The Week of Release

I worked in the film industry for about 20 years, and as such, I had the concept of the opening weekend ingrained in my head.  Nothing is more important than that opening weekend.  In fact, studios have gone so far with that logic that they now typically determine a movie's success or failure on the first weekend.  To be honest, they don't even wait for that opening weekend to end.  The trade magazines, like The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety reveal how well films are doing by mid-day Saturday, and everyone more or less cheers or gives up by that point.  So you really only have Friday night and Saturday morning to prove your wealth in Hollywood.

In reading up about how to get attention for your book, I had become convinced that the same mentality was true of books.  I read that the best way to get people's attention is to be on the New York Times Bestseller List.  Fair enough.  That list had been the watermark for decades to determine what books out there were being eaten up by the masses, who in turn looked at what other people were reading to determine what they would buy.  It's a cyclical process, success begets even greater success.

So of course my goal was to get on that list; and one of the best ways reportedly is to get a lot of pre-sales.  When you put a book up for pre-sale, every purchase of the book counts as being on one day.  So if you have three months of pre-sales, every purchase within those 90 days counts as being on one single day; thus shooting you up the ranks of the best seller list for that day.

Using my education from the film industry, I figured that release day should be a Friday, the day when people will want to get it so they can spend the weekend reading it.  However, about halfway through my pre-sale period, I found that the entire first week counts toward that best-seller list.  So you want the book to come out on a Monday, (because the week ends for the NYT on Sunday.)  I researched every other book company and store, and found that indeed, pretty much all books come out on Mondays; and for that very reason.  They want all the sales during that first week to count toward that all-important New York Times Bestseller List.  And if you combine good sales during that week with good sales for the past few months, you might just reach it.

I didn't unfortunately.  I spent three months talking this story up, sending it to news sources, radio stations, blogs, podcasts, and especially NPR and PBS stations.  I only heard from a select few news sources, and no NPR or PBS locations, (except the show my friend Genevieve runs.)  It's disheartening, especially when I hear hosts rail on the evils of stereotyping when here I'm trying to tell the story of a great Italian-American man who broke the mold of his family.  Then, the week it came out, I talked it up on every social media outlet I could.  I even made my profile picture the cover of the book.  Interestingly, I did start getting sales during that first week, and the word of mouth seems to be beginning to build as I'm seeing sales slowly starting to increase.  I didn't get anywhere near the numbers to be a NYT bestseller, but the post-release sales are at least promising.

And so the lesson I'm taking from this is that pre-release probably works better for the major companies that have their claws dug into the media; (that media which complains about big business, yet ignores anything in the publishing world that is not big business.)  Those of us who are independent and unknown do better to simply release the book, show everyone what we have, and build from there.

I'm still going to do pre-release in the future, but in a limited way, and I won't count on it.  It'll be more about releasing the book and getting the word of mouth moving.

I also learned a very valuable lesson about non-fiction that I'll probably go more into in a future post.  But suffice to say for now that it seems the public is less keen on seeing independently published non-fiction work.  They seem to be more anxious to read fiction from independents.  The reason I say that is because most independent authors who have made it into the NYT bestseller list, (in fact, I think all of them,) have been fiction authors.  My own non-fictions have done better than my fiction work, but I'm beginning to believe that is a fluke.

We will see as I begin working on my sci fi book Relic Worlds, book 2.

Author Events and Signings

As I was going through the pre-release promotions, one of the most important things I was trying to do was set up talks at bookstores and libraries.  I had had such good luck in my early publishing days when I offered to do signings in Nebraska that I figured it would be like this almost every time; at least when I had a big story.  Nebraska bookstores opened their doors wide to me, and I had lines going out the door of people wanting the book.  It turns out this would not be representative of all of them.

First, my premier book was about something that deeply affected Nebraskans, and I had a personal, family connection to the story.  (It was about Caril Fugate and the Starkweather murders.)  Also, people who had known me years before came out to see me because they hadn't seen me in more than 10 years.  It made everything a much bigger deal.  But now they're used to me there; and people in other parts of the country don't know me at all.  I thought that having a person who had a direct connection to the Capones would help, but for some reason it hasn't.  In fact, San Francisco bookstores, which always have loads of guest authors, haven't even responded to me.  Part of that is because of their prejudice against independent authors, (even though they pretend to be all about independent artists,) but they're also afraid that they're not going to get enough customers to justify the event.  Even in Chicago they turned me down, and apparently for the same reasons.

Some of the Nebraska bookstores are having me back out of loyalty, and because the Harts will be coming with me.  First on the list are A Novel Idea and the Bookworm, two places that have been very good to me over the years, and for whom I will be eternally grateful.  I also had an event at the Burbank Central Library, apparently the last one they will be having as they recently were placed under the arm of the Los Angeles Public Library system, which doesn't care for independent authors.

I shouldn't be too disappointed, though.  As I implied, after my initial success, the signings I've had since have been mostly empty rooms, or occasionally just a gathering of a few friends.  Ultimately, promotions online and social media are more effective.  However, I did stumble upon a better way to have events; and this one came from one of the Hart family members.

I've known for a while that it's all about going after the niches, but I hadn't really pursued this logic when it came to giving talks.  And there's no better niche than specific departments within universities.  When I was invited to speak at the University of Utah, Corey Hart and I gave a presentation to the Italian-American studies department.  This meant that not only would the university tell people who were already interested in the topic, and not only was it a good place to have an event at which we could invite people from all over town, but there would be students who either had to go, or got extra credit for going.  It was almost literally a captive audience.  Once there, I was able to win them over with the story.  There were about 50 people at the event, and almost every one of them ordered a book.  Many of them have also linked up with me on social media.

