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Post by ronmiller on Apr 11, 2020 14:39:00 GMT
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Post by ronmiller on Apr 11, 2020 14:40:10 GMT
There are two thrills that never seem to pale. One is seeing one's book on a shelf in a bookstore and the other is looking up your own name in a library's card catalog.Ron, after I retired from teaching, I started making cards---- fantasy, stylized animals, scenes of Lincolnshire etc. I never bothered pushing my books, but I made a portfolio of my cards and went to all the places in and around Lincolnshire that I thought would carry them. I was shocked when the managers ordered the cards. I remember seeing them on display in the shops and in some cases the shop windows and I too got "the thrill that never pales". I've stopped doing it now but it was fun while it lasted. My cards are still all over the internet www.angelfire.com/art2/elizabethkeimach/ (not for sale now) but it's not the same as seeing them in a shop. You should not have been so surprised. They are beautiful.
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Post by ronmiller on Apr 11, 2020 14:45:35 GMT
My Bookstore Tale:
I live in a town of about 100,000 people, near a college town of even more. There are no longer any bookstores in my town (other than one small seller of used books), and as far as I know there is only the college bookstore in the larger town, which I never venture near. Those who want books in my town must order online.
Several years ago, a man who owned a small financial business in my town self-published a book and became appalled by how difficult it was for him to find retailers who would stock it for him. (At least that's how I understand the story.) So he re-vamped his shop and turned the lion's share of the floor space into a bookstore where he vowed to only stock self-published works by local authors. He set up nice little cafe-type tables and some nice coffee machines and planned to have weekly "meet the authors nights" in hopes that the authors would help to bring customers in. There was even a large article in the local newspaper with color photos lauding the venture.
It was understood that his financial business alone would bring as many as 750 people into the store throughout the year who would be able to browse the shelves and drink tea and coffee. He even set up a Facebook page for the new bookstore which was used to keep interested parties informed as to the next "author's night", etc.
Being a newly self-published author, I gladly brought the man a small stock of my first book and it was placed prominently on one of the shelves with many dozens of other local writer's wares. I enjoyed browsing the selections a number of times and even purchased a book or two from him.
Fast-forward three or four years: The venture failed. The vast majority of the authors were uninterested in participating in talks about their works and his hope that the authors would attract customers were dashed. I believe it actually embittered the man. He closed the shop. Very sad.
So, yes, it was nice and encouraging to see my first work on a bookstore's shelf, but it was a bittersweet experience in the end.
Amazon rules, obviously, even in this area of "enlightenment and art." There are no bookstores here. The old Barnes & Noble shop is a grocery now.
Sad as it is, your story does not surprise me too much. Among the great hurdles that face a self-published author are marketing, promotion and distribution. These can take up an immense amount of time, effort and even expense. It comes as no great shock to hear that "The vast majority of the authors were uninterested in participating in talks about their works." I think that a good many authors would prefer writing their next book to spending all of their time promoting their last one. I think that too many authors have the very mistaken idea that once they have written their book and uploaded it there is nothing left to do but sit back and count the sales. I don't think anything could be further from the truth. It takes a lot of work to sell a book. After all, no one is going to buy your book if they have never heard of it...and depending on people running across it during a search or random browse is pretty disingenuous.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2020 15:10:00 GMT
Thanks Ron, I have a bit more confidence in my art than in my writing, but I've always preferred that I be a really good writer than an artist, Still what's the cliche "never give up." I started creative writing after I retired and I have improved but I think I'd be better if I'd started earlier.
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 11, 2020 15:27:18 GMT
I think I once read a depressing statistic that said that the average self-published book sells less than 20 copies.
This is why marketing has to be a central part of the process, but it is so hard to get the wheels turning in any sort of significant way.
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Post by ronmiller on Apr 11, 2020 15:34:54 GMT
I think I once read a depressing statistic that said that the average self-published book sells less than 20 copies. This is why marketing has to be a central part of the process, but it is so hard to get the wheels turning in any sort of significant way. Indeed! I think what often comes as a shock is that being a "self-publisher" means being a publisher...with all of the responsibilities that go with that role. Simply getting a book online or onto a POD service isn't enough. A book, no matter how it is produced---whether virtual or print---needs to be marketed, promoted and advertised. Traditional publishers, of course, factor all of this in from the get-go: it's just part of the expense of producing a book. They will even allot a certain number of copies---as many as a few hundred, even---to be given away for review or promotion. This sort of thing is immensely difficult---and often impossible---for the self-published author, for whom everything is out of pocket. This is probably where creativity and imagination come in...
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 11, 2020 15:37:06 GMT
It helps to have a budget that allows for promotion, marketing, and advertising.
