Although my little gathering at the Portland Public Library happened on a truly frigid day, resulting in nobody coming to hear the talk, I was able to discuss the differences between those authors who have good turnouts to such things and those who, like me, can't seem to catch a break. These are some of the things that came from talking with the librarian:
1) The authors who manage to get their books into the local bookstores are the ones who get the attention, whether it be the local news stations taking notice and actually inviting the authors for interviews, or the general public, or the New York Times Best Seller people.
2) Having an online presence is good in this digital age, but still, it helps to get something - whether it's a regular paperback book, a comic book, a manga book or an audio book - into local stores.
3) My marketing research strategies ARE helping book sales online and are making me popular in other countries (especially when I look at my reach for things like my Facebook pages and this blog), but I need to work on getting the work out there in the old fashioned markets in order to hit the "impulse buyer", who will find a book in a bookstore quite by accident and become a major promoter via word of mouth.
So, if you're a writer or are otherwise creative, and you're following along with my learning process by reading my blog (for which you have my everlasting thanks), here are the things I've decided I need after the discussion on Friday:
I need to get some friends who are artists and are willing to have their works displayed as book covers (or possibly complete books, should we go the manga/comic book route) - either getting paid a flat rate up front or a percentage of the income from book sales.
I need to have a printing company that produces books at a reasonable enough per book cost that I will be able to get books picked up by local bookstores without having to go too deeply into debt myself in order to be able to cover the deal that basically comes down to selling the books on a consignment basis.
I need someone who is able to help me to record the books, as a lot of my friends and co-workers are getting into audio books, which isn't offered by my current publisher.
I need to reconnect with a couple of the legal eagles I've lost touch with, as they can help me with the legal wording for all the contracts that will have to be drawn up for the above things to happen.
And, obviously, I need to complete work on my web site for the business I'm going to need to get up and running to be able to carry out all of the above things and have a marketplace setting to be able to start selling all the resulting wares online.
Have I served myself up with a bit too large a piece of the pie to manage to get this all done before the end of 2014 along with the writing that Kelly Starbird is pushing me to do? I sincerely hope not, but if so, this may all just bleed into 2015 and onward until I get it all done.
In the meantime, if you have someone you know who might meet one of the needs I've noted, please have them get in touch. I'm not looking for "cover by Rembrandt". I'm just looking for "cover by someone with more artistic ability than yours truly", as I have brilliant ideas for what I'd like to see for a cover, but I don't have the drawing ability to produce my vision.....
Thank you for continuing to show this blog your love, and Blessed Be.
1) The authors who manage to get their books into the local bookstores are the ones who get the attention, whether it be the local news stations taking notice and actually inviting the authors for interviews, or the general public, or the New York Times Best Seller people.
2) Having an online presence is good in this digital age, but still, it helps to get something - whether it's a regular paperback book, a comic book, a manga book or an audio book - into local stores.
3) My marketing research strategies ARE helping book sales online and are making me popular in other countries (especially when I look at my reach for things like my Facebook pages and this blog), but I need to work on getting the work out there in the old fashioned markets in order to hit the "impulse buyer", who will find a book in a bookstore quite by accident and become a major promoter via word of mouth.
So, if you're a writer or are otherwise creative, and you're following along with my learning process by reading my blog (for which you have my everlasting thanks), here are the things I've decided I need after the discussion on Friday:
I need to get some friends who are artists and are willing to have their works displayed as book covers (or possibly complete books, should we go the manga/comic book route) - either getting paid a flat rate up front or a percentage of the income from book sales.
I need to have a printing company that produces books at a reasonable enough per book cost that I will be able to get books picked up by local bookstores without having to go too deeply into debt myself in order to be able to cover the deal that basically comes down to selling the books on a consignment basis.
I need someone who is able to help me to record the books, as a lot of my friends and co-workers are getting into audio books, which isn't offered by my current publisher.
I need to reconnect with a couple of the legal eagles I've lost touch with, as they can help me with the legal wording for all the contracts that will have to be drawn up for the above things to happen.
And, obviously, I need to complete work on my web site for the business I'm going to need to get up and running to be able to carry out all of the above things and have a marketplace setting to be able to start selling all the resulting wares online.
Have I served myself up with a bit too large a piece of the pie to manage to get this all done before the end of 2014 along with the writing that Kelly Starbird is pushing me to do? I sincerely hope not, but if so, this may all just bleed into 2015 and onward until I get it all done.
In the meantime, if you have someone you know who might meet one of the needs I've noted, please have them get in touch. I'm not looking for "cover by Rembrandt". I'm just looking for "cover by someone with more artistic ability than yours truly", as I have brilliant ideas for what I'd like to see for a cover, but I don't have the drawing ability to produce my vision.....
Thank you for continuing to show this blog your love, and Blessed Be.
i can help! maybe! or... at least i can try.
ReplyDeletere: getting your book in stores. in my research, i've found that independent bookstores are usually more willing to sell books from local authors than big chain stores. if you have any of them around, you should definitely talk to them first. if there are any stores that might cater to a romance-reading crowd, even if it's not a bookstore, they might also agree to sell a few books. (like how urban outfitters sells books as well as clothes.) also, libraries. i don't know if your book is in libraries, but it should be. in regards to big chain stores, even if you can't sell your books with them, they will sometimes hand out things for you or let you hand out things to patrons. make bookmarks with your book titles and website information on them and ask your local bookstores to hand them out to people when they buy a book. they will usually be used in the book that was just bought, and after looking at the same thing every time you open/close a book, chances are you'll google the book or check out the website. plus, i love the idea of bookmarks being the business cards for authors. also, i don't know how your publishing contract works, but createspace isn't ridiculously priced if you want to use them to publish books. and mass paperbacks are generally cheaper than trade paperbacks if your publishing company can make those.
re: covers and bookmarks. my sister does a lot of graphic design work. i'm not sure exactly what you're looking for for the covers, but she may be able to help. she could definitely help make the bookmarks, though. i'm a bit biased, but i think her work is awesome.
re: audio book. my graphic designer sister also conveniently does voice-overs. she's never recorded an entire novel, but i know that she has recorded short stories, news stories, radio bits, announcements, etc.
if you would like, i could get you in touch with my sister and her portfolio and you guys can see if you click. she does have a full-time job so i'm not sure how long it would take her to do things like record an entire book, but the bookmarks she could probably get out relatively quick. if you and my sister do not work out then i may have a couple of other suggestions for you. i just need to go back and look through my hundreds of bookmarks for specific sites. (actually, i could get these to you even if you decide to work with my sister just to have on hand.)
let me know!
and also, sorry your talk ended up on a bad day. the weather has been crazy this year all over the country it seems like.
Those are marvelous suggestions, Sarah, and I'm working on getting the books out to libraries. I have managed to get some good quotes on the printers and have one in mind.
ReplyDeleteAs to introducing me to your sister, I'd love to have her read the books and see if she's inspired to create something that ties into the story. Suggestions for a new cover have included such things as a big truck with the emblem of Jack and Benny Trucking on the side.....
If your sister is willing to give the longer audio book a shot, I have been led to understand that a lot of those who read for a whole project like this do so a chapter at a time, whenever they can spare the time. I'm researching the programs that are most recommended for editing the finished work into a smooth format and for transferring it to a cd, so if she has any thoughts that way, I'd love to have a chat with her.
Thank you for your comments, as always, and for your offer to help. If not for such offers from unexpected sources, I wouldn't be where I am today.