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While it doesn’t have to be cost-prohibitive, getting a book published does require some money to do it in a way that will give you a real chance at success. As I’ve discussed here before, using a "self-publishing company" will only lead to heartache over the long run. People are now thinking that "if I just e-publish I won’t have to pay anything." This too is faulty thinking as you will see.
What we need to remember is that self-publishing is a business and, like any business, there are costs associated with running it. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune, but depending on how much you can do for yourself, you will have (minimally) costs in this range whether you e-publish or p-publish:
Business set-up: $20-$500+ depending on whether you set up as a sole proprietor, LLC, or corporation and what the laws are in your state regarding licensing, taxes etc.
Business tools: ($50-$2,000) computer, software, bookkeeping/checking account, business cards, stationery, website - some things you may already have, some you may have to acquire.
ISBN: block of 10 costs $250 from the US ISBN agency, Bowker. NEVER buy your ISBNs from someone else and never buy a singleton. The numbers identify who the publisher is and if you buy one or more from someone else - they are the publisher, not you. As a small press, you don’t need any of the other services offered by Bowker.
Book Production: This includes editing (about $500-$2,000 depending on what needs to be done), cover design (roughly $200-$1500), interior design and typesetting (depends on complexity and book length $200-$2000). If you can do some of these tasks yourself, then those costs can be reduced or eliminated, however, I don’t recommend skipping editing or editing your book yourself, even if you are professional editor - you are too close to it.
Marketing: $500-$5,000+ - depends on your goals for your book, how you will distribute it, what types of publicity you want to do (print, broadcast, internet & live appearances), and, again, how much knowledge you have to do some tasks yourself.
As you can see, the only cost that e-publishing avoids is printing, which runs from about $1.50 a book on up depending on size of print run (and whether it is off-set or POD), format & size, page count, color usage, etc.
Because the book business is so hyper-competitive with about a million new books being produced each year, you really can’t cut corners if you want a professional book that will get noticed and garner sales in a range to be profitable. But successful publishing is a business and has costs like running any business.
Tags: book marketing costs, book production costs, business publishing, cost of publishing, publishing budget
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Here is a peek into the “sorting” room at ForeWord Magazine – one of the premiere reviewers (for the trade) of independently published books. It gives you some idea of the sheer quantity of books out there seeking reviews and why your book has to be of perfect quality to be considered, much less to get a review.
http://www.forewordreviews.com/foreword-insideout/volume-1/
Trade reviews are important to help your book get into book stores and libraries. If you aren’t using trade distribution or worried about libraries as part of your business plan, then you wouldn’t submit your book to an organization like ForeWord.
If your marketing plan is focused entirely on direct contact with your potential customers, then you would want to try to get reviews and articles in newspapers, magazines, websites and blogs that are directed towards your target market.
Regardless of your target publications, you need to remember that the chaos you see in the short video goes on at every publication every day.
What will you do to stand out from the crowd?
Tags: book marketing, book publicity, book review copies, getting book reviews, marketing your book, pre-publication publicity
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You, as the publisher/author, get to set your own retail price. You also should set your own pricing discount schedule for your various types of distribution. The law says that you must offer the same discount to the same "class" of customers. It is a little confusing what this means, but generally the type of customer and the terms under which your book is sold to those customers determines the pricing schedule.
Typically they look something like this:
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE ONLY
Retail/end user (for instance on your website) Satisfaction guaranteed (returnable if not satisfied)
1-2 copies - no discount, payment upon purchase
2-10 - 10% - payment upon purchase
10+ 15% - net 30 days
Wholesale -
all quantities - 55% discount, returnable, net 90 days (pretty standard)
Retail book stores -
1-2 copies - 20%, non-returnable paid upon order (called a STOP order)
2 + copies - 40% discount,returnable, net 90
Special sales - maybe gift stores, food stores, pet stores or other genre specific
(these are less standard, but might be something like this)
1-5 copies - 25%, non returnable, paid upon order
6-20 copies - 40%, nonreturnable, net 30 days
20+ (or full case) - 50%, nonreturnable, net 45
Once you determine your discount schedule, the law says you must apply it in an even handed way. If you want to offer a different discount to a particular client, you must establish a new discount schedule with some terms that are different than your existing schedules that justifies the difference in terms. another variable that I didn’t mention above and that can effect your schedules is who pays shipping.
Now, in a very practical way, do I think the full force of the US government is going to descend upon us little publishers? No. But is it good business practice to do this and treat your customer equally? Yes.
