Don’t Depend 100% on Your Publisher

By Terry Whalin (@terrywhalin)

In 2007, America’s Publicist Rick Frishman invited me to participate on the faculty of MegaBook Marketing University in Los Angeles, California. At that time, I was running a small literary agency and representing authors in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul was leading this event. Besides meeting with authors who pitched their books, I attended every single session of the event and took notes. Throughout these sessions, I learned that traditional publishers are skilled at making beautiful books with well-designed covers and interiors. Book publishers also know how to get the books inside the bookstore and available to the public.

My first book, a children’s picture book for David C. Cook, was published in 1992. Since then I had written over 50 books with traditional publishers, received a couple of six-figure advances yet most of my books had negative royalty statements. A little known but important publishing fact is ninety percent of nonfiction books never earn back their advance. All my books are nonfiction. 

While I loved writing books, I did very little promotion for my work. I had a small website (www.terrywhalin.com) but I had not blogged and had no social media presence or email list or consistent and on-going connections to my readers. I believed because I was working with traditional publishers, receiving an advance against my royalties (sometimes thousands of dollars) that my books were going to be selling. I had fallen for the myth that my publisher was going to promote and sell my book. 

During MegaBook Marketing University, I learned a key truth about publishing: publishers know how to make beautiful books and get them into bookstores, yet these actions are only one part of the process. The other key element (mostly up to the author) is actually selling the book to the consumer. Attending MegaBook Marketing University transformed my life. I could no longer assume the responsibility for selling my books would be in the hands of the publisher (or someone else besides me). I made a decision to change and take action.

Every writer needs to be able to tell stories and create an excellent book manuscript. The writing is a foundational skill for every writer. If you don’t have this writing skill, a developmental editor, ghostwriter, co-author or any other person in this role can help you create an engaging book. But marketing and selling yoiur book requires a different set of skills. . The good news is: every writer can learn to market their book. 

Writers are looking for a simple formula to sell books. If such a formula existed, then publishers would use this method and every book would make a lot of money. In fact, some unexpected books are hits while some well-written books do not get purchased. One of the keys to selling books is building relationships. John Kremer, the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book says marketing is about building relationships with your readers. 

Consider your reader or target audience. How much detail do you know about them? Where do they live? Where do they shop? What other books do they read? Are they active in book clubs? What are their needs and how can you write material that will meet those needs? Can you answer these and other audience questions?

One of the most effective tools for every book author is to create their own email list. As an author, you control your email list including what you say and how often you use the list. While not everyone looks at Facebook or a website or Twitter, most people open and read their email. If you email too frequently, they might not open your email or they might unsubscribe. When an author has an email list and uses it properly, it is the best way for them to reach their readers. If you are a brand-new author, how to you start a list and use it effectively?

As an author, you take control of what you can for your book. You cannot depend on your publisher to sell your book. You have the greatest passion for your book, so you need to show that passion and create an email list and different ways to connect with your readers.  

Tweetable: 

This prolific author and editor was lulled into depending 100% on his publisher to sell books. He learned this publishing myth the hard way. Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in California. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s recent book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Are You Using Radio in Your Book Promotion?

By W. Terry Whalin

Terry on a KRKS Radio with Gino Geraci

There are many different methods to tell others about your book. PR Expert Rick Frishman compares author promotion to a three-legged stool. One leg of the stool is reaching print media. Another leg is using the Internet and a final leg is radio. Without all three legs, no stool can be upright. Click this link to explore Rick's publicity teaching in a free teleseminar. Are you using radio to promote your book?

Some authors have self-published and they know about radio but believe this opportunity is only available to authors who publish with well-known traditional houses. Other authors believe they have to hire a publicist or someone to book these interviews. Yes, publicists do an excellent job at booking radio interviews (more details about publicists will be below) but authors can pitch your book directly to producers and radio shows. The key is to learn the details and then be consistently use the powerful tool of radio. While you personally may not listen to the radio, millions of people drive to work every day and listen to these radio programs. Radio is a key way to get exposure for your book (so readers can learn about your book then purchase it).

