This tip brought to you by our Publishing Guru PJ Campbell
on Jul 06, 2009
Many writers ask about self-publishing vs. tradtional publishing. The biggest advanatage is distribution. You will not have the ability to maximize distribution without a traditional publisher. No matter how much you self-promote, without a sales force backing you up, it will take forever and by then your book will be a has-been. There are over 1200 independent bookstores, 2000 national bookstores, and several hundred regional chain bookstores. Do the math-believe me, I have and I'm attempting to cover all my bases to get my book, 101 AUTHOR TIPS in full distribution across the U.S. and it's no easy task. I'm working 30 hours a week, minimum on top of my day job of 40 hours and I've been doing this for about 6 weeks, now and feel I haven't begun to scratch the surface.
What can I do to speed up my process and maximize my sales? I'm pitching myself to a ton of writers' conferences around the country. This is a quick way to draw attention to my book and to get wide distribution in places that may never hear about it. I'm blogging, working my social media outlets and garnering local publicity-it's mind blowing how much there is to do to sell the book and just when you feel like you should be making head-way, another website opens up that beckons you to participate.
I've created a number of Excel spreadsheets to help me stay organized, and I'm taking it one day at a time. The thing is I'm racing against the clock. Traditionally, speaking I have about a 3 month window at best to gain the momentum I need to sustain my book for another 6 months and then I'll need more speaking gigs, book placement, media, promotion and so on. Whew...it's a mountain to climb, but I'm loving every minute of it. The challenge is exciting and rewarding when I catch a fish, big or small, no matter I'm looking for results and I'm getting them.
If your book has just released and you don't know what to do, ask me. My passion is to help authors become busiess savvy at the business of writing.
