Books Stand the Test of Time: Selling Your Book in a Lean Economy
October 9, 2008
-‘And what have I to give you back, whose worth may counterpoise this rich and precious gift?’- Much Ado About Nothing-Wm. Shakespeare
There seems to be a serious financial crunch going on these days. One thing that you can take comfort in as an author is that reading books is still one of the most cost-effective entertainment options out there.
Most people will devote hours and hours to reading a book. Compared to music, movies and the Internet, books give you good bang for your buck. If you are planning a promotional event, mention this to the people that stop by. The only gasoline they will use is the little bit it takes to get them home, then they can find themselves absorbed for days in your novel. Even if the whole economy collapsed and Y2K came back to rain down ash and cinder upon the modern world as we know it, the last person left could still enjoy your book.
When it comes to investing in the future of your writing, you are the key to selling your book. If you are willing to put the time in, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to sell a few copies everywhere you go. It is likely that if you present yourself in a professional manner, people will not even realize that you might be self-published. Admittedly, most Americans still don’t know what it means to be self-published. If you are doing a book-signing at their local bookstore and your book looks good and you are confident about presenting it in its most impactful light, they will probably assume that you are a famous and successful writer, you just don’t happen to be one of the few that they have heard of.
There are high-priced, high-tech text-delivery systems on the market. I encourage all of you to get to know the advancing industry of e-readers and Kindles — if only to make sure that someone who prefers the new technology isn’t left out when it comes to picking up your hot new bestselling title. (Wordclay and many other publishers out there are making it easy to make your book available in the new formats.) But as it stands, the good old printed and bound book rules the market and is likely to do so for the near-term in the least.
-‘To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.’ - Much Ado About Nothing-Wm. Shakespeare
Entry Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Marketing, Publishing. Tags: Marketing, self, book, Author, bookstore, writer, Reading, Kindle, promoting, bookselling, published, e-readers.
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Cliff Burns | October 9, 2008 at 10:03 am
I think new technologies like e-readers and internet publishing pose a direct threat to corporate publishing. As the profits for the big boys tumble, the media giants will start cutting loose their publishing arms and maybe, finally, we’ll get better quality books. The corporate mentality led to over-bidding on mediocre books and the disappearance of those crucial mid-list offerings, the chance for an author to develop a devoted readership over two or three titles.
Good post, timely…