Article on Book Sales

This article talks about the most common mistakes authors make when it comes to book sales. I found it really interesting, so I thought I'd share.

http://bestsellerlabs.com/7-ways-youre-sabotaging-your-book-sales/

Enjoy!

Promoting Your Books

Last week, Marilyn Brigham from Marshall Cavendish showed us how to craft powerful sentences. Today, I want to share what Michelle Bayuk from Albert Whitman & Co had to say about authors and promoting their books.

The very first thing she did was define the author’s role in marketing:
-Authors are the book’s creator.
-You are a member of the marketing team.
-You are NOT a member of the sales team.
-You are the leading experts on your books.
-You are the leading experts on yourselves.
-You can be experts on the kinds of books you write.

What does that mean? It means that authors are not expected to sell books. You can go into a bookstore and alert the store manager about the book they have coming out, possibly leave a postcard or something similar behind, but you are NOT the one who convinces the store to buy X number of copies. Also, once a store has copies of their books in stock, you are welcome to drop by and sign stock (just alert someone before whipping out that pen). You can also contact your publicist to find out what you can do to promote your book, and you can call as much as six months before your books comes out. Just don’t overstay your welcome.

Other things authors can do is reach out to the readers in various ways. Play around with social networking, but stick to the mediums that you’re comfortable with. Once you find something that works for you, focus on sharing aspects of you. Who are you in your day job? Your community? Your personality? Readers want to know these things. Know your audience (which also means you need to know who your book targets), and that will make it easier to connect with them.

Things that authors can do on their own are wide and varied. You can schedule school visits, and Michelle suggested that you insist the kids have read the book ahead of time. You can also go to conferences to make connections there, and have an elevator pitch ready so you can talk about your book. You can also get the word out to your own circle of family and friends. Get to know your local librarian and booksellers and offer to do things for them instead of just asking them to promote your work.

For the introverts (like me)! If you’re uncomfortable talking to people you don’t know, don’t stand off to the side. Stand in the middle of the room, and eventually someone will talk to you. Then, when conversation comes around to you, you can tell that person about your book and you have one more potential reader.

You can spend your own money on promotional items, but have them professionally done. And, assess whether the money spent will be worth it. Business cards, bookmarks, and postcards have lots of uses and are usually worth the investment. Librarians are beginning to use book trailers, but don’t do that one yourself unless you can create one of professional quality. You can also do giveaways at schools.

Launch parties have changed over the years, and are often lonely affairs if you go it alone. However, if you partner with several debut authors, then you can all bring in your family and friends and get a much bigger turnout, as well as possible new readers.

The one thing that authors are expected to do is this: finish your next book! However, unless you want to start over as a debut author again, don’t change your name. So, be sure you like the name you’re publishing under for that first book.

Guest Post: Shelli Johannes-Wells from Market My Words

I asked Shelli from the fabulous blog, Market My Words, if she'd do a guest blog here today.  She has done so many wonderful posts about marketing your work, regardless of whether you're pre or post-published.  I was curious if her marketing background helped her get to where she is today: a few novels under her belt, and also represented by the awesome Alyssa Eisner Henkin of Trident Media Group.  Thankfully, she agreed to do a guest post on the subject.  So let's see what she has to say!

I am curious about how your knowledge of marketing has helped you on your road to publication.
I think my marketing background makes me more sensitive to the business side of publishing. In the end it is a business and books have to sell. I find it quite easy to pitch books and actually have to come up with my pitch before I can start writing the book. I think this helps me stick to a core story. I also think my marketing helped me to create great queries that got the attention of agents/editors. But at the end of the day – no matter how good your idea sounds - the writing has to be there. Going forward, my marketing background will definitely help me promote books once I am published.

I also think my background gave me a topic to focus my blog on. A way I could help other writers – no matter what stage of writing they were in. I like to give back. I kinda feel like I don’t deserve anything unless I give back first. So I was happy to find this niche that people responded to in a positive way.

