Tonight, I'd like to examine marketing strategies for both traditional and Indie published authors. What are some of the benefits and some of the losses? Where should an author point his or her resources, and why? The articles I read for this blog post will help me focus my argument and my topic, as per the suggestions in chapter 6 of the text.
Understanding How the Traditional Publishing Model Works
By Penny Sansevieri
Perhaps the most interesting part of this article is that it pushes the envelope by not examining the strengths of the Big Six publishers--but their weaknesses. Sansevieri explains that in order to make your work competitive in the current market, you must know how to compete in the first place. The best way to do so is by understanding where your work can shine against the flaws of others'. Sansevieri's article follows the principles discussed in the reading, because she gets to the point and supports her arguments. She doesn't seek to merely write out her thoughts, but to provide proof in how she reached her conclusions. Much of what she discusses is mainstream and well-known in the publishing community--such as her "Weakness #1". Ever since the self-publishing boom, it's been well-established that the Big Six don't do well working outside of the mainstream. That means they seek to publish within the confines of what the know will sell. Large and medium publishers have a lot at stake, because they place their faith in the author's work selling. They also pay ahead of time with an advance, which means they're out X amount of dollars unless that book moves.
The next point Sansevieri makes is a lot less well-known. Big publishers don't conduct consumer research, which means they're not staying on top of their market as well as they could be. To be fair, they are getting better at it. How do I know? I'm one of 25 readers in the nation who was chosen to be a Harper Voyager. This means I read books sent to me by Harper Collins and its sub-prints to read, review, and comment on. This is a bold move by Harper, and one not done by other publishers. Harper is taking a large risk, hoping that all 25 readers will be able to keep up with the massive number of books they send out, and that each reader will in turn write positive reviews. Yet, it's a far cry from what many of the other large-scale publishers have tried to do in reaching and researching their audience's likes and dislikes. Sansevieri is on target with her note that if you as a writer can get in with your readers and find out what they like, you're going to be far, far ahead of your competition. This strikes well with the readings we've been doing in class, and it seems almost foolish that other large publishers aren't taking the initiative to research their readers like Harper is. The reading has discusses us as students doing research and learning as much as we can about a topic--the pros, the cons, all sides of the argument, and what Harper is doing is attempting to mimic that model.
Number three on Sansevieri's list is that large publishers--she notes specifically New York publishers--don't publish toward niche markets. This is Econ 101. If there's no one willing to buy, there's no point in selling. A book might gain a cult following, certainly, but that can take many, many years, and even then, there's no guarantee it will become successful. The mind jumps to Stranger in a Strange Land, which is one of the best-known cult books, yet not many people have read, or even heard of, it. If you're an independent writer selling to a niche market, be prepared to be limited in your sales.
Numbers four and five sort of go hand-in-hand. Sansevieri explains how independently published--or even those published by small presses--have the advantage over larger publishers, because they can directly speak with and relate to consumers. Meetings and readings can be held locally, and questions can be answered directly by the author. Now, social media is changing this field and closing the gap quickly, but it's usually the authors who must take responsibility for communicating with readers, not the publishers. The final step Sansevieri discusses is knowing and understanding how marketing, and which market you choose to work in, impacts those around it. She gives a fantastic example--an Indie author might not be able to sneak into the LA market, but they could potentially work a smaller market, such as Orange County. The OC market will then affect the LA market, if the buzz is big enough, and voila, you're in!
Note that this article only scratches the surface of marketing in the traditional and Indie worlds; there's still a great deal yet to be uncovered and discussed, but the reason this article was chosen is because of how the author redirects the notion of what marketing in publishing is. The unique take is rather interesting and could be very useful if implemented well. It also explains the pros and cons of traditional and Indie marketing without getting into the nitty-gritty details that often scare off potential authors.
