Effective Strategies on Giving Book Talks

One effective way I've found for spreading the word of my books around and selling them is to give talks at various  events and clubs.  When I first started doing this I tried having events just for my books, such as a signing at a bookstore, or at a library.  I got spoiled because it went well the first time I did it.  This was, however, a fluke.  I happened to have written about a subject that occurred in the town where I was speaking, so I had a huge turnout.  But after that, you could hear crickets chirping as I sat and waited in a bookstore for someone to give a crap.

What turned out to work much better was to find groups that were already meeting on a regular basis and who were looking for guests to speak.  Rotaries are a perfect example of this, because they meet every week, and most of them need a new guest speaker every single time.  That's a lot of slots to fill, so authors are helping them out by offering to speak, as long as it's on a topic their members are interested in hearing.

The first few times I did this, I was very nervous.  However, it became easy for me once I understood what I really needed to do; just tell the story.

You typically have only 20 minutes.  That's enough time to just tell everyone the basics of your book.  This may seem like you're giving it away and they won't want to buy it afterwards, but the trick is to not tell them any major spoilers, and to give them broad strokes.  In the case of Two Gun Hart, I'm telling the story of a man's entire life.  By giving the broad strokes of what happened, I'm basically providing a trailer for each part of his life.  By the time I'm done, the listeners feel that they've been told an entertaining story, and they get the book to fill in all the details.

This style works particularly well with nonfiction.  With fiction, it's a bit more difficult.  First of all, Rotaries are less interested in fiction.  Most of the members are interested in hearing true stories.  However, they're also interested in hearing about true facts.  If you find some that are related to your book, you can give a talk on that.  For instance, when I give talks regarding my novel The American Game, I talk about the true history of baseball, and how it coincided with the Civil War.  I then end by explaining how I integrated this history into my book.

All these methods have gone over well with attendees, and have often gotten a good number of my books sold, and the word spread about them.

Relic Worlds, Book 3 Will be in Three Parts

The third Relic Worlds book will be releasing the end of next month, but instead of coming out as one full book, I'm releasing it in 3 parts.  Part 1 will release March 23rd at Wondercon.  Part 2 will release three months later, and part 3 will release three months after that.  Then a paperback will be published with all 3 parts included.

The real reason for this, unfortunately, is because I didn't have book 3 as far along as I'd have liked it.  I found that I'd be rushing to get it done in time, despite having 2 years to complete it.  But then it occurred to me that I've always meant to do Relic Worlds as a serial; and with serialized stories doing well on Netflix and Amazon, I thought this would be a good idea.  So I'm releasing it in these three sections with cliffhangers and such.

This will have the added benefit of being spread out over time so more people can learn about it.  In the world of independent publishing, you want to remain in people's faces as much and as long as possible.  So the best thing for me to do is have material spread out over time.

We'll see if that works.  In the meantime, part 1 is now on pre-sale at: Relic Worlds 3, Part 1

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.