Tag Archives: marketing

Lessons in Bestsellerification (via @ian_sales)

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Ian Sales has a quick look at the top 10 Science Fiction list on Amazon:

So what does this tell us? That most sf sold on Amazon these days is sold via Kindle. That self-published sf is out-selling sf from major imprints on Amazon. That the best way to build a platform for a self-publish [sic] sf novel is to serialise it on your website.

 

Aside from the last point, all of the above seem to run counter to what is actually the case.

Ian has a look at other bestseller lists and draws some comparisons, leaving us with:

So if there’s a conclusion to be drawn from all this, I’m not entirely sure what it is. It seems self-evident that Amazon has “massaged” its figures… But to what end?

I found it amusing that Les Misérables is number 10 on the Amazon SF bestseller list. I don’t try to understand these things.

Read the rest here: http://iansales.com/2013/03/08/lessons-in-bestsellerification/

The Magic of Book Marketing (via @gretavdr)

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Greta van der Rol managed to spike her new book, ‘Morgan’s Return‘ into the sales charts at Amazon and she has no idea how:

The answer is simple: I haven’t a clue. As I said in the title, maybe it’s magic. Maybe a sprinkle of fairy dust landed on my shoulder, and caused Amazon to send out the ad at top left.

Helpfully though, she gives us a list of things she explicitly didn’t do (her detailed explanations follow in the link)

  1. I’ve written a ‘good book’
  2. I advertised.
  3. I participated in blog tours.
  4. I have a huge web presence.
  5. I bought reviews.
  6. I bash the book on Twitter.
  7. Kindle Select
  8. It’s a cheap read.

Greta also lists a few things she did do that might’ve helped her sales. Have a look, this stuff really is difficult to quantify, so any input you get could help.

Read it all here: http://gretavanderrol.net/2013/02/17/the-magic-of-book-marketing/

What Aren’t Bookstores Doing? (via @bookriot)

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Jenn Northington collected suggestions from the audience on the topic of what bookstores could be doing to improve their business. At a guess I would think that yesterday’s idea to charge customers to browse isn’t on the list.

Here are a few of the suggestions that stood out from me from what Jenn brought back from the panel at the Book^2 Camp ‘unconference’:

  • Mine your [bookstore] data in a non-creepy way, curate for individual customers based on past sales
  • Justify the higher cost of your books to customers, despite all the obstacles, by providing services (like above) that are just. not. possible to get from online retailers. [Tom: I have commented on this before: a bar charges more for alcohol that you could just buy cheaply from discount liquor stores, yet bars aren't going out of business; consider this]

There are many other suggestions, and it’s worth checking out the whole list: http://bookriot.com/2013/02/12/what-arent-bookstores-doing/

 

Harper-Collins CEO says paying for the privilege of bookstore browsing is not an insane concept (HT: @pnpbookseller)

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[SPOILER: It is an insane concept.]

I’ve filed this under humour because frankly it’s too ridiculous to take seriously.

However, this isn’t an article by The Onion, and it’s something the CEO of Harper-Collins said.

HarperCollins c.e.o. Victoria Barnsley has said the idea of the bookshop as a book club, charging for browsing, is “not that insane”, given the level of threat faced by the general bookshop.

I’m no bookseller, but if ‘the level of threat faced by the general bookshop’ is so severe, then putting a pay wall between the customer and the threatened shop isn’t ‘not that insane’. It is, in actual fact, utterly insane.

If someone at the top of a major publishing house is that out of touch with the concept of how shops work, one has to start wondering how out of touch with commercial reality they are in general? Let’s see what this visionary of modern publishing thinks about DRM:

Barnsley said there was a major debate within the industry over DRM, commenting: “If you don’t have it, the risk is that there’s a lot of sharing . . . [but] keeping it on allows retailers like Amazon to continue running their walled gardens which is not a good thing.”

No surprises there.

Let me correct her statement: if you don’t have it, it makes no difference, because every DRM’d eBook is already freely shared. DRM provides no barrier to even the casual computer user frustrated by it. The only thing DRM does is a) waste a publisher’s money b) treat customers as criminals c) allow companies to lock legal customers into their own ecosystems (at least she got that bit right).

