Book marketing does work but it will not work for crap books.
As for me, I enjoy the marketing as much as the writing. That's why my books (mainly self-published) have sold over 1,100,000 copies and have been published in 22 languages in 29 countries.
I have come up with 75 to 100 of my own unique "marketing" techniques that 95 percent of authors and so called "book marketing experts" are not creative or smart enough to come up with. I have used similar unique "marketing" techniques to get over 111 books deals with various foreign publishers around the world. These "marketing" techniques involve what my competitors are NOT doing — instead of what my competitors are doing.
Here is the bottom line: A book will not sell by itself. I have come up with 75 to 100 of my own unique "marketing" techniques that 95 percent of authors and so called "book marketing experts" are not creative or smart enough to come up with. I have used similar unique "marketing" techniques to get over 111 books deals with various foreign publishers around the world. These "marketing" techniques involve what my competitors are NOT doing — instead of what my competitors are doing.
Just a note that my "How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free" was self-published in 2003 and still sells well over 10,000 copies a year. It has now sold over 460,000 copies. What's more, my "The Joy of Not Working" was first self-published in 1991 (over 30 years ago) and still has sold an average of over 1,500 to 3,000 copies a year for the last 10 years. Very few books have that staying power in the marketplace. A lot of this has to do with my 75 to 100 unique book marketing techniques that the vast majority of authors and so-called book marketing experts are not creative or smart enough to come up with. Of course, the most important marketing tool is still word-of-mouth advertising which means you must have a remarkable book (one worth making remarks about).
Here are words of wisdom from much people smarter than me that have guided me over the years:
"It's better to do a sub-par job on the right project than an excellent job on the wrong project."
— Robert J. Ringer
"Even the most careful and expensive marketing plans cannot sell people a book they don’t want to read."
— Michael Korda, former Editor-in-Chief at Simon & Schuster
"A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one."
— Henry Ford
"Good isn't good enough."
— Mark Coker (owner of Smashwords)
"Very Good Is Bad — It's Not Good Enough!"
— Seth Godin (My favorite Marketing Guru)
"The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours."
— Jean de La Bruyére
"In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action."
— Aristotle
"Books work as an art form (and an economic one) because they are primarily the work of an individual."
— Seth Godin
"Writing is the hardest way to earn a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators."
— Olin Miller
"Your success and prosperity are too valuable to depend on crowd funding or lottery tickets."
— Seth Godin
"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."
Thank you for this! And I fully endorse this from the author side - I've done 4 novels with my publisher and have many author friends, and the house really does want to sell the book. And no one actually knows how to do it. It's all throwing spaghetti at the wall.
I found this very interesting because it reminded me of something. Mt eldest daughter worked for a record company in Artists and Recording, A&R. At that time her firm had hired a senior Silicon Valley entrepreneur to try to digitise their selection and marketing of new bands. Long story short, he gave up and went home. The core problem was the nature of the product unlike Coke or any other mass marketed product you can mention music and artists are complex Success hinges on a bewildering number of interrelated factors like novelty, style, emotional and intellect content ( does the music excite or sooth you, do the lyrics tell an interesting story) then there’s the aesthetics of the artists, personal and as a band, do they firm, own or lead a genre. This witches brew has all got to come together in a unique and fresh way to work and then never change, because once a new artist or band works, fans just want more. I think books and authors occupy the same complex space.
Kate: I enjoy your newsletter and perspectives. You make many valid points, but miss a few things here, in my opinion. Most of my publishing career has been in marketing, promotions, publicity, but also in other things. In one of my courses at George Washington University's graduate program in publishing, I mention that no marketing plan is foolproof; you can certainly do everything "right" and work hard at promotion and publicity, and crickets from media and from your audience. And, on occasion, a book seems to take off without much effort at all (although usually there is considerable effort by marketing and sales, even when not apparent). But one sure thing is that your chances of making an impact with a book or other publication are greatly improved with a concerted, coordinated, and comprehensive marketing plan. The planning and execution are a lot of work; it's difficult and sometimes impossible to measure exactly what works, but most successes do come with a coordinated effort between marketing, publicity, and sales; the author's help is, if not essential (the author may be deceased, or unwilling or unable to contribute, for various reasons), certainly beneficial.
Nice piece on the realities and mysteries on what marketing means and what it's not. In the opaque confusion, what I see is an obsession with highly questionsble "trends" by publishers .
I’m a Dutch writer of children’s books. I’ve written about 65 books, most sell around 5.000. All the bestselling children’s books in The Netherlands are (ghost) written by YouTubers. They sell 100.000 to two million books (in a country with 17 million people). That kind of marketing works …
What is the industry hiding? A lot. Why are they hiding it? Because it serves their goal. What is their goal? To make money. Why does hiding make them money? Because... None of us know. It's hidden : )
This is useful advice. Thank you. Self publishing on Amazon gives clear and current data. I know exactly what I've sold and how much money I get (good royalties, low volume).
