The Value of Free
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 30th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
I’ve been told time and time again that offering information for free is tantamount to economic suicide when you’re in the business of websites and books. However, some experts believe that offering part of your writing, whether chapters or in some cases the entire manuscript, for free is good business.
Years ago the highly successful publisher of dining guides, Zagat, began offering the entire contents of every single guide for free on their website. Critics suggested this would be the end of the company, but in fact, their sales soared. They sold more books that year than ever before.
The counter argument to free and supported by an assortment of data is that consumer’s value information by its cost. Information offered for free is not considered worthy or the time it takes to read it, otherwise, why would it be free? The old–perception is reality–theme, if it’s free then it’s probably not very good–you get what you pay for scenario.
Writers who devote years to their work are reluctant to offer anything for free, and that is perfectly understandable. Yet it is wise to give readers a taste of what you have to say. The elevator pitch is fine but consumers want more. Amazon for all their faults realized early in the game that excerpts of books help make sales. If Amazon does it then it must be important and the correct thing to do, right?
Free is fine, within limits, all for free begins to stretch the bounds of what I consider reasonable. Be willing to offer readers a part of your book(s). You don’t have to make it the first chapter, pick a part that will draw them into a story, a scene, make them want to turn the page. It’s all about selling books, what have you got to lose? Marketing is about testing, give free a test.
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Publicity is Key
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 16th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
If there is one theme that came out of this past Saturday’s Writers Seminar it’s the fact that publicity, above all else, is the key to selling books. Finding ways to tie your book into the news and making yourself available to the media for interviews and commentary is the single best method for generating sales.
Mona Gambetta gave an excellent presentation on how to do that and her comments were loud and clear—you have to find ways to promote yourself, your book, and your message through media outlets and to do that you must know two things: (1) The correct format for sending your information to the media, and (2) The names of the key contacts to whom you send your information.
Producers and editors are swamped with requests, press releases, emails and phone messages, you have to know how to break through the glut with the correct formatted information and the name of the key contact to have any hope of making a connection, getting your message through, and eventually promoting yourself and your book.
I’ve been asked repeatedly this week for more information on what Mona had to say and the best way to summarize is to say, publicity is the best form of marketing. She has created two products for my website that will be helpful, here is the LINK, just click to read all about her PowerPR CD and PowerPR Media Resources. Both will save you time and money not to mention increased book sales.
The Writers Seminar was about education, helping writers learn from the best in the business to become keenly aware of the marketplace for selling books. It is a lot of work but well worth the information you receive. If you weren’t able to make this past Saturday’s Seminar but have interest in attending another with the same speakers, please let me know.
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Perfect Your Content with a Little Help from Friends
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 15th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Perfect Your Content with a Little Help from Friends By Barbara McNichol.
You’ve noodled through your book concept, you’ve created an outline that will move the plot along, you’ve fleshed out that outline with detail. You can now declare the content of your manuscript complete. Pat yourself on the back. Dance the snoopy dance. You’ve accomplished a lot.
But you aren’t finished yet. You need to ask yourself if you’ve said everything that you want to say. Once you’ve satisfied yourself that you have, give the manuscript one more critical look to make sure it’s complete. Then and only then are your ready for the next crucial step to making your manuscript the best it can be.
A Necessary Evil?
As those of you who’ve been through the process already know, a peer review is a necessary step in finalizing your manuscript. Peer reviews—sending your book to fellow writers and others “in the know” about your genre as well as readers in your target audience—is both essential and frustrating, but a necessary evil.
The reviewers’ role is to help you “see” what you’ve written. They point out what’s working in the text or storyline and what isn’t working. They may nitpick on the wrong things and they often take you on tangents, offering suggestions that may or may not advance your ideas.
Still, feedback from reviewers is essential because they bring a variety of perspectives to their enjoyment of a book—as your buyers will. Be prepared for their suggestions to be dynamic and brilliant. Or they could be so far off, you wish you could take back the manuscript and say “never mind.”
To ensure their comments are valuable rather than distracting, guide the process the best you can.
