Most of the people on this site are either bloggers, writers, or both. I thought you all might find this Washington Post article interesting: Novice Authors Must Promote Themselves, Since Publishers Won’t. Here’s a paragraph and a half from the article:
She cobbled together a trailer for her book on her home computer, using iMovie software, downloading a free tune off the Web for background music, and stuck it on her Web site. Her agent helped get her on one network television morning show. About 20 friends hosted book parties, which she hit on a self-funded three-week blitz, selling books out of the trunk of her car. A guy shot video of her reading an essay at one of these parties, and she posted it on YouTube when the paperback came out.
A year later, the book has sold about 80,000 copies in hardcover and another 260,000 in paperback, according to Nielsen BookScan data. It sat on the New York Times bestseller list for 20 weeks, peaking at No. 2.
I think that this is what the world will look like in the future. Everything–the web, the publishing industry, the public consciousness–is crowded. People need to do what they can to stand out. Everyone needs a brand. It’s unfortunate that writers, who are used to solitude, have to become entrepreneurs, but on the other hand, the decentralization of power will allow more voices to be heard. Strategic web promotion could bring attention to those who have historically not had access to power within the publishing industry.
I’m going to have to check out these “trailers.” I had no idea people were even doing this.
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Writers have had to self-promote for a very long time, probably even before my time. Self promotion is so much easier, though, with the web because it is free. If your material is good, then if anything, you’re paid to market your books.
The way I do it is write good articles, get paid for the articles, have the articles reference your blog and books at the end in the “About the Author” section. This way reader see you as an authority and become fans of your work. This works for me, and I don’t ever have to attend book signings or sell books out of my garage.
Thanks, Alpha!
I think I would hate the pressure of having to sell books, but I would love getting a chance to meet fans in person. I would love the opportunity to stand in front of people and see readers face to face. I think this is a millenium feeling–I’m so often disconnected from people that I just want to get out.
Or maybe it’s a repressed Asian male thing.
Haha.
Yeah, this is typical of what the “publishing” industry has degenerated into the last 20 years. As big multinationals like Viacom and NewsCorp –among MANY others– swallow the print outlets whole they bring their Wall Street mentality with them; dump the costs of promotion and advertising on the very same poor schlubb who presented you with the manuscript in the first place, and that way the only cost the publisher will have is the print run itself.
And of course the writer has to listen to the publisher make all sorts of changes to their manuscript, that they are going to be forced to cover the costs of.
The people running/ruining publishing today don’t come from a print background. They’re MBA’s from this or that university who specialise in cost-cutting, not book selling.
This is the reason why the moron who ran AT&T into the ground got tapped to run GM. What the hell does that jackass know about making or selling cars?
Not a damn thing. This is why America is becoming a fallen land.
Okay, mini-rant over.
Personally,I think authors promoting themselves on the web is a cool idea. Publishers demand so many things from writers and most of the time have the least understanding of the material. Writers should take the reigns, especially since the publishers are now throwing more and more of the costs off on the writers.
And self-promoting is not merely selling books, it’s also building your “brand” as an author.
I don’t think anyone has yet figured out the “formula” for how to promote books yourself as opposed to say Facebook or something.
I mean Dane Cook built his following on MySpace. And then when he’s ready to make a new album he alerts the half a million “friends” on his friends-list. Downside; he had to bear all the costs himself and doing all the work meant it took 5 times as long to do.
Upside: doing 100% of the work means he got 100% of the profits. Fair trade.
It says more about the sorry state of publishing in the 21st century than anything else. Editors and typesetters have been replaced by bean counters and money men.
The result is that the last bastion of intelligent mass media has become gradually dumbed-down and is now slitting it’s own throat.
You know authors like Vince Flynn and Matthew Reilly broke into the writing game by self-publishing. Before it’s all over it will revert back to that. Truth be told, as bad as the publishing industry’s offerings have been the last 10 years (come on, is Eragon and Twlight really the best the publishing world has to offer?) with tween fare and chick-lit having bastardized the field, perhaps breaking the mold is in order.
We need more competition, built from the ground up. Coming to grips with the fact that writers will have do more if not all the work themselves is simply the growing pains of accepting this new reality.
Yeah that has never made sense to me. Why do I have to split the profits with the publishing company when I’m doing all the work writing AND marketing. Plus I’ve got to deal with an editor who wants to sanitize my work and make it look like everybody elses’?
I’d rather keep all of my profits and build my brand slowly. Personally I don’t find marketing to be a lot of work, because a little bit done everyday will produce results. It’s kind of pushing a boulder off the top of a hill: pushing it and getting it to move is initially hard. But once you start it rolling, you don’t have to push any more. Once you’ve set things rolling, then readers come to you.
I think there are only two reasons to go with a publishing company, one of which is more important than the other.
1. Editing: You don’t have to pay for an editor, and they’ll edit it to make sure that everything looks good. Of course, you could always hire an editor, so there are ways around this one. As James mentions, it’s not always the best thing though, since they’ll make your book look like everyone else’s. If you’re an Asian American novelist, they might even turn all the male heroes into White guys.
2. Marketing: This is everything else, and this is by far the most significant reason to go with a publishing company. With a big publishing house behind you, you’re more likely to get reviewed by big media companies, you’re more likely to be in the big two chains that control the industry (Borders and Barnes and Noble–Amazon is the other player, but it’s not too hard to get onto that), and they’ll probably put your book on their big website, which gets lots of hits (you’ll notice that the keyword in all of this is “big”).
Distribution is really the one significant reason to go with a big company. And it is pretty big. That network of power relationships is just hard to tap without the name brand behind you.
But it’s great that there are now other routes. At least everyone can know that it’s possible for them to write their books and publish. If it’s not exactly democracy, at least it comes a bit closer.