I Published a Book! Now What?

 

There you are, proud and pleased as you stare at the boxes – and possibly pallets of cartons – of your bouncing baby book in your garage, basement or storage unit. It’s a book!

 

Now what?

There is no worse feeling in the world than realizing, after you’ve printed your book, that you have no earthly way of selling them. I know, because I screwed up in exactly this way when I first started out.  

I ordered 3000 copies of Captain Mary, Buccaneer, the book that was the subject of Autopsy of a Bad Book Cover – Part 1. We schlepped gigantic cartons of the book up our steep driveway – because the trucker didn’t want to drive up the drive. The cartons each contained 70 copies of my book. It was an arduous task – me with a bad back and the hubbers with a hernia (which is why I now spec cartons of no more than 25 lbs) . When they were all stacked in my former parking spot in the garage, I burst into tears. My spouse thought they were happy tears. They weren’t. It had suddenly hit me that I had to sell all those books and I had no plan to do that.

This gave rise to a reworking of an old saw that I share with my clients of today:

Publish in haste, stare at pile of unsold books at leisure.

There’s this common thread that runs through most self-publishers and new small press owners: “I gotta get the book out!” As if there’s some reason publishing fast is better than thinking things through. 

STOP.

Write the book and enjoy your artistic freedom. But once you are finished (and possibly before you go through and edit it the first time), you need to think about one crucial thing:

Who is going to read this book?

If your answer is “Anyone who likes to read,” please go sit in the corner with a dunce cap on your head.

Every book – every single one – has a target audience. That’s true for Harry Potter as much as it is for a book on rebuilding the carberator of a ‘57 Bel Air.

Who will want to read your book, besides your Mom? And what else do they read? And how do you get their attention? 

You will need to do research on the genre of your book – study the demographics and buying habits of people who buy books like yours. Yes, you will have to do someting that is not artistic. I’m always amazed at how many people are offended at this concept. But this is true of painters and sculpters and writers: the minute the Art is finished and you think about selling it, you become a business person. Artists who don’t get a handle on this either a) Fail to sell their art or b) Get ripped-off by those who sell it for them.

OK, so, assuming you are one smart cookie and want to make sure your book sells, just how do you do that?

PLATFORM

As with anything in human relationships, it’s not all a one-way street. You want people to read your book. But what’s in it for them? And who the heck are you anyway? While you are finishing your book, start to develop your platform – which is pretty much what it sounds like… the place where you stand. In this case, it’s what you stand for.

Did you write a paranormal romance? Great. Get out there and talk to people who read paranormal romances. Use social media like Twitter, Facebook and any romance fora you can find. What makes you qualified to write the book? What makes your book more compelling than anyone else’s? What more can you offer your potential readers beyond just the book (witty asides, cogent explorations of why we love paranormal, what vampires symbolize in today’s world… something). 

In the case of Captain Mary, Buccaneer, I reached out to the pirate re-enactors community. My website listed historical works on piracy, extensive lists of fiction, and a huge bibliography of historical clothing books (to which I have Amazon links and make money) – because pirate re-enactors also do other stuff like Ren Faires and the like.

 

For non-fiction, you have to show why you are an expert and uniquely qualified to inform the public on this topic. What value do you add to that particular conversation? How is your perspective better, fresher, different? Can you offer e-booklets and reports that are in support of the book? Seminars and talks?

Use websites, blogs, newsletters and social media to let the world know about who you are and the value of what you will soon release into the wild (that book).

MARKETING – Where to sell your book

Based on your research, you’ll know where your readers/consumers/peeps go to buy products (and if they want e-books rather than p-books and on and on). For many these days, they may not buy from a bookstore. Many don’t go to libraries any more (or sadly, can’t because the buildings are shuttered). That means that bookstores shouldn’t be a focus of your sales – nor should libraries.

Or maybe they should – which means you’ll need to go about woo-ing the old-style long-lead review sources (Publisher’s Weekly, School/Library Journal, etc). But you’ll know because you did your homework.

Knowing this is an important step in preparing your marketing – because you need to know where to send your consumer.

MARKETING – Advertising and Getting Press 

Now is when you put most of the research you’ve done into use. You don’t need an ad in an automotive magazine for a book about tea shops, right? Although sometimes you’ll discover counter-intuative ways of reaching your market. Once we did a series of ads for a travel book in a gardening magazine. Why? Because the demographics showed that the magazine’s readers traveled. A lot.

Focus on where your customers are, what they read, who influences their buying decisions, where they congregate, and you’ll make sure they hear about you. 

Similarly, you will know the kinds of press to pursue that will best reach your audience, instead of a shotgun approach that gets you nothing.  

MARKETING - The Aftermath

What if you discover – after the book is out – that there’s a whole new group of people to pursue? Then you re-write the marketing plan and go after that new group. One book we put out we’d carefully tailored a plan to one group of people. But a review we got suggested the book was great for reader X. We tossed out our old marketing plan and went after the more promising reader. 

Review, rewrite or toss your marketing plan every 3-6 months. There’s no reason a book can’t have a great sales life 1- 2-, 3-, even 10 years after publication, if you’ve found your market.

Of course, Small Press World helps small press owners build their platform and market!

Here’s a little internet piece of wisdom about marketing: 

What Is Marketing?

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying “Circus
Coming to the Fairground Saturday,” that’s advertising.
 

If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town,
that’s promotion.
 

If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed,
that’s publicity.
 

And if you get the mayor to laugh about it,
that’s public relations.
 

If the town’s citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus,
that’s sales.