Did it help in any way as you were learning the craft of writing?
My marketing didn’t help me learn the craft of writing. It helped me pitch my ideas and hone in on marketable ideas. But not to actually improve my writing. It does give me a good sense of what is marketable and what isn’t. But craft is craft. I know that no matter how good the writing or how original the idea – if the book can’t or doesn’t sell books, it doesn’t matter.

Knowing what you know now, is there anything you think would have helped you more early on?
I would have learned more about the publishing business earlier. Joined scbwi earlier. Subscribed to Publishers Marketplace earlier. I kinda jumped in with writing and querying before I really understood how it all works. So I think I wasted some time in the beginning.

How do new writers start building a platform?
There is no right way. I think writing is #1. But when you’re not writing, think about what kind of author you want to be and how you want to present yourself. Don’t be afraid to test the waters whether it be with blogs, twitter, FB or something else. But don’t do it all! And never put marketing in front of your writing. Just be sure to think about it as an important part of the publication journey.

Thanks so much for sharing all this with us, Shelli!! 

Changing The Cover of YA Books For Boys

I've been having lots of great conversations about writing lately. And these conversations have been turning into blog posts, like last week’s post about Q&A’s in novels.

I had a different post scheduled for today (which was also inspired by a conversation), but I'm bumping it to next week because of yet another great discussion. Author Andrew Smith has a series of posts on his blog about boys reading YA books. Specifically, how boys don't read as much as girls and why that might be. His posts are fantastically insightful, and author Michael Grant has been weighing in with both his experiences and opinions. Go read. You'll be glad you did. :)

Anyway, Andrew's posts got me thinking. From what I gather, the general consensus is that teen boys don't read (with a few exceptions). Is that really true? Because, if it is, that depresses me. I have two boys that can't get enough of books, and I just can't see them flipping some magic switch so that they'll stop reading when they become teenagers.

So, my question is this: do teen boys really lose interest in reading? Or do teen boys not read because no one is paying attention to them?

I hear boys talk about books now and then, and they seem to love these:
Little Brother, Unwind, Hunger Games, Feed, the Bartimaeus trilogy, Break, The Maze Runner, Leviathan, Maximum Ride books, Ender's Game, Half-Moon Investigations, etc.

Of all these books, not one of them has a picture of a person's face on the cover. Instead, they are more abstract, or they portray scenes or settings from the story. Girl books, however, are all about people. The more realistic, the better. Does that mean boys gravitate to the more abstract while girls connect with the more personal? Maybe. It would explain why don't I hear boys raving about books like Paper Towns, 13 Reasons Why, or I Know It's Over. These are all fabulous books, and the main characters are teen boys.


They also have photographs of girls on the cover.

No teenage boy I know would be caught dead carrying around a book with a picture of a girl on the cover.

There has been recent controversy about 'whitewashing' on book covers. Take Liar by Justine Larbalestier, for instance. I think it's great that Bloomsbury heard what readers were saying, and changed the cover to reflect the ethnicity of the main character. It's a show of respect. And the whole situation demonstrates the power of a book's cover.

I think there is another group out there that would benefit from cover changes: boys. I think Liar has many story elements that boys would enjoy, but I don't hear boys talking about it. Why? I think much of it has to do with the cover being a picture of a girl.

There are lots of books out there with female MC's that boys would enjoy. Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Uglies trilogy, Shiver, Dust of 100 Dogs, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Graceling, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Wicked Lovely, The Book Thief, and I'm sure there are many more.

Some of these covers have pictures of girls, and some don't. And I don't think it's a coincidence that I hear boys talking about the ones without girls on the cover, but not about the books with girls on the cover. So, either they are reading them and not talking about it, or they are avoiding them. Either way, the situation is not ideal.

But what can be done about it? Honestly, I don't know. All I know is that I will do what I can in my little corner of the world. When my 'girl books with boy appeal' eventually hit the shelves, I will fight for a cover that won't turn away boys, especially if I know the story has boy appeal.