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Strategies From a Successful “Newbie”
By Peter Bowerman
Part 2 of 2
The Marketing Boomerang
Do enough marketing and you’ll experience the delightful phenomenon I
call the “marketing boomerang.” In the beginning, you'll be contacting
publications, web sites, associations, etc., asking if they want a review copy
and requesting reviews, articles (that you write), interviews, etc. After you've
done a bunch of that, you’ll start getting requests for review copies from
people you’ve never heard of or contacted. Finally, you’ll start
hearing readers refer to where they heard of your book-- publications, groups,
web sites, etc.-- places which, again, you never contacted.
I discovered, to my pleasant surprise, that after I’d achieved a sort of
“critical mass” with my marketing, different entities would find my book on
their own, go ahead and buy a copy and review it on their site or in their
publication without ever even contacting me. You gotta love that. And speaking
of sending out review copies…
Send Lots of Books
Don’t be afraid to send out LOTS of review copies. I know some books
recommend that you really delve into who’s asking for one, on the assumption
that there are a lot of “mooches” who just want to score a free book and
have no more intention of writing a review than the man in the moon. I’m sure
that happens AND I’ll probably still send one out. Even if they are a mooch,
if they like the book, chances are good they’ll tell a few others about it and
that’s always good. Unless your books are VERY expensive, with lots of color
photos etc, don’t be stingy. My books, as far as printing costs go, cost about
$1.75 each. Sent book rate adds another $1.75. So for $3.50, you’ve got
the very best form of advertising you could possibly have: the book itself.
Press Kit Tips
Want to make your press kit stand out easily? Get 250-300 extra book
covers printed up when you print your books, fold them in half, staple the
bottom and use them as folders. Include a press release, key reviews, news
articles, flyers, copies of book club listings/inserts, author bio, and anything
else you feel will make a strong case for the book.
Book Clubs
With galleys (your pre-pub version of the book, also known as an
“advance uncorrected proof”) in hand, approach the book clubs early. Check Literary
Marketplace for a complete listing with contact people. You’d be amazed at
the highly specific niches out there. Check it out. And don’t be afraid to
shoot high. I landed Writer’s Digest Book Club early enough that I
could use it in all my Internet pitches... a phenomenal door-opener. I didn’t
even consider the big boys (Book-of-the-Month, Quality Paperback Book,
Doubleday) until after landing the Library Journal and
Booklist reviews.
Once I did, I got a little cockier, sent them on to BOMC and QPB (sister clubs
under the bookspan name) and within a month, got the thumbs-up. I
remember what the acquisitions editor said: “We’ve just haven’t seen any
book quite like this on the market.” Ponder that litmus test when you’re
contemplating your book’s subject, title and cover design. Book clubs-- and anyone
for that matter-- want unique, different, distinctive.
Shortcut to Big Library Sales
A key to library sales and enhanced credibility in general is to
land reviews in such prestigious publications as Booklist, Library Journal,
Publishers Weekly, ForeWord magazine, and Kirkus Reviews. They
typically want review copies (galleys OK) 90-120 days prior to your OPD, making
an even stronger case for an extended period between BBD and OPD. With limited
budgets and time, librarian rely heavily on these industry pubs to do their
pre-screening for them, often ordering all books reviewed.
Reality check: the chances of getting reviewed in one of these publications are
slim. Only 10-15% or less of books submitted to these entities get reviewed. But
don’t let odds scare you go for it. How can you up your chances? Well,
some things are obvious: write a really good book one that will appeal to
a fairly broad audience. But as a self-publisher, there are a few things you can
do to stack the deck in your favor...
 | Your Cover |
You’ve heard it before; you’re going to hear it again: don’t skimp on
your cover. Remember: 50,000 books get printed each year. Those people
considering your title for purchase, distribution or review look for reasons to
cull the herd. The cover is the no-brainer. Spend the money to get yours
professionally designed (DON’T hire your cousin who’s artistic…). Can you
barter services with a graphic designer? I traded writing for design services
with a professional graphic designer, who will need copy for her web site and
marketing brochure.
Think long and hard on your title and your cover. As for the title, brainstorm a
bunch of ideas and run them past people. Think clever and effective.
Visit bookstores with your graphic designer and scan the shelves in your genre
for titles and cover designs that catch your eye. Figure out why they do and try
to capture what works. Just as important as a good title and cover design, I
assert, are…
| Four-Color Galleys |
I remember having a lively and positive phone chat with a review editor at Booklist.
She’d received my galley (but didn’t have it in front of her) and asked
me nonchalantly who my publisher was. I should have simply given her the name of
my self-publishing entity, Fanove Publishing, and spoken of it as separate from
me. But she caught me flat-footed and instead, I mumbled, “…me.” Long
pause. “Oh really…well…we rarely if ever review self-published books.”
Yet, they still did.
