Difficult, Not Impossible
By Jerry D. Simmons | June 7th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Writing is difficult, getting published is easy, and selling books is tough! Many of you have read my articles and blogs and asked: Where do I start? The answer is in bookstores. You need to be a regular visitor to your local independent or chain bookstore and watch, listen, and learn. If you visit once a week, every week, after awhile you will begin to notice how the market changes. Not just in the titles but in the store itself. Bookstores are the primary destination for people buying books and should be considered your laboratory for information about the marketplace.
Titles that appear in bookstores were either purchased by a corporate buyer as part of their new release selection, or are selling a consistent number of copies over a long period of time, referred to in the business as backlist. Which ever, the titles in the store are selling or they would be returned in short order. If you visit weekly, you will begin to notice the turnover, new titles replacing returned ones, and older titles reappearing. What better way to gauge what the market wants and buys than looking at books that are being offered to the reading public?
In conjunction with the title selection, notice the cover, the price, and copy on the back cover and inside flap. How is the publisher trying to entice you to buy? What are they saying and how? Notice the differences and similarities in the packaging and pricing. Publishers spend a lot of time making sure the outside and interior layout of a book are appealing to the reader. When you find older titles that are constantly holding shelf space in a bookstore make a mental note of everything about the book. This is the kind of information you must translate to your own book. Being a successful author is difficult, not impossible.
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