Publishing success is not random. Whether you land a traditional royalty publisher, self-publish (establish your own publishing company) or go with a fee-based POD "self-publishing" company, you have the power to make or break your book. So stop looking to others for your success. Don't expect your book to sell just because it's what you think people should read.

Unfortunately, publication doesn't come with automatic public awareness of your wonderful book. Telling two dozen of your closest friends and family about it probably won't result in thousands of sales. Hiring a service to send hundreds of press releases doesn't mean that even one of them will be published or acknowledged. Getting any book noticed takes a concentrated and constant effort. Selling thousands of copies is way more difficult.

I've met too many hopeful authors who sacrificed time, effort, and money in order to produce the book of their dreams, but who had no intention of promoting it. One author told me recently, "Seriously, this book will sell itself." None of these authors gave any thought to the desires and needs of their audience. And some of them stubbornly refused to do marketing of any kind.

So what if you hate and/or stink at public speaking, you can't get out to do book signings or to hand-sell books, you don't have time to or interest in sending press releases or soliciting book reviews, you have no desire to or talent for writing articles or submitting stories for publication. Are you one of many authors who would rather just write than be bothered marketing a book? If this pretty much describes you and you're unwilling to change, go ahead and write, my friend, but stay out of the publishing realm. You'll only become one of the 75 percent of authors who fail.

Wait, you could hire a publicist. Sure, you can. But, as one author said after a whirlwind of TV appearances, book tours, book signings, etc., "I've never been so busy promoting my book until after I hired my publicist." 

So what makes for a successful book? How can you guarantee that yours won't be one of the 75 percent of books that fail? It all starts with your first inkling of an idea for a book. Once you begin to think about the possibility of publishing, it's time to shift into high research gear.

Study the Publishing Industry

While writing is a craft-- a creative endeavor-- publishing is a business. It's imperative that you know something about this business before getting involved. Think about it, you wouldn't open a computer store without knowing something about computers, the manufacturers, suppliers, your competition, and your customers' needs. Why would you enter into the world of publishing without some knowledge of this industry? You'll want to know how it operates, what are your publishing options, what are the possible consequences of your choices, and what are your responsibilities as a published author. I can't tell you how many authors I meet every year who avoid this important step. Most of them soon realize that they've made some costly mistakes and they give up before the year is out.

Research Your Topic or Genre

Are you one of the many authors who are fulfilling a passion or a commitment by writing within a certain topic or genre? If you plan to publish your book, please, please study the viability of your product. Publishing is a business and your book is a product. View your book from any other perspective and you may just be writing its obituary. Find out: 

This is no time to guesstimate, folks. You need solid research in order to honestly and succinctly answer these critical questions. Visit mega-bookstores and study books in the same genre, on the same subject or within the same realm as yours. Some of you are going to say that there are no other books out there like yours. If this is true, maybe there's a reason. Perhaps this is not a viable product. On the other hand, if your book is the story of your life and includes a section about your recovery from a coma, it's the story of an orphaned coyote or it features ways to reuse cassette tapes, compare it with autobiographies/recovery memoirs, animal stories or books on environmental issues.

How many books are there on this subject/genre? How does yours differ? How are other books selling? Call Ingram's database with the ISBN for sales figures: 612-213-6803. 

Make Your Book More Marketable

What can you add to or change about your book in order to make it more appealing to your target audience and maybe even bonus audiences? Give your middle-aged heroine in your modern romance a motorcycle and you'll attract romance readers and also some of the many women who are taking up riding, these days. Add several additional wild animal rescue stories to your coyote story and your book may attract even more readers. Your autobiography might be more well-received if you eliminate the story of your life and focus only on your miraculous recovery from a coma. 

Most authors lead with their hearts. They write the book they want to write or the story they are driven to tell. And that's okay, as long as you follow with your head. Don't seek a publisher or even self-publish until you understand more about the publishing industry, you've evaluated your project from a business perspective, you've created a viable product and you have realistic expectations.

Establish Realistic Expectations

Way too many new authors enter into the publishing field with unrealistic expectations. They expect their books to be available through bookstores nationwide. They envision thousands of people purchasing their books every day with little effort on their part. They expect huge royalty checks. They see themselves being mobbed at book signings in every state. 

Realistically, a successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies and a successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 (Author's Guild). But nearly 95 percent of all books in print sell fewer than 1,000 copies. 

Books don't sell themselves. Those books that do well have authors with strong marketing plans in place and tons of energy to implement them.

If you have a truly good, viable, useful, valuable, highly entertaining book to publish, you know your target audience, you understand your publishing options, and your responsibilities as a published author, and you are willing to do whatever it takes to promote your book, welcome to the world of publishing. You will, undoubtedly, have either minor or major success. 

Patricia Fry is the president of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). She is also the author of 27 books including The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, revised 2^nd edition (2007) and the companion, Author's Workbook. www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html. Visit Patricia's informative blog often. www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog.
 
 

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