Self publishing book promo?

My first advice to any self-published author is spend money to make money--don't just throw money at things. There are a lot of sharks who target self-publishers.

Lots and lots of sharks! I'm still recovering from some of my wounds, and I'm an amputee because of one incident (lol). Great advice, Veinglory!!!

I couldn't agree more. Seems we may have a shark in this tank as well. Everyone hide in the treasure chest - they'll never find us there.

I've been teaching two book publicity & promotion e-courses for a few years -- one for traditionally published authors and one for those who are self-pubbed. I think the biggest difference is that a traditional publisher will usually help announce the book to the press while a self-pubbed author doesn't get that support w/out buying a cookie cutter package that might not be tailored to that author's target audience, etc.

So the self-published author needs help with the launch. Other than that, they should be doing all the same things.

Cheers,
Sandy

I'll just say consider focusing a lot on "Free" promotion. What an author can do that will cost little or no money, because most self pubbed authors have already spent their money on getting the book printed and can't afford to spend on much else.

Self_Pubbed promo

One of the biggest thing that I've learned as a traditional published author is that even if the pub does do releases and such...its still a lot of work for me to market both my book and my brand.

PatriciaB said:

One of the biggest thing that I've learned as a traditional published author is that even if the pub does do releases and such...its still a lot of work for me to market both my book and my brand.

One of the things that you need to be aware of regardless of publishing style is that you're in charge of promotion.

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Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Just because you've landed a contract with a big publishing company doesn't mean you're done, you're a best seller, etc.

However it does effect the cost-benefit ratio. Self-pubished book are often hard to order and more expensive, they generally don't produce the kind of return that justifies a book tour or paid publicist. Hnce my first caution as I find some self-published authors get a little over-optimist and end up running at a loss.

veinglory said:

However it does effect the cost-benefit ratio. Self-pubished book are often hard to order and more expensive, they generally don't produce the kind of return that justifies a book tour or paid publicist. Hnce my first caution as I find some self-published authors get a little over-optimist and end up running at a loss.

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This is a valid point. However, I figure if you're gonna have to do self-promotion with a major house, and you do the same self-promotion with a non major house, you can still make sales with the same amount of effort.

Getting in over your head and putting out more money than you make is an individual problem, not the responsibility of the big or small pub house. Which also means a self-published author would go by the same financial principles. You promote yourself in a way that you can feasibly do so. As the returns come in, slowly (just because you're with a big house does not guarantee fast sales either), you may promote more, to produce more sales.

L.A. Tripp said:

This is a valid point. However, I figure if you're gonna have to do self-promotion with a major house, and you do the same self-promotion with a non major house, you can still make sales with the same amount of effort.

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I strongly disagree. The main thing that sells books is distribtuion and being on shelves in brick and mortar stores. Even with no self-promotion at all a comventionally published book will sell thousands, a small press published book will sell hundreds, and a self-published book will sell none. With self-promotion the gains are also similarly proportions. Most books are sold of shelves. If the your book isn't on the shelf, most people just buy something else. Online things are little more even but mainstream books still have the advantage of publisher brand, and lower price, and a marketing staff getting reviews in mainstream publications.

veinglory, you're saying that any brand new writer can come out of the box, get signed with a major house, and automatically sell thousands?

Even with no self-promotion at all a conventionally published book will sell thousands.

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I don't agree with that at all. I hope you don't mean that across the board, matter of fact, for every writer that signs with a major house.

It's all about marketing, in the end. A great book won't sell if it's not marketed well. A mediocre book will sell if it's marketed well. Of course, a great book will sell better once word of mouth starts spreading, but the marketing is what kicks the sales off.

I agree that a book being on the shelves in the brick and mortar stores makes a considerable difference, however, just because you're with a major publishing house does not in any way guarantee that your book will make it onto the shelves. Sure, they have marketing teams to make that happen, but even that won't guarantee that your book will be displayed in that coveted shelf space.

You don't agree?

I would think a major house would be able to pretty much guarantee bookstore placement, yes. There must be isolated cases of books from major houses for some reason being dissed by one of the chains, but I would bevery surprised if a book from a major house were shut out nationwide.

I do agree with Veinglory. I think the key here is that we're talking about marketing (what my pub does) v. SELF promotion (what I can do). I do self promote, and I do think it helps, but it is small compared to what the marketing my pub does accomplishes.

Might I suggest a bit of research? Does anyone realize how many new books a major house publishes each year versus how much shelf space a book store has and can allot to each new book?

It's not a matter of "dissing", but a matter of practicality and what is easier to market. Word of mouth can't kick in until a book is read, by several readers, and word starts spreading. Marketing on the pubs part, as a business, they won't and can't feasibly put money behind each and every book they publish. They put their resources behind those that they know or strongly believe will definitely sell. That's just smart business.

Think about it, does every new book get a New York Times ad placement? No. Do the best selling, house hold names? Usually, yes.

veinglory, you're saying that any brand new writer can come out of the box, get signed with a major house, and automatically sell thousands?

