The Secret to Independent and Self Publishing... Series!

Last week I alluded to having learned quite a few things about independent publishing lately, so this week I’m going to explain a bit about what that is.

When I started doing independent publishing, I wrote nonfiction books and single, one-off novels.  While I’m proud of these works, and the non-fictions in particular have been met with rave reviews, I’ve learned that these are precisely the sorts of books that are the hardest sells for independent authors and publishers.  What works, in short, are series for niche markets.

You see, major publishers can sell one-off books more effectively because they have a larger marketing budget, and they’re well established in the industry.  They have connections and inroads into distribution channels that give them a virtual monopoly in certain venues.  This is especially prevalent in pre-sales where they are able to get reviewed by major publications that have large subscriber bases and loyal viewers, readers, and followers.  These connections would take individual publishers and authors years to build, if they can build them at all.  Additionally, traditional publishers have large teams of people dedicated only to publishing without the distraction of writing.

Independent authors are trying to get the attention of news reporters, bloggers, show hosts, etc. while continuing to write another book and often while doing a day job as well.  And when they finally break through those barriers and get some coverage, all that effort is rewarded once, and then it’s back to the drawing board for the next story.  Sometimes people who bought one of your books will remember you for the next one.  And Amazon has been great about telling people who buy one book that there’s another book by the same author.  But this all has limited success, especially when your books are not of the same subject.

However, social media gives the author complete control over their promotions.  No longer are you dependent upon news sources to see some value in your product.  You can post about your newest creations online.  The problem with this is two-fold.  First, people don’t like to be sold to while you are on social media.  So you can’t just go on and start saying you have a book to sell.  You have to become a part of the community; like and comment on things other people are posting.  After a while, you can bring up your own book, and if you did it right, you’ll get some sales.  But then that’s it.  You’ve done what you can for that book.  And now you belong to a group you only joined because you wanted to do that one thing.

In my case, I did have three non-fiction books that were all true crime related, so I was able to be a part of the true crime community and talk about each book as it came out.  But this was limited because I couldn’t post too much about each book without giving their content away.  And, to be honest, I’ve never had that big of an interest in the whole world of true crime.  I just happened to have three stories I’m fascinated by that happen to be defined as true crime.  My posts probably reflected the fact that I just wasn’t that interested in the general subject matter.

Also, the only conventions I could take these books to were general book conventions.  There are no true crime conventions, (at least I hope there aren’t,) so I was limited to what I could do online to try to generate interest in these books.

Fiction series for a niche market, however, that’s a different story; one I will get to in my upcoming post next week…

Review of What Worked for Two Gun Hart

Now more than six months after the release of Two Gun Hart, it’s time to review what worked and what did not with its release and promotion.  I point out six months because that’s typically the amount of time after a book’s release that promotions last before it is labeled a “backlisting.”

It’s hard to believe it’s been that long as it seems like it just came out.  But the time has flown by because I did so much for it; and yet it feels like there’s been so little result, or at least far less than there should have been.

The promotional plan was broken into four parts, each lasting three months, so I’ll go through each one here.

6-4 months before release:  The plan was to give people an idea of the story; sort of get them primed, if you will.  I did this by promoting the sister book, The Great Heist.  This had one chapter in it that covers Two Gun Hart, and the idea was to get people curious about it.  I also used this time to get it to reviewers so they’d be done with it by release.  This worked moderately well.  The Great Heist was difficult to sell as people didn’t know me or the book, and it would have probably done better just to give it away for free.  I did have a free giveaway for the Kindle at one time, which I think did the best good, but it would have been better to get it into more hands.  As for reviews, a lot more people promised to review it than came through.