I love your newsletters so much! (I think I won a subscription from Sally! ) I pubbed a book last year with St. Martin's. You'd think I would know who would embrace this book and who wouldn't, right? Nope. The group I thought would embrace - and I put years of work into - didn't as much as I hoped, and other communities not even on my radar stepped up and just gave it warm hugs and a life. So, if I can't figure it out (and I hold the audience in my head while I write) than how can I expect a publisher to get it? LOL I mean I wish that had, but really, no one knows and so much of this is luck.
Hi Kate, offering my very personal view on how one very successful author did it.
I shared several high school English classes with Margaret Renkl and consider her a best friend. I have followed her career for over forty years.
I don’t think algorithms or AI have anything to do with her success.
First, she’s always been a damn good writer.
Second, I watched her bust her ass and put herself out there. For most of that time, her focus has been on teaching and supporting other writers (you can read about that in her Wikipedia profile).
I often wonder (and hope to remember to ask her someday) whether this was a strategic plan. I suspect it sprang naturally from her intensely passionate heart, probably combined with a powerful wish to succeed.
But I suspect her idea of success may be to show the world what she’s passionate about, make it relatable enough for others to understand, and win converts (she’s very passionate about nature and justice).
To me, her becoming a best-selling author seems a natural outgrowth of her efforts.
Of course it helps to have an incredibly loving and supportive family.
I like to think that once she began writing for the NYT and found a publisher for Late Migrations, she found significant help with her social media platform and other aspects of growing her “business”—but that’s just my guess.
As an aspiring writer, I’ve learned from Margaret to take deep breaths, plug away at it, do my utmost best, be patient with myself, and refuse to allow discouragement to snag a foothold in my heart.
It’s not a short-term approach, but I with three best-sellers under her belt, I think it’s safe to say she’s got something figured out.
Wishing us all similar results; as they say in gaming circles, “Good luck, have fun!”
Thank you! I know now it's not me or my method or my platform or my ad copy. Its all of it and none of it. It's all crazy and random. This helps with my frustration.
I considered it a first step in my social media efforts when I attended a book fair/festival - and an author-now an agent-said -oh yeah, the one from Instagram! Social media does work for the name recognition.
Test
Book marketing does work but it will not work for crap books.
As for me, I enjoy the marketing as much as the writing. That's why my books (mainly self-published) have sold over 1,100,000 copies and have been published in 22 languages in 29 countries.
I have come up with 75 to 100 of my own unique "marketing" techniques that 95 percent of authors and so called "book marketing experts" are not creative or smart enough to come up with. I have used similar unique "marketing" techniques to get over 111 books deals with various foreign publishers around the world. These "marketing" techniques involve what my competitors are NOT doing — instead of what my competitors are doing.
Here is the bottom line: A book will not sell by itself. I have come up with 75 to 100 of my own unique "marketing" techniques that 95 percent of authors and so called "book marketing experts" are not creative or smart enough to come up with. I have used similar unique "marketing" techniques to get over 111 books deals with various foreign publishers around the world. These "marketing" techniques involve what my competitors are NOT doing — instead of what my competitors are doing.
Just a note that my "How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free" was self-published in 2003 and still sells well over 10,000 copies a year. It has now sold over 460,000 copies. What's more, my "The Joy of Not Working" was first self-published in 1991 (over 30 years ago) and still has sold an average of over 1,500 to 3,000 copies a year for the last 10 years. Very few books have that staying power in the marketplace. A lot of this has to do with my 75 to 100 unique book marketing techniques that the vast majority of authors and so-called book marketing experts are not creative or smart enough to come up with. Of course, the most important marketing tool is still word-of-mouth advertising which means you must have a remarkable book (one worth making remarks about).
Here are words of wisdom from much people smarter than me that have guided me over the years:
"It's better to do a sub-par job on the right project than an excellent job on the wrong project."
— Robert J. Ringer
"Even the most careful and expensive marketing plans cannot sell people a book they don’t want to read."
— Michael Korda, former Editor-in-Chief at Simon & Schuster
"A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one."
— Henry Ford
"Good isn't good enough."
— Mark Coker (owner of Smashwords)
"Very Good Is Bad — It's Not Good Enough!"
— Seth Godin (My favorite Marketing Guru)
"The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours."
— Jean de La Bruyére
"In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action."
— Aristotle
"Books work as an art form (and an economic one) because they are primarily the work of an individual."
— Seth Godin
"Writing is the hardest way to earn a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators."
— Olin Miller
"Your success and prosperity are too valuable to depend on crowd funding or lottery tickets."
— Seth Godin
"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."
— Christopher Morley
I’m so interested to read the overlaps here in trade & academic publishing. They are different beasts, but the struggles are very much the same.
