Building a Marketing Plan

If you want to sell your book, you need a solid marketing plan to accompany your book proposal. In fact, it may be the single most important part of the proposal - it shows that your book idea is viable. The marketing plan is your detailed plan to connect to readers and sell books. It states how many books you expect to sell, where you will make media appearances, and specific steps you will take to promote it.

We turn to Michael Larsen, author of How to Get a Literary Agent: “For nonfiction, your promotion plan will be far more important than the content of your book in determining the editor, publisher, and deal you get.” Listen to that: marketing is as important as content. That sounds like a bucket of cold water dumped over your head, doesn’t it? 

Publishers want to know that you’re serious about selling books, not just in getting published. Your detailed marketing plan is a living document, so keep updating and adapting it. If you see something that works, then by all means copy it. Learn from others. Adapt. Grow. 

Michael Larsen points out that authors should include three crucial metrics in the marketing plan to demonstrate your commitment to promotion and to show that this is a viable book:

• The number of public appearances and talks that you plan to give in the three-month window after the book is published.

• The number of talks you will give each year after the book comes out. 

• The total number of books you expect to sell in the first year – and if books will sell in subsequent years (such as if a book becomes part of a college curriculum).

Be realistic in how many books you think you’ll sell. Even with a major publisher, most books only sell a few thousand copies, and even most of these titles won’t be reviewed. If you’re publishing a local history, you may only sell hundreds of copies. University press-published books usually sell fewer than a thousand copies. Most likely you’re not going to make a lot of money, so don’t count on quitting your day job. 

So you’re a first-time writer and have no clue where to begin. It’s easier than you think – and the possibilities are endless. Get yourself a pad of paper and pen and start jotting down ideas, no matter how far-fetched they seem. Promoting your book needn’t cost much money – nor does it necessarily require travel to distant cities.

• Keep track of all your contacts in an Excel spreadsheet. On the publication date, the publisher will send out an e-mail blast announcing the book to all these contacts. This encourages your contacts not only to buy the book, but to encourage friends and social networks to buy it.

• Develop a plan plan for mass media: radio interviews and TV appearances. 

• Who will you recommend to your publisher for potential reviews? Reviews are becoming notoriously difficult to get as print media has cut back, but a good review can make or break your books sales. Include bloggers in your list, as well as newspapers and magazines.

• Write op-eds that will appear in print media, such as your local newspaper. These are still a powerful marketing tool. I published an op-ed in November 2009 about Virginia possibly selling off its ABC (liquor) stores, and this drew a lot of attention - including more speaking engagements. 

• Write magazine articles that draw attention to your book.

• Throw a book publication party and invite friends and the media. This can build a tremendous amount of buzz for your book. If you can tie it in with a local charity, even better. 

• Attend book festivals in your area.  

• Give talks at conferences, historical societies and libraries that are known to host author talks. And don't forget bookstores! Ask all of these venues if they have a blog that you can guest blog at before your event. 

• Develop an online strategy. The power of the Internet has entirely changed the marketing game, and best of all, it’s practically free. Develop an online strategy. Start a blog. Form a group on Facebook. Tweet about it on Twitter. Build a website (my website, www.garrettpeck.com, costs about $15 a month). The power of social networking is exponential.

• Spell out if you plan to travel – what cities you will visit and what audiences you will address. What key media will you target to drive an audience to your talk? And don't discount giving talks in people's living rooms, such as book clubs: book sales are often higher at events like these than at bookstores, and they are set in a more intimate forum. 

It is a common misconception that publishers send authors on book tours. The reality is, they don’t. It is you, the author, who will send yourself on a book tour, and likewise you who will front the travel costs. Start saving your money if you want to travel.

But do you need a book tour? No, probably not (watch for a future blog post about book tours). There are a ton of things that you can do to promote your book from your desktop and your hometown.

Wherever you go, find organizations that you can partner with. You'll get a much better audience, as organizations - whether a historical society or independent bookstore - have their own database of customers and members. And the more people that come to your talk, the more books you are likely to sell.  

