Great information, but I don't understand why so many words had missing letters. This is not good for any author to publish something with multiple mistakes, as it appears you do not care enough to edit before publishing.
There is no need to come here and say this publicly. There was a glitch within Substack that caused the letters to disappear or appear garbled. You appear not to care enough to ask about what happened instead of assuming the worst of me and my writing. Not a single person approached me this way, which says more about you as a person than it does about me. Further, the piece was corrected not once, but twice, due to tech glitches here. If this is your attitude, please unsubscribe.
A lot of authors come to me wanting to use their book as a business card. They don’t care so much about selling it, but using it to build their businesses. In this case we look more at publicity instead of sales and use the book to gain Top-Tier media. I think talking to them about their business goals is key as well. Obviously if they are traditionally published they want to sell their books to make their publisher happy, but the self published or hybrid deals make it easier for them to not care as much about sales.
Oh I disagree with that last sentence. Self-published authors only make money if their books sell, and I know a lot of self-published authors who work really hard to earn every sale. Hybrid publishing is the same: you are only making money if you sell books, so those authors absolutely care. I do a lot of work with authors in both categories and every single one of them cares about sales. When publishers offer profit share deals instead of traditional deals and a big advance, the author needs the sales to make money. My approach is very different than yours. Yes, sure, I look at their book as a business card IF they also look at it that way. Every author needs to care about sales because if they don't, good luck getting additional books published. You can have all top-tier media, but if you don't have the sales...not much will happen in traditional publishing for the author.
I agree that the last sentence can be subjective. I think we are more alike that my comment sounded. I think every author should care about sales because of their first book sells well, they can get a traditional deal with an advance. I work with a lot of financial advisors who don’t care if their book sells and they usually just give it away. Those are more of the authors I was talking about. Have you seen a trend away from traditional publishing? More towards hybrid?
Yes to all of this! This is exactly the message I emphasize in my work with authors, as well. The long term business of being an author is so much more than book sales -- though sales do matter, they come as a result of repeated exposure and building a relationship with your audience. Publishing is a long game - a very long game - and most first time authors are not told this.
Just found your newsletter and happy to become a follower of your work!
This is such a fantastic primer, and I wish everybody with their first book deal could read it before they have to learn the hard way. It's natural to want to trust your publisher (esp. when you're new in town and don't know any better), but the less warm-and-fuzzy reality is that literally nobody cares as much about your book as you do and you should have your own grassroots marketing and publicity place to augment whatever your publisher/publicist are doing with their budgets/professional connections.
Really looking forward to your thoughts on finding and fostering an ideal readership.
Thank you so much. It is the reason I write my newsletter. I want authors to be prepared. A lot of people still romanticize book publishing and they shouldn't. It is a for-profit business.
100%. Nobody wants to hear that, but gently shattering illusions is maybe the best favor we can do for anybody trying to get a start in this business. (It's a business!)
Also I appreciate how you’re shattering the illusion that publishing knows what it’s doing from a business perspective. They don’t offer strategies for author sales (except for the old ones you mention that aren’t working or TV/celeb book club for the big names). What they have is relationships with traditional distributors/booksellers. (Even so, getting my cookbook, published by Clarkson Potter/Random House, into lifestyle stores — where it sold well — was innovative for them, so I did it myself.) I am wondering how you think author contracts can be beefed up to benefit authors regarding the publicity legwork we’ll be doing ourselves. I’d love your thoughts on this.
I think contract clauses about publicity and marketing need an overhaul and that publishers need to be transparent about what to expect. It isn't fair to put so much of the onus on authors when book advances are not great.
Seconding all of this. Authors are primed to trust their publishers implicitly (there's a lot of love-bombing in the early stages which I think ultimately does everyone a disservice by setting up impossible expectations on both sides) but not to think about their marketing strategy and how much of that is going to have to be DIY for exactly these reasons.
Thanks for this timely post (My novel, The Poster is available on Amazon today). I was offered a bad publishing contract that had lots of vague clauses about publicity and exposure.
