publishing
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What Happens Next?
A client of mine has just crested 4000 units sold into the “traditional” book market. She has sold to bookstores, online and libraries. She has made no money. The cost of manufacturing and promoting her book to GET 4000 sales has far outstripped what she has made.
Another client pre-sold 3000 copies of each of her three books into a national chain. She has yet to see a dime for books sold 8 months ago. The big retailer does not need to pay the little guy.
Returns are killing the creative publishers, slow-to-pay wholesalers are crippling the small houses and the shipping costs are climbing at a dizzying rate.
I would suggest that a fully executed, well marketed sales campaign handled totally on line makes some sense. Shoppers look for information on the web now. Why not offer them the books they need while they are on line?
Amazon and others buy in small, appropriate quantities, rarely return any books and pay monthly.
Are stores the wave of the past? Is brick-and-mortar dead? Dying? Is there any reason to stay with actual bookstores?
Booksellers will say that they provide a valuable community service, that they can recommend and nurture a wonderful gem of a book in a way the internet cannot.
Total Crap.
Yes, bookstores are a lovely place to spend an hour and they are a community resource, but in this economy and with time at such a premium, the average reader can get the exact same services from a trusted book review blog.
Word of mouth has moved on line. It may be time for book retailers to do the same.
Creating Your Sales Schedule
So many publishers and authors call me wanting to get into stores right away. I get calls in March from hopeful authors wanting to get onto Mother’s Day table displays. I hate disappointing people, but I have to tell them that stores choose displayed titles 5-6 months before hand. Stores buy books with a set monthly budget that is used up many months before hand. If you want to successfully launch your books into the retail marketplace, let’s take a look at the items you will want to cover in the months leading up to your publication:
Eight months before your book’s pub date:
Send your book’s data to the wholesalers, retailers, Internet companies, and industry databases.
Hire publicity and marketing firms or create publicity and marketing plans on your own.
Seven months before your book’s pub date:
Contact all database departments and confirm that your book is in their systems correctly
Create sales packages containing sample chapters, table of contents, a color cover, sales information sheet, and a marketing plan.
Six months before your book’s pub date:
Send sales packets to the wholesale and retail buyers.
Write cover copy and marketing plan for back of the Advance Reader’s Copy
Design ARC.
Send ARC files to printer.
Send ARCs to buyers.
Call buyers to follow up and present book information. Request promotion and placement for your book.
Five months before your book’s pub date:
Research potential promotion and placement opportunities appropriate for your book (front-of-store tables, postcard mailings, Internet ads …).
Check again to see that all databases have your book information and have it correctly.
Four months before your book’s pub date:
Send ARCs to reviewers.
Three months before your book’s pub date:
Call reviewers to follow up on review packages.
Buy ads and initiate marketing for launch during pub month.
Two months before your book’s pub date:
Send finished books to buyers with request for orders and updates on your marketing buys.
Participate in a library outreach campaign through your distributor or find a service that allows publishers to announce books to librarians.
Send copies of your finished book to companies, corporations, and catalogs that you feel best represent your book’s audience.
One month before your book’s pub date:
Call all key buyers and confirm orders are in place
This is by no means a complete list, but it will give you an idea of what successful publishers plan for and the schedules they keep.
Bookstores as the new Top 40 radio station?
It seems that each day brings another industry bulletin about how a bookstore has closed or how a chain will be reducing the number of titles it will carry. Brick and mortar stores are having to make hard choices; limiting their selection.
High retail rents, gasoline for delivery trucks, the economy, and unemployment can all be blamed, but not for long. Yes, it is time for consumers to tighten their budgets, but that is not the driving force behind the reduction in titles on bookstore shelves.
As a culture, we have become used to “shortcuts” and “hot-keys” in our work and home life. Our radios offer the same 100 songs each day with only a smirking nod to “independent” music. Technology does more than entertain and assist us; it often makes our choices for us. As we sink more deeply into our dependence upon technology, we lose our willingness to work for our pleasure.
Gone are the days when we slowly browsed a library or bookstore shelf looking for the perfect book to fit our mood. Those of us who find the time to read a book no longer have the time to search for one. We reach for the review section, listen to the latest NPR praise and ask our friends what their bookclubs are reading.
Armed with a vetted list, we can log on line or run into a bookshop and make a beeline for the front table. Chances are, the 11 books we have heard good things about are stacked there.
It is not that America does not have time for books, we don’t have time for bookstores. That is bad news for both parties. We want a quick hit, a guaranteed success, a sure thing. There is nothing wrong with that, but it will forever rob us of that one amazing “find” that could have altered our thinking; the hidden gem that could touch us so personally and deeply.
I understand the America is asking for fewer choices and that the bookstores have to do what is best for their business… I guess I was just hoping for more time before the book industry became what radio degenerated into 30 years ago…. a place for the masses to be told what to enjoy.
Your Book’s Journey
It is every writer’s dream to see his or her book in the front window of the local bookstore. It is fun to imagine tall, colorful stacks of your books surrounded by throngs of curious readers flipping through the pages as others rush to the cash register. Feel free to continue this fantasy as you pound the keyboard, but if you’re interested in turning the vision into reality, then suspend the writing and read on.
In order to make that dream come true, you have to stop thinking like a writer and start thinking like a publisher. For publishers, the dream location is not the bookstore shelf; that shelf is simply a short stop on the way to the real destination … a reader’s bookshelf. The only bookshelf that truly counts is the consumer’s. This blog has been created to guide your book into (and then out of) the hands of people who actually paid money to read it.
If you’re truly serious about publishing your book, then you need to shake off the fantasy and take a good, hard look at the challenge ahead. This isn’t meant to discourage you. The better prepared you are, the more successful you will be in reaching your goal.
The path a writer’s work takes through the publishing process, into the retail market, and then onto a consumer’s beside table is arduous. On this journey you will encounter misleading signposts, paths damaged by overuse, and rough road from underuse. But you will also experience a number of wondrous sights and resting places. The sweeps and turns of the publishing path can be fascinating—but even more rewarding if you know the lay of the land ahead of time.
As a writer on the verge of publishing, you are enthusiastic about your work and determined to see it through to book form. While these are certainly helpful qualities in battling the challenges ahead, there is one tool that will help you to overcome the obstacles and push forward during the final stretch: knowledge.
The best way to start a journey is to learn as much about your destination as possible. Once you know where you’re going, you’ll be able to plan your route to get there. So set your writing aside for the moment as we explore the book industry and the oh-so-important destination: the reader.
To be continued…
D5 Creation