Advanced Marketing Tactics for Indie Authors: Finding (and Keeping) Readers
By Jennifer McCartney
This article, unlike the following, is a pristine example of a fantastic source. The author notes all of her sources, pulls examples and facts to support her claims, and works with an argument throughout the entire piece while never deviating from the topic. McCartney is the type of source, along with Publisher's Weekly, that the class text urges us to find. McCartney begins by explaining how an education helps any author succeed--but it's not just general education; it's also ensuring the author is educated in their field of writing. Know your market, know your work, and know how to reach readers--also know what writing and being self-published entails. Never expect anyone to do it for you. All of these ring true in any successful self- or Indie published author's career.
McCartney then goes on to use a quote from Mark Coker, who founded Smashwords, to prove that it takes hard work, dedication, and a willingness to learn and apply what's been learned to marketing their work. Use the tools you have--the Internet for research, other authors' accounts of their marketing, even small publishers--to help you climb higher. Just remember that everything is equal; do not expect what you cannot give in return. If someone helps you, help them back.
Many other topics McCartney discusses, such as Metadata (the sort of information about your book you place in a system such as GoodReads and Amazon.com), Pricing (knowing how to price your work competitively), how to use social media without abusing it, and above all, staying persistent in selling your work. These are all great tips, and each section of the article gives ample examples and support for why these methods work, and why the ones that don't work fail. McCartney knows her stuff, and I look forward to finding more articles by her to relate to the topic of Indie vs. Traditional Publishing.
NOTE: The below is a source I spent a while reading, even though it's short. I went through and clicked most of the links to outside texts to see if any of them were worth my time. I was sorely disappointed, but wanted to share how what appears to be a good source can turn sour rather fast.
Marketing Your Book
By The Book Designer (NOTE: This source will NOT be used)
The author of this article, who is unfortunately not named, starts off with what seems to be a well-founded argument. She illustrates the very difficult and obvious problems most authors face--that writing is a creative process, one done often alone, and once the manuscript has been transformed into a book, well! Now you have to market it. What's an author to do, though? They've worked so many hours alone and some tend not to enjoy large crowds of people. But that's what marketing is--it's connecting with potential readers. So how does one do this?
The author of this article lists a few key points, ones that on the surface seem obvious, but as you delve deeper into the world of marketing something as personal as a book, becomes much more difficult. Unfortunately, nothing other than the surface is ever explored in this article. First off, and this is one I've personally heard numerous times, the author should begin marketing before the book is even written. This can mean numerous things. One, as the author explains, is planning what sort of audience your book will appeal to. The second is connecting with that audience and slowly revealing your ideas, characters, etc., and gaining a following organically. This can take time--time which many authors are not wont to give.
Another note the author makes is that once a book is complete, it should be sent to reviewers, who will then read it and post their honest opinions about it all over Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and even GoodReads. Perhaps another problem with this article is that the author doesn't quite explain everything; she leaves out the steps a writer should take in preparing their work for reviewers, such as having it edited multiple times, formatted correctly, and not bribing reviewers, which happens all to often. Then the author of the article deviates and never expands upon her initial questions.
Our reading describes sources that should give a great deal of information and support that information with notes, quotes, or other sources. Unfortunately, this source doesn't meet any of these standards, which is one reason why I chose it. As I read through, I became annoyed with the quick-cut tone of the author, the various links to books that made no sense on the subject, and the lack of support for her arguments--if there's an argument to be had, at any rate. As per the suggestion of the reading, I'm crossing this source from my list and moving on.
Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing: What's The Best Route For Entrepreneurs
This article details the beginning steps of an author's journey once the manuscript is completed--to self-publish or not. Pimsleur starts off by discussing a familiar tale of how one man decided to write his own guitar lesson book, and then compares it to her own. Unlike Dan, the author of the lesson book, Pimsleur decided to acquire an agent. Note here, however, that she had a connection, another author named Paul Greenberg, who put her in touch with an editor who knew a few literary agents. This sort of leg-up on the competition will be discussed in a later blog, but it allowed Pimsleur to shop her manuscript around and eventually be picked up by a traditional agent.
