Selling Your Self Published Book
Biff Barnes
Who should publish your book? Should you try to get a big advance from a traditional publisher or look into self publishing it?
An increasing number of people are taking the second route, harboring the hope that they will emulate Paul Richard Evans who self published The Christmas Box which became the only self published novel to top the New York Times Best Seller List while still a self published book. Or can they become the next Amanda Hocking who sold over a million copies of her nine paranormal novels, earning over $2 million, when she released them as self published ebooks?
Hopes aside, if you plan to profit from self publishing your book, you need to understand the advice offered by Steve Weber in his book Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors. Said Weber, “No matter what kind of a book you have, its success depends on two things: It must tell a good story, and you must find an audience for it.”
To build that audience authors are finding it increasingly necessary to become their own publicists, marketing and sales departments.
“’But I hate marketing,’ you lament. You are not alone,” say Marilyn and Tom Ross in their book, Jump Start Your Book Sales. “Of all the hats an author wears, the marketing fedora itches the worst. Authors like to write. Stoop to crass commercialism? Never! Okay then, forget about your book being a success.”
If that’s the case, how do I market my self published book?
Weber and the Rosses offer some good ideas. In addition you might want to take a look at:Dan Poynter’s Self Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book, Peter Bowerman’s, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher and Aaron Shepard, Aiming at Amazon: The New Business of Self Publishing .
Unfortunately, many people believe that choosing the right firm to self publish their book will take care of the marketing for them. Firms like Outskirts Press, Author House, XLibris, and Amazon’s CreateSpace all offer marketing packages at fancy prices. Unfortunately these packages offer much less than it at first appears. .To help make sure you aren’t deceived by offers of marketing support from publishing firms, you should check out Mark Levine’s, The Fine Print of Self Publishing, which examines the actual features of contracts offered by top self publishing firms.
It’s important to understand that if you are hoping to make a profit from self publishing your book it’s like any other business venture. Learn something about the business before you hop in. A little reading now can save a lot of disappointment later.