Keep Reviewers on Track
How do you do that? Be specific about what you want peer reviewers to look for. Ask them if the content seems complete or if you have overlooked something important. Also ask them to forgive typos and punctuation glitches—those are addressed in the editing process. But resist the temptation to skip the peer review. The reviewers’ questions often reveal muddy spots that need to be cleaned up, or they may simply say “I don’t get it” in certain places. Pay attention to that, too. It’s easy to get your nose too pressed to the computer screen to see what’s actually there on paper.
When you go through this peer review process first, you’ll find that people appreciate being asked. What’s more, you’ll have ambassadors out there when your book finally arrives. But if you rely on them for technical glitches, you could have a patchwork quilt of opinions you’ll have to deal with. Best to let your editor ensure a consistency and an eagle eye for precision language. You can’t expect that from peer reviewers.
Turn to peer reviewers to help you finalize your content, pinpoint problems, and sharpen your message.
Barbara McNichol writes and edits articles, website copy, book proposals, and manuscripts for authors and entrepreneurs. Contact Barbara at 887-696-4899 (toll free) or editor@barbaramcnichol.com. To learn more, sign up for her ezine The Door Opener at www.barbaramcnichol.com and receive a free ebook, Word Trippers.
Book Reviews
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 9th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
There was an article in this past Sunday’s New York Times Book Review written by Motoko Rich and originally published on May 2nd, titled Are Book Reviews Out of Print? The article heading states that “All across the country, newspapers are cutting book sections or running more reprints of reviews from wire services or larger papers.”
The author notes that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently eliminated the position of Book Editor, the Los Angeles Times merged their once stand alone book review into a new section reducing their page count from 12 to 10, and the San Francisco Chronicle’s book review was cut from 6 to 4 pages. “Author’s and critics claim this is one more nail in the coffin of literary culture.”
The problem with that statement is that from a purely commercial standpoint, the literary culture has been eroding for years, barely registering a blip on the page of book sales for a long time. Publishing today is about movie stars, high profile court cases, political high drama, the kind of things that stand out on the nightly news and in the tabloids. Literary culture? I don’t think so!
Newspapers are suffering as they try to hold onto readers while more and more people are tuning to blogs for information about books. The old guard book reviews are seen as nothing more than an forum where the big publishers can advertise their books. Thus blogs have replaced the stodgy old line newspapers for readers attention and information about books.
Another thing the article points out is that this “Inevitable transition toward a new and more democratic literary landscape where anyone can comment on books,” is a good thing. I agree, and also know it is time for blogs to write more about Independently Published books. If that seems like a tough hill to climb, then we just create our own blogs about Independent Books. Why waste time joining them when we can create our own book reviews, do you think readers really care which blogs write about books?
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Answers
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 1st, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Who has them? Do you think the largest publishers in the world, based in New York, have all the answers to marketing and selling books? NO, they do not. What they do have is experience with many, many titles over a number of years, but they do not have all the answers.
Publishers can spin anything, they would make great political consultants. They know how to create buzz about their product because they have the media contacts developed over years of scratching each other’s back. They have the ability to get a book into the hands of booksellers around the country in a matter of days, they have the distribution muscle to make it happen. But they do not possess some secret formula to selling books.
So-called experts in the publishing business of selling products and services promise almost anything to the unsuspecting writer. It’s all about selling, not about how to help you the author. No one understands what it takes it make a book a guaranteed bestseller. Big publishers have experience and understand the marketplace but they do not have all the answers. The most recent attempt to extract money from your pocket is the promise of distribution for your book to major accounts for a fee. A rather large fee I might add that does absolutely nothing for an author and their book.
I tell my audience there are no guarantees in publishing, but if you fall for the sales pitch of these self-described experts, you are doing exactly what they want you to do, buy their products and services. No one has all the answers, the best anyone can do is offer their experience based on years of marketing and selling books, what their best advice would be for your book. Be smart, learn something about the marketplace, gain an understanding of the business and you will have a competitive advantage over many authors. No one has all the answers.
This blog is unedited, please disregard mistakes in spelling and grammar.
