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JD WRITES
JD WRITES
I had a grand old time at the CMJ Conference in NYC
earlier this month. Getting a chance to meet other folks in the
publishing world is always fun, and always inspiring. Particularly
inspiring were guest speakers, self-publishers and promoters extraordinaire,
Fern Reiss, MJ
Rose and Doug Clegg. All three offer products to help other self
publishers spread the word about their books.
It is always fun speaking about Print On-Demand and
the new publishing opportunities for authors. I've spoken to so many
authors now that it is always a surprise when I get a question I haven't
been asked before. It happened this time when someone asked me if POD
printers were willing to work with design program source files instead
of having a PDF workflow. That was a new one. (Answer: sometimes. Most
prefer working with PDFs). Not something you have to worry about if you
choose a POD service company, though, because they handle all the
technical details for you.
This issue sees the start of a new series: Selling
Without The Book - A Marketing Guide for Print On-Demand and e-Published
Authors. Most book-marketing resources focus on the traditional
self-publisher who has a garage full of $2 books and can afford to give
books away. Most of this advice is useless to a print on-demand or
e-published authors, neither of whom has that garage full of books. That
doesn't mean they can't find inexpensive ways to promote, though. This
week's focus: giveaways.
Please do pass on this newsletter to anyone you know
who is writing and thinking about their publishing options. The more
information they have, the more bargaining power they have!
Keep writing!
Julie
PS Don't forget to buy
the book!
****
NEW THIS WEEK
Selling
Without The Book
A Marketing Guide for
POD and e-Published Authors
Authors who hope to
help promote their books are always referred to a few excellent
book-marketing books: John Kremer’s 1001 Ways to Market Your Book,
Marilyn & Tom Ross’s Jump Start Your Book Sales and Dan
Poynter’s The Self-Publishing Manual, to name a few. These books are full of tried and true marketing methods to
help you spread the word about your book.
But these books do
not help much if you are an e-published or print on-demand authors,
since many of their methods rely on the author having access to a large
number of cheap copies of their book to give away. The relatively high
unit cost of print on-demand books and the lack of a physical book for
e-publishers, make traditional promotional tactics redundant. So
what’s a 21st Century Publisher to do? This series of articles will help answer that question.
Part I: Giveaways
Giving away a fully
bound book is expensive. Publishers have long relied on other, cheaper
giveaways to raise awareness of their books, and you can do the same.
Think of your book as
a product and your cover as the logo. Put that cover image everywhere.
Print it, in full-color, on postcards, bookmarks, bookplates, business
cards, letterhead, flyers…every piece of correspondence you send
should have your book’s cover image plastered on it somewhere (the
exception to this is email. It is bad netiquette to send images via
email. It clogs up people’s inboxes and may not display properly at
the other end).
Postcards are a
particularly versatile marketing format. Print the book cover on one
side in full color, and a little information about the book on the back,
in black ink to save money (when ordering from a printer, this is
referred to 4/1, or “four over one” printing. Four color on one
side, one color on the other). On the left hand side of the reverse,
print the book’s title, the author name, the ISBN, the price and where
the book can be ordered. If it is available at various online stores,
say so. If it is available (even via special order) at all bookstores,
say so. If you have a website dedicated to the book, especially if it is
one where the reader can order the book, list it.
Leave the right side of the card’s back blank for addresses,
and leave some space on the left for a personalized or timely message.
If you live in the
US, trim postcards to 3” x 5” so that you can mail them at the
cheaper postcard rate (currently 21 cents). 4” x
6” cards are pretty and have room for lots of information, but
will cost you an extra 16 cents to mail. That adds up. Other countries
have their own postal restrictions. It pays to talk to the Post Office
before designing mailing pieces. A simple inch one way or another could
save you a lot of money in the long run.
Postcards can be used
as inexpensive mailers, to let people know about upcoming appearances
and events. They can also be left at the counter in bookstores, and all
kinds of other local stores. Playing up the local angle often allows you
to leave these little advertisements in all kinds of places you
wouldn’t normally have an excuse to put them (would
your hairdresser allow you to leave a stack next to her register? How
about the owners of local craft galleries, cafes, tax accountants,
convenience stores?).
