After sixteen years and twelve books
traditionally published, plus another year of independent and hybrid publishing
(two re-released titles, two originals), you’d think that an author like me
would be savvy enough not to make many mistakes.
You’d think.
Sadly, I have so much material for a
post like this that I hardly know where to start. It’s not that I’m especially
inept. It’s just that this is a business in which there are lots of ways to go
wrong—and many of them can’t be foreseen.
Here, in no particular order, are a few
things I wish I (and some of my author friends) had known:
·
An
agent can be a wonderful person to have on your team, but she should be the
right match for you and your book. Sometimes, you’re better off without one.
·
Rarely
will your publisher do what you think they should to market your book. Don’t
assume they’ve got you covered.
·
People
really do judge books by their covers. Of my four independently published
books, I’ve done redesigns on two of them.
·
An
author who’s relatively well known within her genre won’t necessarily sell well
independently based on name recognition alone.
·
If
you’re publishing independently, keep your production and promotion budgets in
check. Make sure you’re investing in the right places. I recently encountered
an author who spent a lot of money on production and had nothing budgeted for
proofreading. His book is a mess. If you look beyond bundled author services
companies to a la carte services, or use author services companies that work on
a percentage basis instead of charging up front, you can minimize production
costs and invest instead in making sure you’ve got a quality product that will
hold up in the long term.
·
When
it comes to promotion, most paid advertising will not deliver enough in sales
to pay for itself. I know—advertising is about exposure, not sales—but if you
don’t have a gigantic budget that allows you to make a really big splash,
online ads here and there are not going to make much of a difference. For the
most part, the most effective ways of letting readers know you’re releasing
another wonderful book are also the ways that don’t cost anything. The old
adage about getting what you pay for simply doesn’t apply to marketing
independently published books.
·
The
same goes for paid reviews (like Kirkus) that put your book in a
“self-published” category. Unless the review is starred or featured, a
self-published book is never going to get noticed by book buyers (librarians
and booksellers) who pay strong attention to reviews.
·
If
you only do what everyone else does, you may get only modest results. When it
comes to reaching you audience, think creatively in order to engage with them
in unique and unexpected ways.