Unless you’re a public figure – and 99 percent of us are not – you can’t count on mass media to draw attention to your book. You have to do it with bottom–up marketing, using the power of word-of-mouth to your advantage. People are far more likely to buy something that they heard from a trusted source, rather than an advertisement or book review. And this is where social media becomes crucial for us lesser-known writers. I’ll cover social networking in greater detail in a future post. Facebook and Twitter are powerful marketing tools, such that I call Facebook the “poor person’s publicist.”

  

A final point about marketing your book. Promoting your work after publication is exhausting. It will feel like a full-time job. But if you don’t promote, then your book won’t sell. So get ready to work hard, harder than you can ever possibly imagine. It’s a tough world out there, and consumers are stingy about buying books. You may feel like you’re selling one book at a time – and you may be right.

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com

The Proposal

Whether approaching an agent or a publisher, always start off with a one-page query letter or e-mail (most people prefer the latter). This is your “elevator pitch.” If they respond positively, you will need a formal proposal, an instrumental document to sell the book idea. This consists of:

• Overview that summarizes the book, explaining the key ideas and themes, the market (who will buy it?), and why you are the one to write it (10 to 20 pages). Use your best writing – these pages should sing! 

• Chapter outline and description (1 or 2 paragraphs per chapter). Think of fun chapter titles and compelling summaries. And remember that these don’t need to be set in stone: you’re always free to change titles, consolidate chapters or add new ones. The publisher just wants to get a sense of the book’s structure. 

• Manuscript specifications explain the expected length of the book (word count – not page count), any illustrations, and how far you are along in writing it. 

• The competition. An essay on competing books, usually one paragraph per book, demonstrates who else has published in the field. Pick up to 15 books. An introductory paragraph should explain the uniqueness of your book, why there is nothing quite like it. You don't need to knock the other books, only show that you're aware of them. 

• The audience. Who will buy your book? Be specific – publishers need to know that there is an audience of book-buyers for your book. Is it NPR listeners? People who like to shop at farmers markets and cook? Women on a diet? 

• Marketing plan – the more detail the better. Throw the kitchen sink into this. 

• Author bio, highlighting your qualifications/platform for writing the book, and bibliography if you’ve published before. Got any awards or given talks that are on YouTube? Include them here. You can write this in the first person (I) or third person (he/she). 

• Sample chapter(s) from the book. Anywhere from one to three chapters: usually the opening chapter and another chapter that demonstrates your style.  

  

A few recommended books that can help you build proposals include Susan Rabiner & Alfred Fortunato, Thinking Like Your Editor, and Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published.

The way nonfiction works is that you write a proposal (including a sample chapter), you sell it to a publisher, and then you write the rest of the book. You don’t need to write the entire book to sell it, just a small part of it. The sample chapter demonstrates your writing style. Fiction is different: you have to write the entire book first before selling it.

You will need a proposal regardless of the type of publisher you approach. In these trying days for publishing, put a special emphasis on developing the marketing plan. This demonstrates that your book is commercially viable, and that you have a plan to reach consumers who will then buy it. We’ll covering marketing in greater detail next week.

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com

The Role of Literary Agents

The Role of Literary Agents

Literary agents exist to sell book proposals to large publishers, specifically the “Six Sisters,” the six big publishing houses in New York. There are several thousand literary agents in the United States. The agent’s role is to be your salesperson. You sign a contract, and the agent then uses their contacts with editors to sell the book. Agents are filters: they weed out books that have little market potential and bring those that do to the publishing industry’s attention. Agents reject 99 percent of what comes over the transom. 

For their work, an agent will take a 15 percent commission on your book advance and subsequent royalties (and 20 percent for foreign rights), and any other publications he or she negotiates on your behalf, such as placing a book excerpt with a magazine. When you get paid, the publisher mails the check to the agent, who deducts their 15 percent (minus expenses), then forwards the rest to you. By the way, major publishing houses tend to pay royalties twice per year. 

Fifteen percent might sound like a lot, but the agent is incented to get the best deal for both of you. Remember, they won’t earn a penny unless they sell the book. They know what a book is worth and will fight to get the best possible terms. It’s in their financial interest – and it’s in yours as well, since the agent can negotiate a better deal than you can on your own. After all, what’s 15 percent of zero? That’s right – zero. 

