Book Promotion – Page 22 – Self Publishing Advisor

Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Self-publishing: Rice, Corn, & Beans

Retailers like Amazon, blogs, online forums and countless other products of the digital world have introduced over the last decade a unique new element in the way readers find books: less expensive, open source consumer information. No longer are large advertising and marketing dollars spent on a small portion of books targeted at the largest audience possible through traditional brick-and-mortar outlets. At least not on the level of decades past when readers had no choice but to visit these stores to learn about and buy new books. What does this mean for how writers produce books?

To help explain, let’s take a look at the example of the bean farmer, corn farmer, and rice farmer, all three of whom farm all 3 crops to sell at the farmers market. However,

The bean farmer is better at bean farming.
The corn farmer is better at corn farming.
And the wheat farmer better at rice farming.

One day the bean farmer decides to turn his entire field to beans, and in result brings the best beans at a higher volume to the market. This farmer may only be serving those consumers who like beans, and will lose those that prefer corn and rice. But he will accomplish at taking in the whole bean market because his beans are the best.

Are a rice, corn, or bean farmer? In other words, how specific is your audience (the tighter the better) and how pertinent your content? Once this has been identified and the self-publisher search begins, look for one that has marketing services and support to most effectively reach those readers.

– Karl Schroeder

Have fun and keep writing!

Book Promotion, Book Reviews, Choosing a Publisher, Networking, Self-Publishing

Self-publishing, Literature and Pop Culture

I opened the Books section in yesterday’s New York Times Urban Eye to read the headline, “Why Literature Doesn’t Matter.” Really? How sad. It matters to me. It matters to my family, friends, and colleagues. It matters to the self-publishing authors I work with every day. Literature doesn’t matter… I wish someone would have told me.

According to Urban Eye, a recent Sunday Book Review article penned buy novelist Kurt Anderson was to fill me in. Anderson writes, “During the 1960s and ’70s…people who hadn’t read a word of a first-rate contemporary novel — no Cheever, no Bellow, no Salinger, Heller, Styron, Doctorow, Updike or Roth — nevertheless knew the novelists’ names… And then everything changed.”

But book sales in the US have remained strong, and are even growing over previous years in Europe. Despite the current recession effects, statistics show that readers are still buying books. Not matter? Anderson goes on to claim, “But irony of ironies, after literature was evicted from mass culture, pop culture itself began to fragment and lose its heretofore defining quality as the ubiquitous stuff that everybody consumed.”

Ah, I’m seeing to whom, or rather to what, Literature doesn’t matter to – pop culture. Wait, then this is a good thing for authors and readers. The fragmentation that Anderson talks about is the segmenting of consumers into smaller, more clearly defined profiles. What that means to self-publishing authors of fiction, non-fiction, etc., is not that your work doesn’t matter, that Literature doesn’t matter, but that it doesn’t matter to everyone. Perfect, now you can coordinate and focus your subject matter and marketing efforts to readers who will benefit from, and buy your books.

Talk to your self-publisher early on about your custom marketing plan.

Karl Schroeder

Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Networking, Self-Publishing

Google Book Settlement & Registering your Self-published Book

Perhaps you’ve been following news about the Google Book Settlement over the past few weeks. The overall implications of the deal are still unclear, with notable opposition coming from The Authors Guild and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

The details of the settlement involving copyright concerns and royalties first initiated through the Google Library Project in 2004 are a bit esoteric and apparently complex. Don’t be overwhelmed. There is no downside to registering your self-published book, so don’t miss the deadlines.

Outskirts Press has provided a step by step overview of the process in their most recent newsletter. Check it out here.

Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Choosing a Publisher, Networking, Self-Publishing, Viral Marketing

Self-publishing Book Marketing Advice – Readers that Count

Placing your book in front of readers that matter is one of the most important elements in successful book marketing of your self-published title. This should be high on your long range radar even as you write.

What does this mean? The smaller, most identified reader base the better off you’ll sit. Does your non-fiction piece focus on Green Building and Design? Your fiction take place in the US Civil War? Or your title introducing relevant ways to manage a company during a recession?

Each of these examples presents you, the author, with a strong, identifiable reader base. Should you care if someone who blogs incessantly about the Harry Potter series doesn’t know or care about your book? Without question, no.

Should you take note if Robert Morris mentions your B2B management or effective leadership piece? Absolutely. He is an individual influential on a specific topic that will bring others to your book.

The bottom line challenge is finding which circles, critics, and resource that matter to your book and convincing them of its value. Its in trying to please everyone that we become invisible – something like the law of diminish returns.

Doesn’t writing sometimes seem to be the easiest part?

– Karl Schroeder

Book Promotion, Choosing a Publisher, Networking, Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing: Give me six hours…

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. – Abraham Lincoln

Let’s look at breaking down your self-publishing book project into the short, mid, and long range in terms of the process in goals. The actual time involved for each phase varies with each author and each project. Nevertheless, you’ve worked hard on writing, revising, and preparing your book for publication. Congratulations. The first step or phase is done or nearing complete, and it’s time to publish.

Many authors confuse this second step – actual publishing – with step 3. Let’s slow down and take a closer look. Phase 1 is the writing, or artistic phase. Step 2, the publishing or business step. Time to begin sharpening the axe. Upfront prices are important, but take the time to avoid the ever present instant gratification of free and quick publishing and research beyond. What kind of pricing control will you have? Professional production options? Will your book be situated to retail competitively on the market? What kind of marketing services and options are available after publication? These are critical questions to ask as you research full-service self-publishing options, customize your mid-range work, and begin to look at getting your published book into reader’s hands. Now your prepared to chop the tree.

Karl Schroeder
https://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

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