Sell

Articles about book / author promotion and marketing, and author platform.

So Much Traffic, No More Parking Spots

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You’ve seen the stats: upwards of 280,000 "self-published" books in 2009, according to Bowker or some big brother agency; with 2010 expected to dwarf those numbers and crush the number of mainstream published books.

We’re all like, "woo hoo." Kind of.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: strong language after the jump]

Because you’ve also seen a lot of shit out there, too: Your twitter buddy who asked you to beta-read her manuscript which is a piece of shit; or that authonomy friend who implored you to read his wanna-be-commercial-genre-fiction-lookalike-but-awully-written piece of shit. The barrier to entry to successful readership is not gatekeeper agents any longer, but writers ourselves. Lack of credible editors (or our investment in them) is problematic. First drafts will kill us all if we’re not careful. The culture of swapsies and kindness is dangerous–really dangerous.

There is and is going to continue to be an enormous population of work by authors who have attempted to be published commercially and have not had success in getting the attention of agents and publishing companies. There are a couple of reasons why we haven’t seen their work published by the mainstream companies: (a) it’s good, but it’s *not good enough,* (b) it’s really fucking good, but outside the formula for the pubbies (e.g., experimental, mixed-media, gritty); (c) it’s just awful.

And then there are those of us who never intended on being published by another entity and blazed our own trail. We should stop applauding ourselves so much and focus more on making our work the best that it can be: ruthless cutting, investment in a credible editor and copy/proofreader. [I proofread 29 Jobs and a Million Lies and there isn’t one fucking typo in the entire thing, so it CAN be done. I printed it out in another font and combed through every line.]

So we’re dealing with a few issues here which I just don’t have a proposed solution for and it bothers me tremendously:
 

  • Intensively increasing competition for attention (we’ve talked about this before and it’s all over other pub blogs)
  • An increasingly compartmentalized and siloed readership
  • Literary fiction — that which doesn’t fit into a genre — is ever-increasingly homeless. We can’t develop a marketing niche, or a community of readers who will want to identify with this non-genre. After all, we can’t define something by that which it is not, right? Where will we belong? How will we stand out? Answer-in-theory: We just have to be awesomer.

I’m not heading in the direction of publishing industry apologist, don’t worry about that. But maybe the cropping up of writer’s affiliations and communities is a solution to leveraging the strength of other writers’ marketing visibility. Strength in numbers, right? That’s what we’re doing at Year Zero Writers and it’s new and exciting and cool. But there is a dicey line between editorial control, right? With these affiliations, or independent mini-publishing companies, seems like someone or some body needs to help vet, right? Well, then it becomes a publishing company. Think about it–objectives to earn solid profits, yadda yadda, and before you know it, your totally cool independent community now is run by committee, decisions take eons to make, you have to make political compromises, and it’s worse than divvying up the fridge in your college apartment with a half dozen broke-ass roommates.

Not all are like that (Year Zero won’t head in that direction). But look how authonomy turned out — like Marion Stein described it recently to me:, Lord of the Flies. And that’s an independent writers community? That’s how we propose toppling the publishing industry? Ain’t gonna happen. It’s like they pitted writers against each other in a global cage-fight and sat back and watched us destroy ourselves.

So, it won’t be writers or an independent movement that will topple the publishing industry, so let’s stop taking credit for that. Readers–the marketplace–have control and let’s not forget that.

There are still hordes of readers who browse the stacks, literally. There are still hordes of readers who only read one genre and will never even consider picking a book up outside that purview. There are still hordes of readers who rely solely on book club recommendations. No independent movement of outside-the-box fiction will change that force, and neither will any technology gadget.

So to writers embarking on their next project: If you have to ask yourself why you are writing, remember it is for readers–THOSE readers who you know appreciate your work (even if it’s just your mom and cubicle-buddy)–who hold all the control. No matter how defiantly independent, DIY, and whatever other title we love to label ourselves with, if we’re pissing off readers because they just don’t "get" what we’re doing, it serves no purpose other than our own exercise in writing.

We’re in a tremendously exciting time right now and the entire landscape is changing every day–this is fucking history and it’s great. Let’s revel in it. Let’s not fool ourselves that a pivotal shift in the marketplace will occur, though. There are ever more platforms, writers, genres, and TV shows competing for the SAME number of eyes. So while accessibility to the marketplace is eased, consider it like a crowded highway onto which we are merging, headed to a city with a finite number of parking spots. 

Fuck, did I just liken our writing to a game of musical chairs?

This is a cross-posting from Jenn Topper’s Don’t Publish Me! blog.

Comparing Ebook Covers for Second Mystery

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This is what Cliff Fryman, know as @Selorian to his Twitter followers, came up with for an initial design:

Firebug Cover #1

I had some suggestions, so he came up with three more versions. We then conducted a marketing survey with our bookstore customers and certain professional artists and designers. Here are covers #2, #3, and #4:

Cover #2 (above)
 

Cover #3 (above)
 

Cover #4 (above)

The results of the poll were many liked the first, but were confused by the background in the upper area, which looked like a burning ship to many. Most of the pros said there was too much detail for an on-screen thumbnail image, especially if a square audio book cover was based on the same image. Number four got very few votes as its letters were too dark. Number three got a lot of votes; however, number two won because it was simple, easy to read on screen, and manageable to cut down to a square format.

The flames in the letters in both #2 and #3 were really cool (great work Cliff) and the only difference was some smoke in #3 at the base of the burning stake. The second image cut down to the audio format very handily, as shown below:

 

Audio Book Cover (above)
 

The story is based on a true event in Leavenworth’s 1901 history when a young black man accosted a white lady and was arrested as a suspect in similar incidents, including a murder of a girl during the previous year. A lynch mob (white & black) of 5,000+ tore the iron doors off the jail that night, took him to the edge of town and burned him alive at the stake. In modern times, a young man researches his roots and discovers he is a descendant of the burned man. He decides to take vengeance against the descendants of the mob’s ringleaders. The protagonist has to figure all this out and put a stop to it.

Survey’s Hidden Agenda

In addition to helping us make a decision about the ebook cover (ebook is available at http://bit.ly/bUymON), the survey became a wonderful marketing tool to prepare the public for something exciting is coming to our town. We got strong positive reactions to the fact that we would be publishing a mystery series based in our own town which appears very professionally done. Wow, what a powerful side benefit that was!!!

Cliff ’s work as a web designer and illustrator can be seen at http://cliffordfryman.com/  As you can see, I’m very pleased with his work!

 

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

Promote Your Book in Your Own Backyard – 10 Strategies for Success

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Online book marketing is a terrific way to promote your book to a worldwide audience, but sometimes authors overlook book marketing opportunities in their own backyard.

In your local area and region, you have the opportunity to stand out as a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Here are ten tips to promote your book in your own area:

1.   Always carry books and literature with you. Keep a case of books and some flyers in the trunk of your car, and business cards in your wallet. You never know when you will run across a potential customer or marketing contact.

2.   Look for opportunities across your region. Headed for a weekend getaway or off to visit grandma? Do a little research ahead of time to identify bookstores, retailers and libraries in the area that you can call on. Or plan your own book tour, staying with friends and relatives along the way.