Agents know the publishers and editors, and who is most likely to buy a manuscript. We writers haven’t a clue – we’re not sales people. A first-time writer has no chance – none – to get in with a major publishing house directly. They only work with agents. Period.

However, you don’t need an agent to approach an independent or university press – you can approach those directly yourself. 

How do you find a literary agent? You’ll want an agent registered with the Association of Authors’ Representatives. The AAR is a very reputable listing of agents who agree to a set of guidelines, such as not charging writers a reading fee (if anyone tries to solicit funds for reading your work, run – do not walk – for the door). Note that many agents have specific genres that they prefer to represent. A complete listing of AAR agents can be found at www.aar-online.org.

Always start off your query with a one-page query letter or e-mail. It should include a “hook” – an introductory statement that rivets the reader, a brief description of the book idea and the market, and a paragraph on your bio that helps explain why YOU are the one to write this book. This is your “elevator pitch.” If they respond positively, you will need a formal proposal. We’ll cover proposals next week.

Literary agents often prefer working with people they already know, which is why referrals are so important. Many agents will simply respond, “Sorry, we’re not taking new clients at this time.” They want to work with people that have already been successful: it increases the likelihood of your book selling. But how can you be successful without an agent? It’s a Catch–22. 

Here’s a helpful hint: If you’re a first-time writer, look beyond New York City for an agent. Unless you’re a major public figure, you will have a difficult time attracting attention from anyone in the hyper-competitive New York publishing world – they go after the big fish (to wit: one New York agent liked my work, but rejected the book proposal for my first book, The Prohibition Hangover, because I didn’t write the wine column for a major U.S. newspaper). Agents outside of NYC may be more willing to consider your potential.

Having an agent dramatically improves your odds of being published, but it’s still no guarantee. Remember Miles in the movie Sideways? He was an author who drank from the spit bucket at a winery right after his agent told him that a publisher had rejected his novel. Miles realized he wasn’t going to be published. I had a Sideways moment of my own, which I’ll tell you about one day.

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com 

Publishers

Today’s post is a bit longer, but we’re covering the numerous types of publishers, and this needs more explanation than sound bites. There is no one-size-fits-all publisher: every publisher is different and focuses on the market that best suits them. Essentially there are major four types of publishers that can bring your book to market:

1. Large publishers, approached through a literary agent
2. University and independent (small) presses
3. Self-publishing
4. Subsidy publishing

Large Publishers

If your book has a national audience, and you want a publisher that will throw some marketing muscle behind it, you’ll need a large publisher – and a literary agent. The “Six Sisters” who dominate commercial publishing in the U.S. (Hachette, HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster – and their hundreds of imprints) only work with agents.

Even Amazon is getting in the game. Amazon Publishing now contracts directly with major writers, leaving out the middle man (note this isn’t the same as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, its self-publishing offering). It has landed some high profile contracts, such as actor James Franco.  

An advantage of large publishers is that they have large marketing departments and can provide assistance with your promotions plan. It’s still incumbent on writers to promote your own work – the publisher by and large won’t do this for you – but at least they’ll offer help and sometimes even financial assistance with setting up a book tour.

Of course, if you’re a public figure who won a multimillion dollar advance, the publisher has paid so much money in acquiring the book that they simply have to make the book work financially – hence they’ll throw even more dollars into promoting it. Thus, as they say, the rich get richer. But for most of us, it’s incumbent upon the author to take the initiative to promote the book. This applies to all publishers, regardless of size.

University and Independent Presses

If your book is a local or niche work rather than targeted at a national audience, you can go directly to an independent publisher or a university press, such as Harvard, Oxford, or Yale University Press. You don’t need an agent, and many universities have acquisitions departments for trade publications. Find the publisher’s website, look up Authors, Acquisitions, or the Contact Us feature, and there you’ll find instructions on how to submit your book proposal (usually called “Submission Guidelines”). Unlike large publishers, independents are very accessible to you and me. My first book, The Prohibition Hangover, was published by Rutgers University Press.

University presses fill a large niche in the publishing market: academically-oriented books that seek a wider audience. They’re aren’t exclusively academic – in fact, many of them have turned towards more lucrative trade publishing. This is a business-side of a university, and they need to sell books in order to keep publishing.

