Mar 07

What do retailers want from authors?

Authors No Comments »

Retailer’s needs aren’t all that different from traditional publisher’s needs. Retailers rely on the author to have a platform and followers, or a tribe. What is a tribe? Seth Godin has written a powerful book about tribes and our affinity for them. These tribes define the way we think and interact, and more and more, how people buy. People want to connect so they join groups. You see this all the time with clubs, churches, charities, etc. A tribe is that group of people who are passionate about you. You belong on the same team. They are your blog followers. They are your workshop audience. They are your current readers. They are your Facebook and Twitter followers.

The power tribe: the power of 1000 true fans

According to a popular theory, a creator, such as an artist or author needs to acquire only 1,000 ‘true fans’ to make a living. A true fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive miles to see you sign a book or read a story. They will buy the box set even though they have individual books. They have a Google alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They are true fans.

How do you build a tribe?

First, you need to build your platform’s foundation. According to Brian Jud, author and consultant, a platform “is a series of career-long relationships with people who find it beneficial to communicate the word about your book, introduce you to influential people who can endorse your book, or get you on major media. As third-party references, these people give you more credibility among those in the larger segment of your platform. Platform building begins with cultivating relationships with a core selection of credible sources in at least five groups.

Good friends. They could be your classmates, fellow employees, relatives and neighbors. This is probably the weakest category in terms of their desire or ability to spread the word about your book.”

How can you find people who might promote your book?

  1. Centers of influence. Do you know people that can influence the purchasing decisions of large groups of your target readers?
  2. Professional associates. Are you writing to a specific group of people, and do you know people who have a following in that specific niche can spread the word among their constituents.
  3. People in your affinity groups. Find and participate in groups of people with similar interests or needs and who know you personally.
  4. Fans. These are people in your target audience who have read your previous material or have heard you speak on your topic. They believe that you know what you are talking about and are willing to put their reputations on the line by becoming your advocate.
  5. Network – you are only five people (six degrees of separation) away from just about anyone.
  • Associations
  • Presentations in front of various groups/tribes
  • Trade shows
  • Seminars
  • Social media
  • Publicity (free advertising)
  • Blogging
  • Write articles – become known as a subject expert

Encouragement for the journey:

  1. Building a tribe takes time – you have to be persistent
  2. Building a tribe may mean being ‘different’. Sometimes it is a completely unique or non-conforming idea that people are attracted to. It could mean that you have to be a little weird.
  3. Building a tribe takes effective communication – you are writer after all. Communicate well.
  4. Building a tribe takes passion – be sold out about your topic/niche/story.

Authors, what did I miss? More on this topic next week.

 


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Oct 15

How to sell to book retailers…and which ones work best

Authors, Distribution, Marketing, Sales No Comments »

For many independent publishers, the reality of getting books placed in most or even some retailers is an uphill battle. I recently presented a seminar to a group of authors, about some of the realities of selling to book retailers, how each retail sales channel works, and what retailers (from my own sales experience) need from authors.

Realities of bookselling

On average, the local independent bookshop might carry 10-20,000 titles in their store. These would be both frontlist (new titles each season) as well as backlist titles that have been out longer than six months, and warrant still being on the shelf.

On average, large chain stores carry around 100,000 different titles in their stores, including both front and backlist.

If a bookstore brings in 25% of their inventory, as new releases (which is high, but let’s use that number for this illustration) then the local independent might have 2,500-5,000 new titles for the year. The chain will stock more based on their capacity, and might have 20-25,000 new titles in their stores.

Last year, according to Bowker, the leading publishing statistics company, there were more than 347,000 new titles released by traditional publishing houses in the market. This means less than 10% of new titles made it to the CHAIN stores, let alone the independents. Add to this traditionally published number, the number of independently published titles, which Bowker lists at more than 1.1 million new titles in 2011.

It is easy to see, that landing a book, traditionally published or not, in a bricks and mortar retail outlet, is pretty close to the same odds as winning the lottery.

Different retail channels

So what is an independent publisher or author to do? Authors should spend their limited time and resources building a platform and a tribe. A lot has been written about both subjects. I would recommend the following two books to start: Platform by Michael Hyatt, and Tribes by Seth Godin.

Retailers, no matter what channel, EXPECT an author to market to their own tribe. If you build a following however, these fans are just as likely to buy direct from you, or from an easily accessible online retailer like amazon.com or bn.com. I was surprised to recently learn, that christianbook.com is the third largest online bookseller in the world. Authors can work directly with amazon.com by using their Advantage Program which allows independent publishers to sell to Amazon on consignment.

In some cases, I have seen Christian Book Distributors, or christianbook.com, work with smaller independent publishers direct. If they choose not to work with you, they will work with distributors like Advocate Distribution Solutions to purchase product from independent publishers and authors. Either way, you can still offer your books through these retail outlets to augment the sales that you are doing direct.

What do retailers expect?