Of course. Hell my first book with a small epublisher sold thousands with me doing slim to nil self-promotion. With the resources of one of the big five behind you, tens of thousands is pretty routine. Not all commercial writers do massive amounts of self-promotion.

It's all about marketing, in the end. A great book won't sell if it's not marketed well. A mediocre book will sell if it's marketed well.

Its mostly about distribution, then publisher marketing, then way at the end self-promotion. All marketing adds value to distribution. If your distribution sucks your marketing is a waste of time.

I agree that a book being on the shelves in the brick and mortar stores makes a considerable difference, however, just because you're with a major publishing house does not in any way guarantee that your book will make it onto the shelves.

If you don't have a distributor, and most self-publishers don't, you wont be on store shelves. With a small press and distribution you will be on some shelves. With a large press you will be on may or most shelves. For example if you sign with Harlequin you book will be in a lot of stores, if you sign with Lulu it will be in none unless you take it there on consignment--and maybe not even then.

You don't agree?

You seem to mistake the difference between no absolute guarantees and no significant difference. 4000 sales would be success for a self-publsher, a real top end perfomer. For most large mainstream American presses it would be an abject failure that very rarely happens.

All authors have to work. But self-published authors have to work a lot harder than commerical published authors to even have a chance of getting the same results. That's why most people aim for commercial publishing unless they have some philosophical obection or their manuscript just is not commercial.

L.A. Tripp said:

Might I suggest a bit of research? Does anyone realize how many new books a major house publishes each year versus how much shelf space a book store has and can allot to each new book?

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I suggest you do some research. If you think authors who self pubish can sell just as much as authors with Harlequin, Tor or Random House so long as they do the same amount of self-promotion, you are just wrong. That wouldn't happen more than one time in a million.

Well, I see you all are completely against the idea that a self published person can become a best selling house hold name. By the way, I have done research on this subject.

Using a bit of logic, why does a large house NEED a marketing team if each and every book is GUARANTEED shelf space?

Do you not understand that there are, in fact, house hold names today that started as publishing themselves? Yes, you're gonna say they are a one in a million shot. And . . . the point is, they made it.

I was about to search for those household names of today that self published their first work, but then I found this:
http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2010/05/28/20-successful-self-publishers/

Pretty interesting that they are JUST as successful as names from mainstream houses.

Another interesting link, on which James Redfield, Christopher Paolini, Ken Blanchard, and Robert Kiyosaki appear.
http://www.selfpublishingresources.com/why-us/self-publishing-success-stories/

Honestly, I'm not trying to argue here, I just want this to be a balanced debate.

It just seems a bit insane to think that every single author who signs with a major publisher will automatically be a success story. It just does not happen that way in reality.

And yes, even authors with a major house normally do need to promote themselves. There are those authors out there, if you just look. A major house cannot financially be a fiscally responsible company and still put money behind every single author they sign. Publishing an author is, in fact, a gamble. Big houses want to find the next big thing, but no one, absolutely no one, knows who the next big thing is, therefore they must take a chance, or a gamble, on unknowns to find that next big thing. Therefore, business wise, it's unwise to put money behind each one of those. So, that leaves a great deal up to the author themselves to become that major success that they dream of. Of course, once you put a bit of effort into yourself and your own success, a major house will be that much MORE interested in you, if you've built up any kind of success on your own.

Now, please tell me that doesn't make sense.

John Grisham, Deepak Chopra, and Mark Twain also started as self-published authors.

And in an attempt to wrap up my little rant, consider this . . . those big houses didn't start as big houses either. They all had to start at the same place . . . at the bottom. Who's to say someone who self-publishes now won't end up as the next big house?

A major house cannot financially be a fiscally responsible company and still put money behind every single author they sign. Publishing an author is, in fact, a gamble. Big houses want to find the next big thing, but no one, absolutely no one, knows who the next big thing is, therefore they must take a chance, or a gamble, on unknowns to find that next big thing. Therefore, business wise, it's unwise to put money behind each one of those.

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Not every book from a major house gets the same amount of promo, no. But they all do get distributed and marketed. It would be unwise to NOT put some money behind a book they have taken on. That's why they take on so few.

There is a difference between distribution, marketing, promotion and self-promotion, and for each there is a scale from "a little" to "lots and lots." There is also a difference between "on bookstore shelves nationwide" and "huge success/bestseller." To say that a major publisher can near guarantee bookstore distribution is not the same as saying a major publisher can near guarantee bestseller status. They are different things.

You are making an argument based on exceptions, not the norm. The norm is for self-published authors who don't know what they are doing to sell about 50 books, self-publishers who do know what they are doing might sell a few thousand. If you are going to be one of the extraordinary self-publishers who sell tens of thousands you are going to need one hell of a platform.

Have you noticed that the golden standard for most successful self-publishers is that they get a commercial contract?