Read it and weep: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/barnsley-bookshops-could-charge-browsing.html

You Have No Right To Make Money Anymore (HT: @rosepowell)

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Matthew Ingram from GigaOM describes how Seth Godin answered a recent interview question about writers trying to make money:

In a recent interview with Digital Book World, the writer and creator of the Domino Project [...] was asked about his advice that authors should give their books away for free and that they should worry more about spreading their message and building a fan base instead of focusing on how to monetize it right away. And how would he respond to writers concerned about their ability to make a living from their writing? Godin’s response:

Who said you have a right to cash money from writing? Poets don’t get paid (often), but there’s no poetry shortage. The future is going to be filled with amateurs, and the truly talented and persistent will make a great living. But the days of journeyman writers who make a good living by the word — over.

It’s hard to disagree with him. Writing has never been a particularly financially rewarding pursuit, much like any art form. There will always be outliers who become ridiculously wealthy, but having an expectation of becoming that famous author is counterproductive, in my opinion.

I don’t think books should just be given away for free – things that are free are perceived to have a certain value (ie. nothing) and I value my work a few cents more than that. However, that doesn’t mean books should never be given away for free. Getting a fan base with which you can connect as a creator is important, and giveaways are a part of getting new people exposed to your writing.

Mathew also talks about getting a perspective on your writing with regards to its quality:

[M]aybe those vampire books by Amanda Hocking or the detective novels from million-selling author John Locke aren’t as good as yours, but for hundreds of thousands of weekend readers they are probably good enough. Godin’s point isn’t that you can’t make money; it’s that you have to think differently about how to accomplish that task.

I always ask authors who are concerned about things that apparently make them lose money (piracy is a perennial favourite): ‘If you were guaranteed never to make a single cent from writing, would you stop?’

If you answer ‘yes’ then I think you probably shouldn’t be writing at all. If you answer ‘no’, I think you’re probably ready to think about how you will try to make some money out of your writing.

Read it here: http://gigaom.com/2012/03/06/godin-to-authors-you-have-no-right-to-make-money-any-more/

The Pitch Factor! (via @TomKerevan)

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Tom Kerevan won the Pitch Factor at the recent London Screenwriters Festival.

I’m not a submissions receiving person, but listening to excited authors trying to pitch their ideas to me sounds like a special kind of hell. If this article can make it easier for editors and agents to get through life, I consider my work done:

For those of you [who] aren’t familiar, The Pitch Factor is one of the Festival’s highlights. It consists of a stage, 7 high-profile judges, an audience of around 200 writers, 90 seconds and a microphone. Prizes are awarded for Best Pitch and Best Idea. Last year I won with Wreckers and so I knew I had to pull something special out the bag. I pitched my TV comedy Insiders (in development with co-writer Alex Lawrence) and was lucky enough to be voted for Best Pitch by the judges.

Wait, what – he won two years in a row? Tom goes over some of his tips for pitching. Obviously this relates specifically to screen writing, but there may be some useful information for short story or novel pitching in here for you; perhaps it will help you write a better synopsis.

Tom focuses on these points:

1. Your pitch is a script

[insightful stuff]

2. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

[more insightful stuff]

3. Tell the story of the story

In other words, don’t just tell the story! Tell us about the story. I don’t want to get too technical because each pitch is different, but I tend to structure my pitches into 3 sections, 3 acts if you like. You obviously need to open with a hello, a smile, your name, TV/feature, genre and title. Then dive into…

Listening to someone called Tom giving you advice is a good skill to learn. Just sayin’.

Read the details of each of his steps here: http://www.tomkerevan.com/blog/read_65157/lswf-special-the-pitch-factor.html

Paid reviews hurt everyone, except those being paid (via @alanbaxter)

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Alan Baxter has a little thing to say about the practice of paying someone to write an amazing review for your book:

It basically boils down to predatory fuckwits offering to write glowing reviews of any book (which they won’t bother to read) in exchange for cashmoney. Idiot authors jump on the bandwagon and buy those reviews in a desperate attempt to get their work noticed.

Alan describes this process, including reporting a whole slew of lovely euphemisms which attempt to obscure the smell of this practice, such as ‘artificially embellished reviews’.