Likewise, bookmarks
are a great investment, and cheaper than postcards. You can’t use them
as mailers, but you can easily put a color picture of your book’s
cover along with the book information on one side of a bookmark, saving
on printing costs. If you design the bookmarks to be 2” x 8” you can
easily fit 5 on a standard sheet of card and take them to a local copy
shop to be duplicated and trimmed. Better yet, talk to a printer and see
what price they can offer you for larger quantities (and better quality
printing).
Business cards are
another great, portable option. A business card is just large enough for
a copy of your cover on one side (hopefully the font you choose for your
title is still clear enough to read at this size), and book information
on the other side. Again, have them printed color on one side, black and
white on the other, to save money. The advantage of business cards is
that you can carry them in your wallet and that everyone is used to
exchanging these little identity kits. If you think people are impressed
when you tell them you have written a book, wait until you see how
pleased they are when you give them a card to remember it by.
The next stage of
evolution for the business card is the CD-Rom Business card. You’ve
seen these little cuties, CD-Roms that are the size and shape of a
business card but fit in the inner tray of the CD drive of a computer.
They hold about 5 MB of information – almost five times the
information you could fit on a floppy disk. You can do incredibly fancy
things with these (especially if you have a good friend who happens to
be a genius with Flash animation), but it doesn’t have to be that
complicated. Most computers now will open a web page (an HTML file)
easily, no matter whether they are running Windows, Mac OS or Linux. You
can use a single HTML page to provide links to other files on the CD-Rom
– which prevents the reader from having to hunt for the files. If you
want to get a little fancy, you can include a couple of simple files to
ensure that the CD-Rom starts to play automatically as soon as it is put
in the tray (free
software here).
CD-Rom Business Cards
can contain graphics, excerpts, live links to online bookstores, forms
to let readers join a mailing list, even a short recording of you
reading from the book. You’ve got 5MB of storage to play with, go
wild. Or, if you have even more to share, burn a full CD-Rom (640MB!).
Creating a CD-Rom
business card is a little more expensive than creating a normal business
card but can be great for getting people interested in your book. The
CD-Roms themselves cost from $10-15 for 25 and most come with clear
vinyl sleeves. You will still need to buy printer labels, to label the
CDs and you will probably want to do that with a color representation of
your cover.
If you prefer, you
can print up short excerpts of the book and bind them (with a single
staple) between sheets of cover stock. Keep the page count low or you
may find you’re paying as much for your excerpts as you would for a
at-cost copy of the book. Make sure you use a quality printer (laser jet
for the text, please), include the cover graphic and that all-important
information about where to buy the book. The excerpt need not be the
first chapter of the book. Include an introductory paragraph then plunge
in to a moment of high drama, character development or suspense,
finishing before the scene resolves. Leave ’em wanting more.
If you are working on
a series and want to build an audience of repeat customers, it might be
worth your while to get hold of a catalog of promotional products. You
can have pens, pencils, key chains, mouse pads, all kinds of supplies
printed for pennies apiece. Remember, these don’t tell people much
about your product though. They are only useful if you are building a
brand.
Once you start
thinking along these lines, more and more inexpensive giveaway ideas
will start to come to you.
Next Time: How To Give Away Your
Giveaways.
****
Q&A - Is POD
For Me?
This
week James writes:
Hello,
Great Print On-Demand info! I had
my first book published in 1997 that is no longer in print. Can I offer
2nd edition with appropriate updates to information through a print
on-demand company?
James
Hi
James,
Absolutely! As long as the rights reverted to you when it went out of
print, you can go ahead and make it available via one of the POD
companies. It's a great option for an educator like you, since you can
have students order directly from the POD company or an online
bookstore, and only as many copies as are needed are printed.
If you have the original manuscript on your computer that will make
it easier (no re-typing!). Just make your edits and submit.