Retailers expect to work with publishers and authors who create great products, from both an editing and design standpoint. And, these products need to sell. Books that don’t sell, aren’t going to stick around. Retailers also expect to work with a professional who know THEIR business. They expect to see the following information:

  1. What is your business plan? Who is your market? What marketing do you need to do? When do you release the book? Where do you concentrate your sales efforts? How many do you need to sell?
  2. What is your promotional plan? Retail is ruled by demand. If a product is in demand, the retailer wants to sell it. If a product is not in demand, the retailer does not have the time (in most cases) to help create the demand for a product. How do you make your book stand out in the middle of the hundreds or thousands of other books that are on a similar topic?
  3. What is your release plan? This timeline is one of the most difficult concepts for authors to understand. Retailers usually need 6-9 months to plan for new titles, although online retailers can be more flexible than that. Marketing and publicity needs time to implement and planning this at the last minute usually means wasted effort and resources. For more on how independent authors might look at publicity, see my recent post called ‘Don’t rush your publishing plan…especially if you don’t have one.’

What is your own experience with selling books to retailers?

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Aug 30

A shot heard round the industry

publishing No Comments »

A little more than a week ago, Seth Godin (one of my favorite bloggers and authors) wrote a post which has generated a lot of response from the publishing industry. In it, Godin basically said that he was leaving traditional publishing behind, and was going to concentrate on ‘spreading the message’ that he has traditionally published by getting closer to his readers.

sethgodin.com

It seems that on one hand, Godin might be saying that he will be taking everything to digital e-books and only those who can download them will have access. It will be interesting to see how this ‘getting closer to the reader’ will play out with Godin and others as they emulate what he is doing. Michael Hyatt, another blogger I follow (and CEO of Thomas Nelson) blogged about Godin’s announcement too. I tend to sit in the middle of the message from the two posts from Godin and Hyatt.

  1. The current publishing model is dying, if not broken as Seth Godin claims.
  2. E-books and digital delivery is growing rapidly, but probably not at the rate that all the hype seems to indicate.
  3. The paper book is not dead, but the distribution methods that paper gets to consumers will have to change.
  4. No one can live on bits and bytes alone. The strategy has got to include both e-books and traditional books. Even Godin fully admits that his readers like to use his books as ‘souvenirs’ and will undoubtedly continue to print books, whether in long runs to start or in digital short runs.
  5. Most authors SHOULD consider doing what Godin is doing. This is where I disagree with Hyatt. Publishers are struggling, willing to take less risk, and wanting to publish fewer titles. The tools exist for authors to do it themselves, connect with the readers like never before and earn more in the process. If there are more than a million books being published every year, the market is already crowded, and the percentage (and numbers) of traditionally published books is going to continue to shrink.

If you read Godin’s announcement when it first came out, or if you are just seeing this for the first time, what do you think?

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May 22

To go, or not to go

Education, Parenting No Comments »

Ah, the end of the school year. Until this year, it meant baseball season, warm weather and the beginning of summer vacation for the kids. The last days of school brought some testing and finals, but not much else.

This year is different. I have an upcoming sixteen year old (July) and this summer means driver’s education and, if you can believe it, discussion of high school graduation only two short years away. This of course leads to the inevitable college discussion. Her junior year is coming up and the colleges are already putting on the full court press with letters, packages and slick fliers.

www.istockphoto.com

When I was getting ready for school, it was assumed that everyone should go. I don’t think that has changed much in the past twenty odd years. My daughter’s classmates all seem to be headed that direction and the assumption seems to be that college is a prerequisite to any kind of successful life out in the big-wide-world.

John Stossel Report with ABC News.

In January 2009, I saw a great report by John Stossel (ABC News) which made me re-evaluate the whole college thing. Here are some key points Stossel makes in his report:

  1. “The bachelor’s degree is America’s most overrated product”
  2. College is a business, where the goal is more to put kids in the seats, and therefore bring in more revenue.
  3. College advisors do not do much to discourage average or below average students from traditional college.
  4. Average students (or below) might be better off with a technical or trade school, or no school at all.
  5. The high cost of college can sink graduates who had to borrow to go to school, and leave them with nothing to show for it.

To make matters even more interesting, I just finished a great book by Seth Godin called Linchpin. In it, he writes about the twentieth century notion of schooling (starting in grade school), and how the industrialized revolution dictated how we were taught.

  1. Education was a deliberate shift in culture in order to train factory workers. (Godin defines factories as any place where people go to work, do what they are told, follow the rules, and get a paycheck)
  2. Fear in school is a great way to teach compliance: pass the tests, keep your head down, and obey instructions.
  3. School is very much like a job. Do well; get another job (the next grade). Continue to do well and get a real job. Do poorly and/or rebel and you are kicked out of the system.
  4. The main thing measured by school is whether or not you were good at school. If you want to go to school forever, it is a great skill to have.
  5. Getting through school is a testament to who the student was before going to school, not because of the schooling, and most successful people get there despite their college degrees, not because of them.

So, for now, we talk and pray about the future for our kids and hope we help them make wise decisions about schooling when it comes time to do so.

What do you think? Is college overrated?

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