3.   Promote yourself as a local author to bookstores and libraries. Many bookstores and libraries have a special section where they showcase the books of local or regional authors.

4.   Look for other retailers that are a good fit. Think about what type of retailers relate to the topic of your book, and promote your book as written by a local author.

5.   Put "local author" stickers on the books that you sell in your area.

6.   Speak at libraries. Contact libraries about doing a presentation on your book’s topic. This can be especially effective for children’s books and for nonfiction titles that have a broad appeal (such as travel, business, or fitness).  Many libraries will let you sell your books at your presentation, and some have a budget for paying speakers.

7.   Find other speaking opportunities. Speaking is a great way to promote your book, and you may even get paid to speak once you get some experience. There are lots of organizations looking for interesting speakers for their meetings, including business and civic organizations, church groups, schools and universities, trade associations, and more.

8.   Seek publicity through local and regional media. Send a book announcement press release to media in the town where you grew up and where you live now.  The "local girl makes good" angle works especially well in smaller towns. Create press releases based on local tie-ins, such as a novel set in the region, and on current news events. Don’t forget your college alumni newsletter and any civic or professional associations you belong to. Nonfiction authors should consider radio and television talk shows.

9.   Exhibit at book fairs and festivals. These usually work best if your book is related to the theme of the event, or if the book has appeal to a broad audience.

10.   Market children’s book through schools and youth organizations. School visits are a great way to reach kids. For tips, see Melissa Williams’ article at http://snipr.com/s4qga.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s book marketing blog, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter.

You Need Google Alerts

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Hey, wouldn’t it be great if you had a little brother or sister hanging out on the interwebz all day and tattling on anyone who said anything about you or your work online? Then you could quickly respond with appreciation to any kudos, and if it seemed like it would do any good, with damage control to any not-so-kudos. As it turns out, you already do have just such a little tattle-tale, ready and waiting to report back to you. Its name is Google Alerts.

How To Use Google Alerts
The way it works is simple: you go to the Google Alerts page and set up a separate Alert for each word or phrase you’d like reported back to you. Note that you don’t have to have a Google or Gmail account to do this.


 

Under "Type" you can specify whether you want the Alert to search News (news reporting sites), Blogs, Web (non-blog websites), Video (video sharing sites like YouTube), Groups (online communities), or Comprehensive (any mention on any site). Under "How often" you can tell Google Alerts to notify you as-it-happens, once a day or once a week. Anytime the word or phrase you’ve specified turns up online, Google Alerts sends you an email with a link to the page where the mention occurred. For "Email length" you can choose an upper limit of 20 results or 50 results per email notification. Then you just enter your email address, click the Create Alert button, and your personal tattle-tale is on the job.


What Alerts Should Authors Have?

I recommend authors set up alerts for their author or pen name(s), the titles of each of their books, the name(s) of their blog(s) and/or website(s), and the names of any events, sites, etc. with which the author is affiliated. I also recommend the following settings for Alerts:

Type: Comprehensive – so you don’t miss any mentions

How Often: once a day or once a week – so you’re not inundated with Alert emails

Email Length: up to 20 results – this limit will probably far exceed the actual number of results in your Alerts for a very long time
 

Be sure to enter your Alert search terms the same as you would in a search engine. Use quotation marks around phrases and full names to avoid a lot of incorrect results. For example, if I entered the Alert search for Publetariat’s Author Workshop Cruise like this:

Author Workshop Cruise

my Alert would include any references to "Author", "Workshop", or "Cruise". If I enter the search term like this:

"Author Workshop Cruise"

my Alert will only include references to the entire phrase, "Author Workshop Cruise".

Alerts based on general search terms will return a lot of false positives even when you employ quotation marks, but it can’t be helped in some cases. For example, I’ve set up an Alert for ‘ "Snow Ball" + novel ‘ to be notified anytime my novel Snow Ball is being bandied about online, but I also get a lot of hits from people who are talking about about actual balls of snow. Still, I’d rather scan through a few false positives each day than stay in the dark about it when people are talking about my book.

Only people with Google/Gmail accounts can make changes to their existing Alerts, and this is accomplished via the "Manage Alerts" link in any alert email. Users without Google/Gmail accounts can only delete existing Alerts and add new ones. If you don’t have a Google/Gmail account and you need to change one of your Alerts, here’s how to do it:

1. Copy down the parameters of the Alert from within one of its Alert emails, and mark the email with a star or file it in a location where you can easily locate it later

2. Go to the Google Alerts page and create a new Alert, using as many of the parameters you copied as you wish, and changing any you need to change

3. After you’ve received an Alert from the newly-created version (so you know it’s working), return to the Alert email from which you copied the parameters, and click the "Delete this alert" link

How To React To An Alert

When an Alert notifies you of a positive mention, go to the site and see if comments are enabled. If they are, leave a note of thanks to the post’s author, along with any additional remarks you can offer about the article, discussion topic, or post in question. Be sure to check off the "be notified of any responses" box, if there is one, so if anyone replies to your comment you’ll be notified and can come back to respond. Also be sure to spread the word by sharing a link to the page whenever appropriate. This is a win-win that rewards the person who mentioned you or your work by driving traffic to their site, and strengthens your author platform by demonstrating that people are saying nice things about you or your work.

You will be amazed at what a big impact your response and publicity can have on the people who’ve mentioned you or your work. They will feel validated and appreciated, and will be that much more likely to sing your praises whenever the opportunity arises.

When an Alert notifies you of a negative mention, you’ll need to decide whether or not it will be productive for you to respond. In most cases, it isn’t. Please see these posts for additional guidance:

Congratulations, You Get To Be The Bigger Person Now

Internet Defamation, Author Platform, And You

So head on over to Google Alerts and get your personal tattle-tale on the job right away!


This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton‘s Indie Author blog.

Writers Need Social Media… and Social Media Needs Writers

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I’m struck by 2 posts today that I need to share with anyone who has not “got” social media yet. The bottom line is that authors/writers need social media and vice versa. It is increasingly important if you want to connect, sell, network and promote yourself and your books.

First, watch this brilliant video by @equalman , author of  Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business
. It is an eye opening look at the importance of social media and also a brilliant example of a book trailer (It made me ready to buy the book and I’m already a believer!)


 

Second, read this post by publisher Jane Friedman which includes “Hands down, online tools are the fastest and easiest way for unknown writers to begin building an audience, get better at their craft, and network with others who can make a difference in their careers.”

Basically – you need to promote your book in some way in order to get readers and sell books. Social media online is a brilliant way to do it. It is fun and you need to make it a part of your life. Yes, you will spend too much time doing it, but that’s because it’s a) fun and b) it works!

My own evidence:

  • 95% of my book sales have come from people reading this blog, finding me on Twitter or Facebook or finding me through other social media sites. The other 5% are family and friends who would have bought anyway!
     
  • 100% of my course sales for the Author 2.0 Program and over 3000 downloads of the Author 2.0 Blueprint have come from the same sources
     
  • My top 5 traffic sources for this blog include: Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon – social media sites
     
  • Most of my networking is now done online and I have met amazing people from all over the world, including most of my podcast guests. Most of this is due to Twitter.

