If you’ve been publishing for any length of time, either
traditionally or independently, you know that there’s little money in books. If
money’s your goal, sell real estate (but make sure you’re good at it).
So let’s agree that we’re not in this for the money. Still,
we’d like to have readers. How can they find us?
The odds are against a reader simply stumbling upon your
book. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and put your book up for sale on all
the major platforms and see who notices.
No one.
Simple principles of supply and demand are at work here.
Solid figures on titles published are hard to come by, but take two recent numbers
from Bowker on US publishing alone—391,000 self-published titles in 2012, and
347,000 traditionally published print books in 2011. Do a little extrapolation
and it’s not hard to validate a figure that gets tossed around quite a bit:
3,000 books published per day, worldwide.
And here’s the thing: books no longer go out of print. With
e-publishing and print on demand, these books will be around forever. How can
your book stand out when it’s competing with a million books this year, two
million next year, three million the next year, and so on?
There are some very good reasons why the average book sells
only 250 copies, and why most self-published books sell fewer than 150 copies.
(For more on the numbers, check out these articles in Forbes,
the
New York Times, and Out:think)
My point is not to discourage anyone from writing. I believe
in the power of the written word and feel privileged to have been a published
author for the past seventeen years. My point is that if you want more than 150
readers, you either need to convince a traditional publisher that your book will
generate sufficient corporate profits after their substantial costs of
production, distribution, and marketing have been met, or you need to enter
into this adventure of independent publishing with both eyes open and a
strategic plan for building a readership.
This week, I’ll be moderating a
panel at a statewide convention on the arts that brings together writers
and also musicians to address this question of how our creative work finds its
audience. Since their industry imploded/exploded a few years earlier than the shake-up
in the book industry, I’m looking forward to discovering what musicians have
learned about “discoverability.”
Already, in our planning session, my fellow panelists have
offered these helpful thoughts on discoverability, to which I’ll add a few of
my own:
·
Christy NaMee
Eriksen, an independent artist of the spoken word, reminds us to consider
which audience really matters for a particular work. She stresses the
importance of accessibility and partnering though grassroots, intentional
engagement.
·
Storm
Gloor, once involved in music distribution and now a professor who
researches how music is (and will be) distributed, notes that artists need to
look at their products with the realization that what they sell is not the
end-all—there are other products you can sell (workshops, appearances, for
instance).
·
Dave
Cheezum, independent bookstore owner, reminds authors to remember that they’re
part of a brand and also part of an eco-system which, despite the revolution in
publishing, still includes hands-on bookselling.
·
When I was selling real estate (good for the
bank account, not so much for the soul), the experts used to tell us our
product wasn’t a house—the product was us. That’s what branding and platform
are all about: you and your relationships with your readers. This is why
publishers love celebrity authors—they come with a built-in platform. My guess
(since you’re reading this) is that you’re not a celebrity, but you can still
build a platform, if you make an effort.
·
Sales breed sales. This is truer than ever in
the age of the algorithm. You may sometimes sell at a discount—that’s one of
the wonderful freedoms inherent in independent publishing—but if only other
discounted books show up in Amazon’s “Customers who bought this book also
viewed” section of your book’s page, you haven’t reached your real audience
yet. The good news: the success of an indie book isn’t tied to the
launch as it is in traditional publishing. If you’re not getting the
readers you want, take a hard look at the data and make adjustments where you
can.
·
Unless you’ve got large amounts of cash to buy a
presence across media platforms, visibility depends on you as a person—a
genuine, professional, engaged author, not a book-shouting machine.
·
While your book may not be your end-all, it’s
the one thing you control, fully and absolutely, if you’ve opted for
independent publishing. It needs to be polished and professional. It needs to
offer what other books don’t. It needs to be a book that readers go out of
their way to recommend to other readers. “I’m buying several copies for friends,”
wrote an author in her recent endorsement of my
forthcoming novel. Can you imagine how pleased I was? Your book won’t be
universally loved. The odds are stacked against it being a trend-setting
surprise. But as sales breed sales, true fans will bring more true fans.