Once you publish a book and have it listed in Bowker’s Books in Print with a specific retail price and establish your discount schedules, your work with pricing is done. Anyone who buys a book from you may resell it at any price they choose. You have no control over that - nor should you. You’ve set your terms, gotten paid according to your price schedule and released it to the world.
Tags: Amazon, book distribution, book sales, cost of book distriubtion, discount schedules for books, getting published, pricing your book
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Here is an example of the power of Google Alerts and the power of having articles in article banks.
I wrote this article several years ago and put it on a couple of article banks and on my website and today it pops up on my Google Alerts for the book name because this website picked it up and used it. I was a little upset at first because the requested byline isn’t at the bottom of it – but then I noticed that they put the information in a little different format in the middle of the article – and that was OK with me.
My analytics for my website told me the other day that there are now over 3,000 inbound links to my website – that means that there are 3,000 places on the web that have my website URL listed somewhere on their website where people can just click and instantly be on my website. It could be embedded in a story like this, listed on a resource page, mentioned in a blog post, etc. Some of those links I cultivated early on in my website’s life trying to get people to link to me, or post and article etc. Now I do nothing because people just find the articles, link from one post to another, etc.
The moral of the story is to write those articles now, get them onto relevant websites, blogs and article banks; spend some time getting relevant sites to use your material, do an interview with you, post a review (use your sample review), or run a contest with your book as the prize. Some work early on, pays big dividends down the road.
Tags: Article Banks, book marketing, Google tools, internet marketing, marketing ideas, publicity
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From a client:
My book is getting great reviews in places like Foreword Magazine, so why isn’t it selling better?
My answer:
There are two kinds of marketing - push and pull. Anything that is primarily for "the trade" (publishing) is "pushing" your message into the channels so that they know about it, can put it in their system if desired, and even stock it in the stores if they feel that there is/will be consumer demand. That includes most reviews, ads in trade publications, shows like BEA, etc.
The other side of the equation - pull marketing - is marketing to the consumer so that they will "pull" the book through the trade channels. You have to have both types of marketing to the target buyers in order for your book to have robust sales.
The other parts of the puzzle are distribution (which you have), the product itself has to be done well (which you have) and it has to be priced right for the buyer - most people buying books today in your genre aren’t expecting a hard cover book and a higher than $20 price point, so that slows sales.
So you need to get the consumer to know about your book more widely - and that takes continuous exposure for as long as the book is selling.
So the question for you is what are you doing each month on an ongoing basis to create the consumer demand? There are lots of avenues to do that - radio, lifestyle stories in print or online, stories about parts of your book in article banks online, interviews in print, broadcast and online, live appearances and more.
Make yourself a calendar of your activities each month that are media related - make sure your distributor knows about all the media you are doing each month so they can tell the stores. If you have 2-4 things every month that are national or strongly regionally focused, you will see sales increase.
Tags: book marketing, book sales, book stores
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Let’s face it: Unless you are a celebrity, traveling the country and hitting up bookstore after bookstore for signings is probably not going to sell many books. You’ll more than likely spend way more for travel than you’ll make in book sales. Enter the virtual age. From the comfort of your own home or office, you can set up a virtual author book tour and reap real rewards from this effective—and inexpensive!—marketing tool.
So what is a virtual author book tour? Basically it involves visiting—virtually, of course—a group of websites for a period of time. The visits can take several different forms: interviews, guest posts, book reviews, book excerpts, and so on. (You can read more here in an interview I did with Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., and author of Red Hot Internet Publicity.) The sites usually range from blogs, websites, online radio stations, and social networking sites. The purpose is to increase an author’s online exposure, drive additional traffic to his or her website, increase search engine rankings, and hopefully sell more books.
It’s not difficult to set up a virtual tour, but it will take some research, planning, and followup. You can do it yourself–or you can hire a company to do it for you. We’ve been setting up tours for authors for the past year or so, and we’ve learned a lot as far as what is needed to make a book tour successful.
I consider the first two items on the list to be essential; we have found it is much more difficult to set up a successful tour with authors who are not active online and who do not wish to blog regularly. I believe it is far less beneficial to the hosts as well, to host these types of authors, and they are less apt to agree to an appearance. And frankly, I don’t blame them!)
- Be an active blogger who not only blogs regularly but who comments on others’ blogs. Make yourself known in the “blogosphere.”
- Be active in social media sites (we recommend Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter). You don’t necessarily have to have 10,000 Twitter followers, but you should be networking on these sites, providing valuable content where appropriate, and building your following.
