Should authors be stuck with book promotion.

Whether you're thinking YES, MAYBE, or NO, check out my post at http://snurl.com/5haq8-xray and weigh in on the discussion.

Malcolm

Interesting, but that's just the way it is and has been as far back as any of us can remember. Even the big names have to go on book tours, it's unavoidable. The publishing houses can't possibly spend money to promote everything they publish and the salesmen who call on the bookstores and the buyers for the chains quite naturally push the big name writers. Just one more reason why it is a tough business, perhaps the toughest one of all unless you are a celebrity of one sort or another.

Publishers have laid selection and editing off on agents, promotion on writers...and you know why?

Because they can.

Wouldn't you?

I checked it out, Malcolm and left a comment on that one, and the breakthrough novel post for you.

Thanks for the feedback!

Malcolm

The author can do promotion such as putting up a web site, etc. However, the publisher should do most of it since they invested in the book and it's in their interests to promote the book.

I like doing the online promotional stuff... the web site, forums, networking sites, two blogs. No, make that three, and I'm thinking of starting a fourth. They take up a fair amount of time, but I've met such interesting people and learned a lot. Book signings can be fun, as can seminars. I'd rather be promoting my book myself than having someone else do it... someone who doesn't know the first thing about Japanese art. Having said that, I am very thankful for the fellow who arranges signings and talks with stores and museums. I wouldn't want to do that myself as I am incredibly shy.

Another irony! The web is full of shy authors. How we hide behind the anonymity of cyberspace! Yet, sometimes, it's difficult to hide and we suffer the consequences, eh Gina?

Shyness is not uncommon among writers. If we sought the public eye we might be dancers or comedians or actors instead.

The internet offers a great opportunity to do promo from our desks instead of getting out in front of people.

There was kind of a cycle. Authors used to be very reclusive, then got pushed out into doing all the signings and talks and stuff, now it's possible to hit a lot of readers without having to get dressed and find your car keys.

The way I feel this is: I am writer, not a salesman. That's why publishers have marketing departments. If a publisher doesn't have a marketing department or person, I won't even consider them.

I agree with Gina - I would rather be out promoting and marketing too because I know what I wrote and what it means. I think expecting a publisher to sell my stuff is a tall order. In addition I am really familiar with my target market, and although the publisher will be to some degree (at least I hope so) I know that I can tap into one corner of the world and interweb much more quickly (my network), and with some kind of certainty, than a publisher can. When I reached the point where a couple of indie bookstores (I tend to ignore the chains) came to me asking questions and wanting to sell my stuff, well, at first I was stunned. Then I was exhilerated. These days, I can hardly sit still. And in case you're wondering, I am an introvert too, but I have learned how to manage things in such a way that most people think that I am an extrovert.

Writers that self-promote do better no matter who published their book.

That's true Lin. But sometimes the writer needs publisher support in expanding their markets. I'm not suggesting that the publisher should lay out any cash but simply be helpful to the author with their marketing efforts. That's when it can become a "win-win" situation.
The author writes the book and is expected to devise a marketing plan and become actively involved in promoting the book. Most clauses usually includes being available for interviews, etc. That often means traveling or even flying to areas for such promotion. The cost to the author in time and expense is seldom discussed but rather what the publisher does. The pittance that an author received on royalties, unless it becomes a national best seller, is not even worthy of consideration as most of us have learned.
So why do we write? We all have our reasons.

All, very true, Abe. It's the sort of thing that is always a problem in fields like writing, music, and other arts and "glamor professions" where people would actually pay to work.
It's easier for those in control of presentation to stick us with the bills for things.
A very big rock star once told me, "If you lived through the humiliations and screwjobs they put you through you'd do the same thing when you get big enough to turn things around: 'Yeah I want a six pack of Ghanian beer in my dressing room and a bowl of M&M's with no brown ones, bitch'."


And yes, your model of the publisher helping and working with the writer is more realistic than either the "stuck with" or "you guys handle it" models.

I don't know very many people who will buy the work of a novelist they've never heard of.

Putting up a website hardly solves that problem because nobody can key in a URL they don't know anything about; so far, most of the blog tour sites I go to: (a) seem to be read mainly by unknown authors who are not spending much money buying each other's books, (b) seem to have fairly low readership as evidenced by the lack of substantive comments.

From my experience, I can say that I'm on the major social networking sites and get many good comments about my blog posts, but almost none of the people making those comments takes the next step and buys my novel even though it has great Amazon reviews. The people who liked the book trailer didn't take the next step and buy the book.

