Start Learning the Marketplace
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 17th, 2005 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)
Writers and authors who understand the importance of learning more about the business of publishing are beginning to ask, “Where do I start?” The answer would be in the marketplace, in the category in which you are concentrating your efforts. When you begin your writing well before you start to think about an agent you need to be a regular visitor to your local bookstore.
Writers need to know their market and the marketplace. They need to be able to speak intelligently about writers, titles, publishers, the marketplace and changes going on in the particular cateogry in which they are writing. Writers and authors should take notice of several things.
(1) The first is recognizing the major authors within their own category. Not only authors that appear regularly on the bestseller lists but also the ones who have the most individual titles on store shelves within a particular category. To be successful you must have a good sales history. Titles that continue to sell over a long period of time are indicative of a good history. This is called “back-listed” titles and they are the heart and soul of a publisher’s profits. Writers, who have multiple titles on store shelves and may have never appeared on a bestseller list, but if their books sell at consistent levels over a period of years they are considered extremely successful.
(2) Recognize the publishers who have the most individual titles on store shelves in your category. The same holds true for publishers as bestselling authors. It is their ability to publish titles that sell consistently over a long period of time that is important. If one dominates a particular category then you know they have editorial expertise in that area.
(3) Find out the agent who represented the author of a title. Sometimes you can find their name in the acknowledgements section at the front or back of the book. Soon you will begin to recognize names. These are the people you eventually want to represent you as an author. Reputations of agents and editors are important and if the same names appear to have dominance in a particular category, that is something you need to know.
Up to this point we have covered authors, publishers and names of agents. Now you should begin to notice the marketing and merchandising aspects of your category and the marketplace.
(4) Notice the format of the books in your category. Typically back-listed titles are in mass market or trade paper. Seldom will you find older books still in hardcover.
(5) Publishers go to great lengths to make sure the package on a book is right for the category. Notice if the covers are primarily text, or do they have photos? Are there paintings or graphics, and are they only on the front cover, or do they wrap around to the back of the book? Is the title on the top? Are there quotes and from whom? Is there a subtitle? Where is the author’s name and how big compared to the title?
(6) Make note of the price range on the titles, your book should be somewhere in the middle and not at the high or low range. Of course the page count, trim size and quality of the paper are important factors in price determination. The important point is whether you as a consumer feel the price is right for what you get.
(7) Finally, make a note of how the titles are merchandised. Are they in floor or shelf displays? Tabletops? Are the titles in the category and on store shelves spine out or face out? Issues that can be important as you prepare yourself for a career as a writer.
These points are not presented in any particular order. The recognition of all seven is going to come over time. Your powers of observation are not going to be that keen in the beginning but if you find time to wander into a bookstore on a regular basis and review your category, all of these things will become more apparent.
This is not meant to be an exercise where you walk into a bookstore with a legal pad and begin making copious notes. It is meant to be a stroll through a store where you start introducing yourself to the books and authors in your cateogry. If you want to become a published author, it would be a tremendous benefit to your future if you had an understanding of the marketplace. This is where you begin!
Tags: Book Marketing, Book Publishing, Book Sales, Booksellers, writing
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Thanks – to the point – good basics – no fussy suff – this is the truth – thanks. A checklist of sorts too.
Patricia