- Have a capture system on your website (and I’m assuming you have one that highlights your book or that has a page about your book) so you can collect email addresses and build your list. Provide those who sign up with something of value—such as a free report or subscription to your newsletter.
- Have a call to action on your website instructing visitors to purchase your book, such as “Buy your copy today!”
- Develop a list of potential hosts based on sites your target market hangs out on. If you’re an active blogger in your genre already, chances are you’ve got a list of sites you check regularly. Find others. Concentrate on those who get a fair amount of traffic.
- Be familiar with the sites you plan to approach so you can avoid those that would not be appropriate. Send a personal inquiry, letting them know you’ve been following their site and emphasizing why your appearance there would benefit their readers/listeners. Include a link to your website where they can read more details about your book, your author bio, and other pertinent links. Indicate the date ranges of your tour; plan ahead as some sites are booked well in advance. You probably won’t want to book more than one or two appearances per day.
- Respond immediately to replies, sending a review copy of the book promptly when it is requested. Confirm the details—date, type of appearance, and topic desired.
- Keep track of where you will be appearing and when. (We use an Excel spreadsheet.) Follow up with your host a couple weeks before your appearance. Make sure they have everything they need from you, including a photo of you and your book as well as your bio.
- Let everyone know. Once you start getting appearances scheduled for your virtual tour, start letting your friends and fans on Twitter and Facebook know about it. Be sure to include details—including links—on your website, blog, and newsletter.
- Visit frequently.The day of your appearance, make sure to visit the website or blog regularly, answering questions and responding to comments. If your appearance involves a live podcast, be ready for questions.
- Follow up with all your hosts afterward and be sure to thank them.
We love virtual author book tours. It’s a great way for authors to increase exposure, gain new fans, and sell more books. Hosts too benefit by gathering additional visitors to their sites. And there is no chance for jetlag!
Guest Post by Sue Collier from her blog at Self Publishing Resources
As a writing coach and publishing consultant, Sue has worked with hundreds of authors, helping them write, edit, and publish hundreds of books. My book The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing is slated for publication by Writer’s Digest in March 2010. I currently own Self-Publishing Resources; we provide book writing, book packaging, and book marketing services for self-publishers and small presses.
Tags: Add new tag, author events, author signings, book marketing, book signings, book store signings, email marketing, how to market your book, virtual book tours
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Recently a question was posed to me about distribution for POD books. While I believe that is really an oxymoron, it does cause considerable confusion, even among authors that do traditional off-set book printing. Distribution in the traditional sense, implies book stocking at some level - either at a warehouse or in a retail location. With the advent of print on demand, the idea is to eliminate warehousing and provide just-in-time delivery to the consumer. So how can you have both? Or should you want to? Here is my reader’s question:
In your opinion, if trade distribution doesn’t work well for the POD publisher, what do you think is best to get your books sold and distributed? I’m a little confused by the statement that stores ’seldom stock’ books from LSI. Do they order from them or not?
Here is my answer:
You have to understand the difference between “available nationwide” and “in store stocking”. In a BN (or other large store) there are approximately 80,000 titles at any one time – out of several million books, that isn’t many. And those titles have approximately 6-8 weeks to prove themselves, or they are out of there!
What LSI gets you (through Ingram) is availability – BN has it in their system “available” for order if someone comes in and asks for it. If they get enough requests, they may actually put it in the BN system, vs having to look it up on Ingram’s system and their stock. If BN (for example) decides to “stock it” or “carry it”, the first level of doing that is to have it available in their (BN) warehouse vs through Ingram’s warehouse. If that goes well, they may try store stocking in a few stores where the demand is coming from. If that does well, then they may try it in other similar stores, etc.
To get regular store stocking, you have to have one of two things. A distributor that has enough confidence in your ability to promote your book nationwide (and therefore be “worthy” of store stocking) or enough people coming in and asking for it because of publicity that you have done to generate the buzz and demand for your book (see above).
So when I say “seldom stock” I mean that the only way a POD book will be stocked is via the first method above. To have a trade distributor, you must have stock in the distributor’s warehouse (usually hundreds, if not thousands of books or it isn’t worth the distributor’s time) and that model does not fit a POD model. If you are going to print thousands of books for a distributor to sell, then you must have an off-set run to make it viable financially – and then you have to be confident in YOUR ability to “pull through” the consumers to buy the books, or you will end up with those books back in the distributor’s warehouse and eventually back to you because the didn’t sell through. Something no one wants to see happen. You have to plot your marketing strategy very carefully to know what will work for your book.