Why not?

Could be a lot of reasons, but I think the fiction market is driven by buzz that people see and hear about in lots of places, and none of those places cover unknown authors.

If there's a secret here to a 100% self-promotion route to marketing and PR that I'm missing, I would certainly like to hear it.

Malcolm

P. S. While I buy a lot of books that the man the street has never heard of, I never buy books I haven't read about quite a bit before choosing to spend my money. Just how many times a year can any of us afford to shell out $25 on a book we have no knowledge about other than the author's site and the comments of his/her friends? For mainstream work, I can get it from my library or via interlibrary loan. But most POD fiction can't be gotten that way because POD books appear in very few library collections.

Read your blog, very amusing probably because it is so true. The question is would you rather have a large publishing house with a multitude of contacts and outlets for your book to be sold or be like Joe making $23,000.00 trying to self promote. My guess is the big boys will be far more successful than Joe. IMHO when you publish with a POD, vanity press etc, to become a well known successful author is a slim chance to none. Cast a stone into the middle of an ocean and see how many people notice the ripples.

It should be remembered, too, that very few people make a decent living writing fiction. A few, but even many of those who write full-time and have been at it since I started attending Mystery Writers of America functions in 1979 depend upon a spouse's income if they want to eat. That includes some with several dozen books (or more) published by major firms. A few years ago a survey revealed that of hundreds of members in MWA only 22 truly earned a living by writing fiction. Among the 22 were people like Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark with a $6 million contract for six books.

Dick Stodghill wrote:

It should be remembered, too, that very few people make a decent living writing fiction. A few, but even many of those who write full-time and have been at it since I started attending Mystery Writers of America functions in 1979 depend upon a spouse's income if they want to eat. That includes some with several dozen books (or more) published by major firms. A few years ago a survey revealed that of hundreds of members in MWA only 22 truly earned a living by writing fiction. Among the 22 were people like Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark with a $6 million contract for six books.

I couldn't agree more Dick. Don't forget Dean Koontz in the fiction success story. If I had to depend on my writing to provide an income I would be a true starving artist. Fortunately my wife and I have been blessed with excellent incomes. Of course my writing was never meant as a means of support and I do not plan on it in the future. I do enjoy writing and will continue published or not. As far as prefrences in reading it's like noses everyone has one and everyone likes something different as for me I love fiction, I live real life.

As the holks at Harper Studio are looking into, the publishing model needs to be changed, and that includes getting rid of the consignment selling model what allows stores to return all books (damaged or not, and over-ordered or not) for 100% credit.

The losses from that practice alone could be used to provide better marketing and PR support for all authors.

Personally, I would rather have the publisher use money (if any) offered as an advance to publicize the book instead. Even if I had the advance, my clout is not enough to do with that money what the publisher's marketing gurus could do with that money.

Malcolm

That's a new slant on the advance issue and makes a lot of sense.

The return policy is nuts. What other industry allows that?

Lin,
you'll find that a return policy exists in other industries as well. Normally, to avoid lots of returns that could wind up being scrapped, the supplier will further reduces his cost price and encourage the retailer to dispose of it with consumer discounts. The shipping and handling costs of returned merchandise weights heavily on that decision.

So do re-stocking fees. I can't think of anybody who gives 100% return on whatver amounts of whateve somebody orders whenever they want to return it.

I've never understood the returns thing with books. I've been in too many supermarkets and seen too many kids fling paperbacks across the store to consider the current policy sensible.

With my self-published (or as I prefer to think of it, "owner hand-crafted") book I guarantee sell quality--meaning if one is so defective a customer turns it down I replace it.

But the idea of taking back sold merchandise months later is peculiar.

One think I learned early on: it would seem that bars would be a good place to sell my Mexican Slang book. But in fact I learned not to consign it anywhere people sit down with drinks or food. They pass it round, laugh, get it grungy, then don't buy.

I feel the success of any book rest primarily with the author. I do not feel it is a situation where authors are stuck with book promotion. An author is the best person to promote their book as they are intimately involved with the content. A publisher cannot know all the details of every book they publish though they may sometimes have resources which can help. Resources are great but you need to know how to use them. In the short time I have been writing I have learned much about the publishing industry and what works for me may not necessarily work for someone else. Each book and its approach to a story or topic is different and may need different methods to promote it. The best person to do this is the author.