Fact is, a lot of self-published books have gotten reviewed in Booklist and
the others. What makes the difference? Well, again, create a good book, in both
form and content. And “form” includes four-color galleys. Galleys can span
the gamut in terms of aesthetics and production quality. They can be downright
austere, with typed black-and-white covers or even as primitive as F&G
(folded and gathered) pages. Or they can look identical to the final version.
If you’re Stephen King or Tom Clancy, your galley could probably show up on a
stack of cocktail napkins and they’d be fine with it. OK, a stretch perhaps,
but the point is, as self-publishers we’re already behind the eight-ball with
the review publications. Overcome their institutionalized reluctance to review
self-published books by making your book look like anything but a
self-published book.
Push for the Bookstores?
Some of the most successful self-publishers rank bookstore sales near
the bottom of the scale in importance. Don’t let your vanity get the better of
you and be so anxious to get your books into the bookstores until you’re sure
people will be looking for it. By all means, approach Ingram and Baker &
Taylor (the big library wholesaler), get listed on their databases, and make it
easy for the bookstores and libraries to get their hands on it. Once you’re
listed with them, anyone can walk into a bookstore, request the book, and the
store can order it.
If you’ve created the demand, and that demand drives enough people to walk
into enough Barnes & Nobles or Borders asking for the book, I promise you,
they’ll find you, order in larger quantities and start stocking the book. Of
course, they’ll always order through the wholesalers or a distributor, never
directly from you. If you push your book into the big chains before you’ve
established a strong and enduring demand, you’ll end up with a ton of returns
up to a year later, in any condition, for a full refund.
Typical return rates in this business are 25-30% and I've heard no small number
of horror stories of rates as high as 60%! My return rate through nearly 15,000
copies? So low it boggles even my mind: about 2%.
Excellent Ebook Economics
Pursue the ebook market. It’s a no-brainer. You send a file, ideally
in a PDF format (though most of the companies will handle the technical details
for you, so a Word file will often suffice) and the company loads it up on their
site. No books or inventory to worry about and you get checks every month. How
much sweeter does it get? I got my book on writersweekly.com (division of
booklocker.com) and it ended up as the #3 best-selling ebook in 4Q2000 (#24
overall for all of 2000). For a list of ebook publishers, click on www.ebookconnections.com/epublisher.htm.
E-book sales will naturally drive hard copy sales. If someone likes your book--
and especially if it’s a how-to or reference that they’ll want to keep handy--
chances are excellent they’ll want their own “hold-in-their-hand” copy.
Be a Goodwill “Machine”
What do I mean by that? If you provide an e-mail address somewhere that
your readers can use (I have mine on my web site), answer all your reader e-mail
and with more than one-line answers. Address their questions. Give them advice.
I promise you, they’ll be blown away that they got an answer at all. Give them
some real attention and you’ll have a friend for life. And what do friends do?
They talk. The writing community and most communities for that matter aren’t
that big and people share good experiences. Getting a reputation as a nice,
generous and accessible author is a very good thing.
Hire a Consultant
As a naïve first-time, self-publishing author, one of the best things I
did was hire a professional publishing consultant with 40+ years in the
industry. He suggested the Writer’s Digest Book Club (that alone has
paid for his services many times over; they’ve ordered 2000 copies).
He’s been this over-my-shoulder presence throughout the whole process. And
worth every penny.
Hire Out Distribution
If someone does a good job, I believe in acknowledging them, so yes,
this is a plug. BookMasters, Inc. printed my books and is handling all
fulfillment, from the one-book buyer to the Ingrams, B&Ts, and Amazons of
the world. They do all shipping, invoicing, even collection.
For sales made through the BookMasters toll-free number on my web site, I charge
customers $4 shipping and handling (on a $19.95 book). BookMasters charges me
about $5.75 (including book rate shipping). A small price to pay for the
convenience. And since in that scenario, I’m netting over $18 on a book, I can
afford to offer special discounts to different groups or during different
periods. If I offer, say, free shipping, a $4 savings, I net $14, still much
better than my net on sales to wholesalers, distributors and Amazon.com (less
than $9).
I can’t imagine trying to manage all this myself. And I promise you, if you
tried, you wouldn’t save very much money-- certainly not enough
to justify the hassle. They do this very well, so let them. You’ve got enough
to mess with.
Keep It Up
While I sent out about 100 review copies right after getting my finished
books, a week doesn’t go by that I’m not sending out at least two or three
more. Always be looking for more contacts in your target communities. A book is
far and away the cheapest and best form of advertising out there. Don’t be
stingy. And remember: You can’t do it all. Pick and choose your battles. Good
luck.
Peter Bowerman of Fanove Publishing is the self-published author of The
Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance Writer in
Six Months or Less. Visit his web site at www.wellfedwriter.com
and reach him at bowerman@mindspring.com.
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