If you are just starting in the social media world, here are some related posts for you:

istock_000006428830xsmallSocial media sites also need writers. The essence of web 2.0 is connection and user created content. Everyone who has a blog is a writer of some sort and everyone can be a publisher online. The people with the best skills to take advantage of this – WRITERS!

Yes, you have the skills people want in this content driven market, and your writing can sell your books and promote yourself. So, if you haven’t jumped into social media yet, now’s the time!

 

Here’s where you can find me if you’d like to connect – I’d love to hear from you! (I am on many more sites but these are my main ones!)

Twitter: @thecreativepenn

Facebook: joanna.penn

LinkedIn: Joanna Penn

FriendFeed: Joanna Penn

Flickr: TheCreativePenn

YouTube: TheCreativePenn

 

This is a reprint of a blog post which originally appeared on The Creative Penn website on 8/26/09.

Promote Your Book with Facebook Groups

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Facebook groups are a great place to meet people who share your interests and to subtly promote your book. For maximum exposure, join existing groups and start your own Facebook group.

To find groups to join, enter keywords in the Facebook  search box.  When the search results come up, click on the Groups tab to view groups focused on your topic.

Click the Join Group button to join a group. Write an introductory greeting on the group’s wall, and post your book cover in the photo section. Your book cover will show up on the group page and also in the newsfeed of your friends, a great way to subtly promote your book. You can also post videos on group page. It’s not wise to post wall messages and images on more than one group page per day.

Most groups have a discussion board. Scan the list of questions to see if there are any you can answer. As with other online forums, observe proper etiquette and don’t be too promotional in your answer.

Groups are also a wonderful place to find Facebook friends. After all, if someone joins a group related to your topic of interest, they presumably share your interests.

Forming a Facebook Group

Forming your own group can be very beneficial, but to keep the group growing and active you will need to provide benefits to members by offering valuable information and/or active discussions.

To form your own group, log into your Facebook account then go to http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php.

Groups should be used to provide information and interaction to people interested in particular topic. Be subtle about promoting books on your group. A Facebook Page is more appropriate for promoting your book or business directly.

Nonfiction authors can form a group based on their book’s topic. Fiction authors could form a group for people who love to read a particular genre. In the group they could subtly promote their book while discussing the genre and the writing process, offer free chapter downloads, and invite group members to share other books they enjoy.

Promoting Your Group

If you create an “open” group, anyone on Facebook can join, not just your friends. To invite people to join, use the Invite People to Join or Share buttons on the left side of the group’s page.

One way to attract members is to design your group page as an information hub, offering links and resources in the Recent News section of the page. You can offer a free downloadable report as a thank you to group members.  Don’t forget to promote your Facebook group on your website, in your email signature, and on other social networks.

Networking Through Your Group

As group administrator, you can send messages to members (up to a maximum of 5,000), delivered to each person’s Facebook Inbox.  Click the Message All Members link on the group page.

Be sure to communicate with the members periodically by sending something of value such as tips or helpful links. Just be careful not to send so many messages that you annoy people.

Administrators can also post to the wall and start discussions in the forum, to encourage interaction.
If you’re not already using Facebook groups to promote your book, give it a try!

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of Facebook Guide for Authors. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s book marketing blog, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter.

Profiles in Publishing: #1 – Why On Earth Would I Want a Book Contract?

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This post, from Judy Sandra, originally appeared on her JS Media blog on 2/13/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

Profiles in Publishing is a continuing investigation into the brave new world of publishing at JS Media Blog by Judy Sandra.  PIP will be a series of articles and interviews about methods and movers, reporting on who is exploring, who is inhabiting and who is succeeding in the new publishing landscape.
————–
We live in a whole new publishing world. I released my independently published book The Metal Girl (JSM Books) last month. Naturally, I sent an announcement to a personal mailing list. The first sale that I know about is a new acquaintance who excitedly emailed me, “I just bought your book on Kindle!”

Sale #1 = Kindle. I was more stunned that the first sale was on a Kindle, than I was that there was a sale. What to think.

This post began as an email to a writer/publishing industry colleague about an article we both read concerning the current state of the publishing industry and included several observations about self-publishing. From the writer’s point of view, the argument rested on, what seemed to me, the not so accurate conclusion that the ultimate “prize” of self-publishing is to land a book contract by a traditional publishing house. Really?

To be fair, this may be the goal for some. But it’s not mine. Why on earth would I want to sign such a bad contract, based on every outdated business model there is and extremely exploitive and non-remunerative to the owner/holder of the intellectual property? The author.

One wonders how many of those who say they want a book contract have actually read one. I have. I spent 23 years living in New York City, working in and around the publishing/media/arts business and have a number of writer and traditionally published author friends.

Let’s leave celebrities and huge commercial blockbusters out of the mix. Publishers didn’t market or promote the average author much in the past and now they do less than ever. Secondly, I’m a literary author, and major publishers abandoned us go a long time ago.

I published my book myself. I am now going to use my own language, because I find the phrase “self-published” cumbersome at best and mis-directed. I am going to call it “independent publishing”, or, if you like, “indie publishing”. As I’m also an indie musician and have been working with independent filmmakers, this feels about right. I’m an indie.

I created JSM Books as an imprint, so I am the “publisher” and am using Outskirts Press as my printer/distributor. They are a hybrid company and act like a real sales/distribution company. I have an ISBN number and barcode, I’m listed in Books in Print, books are available to the trade through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and I’m POD on Amazon.com worldwide and Barnes & Noble.com. Through Outskirts I have the option to be represented in Frankfurt and other book fairs, if I want.

My great advantage, of course, is that I’m also a professional
brand strategist/marketer/promoter and had a client last year, who was the author of a non-fiction book about filmmaking. So I am probably one of the best people to promote my book that I know. I have the savvy of both old school and new media promotion.

About that experience, let me count the ways that my client’s major traditional publisher did not spend any money on marketing. The author had a huge platform to stand on, an enormous mailing list, was well known within her field, yet they would not give us any money to launch the book. Nada. And we asked. Not a penny, not a cupcake. They sent one large poster stuck to poster board. I set up the book signing/launch, begged the indie book store manager to order 50 books instead of the 25 she wanted to order, and we had an almost sellout event–sold 40 books in three hours.

I won’t say anything untoward about the in-house publicist who was assigned to the book, because I think she did a very good job, was great with the client and helpful and generous to me, but she had ten other books to promote and, again, no marketing budget. I got most of the high profile press for the client, and wrote all of her promotional materials. She paid for this out of her own pocket. Because of her established reputation, the good press (it’s an excellent book) and her speaking opportunities, which she created for herself, the book is now a bestseller in the film category on Amazon.com.

Fresh out of this experience, I had a miraculous encounter with my second novel. You can read the whole account here, but the short version is that the original manuscript was discovered by a wonderful reader, who loved the book and found me on Facebook, which encouraged me to publish it myself. At this point, there are so many reasons why I don’t want a contract that it’s hard to categorize them but let me start with eight big reasons, that have to do with bookstores, readers and buying habits.