There is a section in my
e-book about the issues to consider when reissuing a book
(copyrights, copyrighted art and design work, scanning, OCR, book size
etc.) that you may find helpful.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Julie
***
NEWS & UPDATES
http://www.julieduffy.com/writing/updates.htm
Booker Remains Commonwealth prize
18 November 2002
The Man Booker Prize attracted some controversy this
year over discussions about opening the prize to writers from outside
the British Commonwealth. Organizers have now decided to stay with the
traditional format. Sorry, America!
NWU Surveys Authors On Publishers
11 November 2002
Publishers' Weekly reports the results of a National
Writers' Union survey of around 80 published authors. According to PW,
the authors felt that publishers are 'publishing too many books', and
that publishing houses as a result may lose their historic mission.
Funny, most unpublished authors feel that publisher publish too few
books -- by unknown authors, that is!
Other complaints included too many editors leaving
before projects were complete, and lack of appropriate promotion -- this
latter coming from authors at small and mid-sized houses.
more:
PW
Article
Adult Trade Book Sales Down
8 November 2002
If you had trouble
shifting your book in September, you're not alone. Industry figures say
Adult Trade Book sales were down 17% from last year for hardbacks, down
11% for mass market paperbacks, and up a teeny 2.4% for trade
paperbacks.
Mixed Conditions Reported in the
Publishing Industry
30 October 2002
Variety columnist Jonathon Bing writes
about the mixed fortunes of young writers embraced by the publishing
industry; and about the industry's perception of itself in relation to
the economy.
more:
Variety
article
RESOURCES
http://www.julieduffy.com/writing/resources.htm
The Resource section is still growing and now
includes...
PlotMonkey
Want to write but not sure what to write
about? Have some fun with PlotMonkey. No, it's not a real monkey, but a
piece of software that will generate random story elements that in turn
generate ideas for you. Tell the monkey to mix and match from 'who',
'what', 'where', 'why', 'when', and 'how' and make that blank page less
terrifying. $14.95.
Fish
Short Story Prize
Prestigious annual short story prize,
supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Cork County Council. Open
to works in English. Prize is €1,500 (that's $1,200 US or £1,000 UK).
This prize was established in 1995 and has been judged by literary
luminaries like Roddy Doyle and Frank McCourt. Up to 18 authors are
published every year in the prize's anthology. Deadline Nov 30,
annually. How
To Enter.
Buzz
Your Book
The irrepressible MJ Rose and Doug Clegg
share promotional tips on how to create buzz for your book. Download the
free e-book, which is full of ideas to get your brain buzzing, then
consider taking
the course. For $330 you get personal tuition from Rose and Clegg.
They send you an exercise a week for six weeks then go over your
answers, to create and refine your marketing plan. Very good value for
personal coaching from two enthusiastic 'Buzzers'. Tell 'em Julie sent
you.
BooksandAuthors.net
This site offers another
portal for readers to find information about authors and books. The site
charges authors/publishers a one-time fee of $250 to be listed - which
includes an author interview, book review, book summary, author photo
and bio. They will also send out a press release to around 1000 media
contacts who have all, I am reassured, opted in to BooksandAuthor.net's
mailing list (meaning the press release stands a chance of NOT being
immediately deleted!). Currently (Oct 2002) the site generates 4000
unique visits monthly. The owners actively promote the site in the media
and recently uploaded an interview with Stephen King, which is
generating more media buzz.
and more...
http://julieduffy.com/writing/resources.htm
ABOUT JDWRITE
JDWrite is the online home of writer, journalist and former Xlibris
Director of Author Services, Julie McCarroll Duffy. Julie is the author
of 21st Century
Publishing: An Author's Introduction To Print On-Demand Book Publishing
and has expert
knowledge of the new world of publishing: Print On-Demand,
self-publishing, online publishing, eBooks, the evolving publishing
industry and more. Her articles have been published in Writer's
Digest, Writers' Journal, Inscriptions Magazine, Writing-World.com
and many other publications. She has been a speaker at writers'
conferences around the US and seeks to continue to educate authors to
understand their ever-increasing opportunities in the publishing world.
Julie continues work on her series of e-books about Print On-Demand
Publishing.
All content copyright 2002 Julie Duffy.
For permission to reprint articles,
contact the editor at jd@jdwrite.com.
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