The Offers Keep Coming
By Jerry D. Simmons | September 19th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
The following appeared in a newsletter today, September 19, 2006; from a nationally recognized public relations firm based in New York that deals specifically with authors.
National Special Sales Conference(tm). Discover new ways to increase your sales profitably to non-bookstore buyers. Listen to Brain Jud, Erick Kampmann and others describe the secrets of selling more books to buyers at discount stores, airport stores, schools, warehouse clubs, corporations, associations, gift shops, government agencies and the military. Nov. 1 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. Register today!
Do you want to meet face-to-face with the buyers who can purchase thousands of your book in special markets? Then you need to join Simon & Schuster and other publishers at Brian Jud’s National Special Sales Conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, from Nov. 2-4,2006. You can have scheduled appointments with prospective buyers from: QVC, Paradies Shops, AMS, Ross Stores, JAGCOm SHRM, Scholastic, ASTD, Levy, Readers Group Choices, World Almanac Education, Imagine Nation Books and other representing companies Safeway, Wal-Mart, Costco, Best Buy, military markets and more. New buyers are added regularly.
Please, I urge you, if you lack the experience and understanding of exactly how these various booksellers operate their business then the last thing you want to do is attend this sales conference and try to sell copies to these retailers. I spent more than two decades selling to many of the named customers above and let me tell you–the absolute worst thing you could do is attempt to get your book placed in these stores. It will cost you plenty and in the end, your sales versus what you will spend will not even compare.
For more information read three of my earlier blogs: Author’s Response to a Blog; You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For; Don’t Be Fooled.
Writers Listen Up
By Jerry D. Simmons | September 15th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Lynn Price is an author and publisher, she is also Editoral Director for Behler Publications, www.BehlerPublications.com, and the author of an absolutely wonderful book titled Donovan’s Paradigm. She recently sent an email and was kind enough to allow me to share with you. It was comments relating to an earlier blog titled The Focus is the Writing. Here are Lynn’s excellent points.
While I agree with you in spirit in (your blog) I can’t tell you how many submissions I see that make me think the writer is out of touch with the marketplace, and they need to pay better attention to their potential audience to see if they’ll even have one. You’re used to dealing with the Big Authors, and they have the luxury of saying that they focused on the writing. They became Big Authors because they happened to stumble upon an idea that was hot or created a niche-like lawyer books. But from my editor’s desk, most authors would benefit greatly by knowing the marketplace, and this is because they simply aren’t savvy to the publishing world. Researching the industry and knowing readership tastes go hand in hand in my book. When I have to tell a writer that I don’t believe I can sell this book, and this is based on my and my distributor’s sales force, they’re shocked. They have no clue because they didn’t do their homework.
I’m not saying that a writer shouldn’t focus primarily on their writing, because I most certainly do as well. But I’ll tell you that, personally, I keep one eye cast on readership trends and American social events to see whether my book has the potential to grow wings. Because of this, it makes my pitch that much stronger. I know this whole writing thing is very subjective, but my feeling is that a writer can’t afford to stick their heads in the sand and just write, hoping that they pin the tail on the donkey. It’s the difference between writing a story that no one wants to buy or tweaking it a bit in order to make it salable.
Lynn makes some terrific points from an editor, publisher, and author perspective. I agree with everything she is saying, it follows my idea of knowing your market, reading your competition. My point in the earlier blog was to write what you want and focus on your writing without trying to fashion it into something you think is a hot category. Thank you Lynn for your comments and allowing me to share with my readers.
Don’t Be Fooled
By Jerry D. Simmons | September 15th, 2006 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)
The following announcement appeared in USA Today Living Section on Thursday September 14, 2006.
A new literary prize, the Sobol Award, is offering $100,000 for the best unpublished novels from authors who have no agent. Prizes of $25,000 and $10,000 go to runners-up and seven others get $1,000 each. The website, www.sobolawards.com, will accept up to 50,000 manuscripts, online only, and applicants are required to pay an $85 entry fee. Winners will be announced next summer. The award was created by Sobol Literary Enterprises, a for-profit venture started by technology entrepreneur Gur Shomron.
Amazing isn’t it? This is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been preaching about for months! Trying to win is not worth your money! You are paying a reading fee to a literary agency for a chance at winning an award! FORGET IT! Just because the notice appeared in a reputable newspaper doesn’t make it worth your time and money.
Let’s take a moment and do the math: 50,000 manuscripts at $85 apiece is $4,250,000 dollars and the payout is $142,000! GET THE PICTURE? This is nothing more than what you find everywhere, everyday, and it falls into the same category as all those writing awards where you pay an entry fee. Writers please, listen to what I’m saying. You will pay $85 and wait until next summer to be told, thanks for the entry fee but you didn’t win.
If you want a chance at getting your manuscript published without the services of a literary agent, ATTEND MY SEMINAR–PUBLISHING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. You’ll receive all the tools necessary to become a successfully published author and you won’t have to wait several months. You have a much better chance with me than paying for a hope and prayer with a New York Literary Agency. These are the types of “programs” that offer false hope, plenty of frustration, lots of rejection, and in the end you are doing nothing more than lining the pockets of the agency. PLEASE, DON’T BE FOOLED!