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 11, 2020 15:57:16 GMT
It helps to have a budget that allows for promotion, marketing, and advertising. Yes, but if you are very aware of how social media works, you can build up hundreds of contacts on things like Facebook groups without spending any money at all - although admittedly, I don't know how this works for fiction. In the old days people had to rely on things like newspaper advertising, which has always been expensive. There are tricks you can play online, such as subscribe to updates and share a post and you will be entered into a competition. I have not investigated all of these options, but I bet there is lots you could do without loads of expense. One of the pages where I give updates about my books has 40,000 followers on Facebook. To give me access to post on that page, all I had to do was give the page owner a free copy of one of my books.
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Post by ronmiller on Apr 11, 2020 16:13:06 GMT
It helps to have a budget that allows for promotion, marketing, and advertising. Well, frankly, that's the sort of thing people need to take into consideration when deciding to become a self-publisher. It's a little like someone deciding to become a car manufacturer...but can't afford to build a factory, hire designers and workers, purchase supplies and matierials, install machinery... Likewise, when you become a publisher---self or otherwise---there are certain responsibilities that come with that. I have heard far too many people say, "Well, I know that my book isn't well-edited or designed and has a terrible cover, but I couldn't afford to get any of those things properly done. Please buy my book anyway!" That's exactly like a woodworker saying, "I know that the legs on this chair are uneven, that the joints are loose because they haven't been glued right, that the wood isn't sanded and I couldn't afford to paint it...but it was the best I could do so please buy it anyway!"
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Post by ronmiller on Apr 11, 2020 16:14:01 GMT
It helps to have a budget that allows for promotion, marketing, and advertising. Yes, but if you are very aware of how social media works, you can build up hundreds of contacts on things like Facebook groups without spending any money at all - although admittedly, I don't know how this works for fiction. In the old days people had to rely on things like newspaper advertising, which has always been expensive. There are tricks you can play online, such as subscribe to updates and share a post and you will be entered into a competition. I have not investigated all of these options, but I bet there is lots you could do without loads of expense. One of the pages where I give updates about my books has 40,000 followers on Facebook. To give me access to post on that page, all I had to do was give the page owner a free copy of one of my books. Exactly! Social media is the real key to driving people to your blog site or website.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 11, 2020 16:24:30 GMT
Ah, good old Facepain is something I believe I can pass on, not just for how intrusively the company mines your personal data to sell.
The majority of my time online is better spent doing the research I need done in order to hopefully have my next novel be more saleable from a Traditional Publisher's perspective.
Fiction tends to be a bit different from nonfiction in that there are a lot of mimics out there who apparently think all it takes to make huge sales is to rehash whatever the most recent popular story was.
I'd like to think that via due diligence and effort I'm able to come up with characters / species that are at least somewhat original, which won't happen if I get on Facepain in order to deal with people I have no wish to associate with , while essentially trying to win what amounts to a lottery [which I don't have the luck for].
I believe people who've read my work might say it's kind of sort of maybe somewhat original, so until I have to budget to do certain functions the way they need to be done or get a book Traditionally Published I'll just keep doing what I can do.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 11, 2020 16:28:10 GMT
It helps to have a budget that allows for promotion, marketing, and advertising. Well, frankly, that's the sort of thing people need to take into consideration when deciding to become a self-publisher. It's a little like someone deciding to become a car manufacturer...but can't afford to build a factory, hire designers and workers, purchase supplies and matierials, install machinery... Likewise, when you become a publisher---self or otherwise---there are certain responsibilities that come with that. I have heard far too many people say, "Well, I know that my book isn't well-edited or designed and has a terrible cover, but I couldn't afford to get any of those things properly done. Please buy my book anyway!" That's exactly like a woodworker saying, "I know that the legs on this chair are uneven, that the joints are loose because they haven't been glued right, that the wood isn't sanded and I couldn't afford to paint it...but it was the best I could do so please buy it anyway!" Aye, a lot of people like to think there are shortcuts to "Easy Street", regardless of the realities involved.
Back to describing a species as it takes a while to set the correct visual into words for others to see.
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Post by potet on Apr 27, 2020 22:13:30 GMT
I live in a suburban town of Paris, France. At the beginning of last year (2019), the owner of the last bookshop, after informing me they were closing down in December, offered me, as an experiment, to display the three versions of my sitcom in their window - 1) the original one in English (Spiffies and Loonies), 2) the French adaptation (Fringues et Dingues), 3) the two volumes of the bilingual edition (Mirrored in French). Prospective customers could either buy these volumes in the shop or order their copies online from Lulu or through Amazon. By the end of last year, nobody had been interested in my books, and he told me he sold very few books from other authors during the whole year. I suggested he donated my four volumes to the local grammar-school, which he did. I concluded that trying to sell books in a Paris suburb bookshop is a waste of time and concern. People interested will always find my books through the internet - and they do - but are only interested in my didactic productions. My fiction appeals to nobody.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2020 6:07:41 GMT
Where can we see your books potet?
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Post by potet on Apr 28, 2020 19:15:29 GMT
Where can we see your books potet? Hello, there are all in www.lulu.com . My author's name is Jean-Paul G. POTET. Thanks for your interest.
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