1. Bookstores don’t matter.
I hear the chorus of people defending indie bookstores now, and I love them too, but this is not where the bulk of book buying happens. It’s just a fact. People are going to bookstores less and less and buying online more and more. I don’t know why this news item got little play in the U.S. but fact is, Borders went out of business in the UK. Read The Guardian story here:

2. Critics don’t matter. Bloggers and readers do.
Step away from the Manhattan island. Outside of that little crowd of
incestuous literary criticism (come on, you know what I’m talking about), these days people care less and less about critics. In fact, many newspapers and publications have let go of their book review sections and book reviewers. Indeed, there was a comment on a Galleycat post the other day by a Goodreads reader that said, “I don’t read reviews. I only buy and read what my friends post on Goodreads”. Huh. So, I joined Goodreads and wrote to another reader/reviewer. This woman, a librarian in Illinois, is now reading and reviewing my book.

I have connected with a professional, more mainstream and new media kind of person who has also agreed to review my book. I was surfing the blogs and discovered her. I now follow her on Twitter. Bloggers do matter, a lot these days. Like the Goodreads member, readers seem more interested in not just professional bloggers but average book reading bloggers, their peers and such.

The Internet has democratized culture, for better or worse, and sometimes I think for much better. Certainly there are more voices with a global reach. Most people gather their information online, and to them–a website, is a website is a website.

3.  U.S. book publishers are local, and I’m connected to the world.
Ever hear of social networking, say, Facebook? My Facebook page, just from my professional acquaintances, is rather international, from South Africa to Ramallah to Brazil. My novel’s Facebook Fan Page, for some odd reason, has been attracting young people from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We live in a global culture now, not just an “American” culture. It was very fun to tell my UK Facebookers that the book is available on Amazon.co.uk.

4. Stop cutting down the trees.
POD, electronic formats and selective wholesaling of books is more ecological. The paper industry is a huge polluter. Does anyone NEED a hardback book?

5. Yes, they are reading on their mobiles and e-readers.
In spite of all the controversy, I’ve noticed that people who actually have a Kindle tend to like them. Nook is finally here, and the iPad will be bought. I have to tell you, my next door neighbor (a 40-year-old TV producer) is addicted to his iPhone and loves his Stanza, which lets him download books for free. He was annoyed when I said he would have to buy the e-version of my book. The Stanza has a very handy function of allowing you to enlarge the font size for easier reading. He gave me a demonstration, he went on for ten minutes.

6. The new companies, services and inventions are coming.
Do media people have amnesia? Do they think this or that device is the last one. There will be new companies, new inventions, new ways to do things. That’s life. Twitter didn’t exist 2 years ago, now it does, now I find it useful. The company I used for my book, Outskirts Press, is one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. They are a huge success, and that means more companies like them will pop up and/or others will evolve from them. There is an army of editorial freelancers–editors, copywriters, graphic designers. Popping up everywhere are new media book promoters, marketers, tools and so on. One of the reasons I’m writing this series is to discover what’s next. Life is change. This is a good thing.

7. The terms “vanity publishing” and “self-publishing” are so last century.
See above, even the term “self-publishing” is awkward and meaningless. Give it up already. Call it indie publishing and leave it at that. No one cares who published the book these days. When I tell people recently that “my book is out”. Their eyes light up; they’re so excited for me. “Great!” They say. “Well, I published it myself,” I say honestly enough. “Great, that’s even better!” No questions asked. They don’t care. “What’s it about?” is the only question. Is it good? Do I want to read it? There’s fan page on Facebook…

8. Indie publishing is now a choice, not to be dismissed with snarky condescension.
I’m an indie musician, and no one snarks about that. I am connected to
Mediabistro in Los Angeles, and lately have been talking to writers about
their book projects. A lot of them are just going for the indie publishing
route. They’re professionals, they have a platform, and they don’t have to
wait for anyone to get their book out. Why should they?
Repeat, #7.

OK, that’s a start. There is more to this, but it begins to cross over
into the whole communications climate at this point. My main argument is that we communicate differently, we consume differently, and we have a different and more active relationship to culture. We live in a global culture and multi-platform artistic/cultural universe. The idea of a “book industry” is, in itself, rather dated.

Bookmark Judy Sandra’s JS Media blog to continue following this series of posts.

The Speed of Self-Publishing is Best When You Go Slow

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Will you have the time?

A couple of weeks ago we took our son and his friend to lunch at Sam’s Anchor Cafe in lovely downtown Tiburon, a tony suburb of San Francisco that sticks out into the Bay. It’s a popular spot and attracts a lot of people coming from San Francisco on the delightful ferries that ply the bay. Bicyclists abound, dog walkers stroll, and there are numerous eateries to provide for people’s appetites.

Walking toward Sam’s, which features dining on its deck over the water amid sailboats moored along the piers and marinas, we spotted this parking sign: “3 Minutes Only Anytime.” Three minutes? Holy cow. There isn’t much on-street parking in Tiburon, but I was left puzzled.

What exactly can you get done in three minutes? It seems to take me about three minutes just to collect myself and get out of my car these days.

I wonder if this is just the latest sign of our rush-rush, Twitter-enabled life. Is three minute parking like microblogging for parking lot attendants? Is it just right for the ADD crowd?

 

We Have Slow Food, What About Slow Books?

This hurried aspect to life often collides with the realities of publishing. One of the common complaints about traditional publishing, with its seasonal lists, long response times, and endless editorial meetings is that it can take a long time to get into print. From acceptance of your manuscript it’s not unusual for a book to take 1.5 years to appear in bookstores.

Self-publishing cheerleaders often trumpets its ability to be more responsive, and to get to market much faster than the big guys, and that’s certainly true. But it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Books, by their nature, take time. Sometimes a long time. It’s understandable that an author, after spending months or years researching, writing, and re-writing their manuscript, will want to get the book to print as soon as feasible.

Taking the Time to Do It Right

But there’s no good reason to short-change the time it takes to properly edit, design, layout, and proof the book. Up front it may also take time to find a good match with an editor, to contract with a designer who can execute the right kind of design for your genre, to assemble the entire team that will be needed to produce a high quality book.

Once in motion, the team you’ve assembled will work together to produce a quality product. But this also takes time. Editing a 300-page history book, checking references, making sure citations are accurate and uniform, making style sheets to guide editors and proofreaders to the usages that occur in the book—all essential tasks that are time comsuming.

On the design side, giving your designer time to get familiar with your material, to scope out other books in your genre against which you may be competing, or with which you may be cross-selling, is time well spent. Then your designer is going to need time to come up with her unique vision for your book. In my case, I usually present three distinct and different solutions to the communication challenge that’s presented by your book. More time.

Illustrators, cover designers, indexers, proofreaders all need time to do their job properly. As publisher, it’s up to you to make sure you have the time in your schedule to allow your team to do its best work.