3-0 months before release:  This was the big period where I tried to generate interest and did a pre-release.  Most importantly, I tried to get onto every radio show I could and to speak on every blog and podcast that would have me.  I also tried to get as much press coverage as possible.  I wanted everyone to buy during this time because all pre-buys would count as having released on the day of release, thus giving me the best chance of a best-seller.  I worked all day practically every day sending out press releases, emails, calling places, etc.  One press release I sent out got picked up by stations all across the country, but they all talked about the story and few even mentioned the book.  As for radio stations, especially NPR, I was mostly ignored.  Since I wasn’t a major publisher, they didn’t care.  As for fellow independent bloggers and Youtubers, there was silence.  Some even said they wouldn’t have anything to do with self-publishers, which is funny since they are self-publishers.

0-3 months after release:  My celebration of the release was to go and talk at as many places as possible.  This was mostly in Nebraska and Iowa where I had a tour with the Hart family.  Everywhere we went had a large reception, and everyone bought the book.  This was the best time of sales.  Any time I could directly talk to people, they were fascinated with the story and immediately wanted a copy.  Radio stations in Nebraska and Iowa had me on… scratch that, in Lincoln and Iowa had me on.  Omaha and most of the rest of Nebraska ignored me.  Strangely, Omaha is very much uninterested in independent endeavors; you can tell by the fact that few independent stores are anywhere in the city.  As for bookstores, only a few would take the book.  Even independent bookstores would say that since it’s an independent book, they weren’t interested, all the time not recognizing their hypocrisy.  I did manage to get it into the Barnes & Noble system and a few stores bought it, but not many.  There were a couple of the ones that have always been supportive of me, such as A Novel Idea and The Bookworm, both of whom had signings for me.  And then there were a few other stores that opened up to me since I had it printed through Ingram Spark which made them returnable.  But I only made a little bit above what it cost me to have them printed through that company.  I’m not sure that even includes the listing I paid for that went out in Ingram’s catalogue that supposedly goes to bookstores everywhere.

4-6 months after release:  I learned along the way that a lot of clubs, such as Rotaries, want authors to come speak, especially if they wrote about an interesting non-fiction subject.  The bookstores were often empty when I went to speak at them, but organized events were typically pretty full, so I gave it a try with a new visit to Nebraska.  This has worked better, with the captive audiences always enthralled, and almost everyone buying a copy of the book.  It’s a bit inefficient, however, as I have to go to each one, and after a two week trip to Nebraska, I just barely paid for my flight there and back.  I also learned to sell the book at specific markets that are interested in this sort of thing.

All in all I learned two important lessons.  First, the way to sell a non-fiction book is through personal interaction.  If you have an interesting subject, people will want to hear the story, see the pictures, then they’ll give it a chance.  It’s a good idea to have elements from the book, such as pictures, clips, and evidence of what you’re talking about, so people can see for themselves that this is true and fascinating.

And second, I learned why someone said something I read a while back.  He said that he published his fiction independently and his non-fiction through major publishers.  I didn’t understand why at the time, but now I do.  For non-fiction to sell, you need the aid of news and radio organizations to give you some legitimacy.  There aren’t as many online locations to build interest in your work.  There’s also a stigma with non-fiction in self-publishing.  People believe that if it’s traditionally published, it’s gone through a gambit of editors who are checking on its accuracy.  This is not true, as editors with big houses are looking for what is profitable, not what’s true; and the idea that they’re checking over your accuracy is a myth.  In fact, traditionally published books are less likely to be accurate because of their motivation to make money.  But most people don’t know this, so they’re only likely to buy a traditionally published non-fiction book.  To add to all of this, most history readers are themselves traditionalists, and are more afraid of technology than embracing it, so it’s very hard to reach your audience.

Fiction, on the other hand, has a lot of readers who are likely to try something new, especially in the areas of science fiction and fantasy.  As a result, I’ll be focusing my efforts on releasing and promoting Relic Worlds and my fantasy story, then doing non-fiction on the side from now on.  It’s unfortunate, but I want to make a living writing, and if readers, and especially the media, refuse to see the value in independent non-fiction, there’s nothing I can do about it.