I'm not interested in vanity metrics, just sales, so turned down the contract (after detailed advice from the Society of Authors).
I’m new to this world of book marketing, but it sounds very similar to B2B. Although we believe it is 7 touchpoints - for each person in a buying group. Knowing your audience is key.
I don’t have TikTok and can’t for security reasons. Is that going to be a problem?
It would be great to have a better understanding of the various data sources used to make marketing decisions. Does stats-informed objectivity win out, or does 'gut feel' still get a say? How do publishing marketeers predict the future if they aren't actually making it, but their readers?
Entirely depends on the publisher. Some heavily rely on data, some less. I've written about how to predict trends: look outside the publishing industry. That is the biggest issue I see--people refuse to look at consumer behavior across retail sectors. That tells us a story.
Exactly. What you describe matches my experience of implementing and managing CRM systems for sales and marketing teams in another industry. But my experience of the publishing industry from a writer's perspective was, so far, absent of the language you're using in this post. It's not uncommon for every sector to consider itself a 'special case', and 'not invented here' behaviour often abounds within an organisation. So it's refreshing to know knowledge from other industries and domains can be applied to book sales and marketing activities.
I think you're on to something that many of my fellow authors don't understand - the "sales funnel" only starts with awareness (your version of seeing a book 3 times in quick succession, including social media posts, cover reveals, podcast interview, guest blogs) - then it moves to legitimacy (the realm of blurbs and media and/or lay reviews) and finally to a call to action (a giveaway, an author talk that impresses, affinity to the subject matter, loyalty to the author because you've liked their other books, price cuts, genre interest, etc). Concentrating only on the first step is not enough.
Great information, but I don't understand why so many words had missing letters. This is not good for any author to publish something with multiple mistakes, as it appears you do not care enough to edit before publishing.
There is no need to come here and say this publicly. There was a glitch within Substack that caused the letters to disappear or appear garbled. You appear not to care enough to ask about what happened instead of assuming the worst of me and my writing. Not a single person approached me this way, which says more about you as a person than it does about me. Further, the piece was corrected not once, but twice, due to tech glitches here. If this is your attitude, please unsubscribe.
I think this thread on author strategy vs. tactics and the changing promotional landscape perfectly supplements this newsletter: https://www.threads.net/@petermball/post/C26U-OPPkV3/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Thanks for sharing. I agree with some, but not all he wrote. Great points, though.
A lot of authors come to me wanting to use their book as a business card. They don’t care so much about selling it, but using it to build their businesses. In this case we look more at publicity instead of sales and use the book to gain Top-Tier media. I think talking to them about their business goals is key as well. Obviously if they are traditionally published they want to sell their books to make their publisher happy, but the self published or hybrid deals make it easier for them to not care as much about sales.
Oh I disagree with that last sentence. Self-published authors only make money if their books sell, and I know a lot of self-published authors who work really hard to earn every sale. Hybrid publishing is the same: you are only making money if you sell books, so those authors absolutely care. I do a lot of work with authors in both categories and every single one of them cares about sales. When publishers offer profit share deals instead of traditional deals and a big advance, the author needs the sales to make money. My approach is very different than yours. Yes, sure, I look at their book as a business card IF they also look at it that way. Every author needs to care about sales because if they don't, good luck getting additional books published. You can have all top-tier media, but if you don't have the sales...not much will happen in traditional publishing for the author.
I agree that the last sentence can be subjective. I think we are more alike that my comment sounded. I think every author should care about sales because of their first book sells well, they can get a traditional deal with an advance. I work with a lot of financial advisors who don’t care if their book sells and they usually just give it away. Those are more of the authors I was talking about. Have you seen a trend away from traditional publishing? More towards hybrid?
Thank you for sharing this insight!
Yes to all of this! This is exactly the message I emphasize in my work with authors, as well. The long term business of being an author is so much more than book sales -- though sales do matter, they come as a result of repeated exposure and building a relationship with your audience. Publishing is a long game - a very long game - and most first time authors are not told this.