Comparatively, Dan did not decide to go the traditional route. Instead, he chose to take hold and publish his lesson book himself; and Pimsleur notes the sort of power and control Dan had over his project, from the design of the book to what sort of weight of paper it was printed on. Dan likens his work to an art piece, and claims that traditional publishers want their authors to already have an audience. He then goes on to explain that if the author can build their own audience, the publisher may not be needed.
Pimsleur concludes her article with a helpful chart, detailing the pros and cons of both self-publishing and traditional publishing. This chart, though rudimentary compared to some of the others available on the Internet, does a great job of spelling out the good side and the bad side of each. Traditional publishing, for example, will often take care of many of the design aspects, the distribution, and a little of the marketing for your book; this route also helps with editing. Self-publishing, on the other hand, allows the author complete control. They can design the book how they like, hire whom they want to edit, and design their own marketing campaign. Some of these are also cons to self-publishing. A self-published author may spend more money on hiring an editor, marketing their work, and hiring a graphic designer to create a great cover than a traditional author would. However, the royalties of a self-published author can, in many cases, be greater than those of a traditionally published author.
SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/juliapimsleur/2014/11/04/traditional-publishing-vs-self-publishing/
Are There Still Pros to Traditional Publishing?
The author of article, Brooke Warner, tackles one of the major issues in publishing today--is there still a reason to attempt traditional publication? Warner navigates the answer with tact, describing the dilemma most authors face in great detail. With the electronic publishing boom, is there any reason one should even attempt to be published traditionally?
Warner gives five fantastic reasons authors should consider a traditional publisher for their project. The first is a big one--Partnership. A traditional team can offer you more than just a lucrative contract. They can offer an author an entire team, who will get behind that author's work and push them to the top of the charts (well, potentially). The author won't have to search for and hire an artist or editor or marketing team out-of-pocket. The second on Warner's list is Quality. People read traditionally published works and associate them with the quality and the Legitimacy the company has built up over years of hard work. People read something by Harper Collins and know that book will be (mostly) free of errors and not be of poor quality writing. Fourth (after Legitimacy) is Distribution, which means the publisher is responsible for getting the author's book out to the public. This is something most self-published authors rely heavily on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com for. Traditional publishers help with spreading word about an author's work and get it onto shelves faster and without as much effort or cost as an independently published author would. Finally, Advances play an enormous role in why some authors choose to be traditionally published. Advances, though, usually have to be paid back if the book doesn't sell as many copies as the publisher initially thought it would. This is why it's called an "advance."
Warner finally notes that the choice is up to the author, and that there are many, many other options open to the author, including hybrid publishers, small press publishers, and small eBook publishers. Each one has its pros and each has its cons.
SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brooke-warner/are-there-still-pros-to-t_b_5564672.html
My main research question that I will be posing during the life of this blog is how Traditional and Indie publishing differ, what each's benefits are, and how each strand of publishing impacts the author. Some related questions are:
1) How an author's income is impacted.
2) What benefits an author receives.
3) How much control an author has over their project(s).
4) What aspects of publishing impact the author's career beyond income.
5) Marketing avenues open to an author.
These questions are not the only ones that will be posed and explored, but will be the main points of this research project. Many places will be options for me to seek answers to these questions. My main resources will be articles written upon the subjects above-listed. I will also interview Indie authors and small-press publishers, editors, and compare and contrast the answers.
One of the major challenges of this project will be removing myself from the research. As a small press published author, I have personal experience in the publishing world from an Indie perspective. I would also like to include questions related to self-published authors, and why that trend seems to be lumped in with Indie authors. What are the similarities? The differences? Where can lines be drawn between the two, and is there a schism between the different types of authors, as if there is a class difference? Can these various types of authors be considered separated into "classes" from one another?
I hope to achieve more than some enlightenment on the subject, and to also learn more about my fellow writers, our goals as a community, and what we can do to strengthen one another's works rather than treat each other as competition.
Feedback will also play an important role in my research, and I appreciate any thoughts my fellow classmates offer.
Thank you for your time.