One of the best examples that I know about the power of radio to sell books is from Alex Carroll. He self-published his book on how to beat speeding tickets called Beat the Cops. Alex has sold 250,000 copies of Beat the Cops on the radio. Not only has Alex succeeded with his own book but he has developed a detailed training course called Radio Publicity. I encourage you to go to his website, watch the videos and learn about this important resource. He gives away several free tools to get you started learning about radio. For many years, I've known Alex Carroll and numerous authors have profited from his teaching.

If your book is Christian, I encourage you to look into working with Don Otis at Veritas Communications. I've known Don for over 20 years and I've been working with Don on the promotion of my Billy Graham book. Because of his connections to radio, Don has booked me on a number of radio programs to talk about Billy Graham. If you follow this link, you can listen to several of my interviews. To learn more about radio, I encourage you to explore the various links on Don's website. 

PR Expert Don Otis

Recently Don has started a free email newsletter with great tips from his experience. Here is the first issue: Five Ways To Maximize Your Media Interviews. Follow this link to read Don's insights—but also subscribe to his email list and learn from his years in this business.

There is not one path to begin using radio in your work to tell people about your book. Whether you use a publicist or pitch on your own, it is important to be on the radio consistently. Practice makes perfect.

Are you using radio to promote your books? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Authors Can Harness the Power of Radio. Discover these resources. (ClickToTweet)
-----
W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing (a NY publisher). He has written for more than 50 magazines and over 60 books for traditional publishers including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. Some of his books have sold over 100,000 copies. His blog, The Writing Life has over 1300 searchable entries. Follow Terry on Twitter (click this link).
 

You Need a Mixture of Marketing Efforts

By W. Terry Whalin

How is your writing selling? It's an old sales adage: If your books (or any writing) isn't selling, you need to be touching more people (asking for the sale) or creating new writing.  Your audience doesn't increase or your books don't sell without continued effort from you as the author. 

Whether you work with a traditional publisher who sells your book into the bookstores or you self-publish and are on your own, you still need to be reaching more people with your work. As an acquisitions editor, I tell every author that it is 80% up to them to sell more books. Yes we can sell the books into the bookstore but unless the author is building buzz and telling others about the book, those books in the bookstore will be returned to the publisher.

I wish I could tell you there is one path or one formula to sell books and become a bestseller. If such a formula existed, then every book would be a bestseller—and that is just not the case. Some books that are poorly written hit the bestseller list while other well-crafted titles sell a modest number of copies. The average self-published book sells about 200 copies during the lifetime of the book. The average traditional book sells around 1,000 copies. Now each of us want to beat these averages so how do we do it? It's through a mixture of different marketing efforts.

One of the most knowledgeable people that I know in this area is Rick Frishman. For over ten years, Rick has been our publisher at Morgan James Publishing. For almost 30 years, Rick led one of the largest public relations firms in the U.S. called Planned Television Arts (now called Media Connect). He has a huge list of bestselling authors that he has worked with like Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Stephen King and Mitch Albom. Rick is the creator of Author 101 University which will be next month in Los Angeles. I've interviewed Rick a number of times and did so again earlier this month. You can catch the 45-minute interview for FREE at: http://writersconf101.com/index.php

In this in-depth interview, Rick compares book promotion to the four legs of a stool: Internet, print, radio, television, then he gives insights about each of these legs and how authors should be working in each of these four areas. See the balance that goes into this type of approach? It is a mixture of various marketing efforts for your books.

One of the most successful series of books in the English language is called Chicken Soup for the Soul. Jack Canfield tells us about following The Rule of Five to market their books. This short video (less than two minutes) gives you the details about how to achieve your goals.

Are you mixing your marketing efforts to sell your books? Tell us the details in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Are you mixing your marketing efforts? Get ideas here. (ClickToTweet)

—-

W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written for more than 50 magazines and published over 60 books with traditional publishers including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Book Proposals That $ell. He loves to help writers and has a large twitter following. Evan Carmichael ranks the top 100 marketers to follow on Twitter and Terry has been consistently on this list (#56 in September). He lives in Colorado.