Just found your newsletter and happy to become a follower of your work!
This is such a fantastic primer, and I wish everybody with their first book deal could read it before they have to learn the hard way. It's natural to want to trust your publisher (esp. when you're new in town and don't know any better), but the less warm-and-fuzzy reality is that literally nobody cares as much about your book as you do and you should have your own grassroots marketing and publicity place to augment whatever your publisher/publicist are doing with their budgets/professional connections.
Really looking forward to your thoughts on finding and fostering an ideal readership.
Thank you so much. It is the reason I write my newsletter. I want authors to be prepared. A lot of people still romanticize book publishing and they shouldn't. It is a for-profit business.
100%. Nobody wants to hear that, but gently shattering illusions is maybe the best favor we can do for anybody trying to get a start in this business. (It's a business!)
Also I appreciate how you’re shattering the illusion that publishing knows what it’s doing from a business perspective. They don’t offer strategies for author sales (except for the old ones you mention that aren’t working or TV/celeb book club for the big names). What they have is relationships with traditional distributors/booksellers. (Even so, getting my cookbook, published by Clarkson Potter/Random House, into lifestyle stores — where it sold well — was innovative for them, so I did it myself.) I am wondering how you think author contracts can be beefed up to benefit authors regarding the publicity legwork we’ll be doing ourselves. I’d love your thoughts on this.
Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it.
I think contract clauses about publicity and marketing need an overhaul and that publishers need to be transparent about what to expect. It isn't fair to put so much of the onus on authors when book advances are not great.
Seconding all of this. Authors are primed to trust their publishers implicitly (there's a lot of love-bombing in the early stages which I think ultimately does everyone a disservice by setting up impossible expectations on both sides) but not to think about their marketing strategy and how much of that is going to have to be DIY for exactly these reasons.
Here here!
Well said, Kathleen. Thank you!
Thanks for this timely post (My novel, The Poster is available on Amazon today). I was offered a bad publishing contract that had lots of vague clauses about publicity and exposure.
I'm not interested in vanity metrics, just sales, so turned down the contract (after detailed advice from the Society of Authors).
I’m new to this world of book marketing, but it sounds very similar to B2B. Although we believe it is 7 touchpoints - for each person in a buying group. Knowing your audience is key.
I don’t have TikTok and can’t for security reasons. Is that going to be a problem?
Item III. 😭😭😭 What if I am already that author?
Then you can regroup and restart. It’s not over!
It would be great to have a better understanding of the various data sources used to make marketing decisions. Does stats-informed objectivity win out, or does 'gut feel' still get a say? How do publishing marketeers predict the future if they aren't actually making it, but their readers?
Entirely depends on the publisher. Some heavily rely on data, some less. I've written about how to predict trends: look outside the publishing industry. That is the biggest issue I see--people refuse to look at consumer behavior across retail sectors. That tells us a story.
Exactly. What you describe matches my experience of implementing and managing CRM systems for sales and marketing teams in another industry. But my experience of the publishing industry from a writer's perspective was, so far, absent of the language you're using in this post. It's not uncommon for every sector to consider itself a 'special case', and 'not invented here' behaviour often abounds within an organisation. So it's refreshing to know knowledge from other industries and domains can be applied to book sales and marketing activities.
I think you're on to something that many of my fellow authors don't understand - the "sales funnel" only starts with awareness (your version of seeing a book 3 times in quick succession, including social media posts, cover reveals, podcast interview, guest blogs) - then it moves to legitimacy (the realm of blurbs and media and/or lay reviews) and finally to a call to action (a giveaway, an author talk that impresses, affinity to the subject matter, loyalty to the author because you've liked their other books, price cuts, genre interest, etc). Concentrating only on the first step is not enough.
That pelican!!! Must have 😂
Also thanks as always for this!
You are welcome. Mr. Pelican arrives tomorrow and I am thrilled!
👀 I’m excited for the nitty-gritty ideal reader post