But remember that most university press-published books sell fewer than 1,000 copies. These presses still have a vital function: to help their professors reach tenure by publishing their books (even if those books don’t have a particularly large audience).

On the other hand, my favorite novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, is published by Louisiana State University Press. And I have often wondered, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s direct hit on New Orleans, why Hollywood hasn’t made this into a movie. (Wouldn’t Sarah Silverman, @SarahKSilverman on Twitter, make a fabulous Myrna Minkoff?) I asked the press’s director about this, and she told me that Paramount optioned the book the years ago, but still hasn’t turned it into a movie.

The downside of university presses is that they tend to be slow – you may wait two or three months to hear back from them. Many presses only publish a few dozen titles a year, so your book’s topic really has to fit in with their publishing program. Many university presses focus on particular areas, so be sure to research this carefully. Most don’t have deep pockets, so they will do little advertising and promotion for your book beyond getting it published and distributed. Count on paying, planning and publicizing any promotions yourself.

Independent Publishers

Indies can also be quite helpful and they are very approachable. There are thousands of these small presses across the country. Start by noting the names of publishers whenever you read a book review, and you’ll see a lot of them are small presses. Counterpoint is a good example of a nonfiction trade press. I’ve published two books through The History Press: Prohibition in Washington, D.C., and The Potomac River.

Independents and university presses tend to be skimpy on advances (four-figures if you’re lucky – and often nothing at all), but if you write a book that appeals to many readers, you can make up for this with royalties from book sales. The royalty rate is the same as for large publishers mentioned above, but in this case, you’ll probably have no agent, so be sure to negotiate it.

Small presses are more likely to give you attention throughout the publication process. They publish fewer books, and never bid on blockbusters, so they have more time to focus on your book. You’ll have an editor who will actually edit your work, a sales team that may spend more time getting your book onto shelves, and a publicity team that is actively involved in helping your promotional efforts. You don’t have to compete with the big blockbuster that commands much of a large publisher’s attention.

A fairly long list of small presses can be found on the AgentQuery website. Just remember that indie and university presses often specialize in particular subjects, so tailor your campaign to those that publish in your area.

Self-Publishing

Self–publishing is for books that fill a small niche and often aren’t commercially viable (like a collection of family photographs or poetry), yet the author has a passion and drive to produce something. Walt Whitman self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. The band Radiohead released its 2007 album In Rainbows independently, offering fans to pay-what-you-wish to download it. They bypassed the record labels, and in-effect, self–published. (They also didn’t try that experiment again, as many people downloaded the album without paying anything.)

The cost of self-published books has fallen dramatically thanks to the Internet: firms like AuthorHouse, Blurb, CreateSpace from Amazon.com, iUniverse and Lulu allow individual copies to be printed and shipped. This is called print-on-demand. Self-publishing can also be a steppingstone to finding a publisher – when they see your dedication and success, they’ll realize your book actually does have market value, and will be more willing to publish it. I used Lulu to test market The Prohibition Hangover among alcohol industry trade representatives, giving me valuable feedback about the book.

More recently, Amazon has launched Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for authors to self-publish electronic books, and Barnes & Noble offers PubIt!. This has enabled the number of self-published titles to explode, as publishing is now within reach of everyone.

But before you self-publish, enlist your friends to help design your book and edit the text. Think of a compelling title. Design a beautiful cover. No one wants to buy a “tombstone” (a blank white cover with just the title). You can download inexpensive images to use on your cover on Corbis Images, Getty Images, iStockPhoto.com and Shutterstock.com.

On the downside, self–published titles usually don’t make it into public libraries, and they’re never reviewed by newspapers or periodicals. Only publisher-published books make it into the New York Time’s book review section – and reviews are a significant way to raise awareness of your book. Because of the proliferation of print-on-demand books and lack of marketing, most of these books sell few copies – often just to the author’s familiy, friends and social network.

The New York Times provided a good overview about self-publishing. Note the eye-raising figure on the second page: most books sell fewer than 150 copies. Success is possible, as The Washington Post pointed out with Stephanie McAfee’s Diary of a Mad Fat Girl, which was such a successful self-published book that it attracted mainstream publishers.