That is why my first question to a perspective client is always “what are your goals for your book and how will you reach those goals?” A goal of a few hundred books in a local or nationwide market has a much different marketing and distribution plan than a client who wants to sell 50,000 this holiday season. I’ve had both clients this year.
So to answer your question, it depends upon what your sales goals are for your book and do you have the time, money, know how and other resources to make it happen.
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Recently I received an email from a gentleman who had his first book on the market. He was upset - he couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong:
I composed what I thought was quite a good marketing email and set up a wholesale easy-ordering web page accepting purchase order, check or major credit cards through Paypal. All for naught. I sent it to dozens of indie stores and got no takers. Web stats indicated they never even visited the order page. I phoned quite a few too, and they had very little interest in speaking to a (micro) publisher or author. Do you think that’s a typical response, or might I be doing something wrong?
My response helped him see his plight from a very different viewpoint:
Put yourself in the place of the retailer. There are 500,000 new books this year to choose from. You have your accounts set-up with Ingram and maybe B&T. You can aggregate purchases onto a single order form, get one bill, have full return privileges, they keep track of everything for you – you have only one account (or maybe two) to keep track of and your buys and returns are all tracked perfectly. Running a book store is difficult, but at least the ordering has been made easier with the advent of Ingram. The retailer no longer has to deal with thousands of vendors – if it is worthy, it will be available from a wholesaler at a minimum. It is a way of “weeding” things out too.
Then you get this piece of email from someone who you don’t know, don’t know anything about the author or the book – just one book that I’ve never heard of – and who is this publisher? – and I can’t just order it from Ingram or B&T? DELETE….
Make sense? It is a very tough business and no one wants to make life any more difficult than it needs to be. Why would they disturb their business model to deal with you? What’s in it for them? If you want to play their game, you have to use their tools – wholesalers, distributors, and mainstream promotion. If you can’t or don’t want to do that, you are going to have to be happy with direct to consumer promotions – mainly through the internet, but others are possible. This is what a marketing plan is all about – making those choices and having a business plan to back it up – how will you finance your choices and a million other decisions.
I feel badly for you because you are trying to do things right, but you are thinking in terms of your own self-interest, not the self-interest of the book retailer who is the "gatekeeper" to your success.
Tags: book marketing, book stores
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Lots has been bantered around about the changes that are happening in the book world, but none is quite as graphic and real as this short video done by Penquin books.
Our entire way of distributing books, selling books, and reading books will change in the next ten years. Even the "old folks" like me will have to put our papers and paper books down because there will be so much completely mind-blowing content on the mobile devices that it will compel us to be involved.
Tags: e-books, electronic books, iPad, iPhone
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I was out for my walk this morning enjoying NPR’s "Fresh Air" - a podcast of Terry Gross’s very popular show, this edition about Global Climate Change - and it dawned on me at the end of the podcast that this was a perfect example of pre-pub publicity done right.
The guest has an upcoming book this spring on climate change, which he plugged, but what was more interesting was how he got on NPR (a dream for all of us, right?). He did what I tell clients to do all the time - write articles about your SUBJECT, not your book, your subject, and get them into circulation well before your book comes out.
In this case, he wrote an article about global climate change that was picked up, in of all things, Rolling Stone magazine. Huh? Well, I guess they do articles on things other than pop culture and music. Terry Gross saw the article and invited him to her show. Now, of course, we can’t all get written up in Rolling Stone or on NPR, but we surely can get written up in journals, magazines, blogs and websites that relate to our content on some level.
So here is the progression of the pre-pub publicity that will undoubtedly sell many books for him due to this wonderful media coverage:
- Author writes book and sets pub date many months out
- Author writes articles RELATED to the book’s content - hopefully several
- Author gets articles published, either online or in print - this takes time too
- People see article and look for more information creating interest
- Maybe even someone with a TV show, radio show, podcast, or film studio sees the article.
- Author gets invited to participate in TV, Radio, film - or maybe another print interview or article - or maybe several
- Author gets to talk about his subject, and, oh by the way, his upcoming BOOK.
- The interview gets turned into additional content - podcasts, youtube, video trailers, that more people see.
This is the power of pre-publication publicity that gets your book off to a great start and the buzz started before it is available. All of these same tactics are worthy and available post-pub too, but they have special buzz-creating properties when utilized before the book is available.
Tags: marketing your book, podcasts, pre-publication publicity, publicity, radio and TV interviews
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"And I thought after 40 years of writing, I could write a sales letter... WRONG! Carol White's letter went beyond my imagination and into the sales stratosphere. Thanks, Carol! " -- AD Walker
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