So I've come to appreciate universities for non-fiction books.  There are a few other concepts I might try, like organizations that study the specific subject.  I'll be talking to Civil War roundtables about The American Game, and local "Sons of Italy" organizations about Two Gun Hart.

The Various Jobs of an Independent Author

The book is now out and the pre-release promotions are all done.  (Well, they can't be done anymore.  There were a few things I didn't do that I wanted to, but I ran out of time.)  I had intended on keeping this journal active as I went through the process so you could see it, but I learned that the only way I could really accurately do it would have been to have someone else with a camera taping me as I did it.  The process took so much freakin' time that I had no time left over to talk about it.  This is why major publishing houses have multiple people doing the various jobs.  As an independent author, you have to be writer, publisher, and promoter, and each of these jobs has sub-categories.

The writer of course has to also be a researcher, and has to learn to edit his/her own work.  He/she also has to go on tour and talk to people about the book and give signings.

A publisher has to learn all of the different formats, such as hardcover, paperback, e-book, etc., and he/she has to know how to upload them and make them look right.  He/she also has to learn which platforms work best for printing and releasing the work.  This leads to another job I forgot to mention...

Distributor.  You must learn how to distribute the work, and part of that job combines with the publisher responsibilities, as you have to print from places that will be accepted by the selling platforms.  For instance, bookstores will not take your book unless it's printed from a place that will do returns.  Thus, you must make the book available through Ingram Spark, or you have to have a distribution warehouse that can handle all of that.

Finally, you must also be the promoter, because your book can be all over the place, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it.  This involves going to radio and TV stations, newspapers, podcasts, magazines, etc., etc.  It's one of the most time consuming, difficult, and discouraging jobs, as most of your efforts go unanswered.

At a major publishing house, these aren't just various positions, they're entire departments.  So as an independent author, you have to not only put on different hats, you have to wear various feathers in that hat.  Running this blog is supposed to be part of promotion, but sometimes you have to just accept what's likely to work and what isn't.  I also want this blog to help future independent authors and publishers, but so far very few people have been reading it, so it's been a lower priority.

So that's a bit about what I do.  I'll go on to more topics throughout this week, as many as I can get done.

I Will Be Giving a Talk at the Burbank Central Library Today at 7:00

I will be speaking at the Burbank Central Library today regarding my newly released book Two Gun Hart, the true story of Al Capone's long-lost brother who was a Prohibition officer in Nebraska.  He was also a cowboy, complete with two six-shooters by his side, cowboy hat, and horse.  He was a war hero during World War I, a stuntman in a Wild West show, and a BIA agent who learned the language of every American Indian tribe with which he worked.

Discounted copies of the book will be available for sale, and I will be signing copies.

This long-lost brother's son Harry will appear via video, along with a short documentary I made about the subject.  The event starts at 7:00.  Below is the information for the event, so come on down!

http://www.burbanklibrary.com/event/2015/mar/author-visit-jeff-mcarthur

Two Gun Hart: Lawman, Cowboy, and Long-Lost Brother of Al Capone Releases Today

Today is a big day for me.  Two Gun Hart: Lawman, Cowboy, and Long-Lost Brother of Al Capone at last releases to the public.  I have been working on this story since 2008, a seven year journey.  I was lucky enough to be trusted enough by the Hart Capone family to tell the story of this incredible and brave man.  I have been honored by their willingness to let me in on the details of their family's history.  As a result of their aid, this book tells more about the Capones than any book before it.

Two Gun Hart is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as all e-readers.  It can also be ordered at any bookstore.

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Gun-Hart-Long-Lost-Brother/dp/1506124631/ref=sr_1_2_twi_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1426534387&sr=8-2&keywords=Two+Gun+Hart

Polly Courtney on Book Launch

I just got in the last edits for the book, (yes, I'm still making adjustments up to this virtual last minute,) so I need to work on those.  So I'm going to do on this blog what your teachers did when they didn't have anything prepared... show you a movie!

Actually, this woman's videos are some of the best about self-publishing.  Her work was being traditionally published, but she decided to turn her back on them when they were doing what so many publishers do, putting short term perceived gains over long-term quality.  (Yes, I said it.  Major publishers often reduce the long-term quality, not increase it.  They are often very short-sighted, much like movie studios are.)

So here's one of her videos.  I'll probably put more up on this site later when I'm maintaining it better.

In the Final Stretch to Release

I missed a week of describing my promotional efforts because I've been so busy getting everything done for the big, last push.  I'm in the final stretch now, just over a week before the book releases.  I've always known that March 1st to release day would be a huge time filled with a lot of work, and I'm now there.  I had hoped to be able to record it in this blog, but when you're author, publisher, promoter, distributor, etc., you have to make priorities.

The big issue is the fact that this is a merging point between pre-release promotions release promotions, and post-release promotions.  I cannot push back anything that needs to happen before release, and I need to promote things that are timely with the release.  Plus, I need to do post-release promotions on a schedule.  So everything gets jammed into this one period of time without any room for adjustment.

Additionally, all distribution has to happen now.  Many places won't consider the book once it's already been released, and if other places have already started selling it.  Therefore, most distribution has to happen at the same time.  I've been setting this up for a long time, but some elements were not ready until recently, or they got pushed back due to other things that needed to get done, like reviews.

It's finally getting under control, and I'm wrapping up the majority of promotions for Two Gun Hart.  I had to have most things done a couple weeks before release, so the week before will include mostly just contacting some news organizations, and telling the public about the release; so I'll be able to take some time to describe in greater detail what I did to promote and distribute this book since I won't be too busy doing it.

I'll be starting these blogs tomorrow, and will release them each day for the next couple weeks.  I might forget some details, but hopefully it will be enough to help anyone who might read this in the future.