction this past week, over 50% of the books on the NY Times Bestseller List are between 250-350 pages.

When publishing POD books, many authors find that they cannot afford to offer the full discount required to get the books into bookstores. The prime cause of this high expense is that the books have over 350 pages and the longer the books, the more expensive the print costs. A great many authors find themselves with books over 100,000 words and when told about the costs of designing and printing a book of that length, do not know what to do next.

What they should have done is made the book shorter. Readers are voting with their dollars. Remember that the bestselling nonfiction books have an average of 273 pages and the fiction book page count is 398 on average. Movie directors may WANT five and a half hours to tell a story, but they know that their viewers want a shorter length. Does the story you are telling or the advice you are giving HAVE to be in ONE book? Why not two?

Nonfiction authors should work with an editor or a partner to focus the book and the message.

Zach says that he often sees nonfiction authors who try to put too much into their book. When Zach asks them what the focus of the book is, the authors respond that their advice and their experiences are the common thread. They then try to bring everything they are interested in into the book.

Quite often an author’s first manuscript will include personal stories, guidance and advice, examples and lessons learned by the author. This is not the problem. The problem comes when an author’s experiences, guidance, advice, examples and lessons encompass an entire career. There are so many different aspects in any given topic… so many tangential lessons… but in this day and age, a book needs to stick to one focus.

So what is the answer? Editing it down or splitting it into a few books. Zach often works with folks that need to split their books into two (or more) books.

To start, nonfiction authors need to ask themselves a few questions:

• Who is the person reading this?
• Why are they reading this?
• What parts of this book do not add to the reader’s ability to master this lesson/task?

If a personal story can add to the advice and benefits, then, by all means, add it. But most authors come to see that a LOT of the story they want to tell will not add to the overall goal of the book. The background of WHY the book is being written and HOW the author got to where he/she got to is interesting, but does not add to the reader’s goals when buying the book. That is a story that can be written in a memoir AFTER the “how-to” book is published. The reader bought a book on personal finance or pet care or leadership for a reason. What is that reason? Don’t include ANY words that do not deliver on that goal.

Novelists who have a storyline that they are writing towards also have a choice. If they want to tell a story in 180,000 words, I have no problem with that. But they will not be able to work profitably in a print on demand (POD) model.

If POD is your only choice, then your best bet is to end the story for one book and pick the story up in the next book in the series. In many cases, however, an editor might be a better choice to make. If readers are clearly buying novels under 400 pages in enough quantities to put them on the NY Times Bestseller List, then perhaps fiction authors might want to work with an editor to bring their books in under 120,000 words.

What About Too Short?

Conversely, a number of authors are publishing books at 20,000 – 30,000 words. Publishing an 86 page booklet is FINE as long as you do it knowing what you are achieving and giving up.

Books under 200 pages are perceived as a quick read and often only available online because the market does not consider books under 200 pages worthy of shelf space. Not all stores and libraries will make this decision based on size, but make sure your goals match the size of the book and the amount of content you are providing. If you are TRYING to provide a quick and easy guide, that is one thing. If you are trying to provide a lesson and come across as an authority, your book should have the weight and content that carries gravitas.

Short stories novellas, quick and easy guides… All of these are valid and important book formats. Just please make sure that you are publishing your book in a format and marketing it in venues that appreciate page counts of that shortened length.

What What to Do?

Option #1: Publishing the shorter books and mainly focusing their marketing online.

Option #2: Rewriting the manuscript to make sure that the content has taken the time to get ALL of the author’s ideas across.

Option #3: Publishing the content in a non-book format. There are a lot of other ways to publish your stories and ideas.

• White papers
• journals
• magazines
• online subscriptions
• blogs
• articles
• serialized downloads…

I would love to hear what you think of the balancing act between art/writing and the very real constraints of POD and printing costs. How are YOU handling the new data coming out? Do you think it is long-term? Just a blip? Will eBooks make all of this a moot point soon?