Having a Plan Makes Sense

You need a plan that’s based on your strategy for your book. For instance:

  • If you plan to sell through nationwide bookstore distribution, you will probably try to get prepublication reviews from the major prepub reviewers: Publishers Weekly, Libarary Journal, School Library Journal, Kirkus Review, and Foreword Magazine. You could add in the New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, BookPage, Quality Books and any book clubs you are thinking of soliciting.

    Since these review sources need Advance Review Copies with promotional material a good 4 months before your official publication date, their schedule may well dictate your publishing schedule.

     

  • If you would like to get corporate sponsorship or a promotional tie-in for the launch of your book, you will need sufficient time to pitch your proposal and sign partners before going to press. Many of these arrangements require the sponsor’s branding on the books themselves, so you need to have this in place before going to press.

     

  • If your book is tied to a holiday or other special event, you will need quite a bit of advance time to make absolutely certain you have your book in hand well before you need it. You don’t want to be sitting with 3,000 copies of your book that arrived right after the special event.

So although we live in a “hurry-up” world, taking the time to plan thoughtfully will go a long way to reducing the stress new publishers experience. Bring your “team” into your planning as soon as possible. Their experiences with previous projects will be available to you, an invaluable aid as you get ready to launch your book.

And a tip from me: that errand will take longer than 3 minutes. Pull around the corner and park somewhere else.

 

This is a cross-posting from Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer site.

Your Book Marketing Plan – Who Should You Be Promoting Your Book To?

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A written book marketing plan is an essential tool in effectively promoting your book. One of the first priorities in developing a book marketing plan is to define your target audiences.

Your audience may be wider than you think. Your book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching several different target audiences, including these:

1.    Readers – These are people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience (the "ideal customer" that the book was specifically written for) as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic.

2.    Purchasers – Many book buyers purchase books for other people. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, and women buy men’s health books. Companies and organizations buy books to give away to their customers, members and prospects. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?

3.    Influencers – Don’t overlook the importance of people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. This includes bloggers, other writers in your genre, journalists, book reviewers, and other experts in your field.

In online book marketing, the influencers may be the most important category of all. Think about how much you can multiply your book promotion efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers and customers. Other people who cater to your target customers can promote you and your book in several ways, including blog posts, links to your website or blog, Twittering, newsletter articles, and media sharing tools like Digg and StumbleUpon. It’s important to develop relationships with these influencers, as part of your book marketing plan.

Traditional and online media are also important influencers. You can reach them through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution.

Be sure your book marketing plan includes strategies for promoting your book to all of these important target audiences.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides. Get your free book marketing plan outline at The Savvy Book Marketer blog, and follow @BookMarketer on Twitter for more book marketing tips.
 

Authors Can Be Stupid: Doing the Ebook Math

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/7/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the fifth installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here, the second is here, the third is here and the fourth is here.

One of the things that keeps being bruited about in this discussion over digital books and pricing is a question of how much digital books really cost. The base cost of a book, of course, determines its final price. Repeatedly people have come out and said that the production costs of an ebook are fairly close to that of a paper book, so the prices need to be where they are. I want to break those numbers down.

In conventional publishing authors get a royalty of 10% of the cover price (on average). In the digital world, authors working through a publisher will get 25-50% of the publisher’s cut. Under the new Apple and Amazon models, that is 70% of the book’s cover price. The author, therefore, will get 17.5% to 35% of the cover price of the digital download.

In conventional publishing, the generally accepted cost for physical production of a book is 10% of the cover price. This number is a bit unstable because of volume discounts on printing and because of the returnability of books. For every book sold into a customer’s hands, two are printed. With digital publication, the actual production cost is negligible. The elimination of returns also eliminates the needs for the accounting dodge of reserves against returns.

In conventional publishing, physical books are sold into the market at a 50% discount off the cover price. Under the new digital models, that discount is reduced to 30%, so the publishers will be making an additional 20% of the cover price. (Yes, with an author’s percentage rising to 35% of cover for a digital sale, that increase is devoured, but the 10% physical production cost vanishes, leaving the publisher still 14.2% ahead.) (A $10 book at a 50% discount pays the publisher $5, and the author gets $1. The publishers gets $4, and then loses an additional dollar for the cost of the physical book, so they’re down to $3. A $10 digital book pays the publisher $7. After paying the author, they keep $3.50, so they’re over 14% better off with that digital sale.)

In conventional publishing, the remaining 30% covers everything from editorial, art direction and acquisition, warehousing, transportation, promotion, overhead and profit. If you’ve been following the math above, assuming that this 30% is fixed, the publishers are still 14.2% ahead through digital publication, and roughly 52% ahead if their authors have agreed to one of the shameful 25% of the digital take contracts that have been promoted recently.

The digital model, however, removes costs out of that 30%. Warehousing is no longer a cost. Transportation is no longer a cost. Typesetting is no longer a cost. Art direction is still a cost, but the cost of cover art goes way down. Digital books work well with iconic images, not the sweeping cover illustrations found on books. Even Michael Whelan does not reduce well to an icon. This might seem like an insignificant line item, but in the SF&F field, a cover illustration could cost more than acquiring the book. Going from even $1000 for a painting down to $100 for some graphics makes a significant difference in the profit picture.

Now, here’s the hidden, dirty little secret that the publishers don’t want you to think about. That 30% goes to zero for all of their backlist books. With those books, all the developmental costs have been written off years ago. Because digital books never go out of print, we suddenly have the return of the backlist. If a reader likes a book by an author and goes looking for more, they can find all of those books through a simple search or, if big publishers ever cotton on to this digital thing, through hotlinks at the back of the book.

In a previous post in this series, I’ve noted that the overhead category of charges, which some folks have suggested accounts for half of that 30%, is needlessly high for conventional publishers. Do they really need Manhattan offices? Baen Books and Night Shade Books seem to function perfectly well without them, just to name two publishers off hand. And the authors aren’t all located in New York. The internet is how I get my manuscripts to my publishers. And we have telephones, too. Moving the editorial and production offices out of Manhattan could significantly reduce overhead for any project.

Promotion is a sore point with authors. Publishers claim they do it. Authors find themselves encouraged to do more and more without any compensation. I have had my books solicited to stores including the fact that the author will do signings, but the publishers never set things up. I’ve had publishers refuse to pay $150 for a flight to Denver for a four store signing tour (the store chain manage got in touch with them, not me) because I wasn’t “on tour.” The lack of support and misplacement of advertising dollars is legendary in the industry; and authors are expected to pick up the slack on our own.

In the digital age, those promotion costs drop nearly to zero, consisting mostly of pages on the publisher’s website. If they do choose to do any advertising, at least it can be targeted to hit their audience by putting banners on author websites or online retailer websites.

Another point publishers don’t want anyone to think about is the cost of money. Publisher invoices are paid net 30 or net 60 (in one or two months). Authors are paid net 90 to net 270. A book sold on the last day of June won’t have a royalty sent to the author until, at the very fastest, the first of October. If the store pays the invoice for that copy on the last day of August, the publisher still has the money for thirty days. Often it is for considerably longer, and the interest earned on that money—which belongs to the author—is something the publisher retains. The current rate for a 6 month CD is 1.07%, or just over 2% per year. That goes neatly to the publisher’s bottom line.

