Getting Your Book Published is Only Half the Battle


by Jeffrey Hauser - Date: 2007-04-08 - Word Count: 721 Share This!

I once thought I wrote the great American novel. It had all the elements of a success. There was the sympathetic hero that had to face adversity and overcome the bad guys. It was set in rural America and then leapt from coast to coast. It had intrigue, a bit of sci-fi and adventure. It also had a terrific title, "Pursuit of the Phoenix." All my friends and family loved it, so I went searching for a publisher. After failing to find a "normal" publisher like Doubleday and wasting a few bucks on an agent, I went with PublishAmerica for free. Well, not entirely free. I purchased a few hundred copies for myself and family, but I had a printed book. I was excited to see my name in print.

Let me describe what just happened. I actually self-published using a POD publisher. These kind of businesses print books as they are needed, or "print-on-demand." They store the information like the cover and text on a computer hard drive and then use a mechanical process to make the books one at a time. This as in contrast to a major publisher that will print 1000's for distribution to bookstores throughout the country. The disadvantage with PA and other Pod's is that most bookstores deal directly with wholesalers like Ingrams to get their books. The book chains like Barnes and Noble view POD's like the plague. That's unfortunate and not totally fair. But I'll get back to that. The purpose of this article is to look at marketing. Once you have a book, how do you let people know all about it?

Unless you have someone like Random House pushing it in advertising, you're on your own. I learned the hard way. My book came out in the early 1990's before the Internet took off, so I couldn't spread the word all that easily. Placing ads in the local newspaper can be very expensive. I went to a few book stores but they weren't interested. Today things are a bit different. For my second book, I went with Booksurge, the publishing division of Amazon.com, the largest bookseller on the net. They placed the book on their site and allowed a link from my site to theirs. They also connect to Barnes and Noble online. This time it was non-fiction; an account of my years as a sales consultant for the Yellow Pages. I did not have to buy any books and they supplied a nice production package for a few hundred dollars. However, I still had to do my own marketing.

But now I had a few options, as do you. I contacted other Yellow Page sites on the web seeing if they would link to my book on Amazon and some did. I then began to write articles about tips regarding the Yellow Pages with links to the book. I go on forums and blogs doing the same thing. Using that method, I've had more sales in a few months than 10 years with my other fiction book. Now I understand that a novel is much harder to sell and accept that eventuality. But the Internet opens up a plethora of opportunities unknown a few years ago. Because I'm letting Amazon sell the copies directly to the public, I don't care that they too are a POD. That's right, Booksurge is a print-on-demand publisher that only prints them as requested. There are no miles of bookshelves in the Amazon where-house.

But do I really care? I bypass the bookstore which adds a hefty markup and so I am able to price the book lower and still make a few bucks per order. They do all the work as far as taking the credit card, shipping and the paperwork. I just get a royalty check every month. And another thought here. One big advantage to the POD process is that I can update my book's text for a small fee and keep it current because it doesn't sit on the shelf. The printing quality is always excellent and I can also change the cover as well, if desired. My final advice is to issue a press release to all the media when it's published. I got calls from as far away as Australia and London when I sent out my PR's. Good luck and good selling.


Related Tags: writing, book, amazon, publishing, novels, battle, pod, booksurge

Jeffrey Hauser was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. He has authored 6 books and a novel, "Pursuit of the Phoenix." His latest book is, "Inside the Yellow Pages" which can be seen at his website, http://www.poweradbook.com Currently, he is the Marketing Director for http://www.thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information and Doctor Referral site.

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