Out with the Old, In with the New
Summer is almost here … did you do the traditional Spring Clean … with your old stuff? And old ideas?
When it comes to writing, and publishing, the fabulous concept you had a few years ago may need to be rethought, revamped, or, gulp, tossed out.
Is the idea you have current? Leading Age? Has it been done been done before and have you come up with a whole new twist? Or is it … yawn … old hat?
For non-fiction, would doing a survey spark up some interest? How about conducting interviews with controversial or “in the news” personalities? Or, facilitate a focus group that might reveal new thoughts, trends or twists?
For fiction, just how clever or unique is your story line? Is it more like a “fill in the blank” that are common in the formula books that liter book store shelves or a true page-turner? Have you spent some time with a creative writing coach that can accelerate your learning and imagination curves?
Have you thought about ways to capture your reader’s attention? And, do you know who your reader is? Anyone who thinks, “Everyone,” is clueless about their market and will sabotage their efforts. My clients have heard me say countless times, “The more you niche yourself, the bigger your market becomes.”
Become a big fish in a small pond. The expert. The visionary. The unique voice. By dumping ideas that aren’t working, scenes that don’t click, you will become a new you and an author that demands notice. A new form of Spring Cleaning.
What Is the Seventh Wave?
In the 1970s Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen starred in a movie called Papillon. Papillon was a convicted felon who was imprisoned on Devil’s Island, a small island in the Pacific. He was desperate to escape and one day while watching the surf coming in and out, he noticed that every seventh wave was larger than the others. So large in fact that it was strong enough to carry a raft out to sea. Papillon built a raft made of coconuts and he and another convict made their escape.
That Seventh Wave is a way to describe how truly successful entrepreneurs (business people, authors and small publishers) attack a problem. Where others look and look at the waves, seeing only “waves,” Papillon leaders keep an open mind and take a chance when they see an opportunity.
Papillon the convict wanted to escape and kept his mind open to all possibilities. He was able to see that the Seventh Wave could help him and he made his escape. Had he seen only “waves” he would still be on that island.
Your Work Should Be Your Passion
When people attend Judith’s Publishing and Speaking Salons, they know what they want to write or speak about. Though perhaps a bit overwhelmed with the process, they come with enthusiasm—and passion.
It’s their passion that fuels their engines, enables them to work one more hour, take one more step to get their “baby” written, laid-out, designed, and to the printer. It’s their passion that allows them to roll up their sleeves and create a marketing and promo plan and even speak publicly about it.
If you want to write a book, you’ve got to love the topic/cause. If it’s just something to do, I ask you, “Why do it?”
Not everyone should write a book, attempt to create a small press, or become an independent publisher. Someone may have said you should, but should you? Does a deep internal drive tell you, “Yes, your thoughts, your words need to be read, seen, or heard”? If so, go for it. Embrace it.
Judith writes primarily in the business genre with an emphasis on professional development in the workplace. She does a significant amount of speaking within the healthcare sector. It’s a niche she has a passion for, one that was acquired almost by accident!
What topics/areas do you know about—by schooling, life experiences, the school of hard knocks? Do you gyrate toward a subject? Do others tell you that you are a wiz at something? Is there a deep, burning desire to advocate a cause or reach out to help others? Does passion comes into play?
Guaranteed: it’s the passion factor that will drive your work to completion and success.
Hunkering Down
The economy is the pits. Times are tough for many. And, most likely, it’s going to get worse. Do you latch down the hatches and toss your publishing dreams aside or do you plow forward?
It depends … it depends on whether you viewed your publishing venture as a business or a hobby. This isn’t the time to pile money into hobbies … it is, though a time to support and grow your publishing business. To create a plan.
Authors need to have a strategy on not only how the book is going to look and feel, but on how they are going to sell it. Sure, it’s great you have your book … but how are you going to get it into a buyer’s hands and exchange cash for it?
It takes planning. Judith’s primary distribution chain for sales is through my speaking business—she pre-sells, sells onsite and post sells her books to groups that she speaks for. Often, those sales have a retail value of many thousands of dollars at a time. It’s her plan.
Judith’s books, as all the books published by Mile High Press, Ltd., net a minimum of 90 percent of full retail price. Does she sell via wholesalers for book store distribution and Amazon? Sure, but it’s a minimal amount of effort. At a 55 percent discount of the retail price, she would rather focus on something that could yield a higher return—like 90 percent. It’s her plan.
When times are tough, there are always opportunities. What need does your book fill? Who’s the crowd/the people who need your book to fill or solve that need? Where are they? How do you connect with them?
With the economy in an upheaval, you might assume that no one wants to spend money. Judith recently spoke at a conference with several hundred attending. After she did two talks, books were bought. At the end of the afternoon, over $3000 had exchanged hands. The next day paralleled the same. Why did people buy books? She offered hope … answers … solutions. It’s all her plan.
What’s yours? What have you done to strategize how you are going to move/sell books in these challenging times? How are you going to drive a buyer to place that they can find your book?
The Plan … create one.
What’s What in Publishing Today
Once upon a time, there were two types of publishing. The first was traditional where an author had an idea, created a proposal or manuscript and sold it to a publisher with the assist of an agent. Preferably, a New York publisher. The other was one that was looked at with disdain and pooh-poohed … the vanity press. Traditional authors were viewed as snobs by the vanity press crowd … and envied.
Authors went the vanity press route as a publishing format of the last resort. Vanity press had a variation; some were small shops that you would pay to publish your book. Within the vanity press umbrella was self-publishing, the do-it-yourself model.
If you took the vanity press route, any success your book would have would be exclusively in your ballpark. It got printed and you paid for the books. Mass distribution, marketing or PR were nominal, if non-existent. The problem with vanity press was/is, well, it looks vanity press.
With the traditional publisher, the author got thousands of books into print, a real media release created by the publisher that was sent out to the media and bookstores, a book in the publisher’s catalog that reps took around to bookstores and pitched and the author might get a book tour to boot.
Ahhh, times have changed. With the Internet and today’s technology, traditional publishers are being turned on their heads and vanity presses have morphed into new critters. Authors are choosing to bypass the traditional method that had been so coveted by the majority of authors just a few years ago.
At Book Expo in 2008, it was announced that there were over 400,000 books published the preceding year. It’s almost impossible to count the number of publishers in the United States today. The top six states that house publishers are California (16,000+), New York, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Colorado (just shy of 3,000).
The Players
There are seven major publishing formats authors opt for, knowing the new ones will be birthed as time evolves: Traditional, Independent, Self, Subsidy, Packager, POD (print on demand) and eBook. POD is also used in the subsidy are, standing for a publish on demand format. Each has merits and deficits.
There’s a Book Babe Blog in your future that will look at the pros and cons on each.
|
Time saving, money saving, dream fulfilling Accelerate the process
Eliminate costly mistakes
Stay within your budget
Save you stress
Connect you
Applaud you
Are upfront
Gaurantee results
Are fun
|