Back to the cogent point: If every publisher today were to switch immediately over to the digital publishing model only, they would be 14-52% to the good on every new title they put out. They would be significantly better off with every backlist title they make available. If they just wanted to stay even, they could sell brand new ebooks at a 5% discount over the print price, and backlist books at 35% off. (Since most of the backlist books are currently out of print anyway, this becomes a new revenue stream for them, raising their overall volume, which, in turn, increases their profit because their cost of offering those books is zero.)

Industry insiders point out that there’s one flaw in this analysis: so few people are reading digital books, at this point, that if they were to make this immediate switch, there would not be enough volume to sustain the companies.

If that is true, however, how can traditional publishing’s suggestion that ebook sales are cutting into hardback sales be supported? It can’t and isn’t. They fear that it might, but there is no data to show that it has or will.

Moreover, and here is the trickiest thing, no one is asking them to do one or the other. We want them to do both. Since digital books produce a higher profit margin, increasing the digital offering only makes sense. In short, for every print book sale you don’t make because of a digital sale, you make more money! This is especially true of backlist offerings of the books to which they already own the rights. (I am repeatedly asked by books 3 and 4 of the DragonCrown War series are available as ebooks, but 1 and 2 are not? Beats the hell out of me. And why no omnibus digital edition? Another puzzler.)

Tradition publishing (and apologists for it) note that they want to control the transition because there are a lot of jobs at stake here—namely truckers and warehousemen. Does anyone actually believe that if a mobile robot that could pick books faster, tirelessly, without making mistakes; was available tomorrow, that every warehouseman wouldn’t be out on his ear? In a heartbeat. This isn’t to say that there are not plenty of compassionate people working for publishers—heck, working with authors requires the patience of a saint—but when it comes down to return-on-investment decisions, people become numbers, and numbers can be subtracted with amazing speed and facility.

The very important thing for authors to look at is this: the costs for you to offer your work as digital files is less than that of the publishers. A previously published short story already has the editorial work done. Converting the file for Kindle or epub takes less than an hour. Loading it to Amazon or your own website, less than an hour. Off Amazon you currently make 35% of cover, in July that goes to 70%, same as the big boys. Off your own website, you’ll pull at least 87% of cover.

My point to authors is the same as my point to publishers: I don’t think you should do one or the other, I think you have to do both. Just like the publishers owning rights to out of print, backlist properties that could make them money, authors have the same sort of inventory. Get it out there. Start selling. Establish your presence and encourage readers to buy direct from you.

Why?

The simple fact of the matter is this: traditional publishing has repeatedly evidenced an inability to integrate itself with technology to its benefit. Traditional publishers are fighting to maintain an inherently dysfunctional business model which has been in decline for years. If not for J. K. Rowling, Stephen King, Dan Brown and Stephanie Meyer it and the wasteful consignment-system of book retailing would have suffered a serious and perhaps fatal contraction seven years ago. Traditional publishers have repeatedly showed not only a lack of understanding of its customer base, but a contempt for them (as evidenced most recently by predatory pricing of ebooks). Last year’s attempt to cut author royalties in half on ebook sales, despite claims that the market for ebooks was insignificant, is yet one more indicator of publishers seeking to redress their inefficiencies by pulling more money from authors.

The traditional publishers themselves are going to give authors who do the work the very means with which the publishers can be supplanted. By setting ebook prices artificially high, they allow authors to offer the same quality entertainment at a reasonable price that actually nets us more. As I noted yesterday, I can take out a novel that New York didn’t want, do up in a digital version, and make seven times per book what they would pay me for the print version, and double what I’d get out of the digital version. With no downside for me at all. As I’ve noted before, using the Apple Appstore as an example, there is constant downward pressure on prices, and traditional publishers can easily find themselves competing with authors who offer their own backlists at reasonable prices.

The numbers don’t lie. Ebook prices should be lower than print prices, by a minimum of 5%, and that’s just if publishers wish to maintain the status quo. Operations where the costs of physical production, warehousing, transportation and editorial (in the case a backlist material) are reduced or eliminated, significantly increase their profit profile through reduced costs and the higher discount being offered on digital sales. In my estimation, ebook prices could be 20% below current print prices without causing any hardship, and significantly lower on backlist titles which would now be returned to availability. And they could go even lower if publishers addressed overhead costs and ran their companies more efficiently.

It’s not a matter of change coming. It’s already here. How you decide to deal with it will determine where you and your career are in fifteen months and fifteen years.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: if you’ve found this piece interesting, you might like to take a look at, and participate in, the discussion going on in the comments thread of the original post on Michael A. Stackpole’s website.]

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PUBLETARIAT!

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In honor of Publetariat’s one-year anniversary this week we’re running a contest between now and Saturday, March 6 to benefit you, our loyal audience. Top entrants will: 1) get exposure here on Publetariat, 2) be considered for invitation to join Publetariat’s roster of regular contributors, and 3) will also have a shot at winning some prizes. Here are the details:

1. Write an article or blog post on a topic related to self-publishing with a minimum word count of 700 and a maximum of 2000. Use our department headings as your subject matter guide: 

Think – opinion pieces about self-publishing, ebooks, the current or future state of trade publishing, etc.

Choose – reviews of products or services used by self-publishers and small imprints (e.g., software, sites, freelancers, ebook conversion services, etc.)

Write –  pieces on the subject of craft and the writing process: plotting, characterization, revision, editing, workshopping, etc.

Design – any aspect of book design: cover design, interior design and layout, typesetting, fonts, etc.

Publish – types of publishing and the pros and cons of each: minimum-print-run, Print On Demand, ebooks, book "apps" in Apple’s iTunes store, Twitter novels, etc.

Sell – topics related to author platform, book and author promotion

Imprint –  topics related to establishing and running a small, independent imprint

2. Ensure that you mention, and link to, Publetariat somewhere in the article/post. The mention doesn’t have to include any specific language, it’s acceptable to just say something like, "This is my entry for Publetariat‘s one-year anniversary contest."

3. Post your piece online, at your website or blog.

4. Use the Contact Us form to send us a link to your article, no later than midnight PST on 3/6/10. The contest closes to entries at midnight PST on 3/6/10. One entry per person, please.

5. Publetariat Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton will review all submitted links and reprint the articles she judges to be both the best-written and most pertinent to Publetariat’s audience here on Publetariat beginning the week of 3/7/10. At the minimum, three articles/posts will be reprinted here. Authors will be notified of the reprint via email; the email will include a link to the reprinted article, and authors can use this link to publicize the reprint anywhere they’d like online.

As per usual for material posted on Publetariat, posted articles will credit the author (including an embedded link back to the author’s profile or ‘about’ page on his or her site/blog) and include links back to the source article on the author’s blog/site and his or her blog/site’s homepage. Authors will retain all rights to their material. Also as per usual, each post will intially appear with a ‘teaser’ on the front page of the site, to maximize its visibility.

6. Unique page views for each article will be counted for exactly 7 days (7 24-hour periods), beginning when each article is posted, to determine the relative popularity of each article with Publetariat’s audience. "Unique page views" is a count of how many unique visitors click through to the full article; repeat visits will not be included in each article’s page view count. So if your article is reprinted, don’t be shy about spreading the word and sharing the reprint link!

