Well, It's been awhile since my last blog...months for sure, publishing a book requires me to have complete focus. I'm not a multi-tasker when it comes to detail, I have to be focused on one thing or things slip through the cracks. And launching a book is about a whole lot more than just trim sizes, interior design, covers or proofs...there is also getting the website ready for launch, setting up the blogs and facebooks while trying to understand twitter and the art of tweeting. Author's pages at Amazon and getting a distribution line are other details that beg your attention. Along with that some sort of marketing plan would be good, if you hope to sell your book.
The good news is, the foundation is as set as it's gonna be for the time being. Websites are never done and marketing is ongoing. We officially launched October 15th, but really got underway with the selling the 1st of November. Since then we have had remarkable success. Strays is selling really well, not so much on the Internet...but working on that angle now.
I set Strays up with Lightning source as my online fulfillment company. They do a great job for a low price and take care of the details of Amazon, for which I am very grateful. I also did a run with a regular press, Victor Graphics out of Baltimore, who is also very competitive as far as price goes, easssyyy to work with and does a bang up job. My first run was 2000.
As of this date (Feb. 11th) we've sold over half our press run...about 1300 books in our local area alone. This is due to my husbands talent for sales, a trunk full of books and his passion for the story. We're very nearly to the point of reorder. YIPEEE!!!
Our marketing plan is simple, start local, go regional, counting on groundswell and the local author angle helps us along. People love their local artists and authors and really support you if given half a chance... to a point...your book has to be good and deserve word of mouth advertising and it looks like Strays is hitting the mark on that point also.
Our feedback has been remarkable. I have 12 five star ratings to date and believe or not I only know 5 of them. My guest book at my website is also filling with great remarks and people are waiting for the sequel. "life changing" are the words I hear the most. I'm of course, thrilled and grateful for the way Strays is being received.
We're experiencing multiple sales, and by that I mean, one person buys the book and then comes back and buys another 4 or 5 to give to their family and friends. This is a great sign that the message in the book is being received and my readers think it's worthy enough to give to those they love. What I don't get is book stores.
I don't sell much out of a book store. Two reasons. First, when most people go into a book store, they already know what book they want to read, usually the day's bestseller or a new release of their favorite author. Since my name isn't King or Brown and I don't have the following or brand they have....yet...people aren't looking for my book filed among the thousands of leafy competitors. But two, and this bothers me, independent bookstores always talk about how it's customers should support them over the large chains. Their hometown etc etc. Yet when I approach them as a local author...and with my own publishing company...I get the doubt eye.
Yes I know, some self published books are lacking, and self publishing is usually taken to mean you couldn't find a large house that wanted your manuscript...let alone an agent (agents are another rant) but not so much anymore.....enter the digital world. I have to say, if I can get a bookstore to read the book, then it usually ends up on the shelf as owners pick, that's if they give it a chance. It still puzzles me though that if they want local support, how come they don't give local support to their local artists?
But anyyyywayyy, digital readers are shaking things up in the publishing world They are giving the author an opportunity to touch the reader in a way that has been, up to this time, a perk enjoyed only by the publishers. Traditionally, an author has always taken the short end of the stick. I even read once where someone said us authors were considered the lowest form of life in the publishing world. I read this in Writer's Digest of all places....one wonders if they were purposely trying to discourage new talent.
As a business woman and of course, if you're a writer, you need readers and that puts you in business. So does publishing through a major house, cause you're the one they will look to for the "platform" and marketing. You will still have to do the majority of the work to get your name and book out there and if it's through a major house, then the house and the agent get a big cut. Something is funny with that model to me. I write it, I spend time getting an agent, I wait a year or so to have it published and then I have to market it as well. Sooooo, why do I need them? Distribution?....well I can do that myself too... I have Baker and Taylor and Ingram, but again, you're right back in a bookstore. (see above) Obviously I'm missing something here.
But now comes Kindle and Sony and IPA, and all of a sudden the author has a way to publish through a valid press, sign up for the ebook program and touch the reader without an agent or a big house. This is causing some scrambling in the publishing world, agents are wondering what their new role will be and what about those contracts? Publishing houses are worried about the price. Kinda makes me think that authors may finally have a say in... well... just about everything that concerns your book.
I will go with an ebook, but I'm waiting till the dust settles a bit to see where price finally comes into play...that and royalties. Personally, I love the feel and smell of a new book, but as an author I like the idea that an ebook on a reader isn't likely to be lent out to Aunt Martha or the best friend. No, they must buy their own copy and I like the idea that I don't have a large investment in every physical book off the shelf.
Well enough of catching up! My travels through the publishing end of writing are on going and will always be. I do like a bit of control over the work I labored over so hard and long and at the end of the day, I guess my feelings are jaded towards those that make a living off of me and seem to have little or no respect for my work. After all, if your making a living off of me, then I should be part of the process.
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