"Meg--What is truly inspiring about this recent boost in sales is that this is for a book you published years ago (I know because I just read the sample and bought it). It proves that an author's backlist can still have a lot of life in…"
[REALITY CHECK] When Authors Don’t Try
No one ever said getting published and building an audience was easy.
Wait a minute...yes they have. There are lots of online gurus who say this all the time. Can’t write? No problem! Can’t tell the difference between an infinitive and a run-on sentence? Who cares! Readers don’t care if you can’t write. They just want to spend money on your book! It’s all about the big bucks and getting published!
Yeah. Whatever. I think it’s safe to say that those who follow this route quickly come to realize that 1) it does take more work and commitment than they present and 2) you DO need to put some time and care and effort in your writing if you expect to build an audience as a writer and be seen as credible as a writer. Not everyone who buys your work will leave a review, or if they do and they are all negative, that doesn’t inspire confidence in your work.
Did you read my post “What’s in a name? Your reputation”?
There are many publishers who invest the money and time to nurture new, talented, never-been-published-before authors. Our publishing houses publish new talent and will continue to do so. The “big dawgs” don’t care to gamble money on a newbie, unless that newbie has done all the ground work, built their own audience/market, and got some positive reviews. Then the major houses step in, offer a contract, and present the world with the latest “overnight success.”
Writing and creating your work is only half the picture (or half the book) with regard to the publishing industry. Publishing industry is a business regardless of whether your writing is your main source of income or not. Businesses must make money to survive. Period. If your work doesn’t sell, it’s not earning the publisher any money and you’re not getting a royalty payment.
REALITY CHECK #1: Authors cannot avoid self promotion if they really want people to buy their work. If you’re in a rush and just eager to get your name out simply to say that you’re a “published author,” I suggest you seek a vanity press.
REALITY CHECK #2: If your work doesn’t sell and you’re with a publishing house, then prepared to be dropped from your contract. If your book has poor or very poor (as in zero) sales, then don’t make yourself comfy at that house.
REALITY CHECK #3: No one is safe—unless you self publish. Authors get dropped from major houses for the same reason. Their books don’t sell or there are massive returns from bookstores and other retailers means the publisher is not making money, they are losing money.
We’ve had to let authors go, and I hate it. Not only because we’ve spent our own time and money getting their product to market, but because these are talented authors who deserve an audience. It’s a risk we take.
We’ve even had to release an author who won an award with the book we published. We even entered the contest for him! But this author, despite never being published before and winning an award for his first-time effort failed to promote himself or his work!
It’s not like we didn’t try. HE didn’t try.
After all the time you took to write your novel and get it accepted for publication, can you squander the chance that others would love to have? That’s what this guy did.
Would you do this?
Here’s a tip from me: if you’re not ready to promote your work AND yourself, DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR WORK TO A PUBLISHER.
Waste your own time, not ours.
©2012. Zetta Brown is editor-in-chief for LL-Publications and Logical-Lust Publications. If you like this post, then stop by Zetta’s Desk or any of her other blogs.
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Tags: Brown, Desk, LL-Publications, Logical-Lust, Publications, Zetta, Zetta's, author, check, promotion, More…
Comment
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Comment by Zetta Brown on May 23, 2012 at 8:54am -
Hey D.L.! What do you mean "you're not good at it?" Girl, I don't know what you're doing but whatever it is it's working. You're one of our best sellers. :) But that's the bad thing about this business. I don't care what all the online gurus say, it's impossible to track each and every sale--unless you only sell print books and handle the transactions yourself. We try different things to promote ourselves and our work and *sometimes* you might be able to see a correlation in royalty reports. Personally speaking, I may see an upsurge in sales when I haven't done anything special. Weird.
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Comment by D. L. King on May 19, 2012 at 11:10pm -
Good post, Zetta. I'm not very good at it. I do the best I can but never know what might be working and what isn't. Considering royalty statements are from an historical period by the time they get to you, it's practically impossible to point to any one thing you tried as having worked. I guess we just have to keep spending time, and sometimes money, slogging away at it.
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Comment by Zetta Brown on May 19, 2012 at 11:18am
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Hi Lynn, and thanks. I'm not trying to scaremonger or be negative, but I hope that the blogs I post help.
Some writers are power promoters as well, but some of them have to be because profiting from their writing pays the bills. Sometimes it's just a matter of practice. The more you do something, the easier it gets.
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Comment by B. Lynn Goodwin on May 17, 2012 at 11:53am -
I like your honesty and directness. I suppose some authors are better writers than promoters.
Lynn
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers
(available on Amazon--thanks for the opportunity to promote)
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Comment by Zetta Brown on May 16, 2012 at 6:58am
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Thanks, Katherine. Sunny has some excellent posts and gives valuable insights from experience. She's a wise woman. :)
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Comment by Katherine E. Hinkson on May 15, 2012 at 6:21pm
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This is a great post. For the last year or more, Sunny Fraiser has been saying the same thing. The Posse has taken it to heart and has worked hard to promote themselves and each other. If you're not ready to promote, then don't waste editors and publishers time.
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Comment by Zetta Brown on May 15, 2012 at 7:34am
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Thanks, everyone, for your comments! :)
@Velda - I truly believe that with the constant changing of technology and people claiming this new outlet is the "best" over that one, there comes a point where it intimidates people to even BEGIN. I'm trying to be very selective how I go about it and build a presence/following in only a handful of places than try to jump on the latest bandwagon.
@Marquita - I thought I was the only one who felt this way! Unfortunately, I don't know if there's really anything for it than to get use to being the center of attention. The way the Cult of Celebrity operates, I can see why just as many people shun the thought of being in such a position as there are those who dream of it.
@Lauryn - until recently (I'd say perhaps 30 yrs ago) publishers DID spend a lot of money promoting their authors, etc. But the bottom has fallen out because of the way traditional publishers and most bookstores insist on doing business (e.g. unlimited credit and allowing returns). If traditional publishing actively incorporated and promoted more economically and eco-friendly business practices, they could probably afford to give their authors more assistance and benefits (royalty speaking) than they do now.
@Nissi - LOL writing is like anything else worthwhile. You gotta keep doing it to see results. :) I'm no angel. I keep having to kick my own butt to write something. :)
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Comment by Nissi Mutale on May 15, 2012 at 2:50am -
Great post! I am at that stage where I am no longer phased by other people, it is my own laziness and lack of planning that slows me down.
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Comment by Lauryn Doll on May 14, 2012 at 6:33pm -
This is an interesting post. I just wrote about this on my site from a pro-self-publishing perspective. I'm not a writer by what I suppose you could call "genuine passion." I kind of naturally progressed to this field. (I'm more nonfiction too.) I've questioned, what significance would a traditional publishing setup have if not to assist in promoting an author, especially when authors have to do just as much legwork with a book deal as they would on their own.
Overall, reading from your perspective is refreshing. It doesn't fully answer my question, but it does make sense from your point of view and I'm grateful to have read it. Food for thought, to say the least. I look forward to reading more of the posts here.
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Comment by Marquita Herald on May 14, 2012 at 12:11pm -
Yep, that self-promotion stuff is tough for some of us. As a class A Introvert I have no problem with the solitary life of writing - but when it comes to the marketing and promotion it's down right painful at times. One of my readers posted a lavish review of one of my books on Facebook last week and I was literally sick all afternoon from the anxiety of the attention it created. Crazy I know, but at least I'm aware and work'n on it. Thanks for the inspiration!
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