7. PRIZES:

The authors of top three most-viewed articles will receive VIP enrollment in Vault University for one year. VIP enrollment grants access to all posted lessons in both Vault U. curricula: Publishing and Author Platform/Promo. New lessons are posted in each curriculum on the first day of each month, and including lessons already posted, this prize will grant winners access to all 16 lessons in both curricula – a $160 value.

The author of the most-viewed article overall will also receive a signed copy of April L. Hamilton’s upcoming Writer’s Digest Books book, The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use, upon its release in November of this year.

Any participating authors will also be considered for addition to our roster of regular Publetariat contributors based on the content of their submitted article and the content of their sites/blogs overall. Per Hubspot’s Websitegrader, as of this writing Publetariat ranks in the top 1.3% of all websites worldwide in terms of traffic and has an SEO grade of 99%. Since self-publishing is on the rise and our audience is comprised of both indie and mainstream pub peeps, the targeted exposure Publetariat can give you is tough to beat. So get those articles written and get those links submitted—we’re excited to see what you can do!

Click here to spread the news about our contest on Twitter!

Promoting Books With Articles

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An ongoing article marketing campaign is a terrific way of promoting books and authors. Some of the benefits of article marketing for authors include:

•   Generating direct links to your website or book sales page through the resource box at the end of the article.

•   Establishing nonfiction authors as experts in their field and enhancing the author platform.

•   Contributing to search engine optimization by providing incoming links to your website.

Here are some ideas for promoting books by leveraging content that you have already written:

•   Compile a list of the best articles from your blog and ezine, along with short excerpts from your book that could be used as articles.

•   Contact bloggers and ezine editors that cater to your target audiences and ask if they would like to use any of your articles as a guest post. When you send the requested article, include a low-resolution photo of yourself. If you use Word 2007, save your articles in Word 2003 format so that anyone can open the files.

•   Submit your articles to a leading article site such as EzineArticles.com  Plan to submit one article every week or two. Incoming links from the article directory sites are given low value by the search engines, due to abuse by spammers and scraper sites. But when a website or blog finds your article and reprints it on their site, you gain a link on a relevant site which can drive direct traffic to your own website, in addition to providing search engine optimization benefits.

•   Join a blog carnival. Blog carnivals are a collection of links pointing to blog posts on a particular topic, or topics of interest to a particular group of people.

•   Post articles on expert sites such as HubPages, Squidoo, eHow, and Google Knol. Keep in mind that some sites, like HubPages, require exclusive content that’s not published anywhere else.

Another way of promoting books with articles is to research the submission requirements of print newsletters, trade publications and consumer magazines that cover your topic or cater to your target audiences, and submit queries or articles where appropriate. Try Wooden Horse Publishing for magazine research.

Be sure to write a good "resource box" or bio to place at the end of your articles, which succinctly showcases you and your book and provides a link to your website and/or book sales page. Keep the resource box to 30 to 50 words, and be sure to include your book title and website address. It’s best to offer a free bonus to encourage click throughs to your site.

To get the most benefit from promoting books through article marketing, set up a schedule and post articles regularly. I recommend posting an article first on your site, then creating a somewhat different version to post elsewhere. This will help allow search engines to index the article on your own site first and also avoid duplicate content issues with search engines.

Wherever you post your articles, you’ll be promoting your books and leading people to your website through links.

Reprinted from The Savvy Book Marketer Newsletter.

How to Sell More Books on Amazon by Increasing Your Book's Visibility

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A good way to sell more books on Amazon is to increase your book’s visibility in the Amazon.com search results.

Amazon customers typically search for books by author, title, or keyword. Like search engines, Amazon uses several criteria in deciding which products to display on the search results page and in what order to display them. Popularity (the number of books already sold on Amazon) and how well the book matches the keywords are major factors in determining the results of keyword searches.

The more books you sell on Amazon, the more books you will sell in the future, because your book will appear higher in the search results. In addition, many customers assume that the best-selling book must be the best one on the topic.

One way to increase your book’s popularity, and therefore its search results placement, is to direct all of your online book orders to Amazon.com rather than offering links to several online bookstores or selling directly to consumers.

It’s also important to make sure your book matches popular search terms entered by customers. If your book is not yet published, you can add important keywords to the book’s title and subtitle. Some publishers use long subtitles in order to pack in as many keywords as possible.

To capitalize on searches for keywords not contained in your title and subtitle, enter important keywords into Amazon’s Search Tag feature.  About halfway down your book’s page on Amazon, look for " Tags Customers Associate with This Product." You can add a check mark next to existing tags and add new tags by entering keywords in the little box below.
 
You can’t use keywords that already appear in Amazon’s search function, such as the book title or author name. Word order matters, so create different search tags with variations on your most important keywords. After you enter a keyword, you must to tell Amazon why you think the book should be indexed under that particular term.

Amazon staff members approve Search Tags, so make sure your tag and your explanation are relevant and don’t sound like a sales pitch. It’s best to use the keyword phrase within your explanation. You can personally submit up to ten search terms for you book. If you have additional search terms to enter, ask a colleague to enter some for you.

Another way to increase your popularity on Amazon.com is do a virtual book tour or an "Amazon best-seller campaign," designed to push up your Amazon sales rank by generating a large number of orders on a single day.

There are a number of other ways to sell more books on Amazon, including getting lots of good book reviews on Amazon, writing reviews of other related books, participating in the Look Inside program, enhancing your book description, participating in Amazon forums for your book’s topic, and creating Listmania lists and So You’d Like To guides.
 
For a more in-depth look at how to sell more books on Amazon, I recommend reading Aiming at Amazon, by Aaron Shepard.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com , and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com.

 

The Real Agenda of Apple’s Ebook Partners: Death to Ebooks

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This post, from Aaron Pressman, originally appeared on his Gravitational Pull site on 1/31/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

The head of one of the big book publishers, MacMillan CEO John Sargent Jr., is out with an “open” letter about his dispute with Amazon over the pricing and timing of electronic books. It’s telling that this “open” ebook letter wasn’t released publicly and isn’t directed towards readers, book lovers and customers. It was placed as an ad in a small publishing industry trade rag and the message is for publishing industry insiders. Sargent’s message, despite a bunch of misleading surrounding verbiage, is simple: let’s strangle the growth of ebooks.

If you want to understand where Sargent and other major book publishers are coming from, I strongly recommend watching this online footage from a conference New York University hosted last September. Here you can see Sargent and a couple of fellow old media dinosaurs whine and complain about the digital world, dismiss Facebook, Craig’s List and Twitter as irrelevant non-businesses that will never make money and generally explain their plans to charge everyone for everything at every opportunity.