Granted, Alan does go on to tease out some of the nuances:

Here’s the thing, as far as I’m concerned. Paying for a review is not necessarily a bad thing. We all want to get noticed. We all want our work to fall before the eyes of more readers and reviews definitely help that. I’m always going on about reviewing. If you read something, review it! Two lines and a star rating at Amazon and Goodreads can make a massive difference. People are really busy and everyone needs to make a buck, so someone charging money for reviews is not neecessarily (sic) a bad thing. I’ve said that twice now in this paragraph and there’s one very important word that I’ve deliberately left out. That word is “good”. Paying for good reviews sucks Satan’s rancid balls, because you’re corrupting the system and devaluing the work of everyone. Paying someone to read your book and honestly review it, however, is fine. That’s a very important distinction.

Do read it, Alan is always entertaining: http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/paid-reviews-hurt-paid/

Sockpuppetry By Novelists – Not As Cute As You Think (via @KernelMag)

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Sockpuppetry is the practise of creating a bunch of fake accounts to, generally, promote your own work through glowing reviews and the like:

Why do some authors think they can get away with sockpuppeting? Sure, you could probably have got away with it five years ago. But the public is so much more tech savvy now. They can see right through bullshit – and discover it, too. IP addresses are easily traceable and, granted you have basic computing knowledge, you can pretty much find out who wrote a review and how many accounts are linked back to the same location.

Margot Huysman looks into various scandals of recent times, noting:

It turns out that Mr Duns has just exposed another offender. Here’s a word of warning, before we continue: if ever you thought the tech scene was bitchy, wait until you get a load of the vicious world of publishing.

It’s an interesting read. The comments section continues the controversy, casting doubt on areas of the article and defending/attacking the various players. I think regardless of the details, the core assertion holds true: that it is unethical and unprofessional to create fake accounts to promote yourself or (especially) to attack other authors. If your work can’t stand on its own merit, requiring you to artificially pump up its perceived quality or attack other authors, I have one question: wouldn’t that time be better spent improving your writing?

Link here: http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/2938/hell-for-leather/

YA Novelists are in it for the Money (via @JustineLavaworm)

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Justine Larbalestier demolishes this argument thoroughly:

I’m not going to link to where I saw this particular bizarre notion. Mostly because it’s not something that’s found in one place. I’ve come across the same sentiment in various locations offline and on- over the last ten or so years. So it’s kind of irrelevant who said it most recently.

But here’s [the] gist of the argument:

YA writers only do it for the money. They don’t care about the effect their [insert negative adjective] work has on children only about making money.

Most writers I know would agree that ‘doing it for the money’ isn’t really a prime motivator. If you really want to make money, become an accountant or something. This is also Justine’s experience:

I’m fascinated that this argument gets made at all ever. I don’t know a single writer who became a writer to make money. Everyone I know is a writer because they can’t not be a writer. It’s a compulsion. A vocation. Something they do whether they’re paid for it or not. This is true across genres.

Have a read through her own experiences as a YA author and why she writes.

Read it here: http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2012/07/27/ya-novelists-are-in-it-for-the-money/

What Authors Seem to Forget About Marketing (via @JaneFriedman HT: @SydneyWriters)

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Jane Friedman posts about marketing in writing, over at Writer Unboxed:

Think about it carefully. Do you adopt a totally different persona or voice when it’s time to market and promote? Of course you might put on your marketer’s hat to brainstorm ideas about marketing strategy, but those ideas ought to be expressed and executed by the “real” you, not a stilted, rational, or smarmy marketer version of you.

Modern hyper-connectivity means you will be screen-to-screen with your readers (and fellow writers) in a way that has never been possible before. This produces the kind of cross-skill crisis often seen in the IT industry, where a great programmer is suddenly promoted into a managing role. Suddenly your little private world becomes a hubbub of human relations and expectations management. Sound familiar?

I could give dozens of examples, and show you how an author’s unique personality directly plays into their marketing and platform building approach. However, easier said than done. Why?

Why indeed? Have a read of what Jane recommends here: http://writerunboxed.com/2012/05/25/what-authors-seem-to-forget-about-marketing-especially-those-who-dislike-it/