World Biz Info
The source of the best business, financial and legal news
web www.worldbizinfo.com
Business Informations

Authors Should Be Optimistic


A client wrote me recently and asked what I thought of his using a publicist to promote his book - to the tune of $4,000 per month. In my usual blunt fashion, I responded by telling him most self-published books never sell more than 100 copies, that 2000 sales is considered excellent in the industry and that the number of people who sell between 50,000 and 100,000 can probably be counted on one hand. I just wasn't sure the publicist would give him the facts, since said publicist stood to make a lot of money off this author, whether he sold a book or not.

After a while I started thinking that I'd painted a rather bleak picture of the entire industry and realized that while yes, many self-published books make very little money, there are exceptions, and his book - or your book, could well be the exception.

Success stories are not hard to find. There's MJ Rose for instance, who published her first book electronically and later sold it to Doubleday. Since then, her career as an author has taken off and she recently announced the sale of three paranormal thrillers.

One of my former clients, Paul Clayton, used Booklocker to produce his war novel Carl Melcher Goes To Vietnam and it was picked up by traditional publisher, Dunne Books. Likewise, Marnia Robinson whose Peace Between the Sheets, was also purchased by a traditional publisher after its release through Booklocker.

I had another client, also published through Booklocker, interviewed on both 48 Hours and Good Morning America. Yet another sold almost 1000 books in two days, although he did not use any self-publishing company and managed the project independently.

According to industry experts (read: those who stand to make gobs of money if you self-publish) there's little chance that a new author will be able to sell a book to a traditional publisher in today's market. At least one company owner will quickly assure you that even if you do manage to sell your book, you won't get a large advance, if you get one at all. Perhaps. Whether it's true or not, this certainly wasn't the case for 27-year-old Marisha Pessl whose first novel recently sold at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The fact is that if you have a good book and there's a market for it, there's no need to let others dissuade you from trying to find an agent or traditional publisher, if that's the way you want to go. There are also many reasons to self-publish (particularly if you have a niche market). Just make sure the advice you're receiving is unbiased.

Cathi Stevenson is a former newspaper writer and editor who has more than 2,000 published articles to her credit. In publishing since 1981, she opened her own book cover design company in 2000 and since then BookCoverExpress.com has created more than 650 book covers for independent publishers and presses of all sizes. Read more of Cathi's articles about publishing at: http://www.thoughtblog.net


MORE RESOURCES:

Some Vital Components for Your E-book Internet Marketing Strategy
Promotion World (press release), CA - Nov 19, 2008
The first and most important weapon in your e-book marketing arsenal must be a web site containing a sales page for the e-book. ...


BookWhirl.com Kicks Off New Book Publicity Services
openPR (press release), Germany - Nov 18, 2008
For more details about BookWhirl.com’s ABP ServicePak program and other book marketing services, visit the company’s official website, BookWhirl.com, ...


Central Oregon Writers Guild Meeting
KBND, OR - 16 hours ago
His topic will be, “The Art & Grit of Book Marketing”. Wright, who lives in Portland, is the author of the "Oregon Trio" a group of novels including “Baker ...


Maxima returns to its maxims
Seattle Times, United States - Oct 31, 2008
According to our friends at Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research, you can tell which presidential candidate a person supports by looking. ...


Local writers gather to work on their craft
La Jolla Light, CA - Nov 19, 2008
The conference featured classes on the topics of character development, dialogue, book proposals, genre writing and book marketing, as well as others. ...


Top Book Trailer Producer to Share Online Video Marketing Secrets
TransWorldNews (press release), GA - Nov 1, 2008
It was trial and error when it came to online book marketing back then. My greatest influence would have to be best-selling author Christine Feehan who is ...


LR’s Book “Makeup Artists” Sets the New Standard in the Beauty ...
BigNews.biz (press release), MA - Nov 12, 2008
With the ever increasing costs of advertising for small businesses and independent contractors and the marketing fact that an ad should run at least six ...


The Bookseller (registration)

Bookaboo lifts lid on TV show books
The Bookseller (registration), UK - Nov 7, 2008
"Bookaboo", ITV’s forthcoming book-based television programme for children, has unveiled the 13 picture book titles that will be featured in the series. ...


Cast Your Vote: Choose Up to $200 Off Publishing Packages or Up to ...
PR Web (press release), WA - Oct 31, 2008
iUniverse, an Author Services brand of Author Solutions (www.authorsolutions.com), is the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported ...


iUniverse Releases Top-Ten Seller List for Oct. 2008
PR.com (press release), NY - Nov 16, 2008
Bloomington, IN, November 17, 2008 --(PR.com)-- iUniverse, the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported self-publishing company, ...

Book-Marketing - Google News

home | site map
© 2006
web www.worldbizinfo.com