I
am fed up with hearing how some authors, publishers, distributors, and literary
agents operate under wrongful assumptions or worse, feed the ignorance of others
by spewing bad advice. Let’s try to clear up the myths, misconceptions, or
downright lies that fill the minds of those in the book world. People act under
the influence of incorrect guidance when it comes to writing, publishing and
marketing a book and it ruins their chances of success. Here are 11 such faux
truisms that rule book publishing:
1.
“A book just needs
a lot of reviews to succeed.”
Sure
a book could benefit from getting book reviews, but it is not just a quantity
game. Of course you need great reviews — not merely reviews — and it helps to
get them not just from random readers but from professional or popular book
critics. More importantly, you need media exposure — interviews with bloggers and radio shows; byline articles in print publications; guest posts on Facebook
pages of influencers; and strong word-of-mouth praise from those you know and
from those you give free book access to for a limited time.
2.
“My book is for
everyone.”
If
it is, then it speaks directly to no one. Sure some books have mass appeal but
even in those cases it is likely that one demographic is favored over others.
Identify who really is your core reader and appeal to them. To go out and seek
to win everybody over is a losing strategy.
3.
“A book will sell
if it is priced right.”
No,
a book will sell if it has a catchy title, attractive cover, is about a genre a
reader cares about, and is promoted heavily. Price is important only in that
you shouldn’t be higher than the norm. Nor should it be so dirt cheap. People
buy what they desire or need. For those who buy purely based on price, they
will always find a cheaper option.
4.
“No other book is
like this one.”
Guess
again. No book is s complete island. Every book has a competitor. You may think
your book is the best or first to say something but it may not be. You may
believe your book stands alone within its genre but it likely doesn’t. Even if
it does, you still compete against all books and content that one can buy,
borrow, stream, download or access for free. Work hard at pushing your book and
don’t rest on the idea that your book is too good to fail.
5.
"I have no
budget to promote the book. I will first wait for sales to come in."
This
is like saying you have no time to write, which you may feel at moments, but
let's face it, you need to make some resources available for publicity and
marketing, because your career success depends on it. You can't leave things to
chance, hope, or optimism. You need to assert yourself into the marketplace.
Borrow, lie, cheat, steal but scrape up some funds or else your book is at a
great disadvantage. You can't first generate sales without PR and you can't
wait for sales to pay for PR if the sales are not going to come or be generated
fast enough.
6.
“My publisher
takes care of all of the marketing and publicity.”
Too
many authors either believe this or hope for it to be true but unfortunately it
is not. Most traditionally published books do not get much attention or any
real publicity support from their publishers. Here is how it works. Publishers
rank their titles as A, B, and C. They figure out where to best apply their
limited resources. It is not that they think they are publishing bad or lousy
books when they identify a chunk of their list as Cs, but they don’t believe
the priority to promote such books exceeds their need to push other books. They
are influenced by a variety of factors, including relationships with authors or
literary agents, size of advances, potential sales, future of a series if there
is one, competitive titles, size of potential readership, and how promotable a
book or particular author is. Even under ideal circumstances, publishers don’t
often promote a book for as early and as long as it can. It doesn’t have the same
goals as the author. The publisher wants book sales and fast. The author does
too but he also wants to grow his brand, get a positive message out, and maybe
even get attention for other books, products, causes, or services that he is
connected to. A publisher’s PR campaign is usually a short, narrow, focused
one— if that, whereas most authors need a longer, expansive campaign to develop
and build a following that will last beyond this book.
7.
“Self-Published
Books Aren’t Very Good”
This
used to be true. Most vanity jobs were not very good. But today there are some
real gems and quality books that get self-published. They may not make up the
majority of self-published books, but they are a growing minority. Some of them
go on to get published by other houses.
8.
“Everything is
going digital. I don’t need to have books printed up.”
Though
our society is under a digital revolution, the book industry still sees growth
in printed books. E-book sales don’t account for any more than 30% of all books
sold, which means the majority of the market is in printed books. Don’t just do
an e-book without having a printed version available, especially for
non-fiction books. Even print-on-demand is not ideal if you want your book to
get discoverable exposure in bookstores. Whether you prefer to read online or
book in hand doesn’t matter. What does your genre’s readership and the media prefer
or need?
9.
“This book should
be turned into a movie.”
Stop
being delusional. A few hundred books a year may serve as the source
inspiration for a movie. That is it. Out of over one million books published
yearly. You have a better chance of becoming a best-selling author than of
having a movie made based on your book. To get movie interest you need an agent
that specializes in that and the way to inspire the rights sale of your book is
to get a ton of book sales, a lot of media attention, and support from known
people who provide strong testimonials for your book. Authors may have a great
story but it doesn’t mean Hollywood will come knocking right away. You need to
invest in making the book a real success before even thinking it is coming to
the big screen.
10. “There’s no market for your book.”
Sure
there is. You make the market. Out of 330 million Americans and potentially 7.6
billion Earth dwellers, there should be a market for your book. Unless it plain
old sucks or is written poorly. But if it is a well-written, properly edited
book, someone should be interested in it. Publishers and agents sometimes give
up too easily, believing that if other books like it didn’t sell well or if
they can’t easily feed it to the masses that it is not worth their time.
Authors who believe in their work shouldn’t give up. A small or university
press may be interested. Or you can consult hybrid publishers or even consider self-publishing.
11.
Publicity for a book doesn’t really begin until it is released.”
The optimum window for promoting a book to
the news media begins around four months prior to the official release date and
concludes roughly three months post-publication date. Long-lead magazines, book reviewers at major
magazines and newspapers, and network morning television shows want to see
advance review copies at least several months in advance of the pub date. If
you start just as the book is released you have missed many opportunities.
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
The interview with PEN
America
16 ways to work with a
book publicist
38 groups writers
should connect with
Big Marketing Lessons
From My All-Time Top 10 Blog Posts
Enjoy New 2018 Author
Book Marketing & PR Toolkit -- 7th annual edition just released
How do authors get on
TV?
Study this exclusive
author media training video from T J Walker
Brian
Feinblum’s
insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this
terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You
can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in
the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2018. Born and
raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often
featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.
This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.