Garrett’s Rule:

If you think you’ll sell fewer than 1,000 copies of a book, or only have a short essay you want to publish, then self-publishing is the way to go. But if you think you can sell more than 1,000 copies, by all means find a publisher. The end-product will be much better and professionally produced.

Subsidy Publishing

Also known as vanity or vantage publishing, think of this as a last resort (although in this era of self-publishing, I’d call it a no resort). You pay a fee or subsidy to the publisher, and they publish your book professionally. The advantage is that they can get your book into the distribution system; on the downside, you front the capital costs. This can be thousands of dollars, and you may have nothing left over to promote the book (some subsidy presses like BookPros offer a promotion plan, but most don’t). And forget about asking for an advance – you pay them, rather than they pay you.

If you’re a starving artist or a student, don’t even think about subsidy publishing. You need some serious coin to entertain this idea. At least with a traditional publisher, they share the risk with you by fronting the publishing costs, while you do the heavy lifting for the marketing and promotion. Subsidy publishing, on the other hand, puts the entire financial burden on you, the author.

So seriously think thrice before jumping in bed with a subsidy publisher. You could be putting your financial health at risk. You’re probably better off self-publishing, which costs a whole lot less.

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com

Is Publishing Still Relevant?

Publishing your first book can be a laborious, lonely and long task that can take years  before you finally see your work in print. Publishing has become a difficult and frustrating task, as publishers are becoming increasingly selective. But publishing can also be like throwing spaghetti at a wall: keep at it long enough and eventually something will stick. I learned many lessons in publishing three books, and want to share these with first-time authors as you bring your own books to market.

First off, here’s a hard lesson you need to understand: In a free market economy, art is only viable if it’s commercial. You may have the best idea in the world, but if no one will buy it – if it won’t sell – then why should you bother writing it? Michael Larsen wrote in How to Get a Literary Agent (2006), “You are free to write whatever you wish. But to be a successful author, you have to write what people want to read.”

The sad fact is that Americans are reading fewer books. We have so many more competing options now: Facebook and Twitter, the Internet, magazines, movies, hundreds of cable television channels, and video games. People have so little time that it’s difficult to get anyone to sit down to read 300 pages of text. Why do you think magazine articles are getting shorter? Extensive exposés like you see in the New Yorker are rare. Readers just don’t have the time for lengthy content. More people want things in 140 characters…or fewer.

Yet good books that interest readers and have a targeted audience keep selling. Who says books don’t matter? A book can still set the world on fire! Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation (2001) changed our awareness of how Americans are eating – and fast food restaurants responded by offering healthier choices. Elaine Pagels of Princeton University has contributed immensely to biblical scholarship, making the early Christian church and its many gospels accessible to general readers with The Origin of Satan and The Gnostic Gospels. 

Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) gave intellectual and moral strength to the budding urban renaissance movement, which in turn blocked Robert Moses from building an elevated expressway through the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The Village is a vibrant urban neighborhood to this day because it was preserved. 

Despite the Great Recession, which fundamentally and, I believe, permanently changed the way many Americans read from print to digital, books continue to sell. Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs (2011) was a huge hit. Everything Malcolm Gladwell touches seems to turn to gold. Yet those enormous blockbusters are becoming fewer and fewer. There are an explosion of titles coming to market thanks to self-publishing, and the idea of a mass market is withering.

We’ve entered into an era of niche publications. Chris Anderson wrote in The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More (2006), “The era of one-size-fits-all is ending, and in its place is something new, a market of multitudes. Increasingly, the mass market is turning into a mass of niches.” Most books are now part of the “long tail,” and fewer reach bestseller status (however you define bestseller). Most of us have to set our expectations realistically: our books will only sell a few thousand copies if we’re lucky, and only by targeting our specific market, our followers and our social networks.

So yes, books are absolutely still relevant. People are still buying and reading books, and reports of the book’s death are greatly exaggerated. But authors have to approach publishing with realism, rather than grand dreams of New York Times book reviews, huge royalty checks, and a house in the Hamptons. It’s a new world out there.

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com