The real critical portions come towards the very end, in part three, as Sargent grows more animated about his opposition to giving away ebooks for free, even for promotional purposes. Despite being in charge of one of the largest publishing conglomerates in the world, he’s pretty pessimistic about the future of books. Challenged by Wired editor Chris Anderson to use digital distribution and new business models to attract new readers and expand the book market, Sargent is in full rejection mode:

“As the Internet grows, as all the other types of entertainment grow, it’s hard to imagine sitting here how we are going to convince everybody in this room to spend an extra six hours every week to consume another book. So in a way, if you look at the overall demand for books, it’s pretty hard to make that grow. We’ve tried. A whole bunch of people worked very hard to try and grow that. It’s pretty hard if you look at the demographics, how people read, to actually convince yourself that we have a growth business in books.”

In other words, what we have in books is a dying audience, a shrinking audience. And the way you extract the most revenue and profit from a shrinking audience isn’t with creative promotions and new ideas. It’s with ever higher prices. As Sargent says at a another point, in a barely veiled swipe at Amazon’s $9.99 ebook price:

“What we need is variable pricing. I think you guys would agree with this, variable pricing for content. You want a range of price points. You want to find a place — what you don’t want to do is give the consumer something for less than what they’re willing to pay for it in the rush to a new business model. Because once you get it out there it’s dangerous and hard to go back.”

Again, challenged to charge less because producing ebooks cost less, Sargent obfuscates, fixating on just one bit of savings, the printing costs of books (ignoring distribution, returns, overage, lost sales from out of print etc):

“Guys I can walk you through this. How much do you think a hardcover book costs us? A buck sixty. What are we saving? Not enough for the price point to drop from $22.50 down to $8.”

Amazon has been saying that its Kindle customers buy more total books – electronic and print – than they bought previously. It’s certainly been true in our household. I don’t have the figures at my finger tips, but I’d imagine that the whole creation and growth of Amazon.com has enlarged the book market, as well. But that’s not really happening in John Sargent’s world of mega-best sellers.

So keep in mind what Sargent was saying a few months ago when you read passages like this in his letter:

“In the ink-on-paper world we sell books to retailers far and wide on a business model that provides a level playing field, and allows all retailers the possibility of selling books profitably. Looking to the future and to a growing digital business, we need to establish the same sort of business model, one that encourages new devices and new stores. One that encourages healthy competition. One that is stable and rational. It also needs to insure that intellectual property can be widely available digitally at a price that is both fair to the consumer and allows those who create it and publish it to be fairly compensated.”

Leave aside for a moment the completely dishonest portrait Sargent paints of the old print book-selling world, and remember that he doesn’t believe the there will be any growth in book sales in the future. He’s not interested in a fair price for anybody — he’s interested in making sure that he never gives the consumer something for less than what they’re willing to pay for it.
He wants to extract the big bucks from the big sellers and move on.

The great danger to MacMillan is that it’s the authors of those big best-sellers who are becoming increasingly able to cut him out. If ebooks really take off, an author like Stephen King or Nora Roberts can sell a lot more of their books direct to their audience with no publisher at all. And that’s why Sargent’s real goal here is not to increase competition or create a level playing field. It’s to squeeze as much profit out of a dying industry as quickly as he can and hold off the digital future for as long as possible.

UPDATE: Henry Blodget also really gets it in his post today called “Hey, John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan Books, Screw You!” An excerpt:

Did Steve Jobs seduce you with that temporary “charge-whatever-you-want” speech?  Well, Steve has been known to seduce people from time to time.  Just imagine what will happen once Steve has put the Kindle out of business and Steve owns the ebook platform instead of Jeff Bezos.  That’s right: You’ll get held up even worse than Jeff’s holding you up today.  Just ask the music industry.  Careful what you wish for. So, bottom line, John, take your $15 ebooks and shove them.  We’re with Amazon on this one.

Good work.

About the author: Aaron Pressman is a professional journalist but wrote this on his personal blog. He lives in the Boston area with his wife, three kids and four Macintoshes. You can find links to more of his published articles here.

Publetariat Editor’s note: related to the subject of this post, also see: Apple Demands Removal of USB Sharing Feature in Stanza iPhone App from TechCrunch, and Peter Kafka’s on-the-fly transcript of Rupert Murdoch’s comments regarding Amazon, Apple and ebook pricing here, on All Things Digital‘s Media Memo.

Author Fail?

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This post, from James Melzer, originally appeared on his site on 2/1/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. In it, he offers an author platform perspective on the Amazon vs. Macmillan fracas.

I don’t pretend to know a lot about the publishing world. Hell, we’re probably on an even playing field here. The fact that I have a book coming out in March of 2011 doesn’t make me some publishing guru or know it all. I’m a guy who writes books, sells them, and then does his best to promote them however he can. I’ve never been to NYC to visit Simon and Schuster, and I have no idea what goes on in those tall, ivory towers people seem to think they can’t break into. I write books. That’s about it.

Some of you may have heard that on Friday the shit hit the fan between Amazon and Macmillan. Macmillan wants to raise the price of their ebooks and Amazon said no, so they stopped selling all Macmillan titles in protest. Something like that, anyway.

Upon observing this pissing contest between two giants, I noticed something funny about the authors involved. I follow some of them on twitter, read their blogs from time to time, and I wanted to see their reaction to the whole thing, so my spidey senses were heightened during this whole kerfuffle (which still isn’t over yet, BTW), and I watched and read.

Here’s what I saw: Pretty much all of the authors that I know of who are involved were tweeting and facebooking and blogging about Amazon pulling their titles. They posted links to other authors and newspapers and bloggers who were talking about it, and how it’s all wrong.

For the record, I agree. It is wrong.

Pretend for a second that you’re average joe reader. You hear about a book, think it sounds good and want to buy it. You go to Amazon this past weekend and find that you can’t. It’s not there. WTF? You’re inclined enough to go check out the author’s website and find all this mumbo jumbo about Amazon pulling titles and not selling the author’s book. What a pity. The author has posted this big, long rant on how Amazon is the devil and blah blah blah.

Yet he doesn’t tell you where you CAN buy the book online.

Now, you just don’t care and go on to find an author whose book is listed and that you can get delivered to your home in a few days. Done and done.

The author that posted that big, long rant about how Amazon is the devil and blah blah blah just lost a customer. A reader.

My point to this whole thing is that most of the authors involved in this Amazon vs. Macmillan thing were bitching and complaining and linking here and there, but they weren’t telling their readers, their FANS, where they COULD buy their books. Amazon is not the only place online to buy books, yanna. There’s Powell’s, Barnes & Noble, Borders and if you’re Canadian like me, Indigo. Yes, people who are savvy enough know this and would have most likely gone over there to grab a title, but wouldn’t it be nice to hear it from the author who you’re giving your money to? No. Most of them just assumed that people knew.

A simple, “Hey, sorry you can’t buy my book on Amazon right now. Here’s where it can be found,” would have been nice.

Is that too much to ask of an author who wants his readers to find his books? More so, to attract new fans and readers? If someone who doesn’t know you or perhaps isn’t that web knowledgeable wants to buy your book but can’t find it on Amazon, then tell them where they can find it for goodness sake. The average joe reader doesn’t necessarily care about what Amazon or Macmillan are doing, they just want to read a damn book. Hopefully a good one. If they can’t find yours, they’ll go on to another author, and perhaps forget all about you.

Never to return again.