Spend a Nickel to Save a Dollar
By Jerry D. Simmons | September 13th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
It still amazes and frustrates me that writers are willing to devote months of research and spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars to get their manuscript published without having all the facts. When the process is over, most find the decisions they made were wrong and are now stuck with several hundred copies of a book that won’t sell. My solution: Speak to a professional before you make decisions that will cost you time and money.
A recent client spent over $5,000 and ended up with 750 copies of a book that (1) had a cover that didn’t fit the category and certainly not the marketplace, and (2) was priced from the “publisher” in a way that made it impossible to sell at the retail level simply because it was beyond what the category could handle. Both easy problems to fix but not after the fact, in this situation if the author had spoken to me before any decisions were made he would have avoided a lot of frustration, saved months of time and thousands of dollars!
Now it’s time to toot my own horn because I’m recommending you speak to me before you make publishing and marketing decisions about your book. Am I trying to sell my services? Yes, because I am tired of seeing unsuspecting writers taken advantage of by companies in the business of selling programs and promises, not marketing and selling books. Don’t believe the hype, there are no guarantees in publishing, just some basic facts that every writer needs to know. If my client had paid the $150 for an hour of my time, I estimate he could have saved at least eight months of research and perhaps $3,000 minimum. Is it worth it? You be the judge.
My Epiphany
By Jerry D. Simmons | September 11th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Tuesday September 11, 2001–The sales team had assembled in our New York offices for a meeting to discuss the biggest acquisition in our company’s history. Many months earlier we had paid several million dollars for the right to publish the biography of Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric. After weeks of planning the on sale date for this monumental release was Tuesday September 11, 2001. Publicity was in place, books were in stores, and we were making final preparations for what we believed would be the biggest selling title in our history of bestselling titles.
Shortly before the meeting began someone burst into the room and told everyone to turn on the television, a plane had just flown into the World Trade Center. Among the gasps, cries and screams from the many employees who had relatives or loved ones working in the WTC, we watched in horror as the second plane crashed. After a few minutes of stunned silence our President announced that it was time to turn off the TV and get back to work because we had to get on with our very important meeting. We all sat in disbelief until the announcement came that a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon.
My first reaction was to notice the frustration on the face of our President because at that moment, the need to discuss our company’s investment in a book overshadowed the personal tragedy felt by all Americans and certainly many employees desperate for information about their loved ones. At that instance I was finally able to comprehend that the business of publishing was first and foremost in the hearts and minds of all those at the top levels. I had two choices, convert to that way of thinking or walk away. You know my decision. My epiphany, September 11, 2001, five years ago today.
The Focus is the Writing
By Jerry D. Simmons | September 6th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
This is an uncomfortable subject for me because I do not want anyone to think I’m trying to tell writers how to write, but a question came my way this week and I felt the need to pass along some information.
If anyone tells you to start thinking about your market before or during the actual writing of your manuscript, I would have to respectfully disagree. The focus has to be on the writing, the story you want to write, not the audience or marketing of your book. I’m certainly no writing instructor and wouldn’t attempt to tell you how, but if someone is explaining the importance of knowing your reader, I’m not sure they mean who might eventually buy your book.
My information comes from successfully published authors with whom over the course of twenty-plus years I have spent a lot of time. Never did an author tell me they had thoughts of their genre, category or market, before or during the writing of their book. If the truth holds for them, perhaps you should think long and hard if in fact someone is telling you otherwise. Marketing comes after the manuscript is complete, not anytime before or during. The only exception is when a publisher contracts with a ghostwriter to pen a particular story or nonfiction book on a certain subject, person, place or thing. That is the only exception to that rule, as told to me by many successful editors and authors.
Writing has to come from the heart and soul, not that conscious part of the brain telling you to change something to appeal to a wider audience. That is not to say that an editor, after the fact, may suggest you make changes to appeal to a wider audience but that would be well after the manuscript is complete. This entire discussion makes me uncomfortable simply because I’m not in the habit of giving writers instructions on writing, which is well beyond my boundaries. I’m only passing along information that some of the most successful authors in the country have shared with me on many occasions. The focus has to be on the writing, not marketing, while you’re writing your book.
Never Too Late
By Jerry D. Simmons | September 3rd, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Two things happened to me this past week that is the basis for this blog. First, the final edit of my new book (the original rewritten and expanded edition) came to me from my editor and I met a gentleman writing a book who works in the field of career transition. His specialty is former executives who have either lost a job and are looking for a new career, or merely walked away from one career and wanting to start another.
In my new career away from New York publishing, I’ve had the pleasure over the past year of speaking to many writers of all ages. As I scan the faces of my audience, there is one thing that is curious to me, and that is, do these writers write their entire lives or are they late bloomers who start when their own life reaches a new stage? My writing began as a form of therapy, after leaving Manhattan I needed some closure to my past life and I sat down to put some of my knowledge and experiences on paper. I was never a writer or someone who kept a diary or journal, so for whatever reason this became my post publishing career therapy.
If you know someone interested in writing, regardless of their age or stage in life, you should encourage them to write. Everyone has a story to tell and the world is a better place with all those stories on paper. The focus of most that I do is help writers understand the business of publishing and how to be successful in marketing and selling books. If we stop and think, it should be about the writing, telling of stories and sharing of ideas that is important. Let us not forget that writing is a passion for most, don’t let publishing, marketing, or anything else cloud the fact that the act of writing is what’s important, to all of us.
