Since writing the post below, I like many other self published writers have hacked my story around numerous bookshops across Australia. I have pestered my friends, family, associates and anyone else I can think of, for leads to people who might like to buy a book. The only thing I haven't done is to set up at any of the many book fairs, as I have only had the one book to sell. This is the same problem facing any salesperson canvassing for sales, how can I strengthen my product line to make a sale every time I call on a bookshop?
Knowing I can only realistically expect to produce and publish one quality 100,000 word novel per year if I am trying to do the marketing and selling too, it's not enough. If I wait for three years I may have three books to sell by the one author, me. While they may be great novels, they are still too small of an offering to make me a serious competitor in the book sales business. Therefore, what options do writers like me have?
- We can continue to submit our work to the regular publishing houses and hope to land a deal.
- E-publish our work on the various forms and promote it via e-mail and social media trying to drive possible buyers to our books.
- Self publish via one of the many vanity publishers and do the rounds of friends and family.
- Develop your own publishing house to manage the printing registration and distribution.
- Establish a co-operative scheme to embrace authors of a similar mindset and present their work as a combined and professional publishing company that will attract the interest of distribution businesses across the globe.
For now I'm only tossing a few an ideas around but would be interested in comments from anyone about their success and failures at becoming published in hard copy.
Either leave me a comment, or e-mail me at terry.probert@bigpond.com
Terry
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
To Self Publish or Not? That is the Question.
Having finished my novel KUNDELA I have sent out samples to different publishers. Having religiously followed their submission guidelines in the hope that someone would chance upon my masterpiece, I have checked the e-mail inbox daily with disappointment. Weeks of waiting and with response times now passing I have to face the possibility of not being picked up on this first round of enquiry letters.
I have been through most of the self publish websites and now have would be publishers from all over the world willing to publish and market my book for a fee, in some cases a rather large fee. I don't have that kind of money to spend, and I'm not sure that Francis from Frisco can be bothered with the marketing plan my novel needs. I think it's an opportunity for them to make money from the author rather than the other way around.
Taking the view that I'm a trades person with a commodity to sell takes the marketing of KUNDELA into an area I know well. I've spent all of my previous career in sales and marketing so I have the skills. What I don't have is the contacts, therefore I will need an agent or at the very least the contacts an agent has. The first question raised now, is how do I do I gain that knowledge. Therefore I started to research the people who have been in a similar situation to me and gone on to become successful and published authors.
From my research I find that it is necessary to embrace rejection as something that teaches you a lesson, and to learn from it. Another point I found helpful was to create a business plan for your proposal. To sell anything you need to know everything about it, what it is, what products it competes with, the strengths and weaknesses of both yours and your competitor's product.
Now I am on a quest to structure a business plan for KUNDELA, complete with a marketing plan, sales strategy and finance plan. Now I find that I'm on familiar ground with a product to sell.
Proving that writing is a business.
One of the sites I found helpful was a You tube Interview by Stacey Cochran with John Fuhrman as his quest. It is over 50 minutes long but contains some wonderful information.
I have been through most of the self publish websites and now have would be publishers from all over the world willing to publish and market my book for a fee, in some cases a rather large fee. I don't have that kind of money to spend, and I'm not sure that Francis from Frisco can be bothered with the marketing plan my novel needs. I think it's an opportunity for them to make money from the author rather than the other way around.
Taking the view that I'm a trades person with a commodity to sell takes the marketing of KUNDELA into an area I know well. I've spent all of my previous career in sales and marketing so I have the skills. What I don't have is the contacts, therefore I will need an agent or at the very least the contacts an agent has. The first question raised now, is how do I do I gain that knowledge. Therefore I started to research the people who have been in a similar situation to me and gone on to become successful and published authors.
From my research I find that it is necessary to embrace rejection as something that teaches you a lesson, and to learn from it. Another point I found helpful was to create a business plan for your proposal. To sell anything you need to know everything about it, what it is, what products it competes with, the strengths and weaknesses of both yours and your competitor's product.
Now I am on a quest to structure a business plan for KUNDELA, complete with a marketing plan, sales strategy and finance plan. Now I find that I'm on familiar ground with a product to sell.
Proving that writing is a business.
One of the sites I found helpful was a You tube Interview by Stacey Cochran with John Fuhrman as his quest. It is over 50 minutes long but contains some wonderful information.
I suppose first you must look at the role of a publisher and determine which of these functions your publishing company would perform, or whether your intention is more one of distribution and marketing. The role of a publisher is wide-ranging. Publishers, through the process of careful selection, editorial input and marketing, aim to make sure their content is available in every potential outlet worldwide. They do this via networks and contacts built up over a period of time, often from their beginnings as editors and proofreaders, or other roles within the industry, and there are no shortcuts to this – even with the social networks available today. As in most areas of business, much depends on who you know.
ReplyDeleteMost publishers are concerned with providing access to the best quality content, whether it is digital or in print and also safeguard the author’s intellectual property, to derive maximum revenue from it, and must know the best way to shape and channel the author’s work in pace with the increasingly sophisticated reading choices and the trends of the media consumer.
Your preference for the establishment of a co-operative scheme has merit, but by including this to incorporate the establishment of a professional publishing company may open a Pandora’s Box when considering the role of a publisher. You would then have to make decisions (just as any mainstream publisher does) as to what work you accept and what you reject and rejecting books would be very difficult if all are members of a cooperative. If you accept all and sundry by virtue of membership, then your career and reputation as a publisher might be finished before it begins and your own work and the quality work of others would be tarnished by association. This would thwart your aim of attracting the interest of distribution businesses across the globe.
Adding ‘publisher’ as an activity associated with your existing company is as simple as hitting a few keys on the keyboard – you’re already listed as a publisher with Thorpe Bowker - and purchasing a block of ISBNs to get started, but I’d suggest you really think about what and whose work you’d be happy to have your name associated with. I’ve published the work of several authors under the Fixwrite banner, some I am proud to be associated with, and others less so. To clarify this, I acted as publisher for two community group anthologies. One I had final proof control with and was pleased with the result, the final proofing with the other was taken over by another person with less than favourable results, however, my name remains associated with this book forever.
The establishment of a co-operative scheme to embrace authors of a similar mindset seems to be your best starting point and there’s many directions you could take from here, not the least being group table bookings at book fairs and events. I’ve participated in events where writers and writing groups have shared tables, while some writers with only one publication have had a table to themselves and made an attractive and inviting display for their book. It probably all comes down to how much a writer is prepared to spend on promotions of this kind.
I’d also suggest broader networking and association with people in similar situations to your own – those who have written as against those who intend to write – attending writing fairs etc as a group – even forming a local group of published writers to share knowledge of the industry and to support each other’s endeavours, which suggests your idea of the establishment of a co-operative scheme to embrace authors of a similar mindset is the way to go.
Hope this hasn't added to the confusion :-)
Great Comment again Merlene, I did a rough Cost Benefit Analysis and I couldn't make it work if the job was done properly. So publishing is not for me.
ReplyDelete