Thank you for this! And I fully endorse this from the author side - I've done 4 novels with my publisher and have many author friends, and the house really does want to sell the book. And no one actually knows how to do it. It's all throwing spaghetti at the wall.
I found this very interesting because it reminded me of something. Mt eldest daughter worked for a record company in Artists and Recording, A&R. At that time her firm had hired a senior Silicon Valley entrepreneur to try to digitise their selection and marketing of new bands. Long story short, he gave up and went home. The core problem was the nature of the product unlike Coke or any other mass marketed product you can mention music and artists are complex Success hinges on a bewildering number of interrelated factors like novelty, style, emotional and intellect content ( does the music excite or sooth you, do the lyrics tell an interesting story) then there’s the aesthetics of the artists, personal and as a band, do they firm, own or lead a genre. This witches brew has all got to come together in a unique and fresh way to work and then never change, because once a new artist or band works, fans just want more. I think books and authors occupy the same complex space.
Kate: I enjoy your newsletter and perspectives. You make many valid points, but miss a few things here, in my opinion. Most of my publishing career has been in marketing, promotions, publicity, but also in other things. In one of my courses at George Washington University's graduate program in publishing, I mention that no marketing plan is foolproof; you can certainly do everything "right" and work hard at promotion and publicity, and crickets from media and from your audience. And, on occasion, a book seems to take off without much effort at all (although usually there is considerable effort by marketing and sales, even when not apparent). But one sure thing is that your chances of making an impact with a book or other publication are greatly improved with a concerted, coordinated, and comprehensive marketing plan. The planning and execution are a lot of work; it's difficult and sometimes impossible to measure exactly what works, but most successes do come with a coordinated effort between marketing, publicity, and sales; the author's help is, if not essential (the author may be deceased, or unwilling or unable to contribute, for various reasons), certainly beneficial.
Nice piece on the realities and mysteries on what marketing means and what it's not. In the opaque confusion, what I see is an obsession with highly questionsble "trends" by publishers .
I’m a Dutch writer of children’s books. I’ve written about 65 books, most sell around 5.000. All the bestselling children’s books in The Netherlands are (ghost) written by YouTubers. They sell 100.000 to two million books (in a country with 17 million people). That kind of marketing works …
What is the industry hiding? A lot. Why are they hiding it? Because it serves their goal. What is their goal? To make money. Why does hiding make them money? Because... None of us know. It's hidden : )
This is useful advice. Thank you. Self publishing on Amazon gives clear and current data. I know exactly what I've sold and how much money I get (good royalties, low volume).
I love your newsletters so much! (I think I won a subscription from Sally! ) I pubbed a book last year with St. Martin's. You'd think I would know who would embrace this book and who wouldn't, right? Nope. The group I thought would embrace - and I put years of work into - didn't as much as I hoped, and other communities not even on my radar stepped up and just gave it warm hugs and a life. So, if I can't figure it out (and I hold the audience in my head while I write) than how can I expect a publisher to get it? LOL I mean I wish that had, but really, no one knows and so much of this is luck.
Hi Kate, offering my very personal view on how one very successful author did it.
I shared several high school English classes with Margaret Renkl and consider her a best friend. I have followed her career for over forty years.
I don’t think algorithms or AI have anything to do with her success.
First, she’s always been a damn good writer.
Second, I watched her bust her ass and put herself out there. For most of that time, her focus has been on teaching and supporting other writers (you can read about that in her Wikipedia profile).
I often wonder (and hope to remember to ask her someday) whether this was a strategic plan. I suspect it sprang naturally from her intensely passionate heart, probably combined with a powerful wish to succeed.
But I suspect her idea of success may be to show the world what she’s passionate about, make it relatable enough for others to understand, and win converts (she’s very passionate about nature and justice).
To me, her becoming a best-selling author seems a natural outgrowth of her efforts.
Of course it helps to have an incredibly loving and supportive family.
I like to think that once she began writing for the NYT and found a publisher for Late Migrations, she found significant help with her social media platform and other aspects of growing her “business”—but that’s just my guess.
As an aspiring writer, I’ve learned from Margaret to take deep breaths, plug away at it, do my utmost best, be patient with myself, and refuse to allow discouragement to snag a foothold in my heart.
It’s not a short-term approach, but I with three best-sellers under her belt, I think it’s safe to say she’s got something figured out.
Wishing us all similar results; as they say in gaming circles, “Good luck, have fun!”
Its a quickly changing world and your words are true for the writer--the creator--and unfortunately true for the readers!
I'd go back pre-AI if it were possible.
Thank you! I know now it's not me or my method or my platform or my ad copy. Its all of it and none of it. It's all crazy and random. This helps with my frustration.
This makes so much sense. I'm writing my first book, and the idea of whether or not marketing will eventually work really demotivates me sometimes.
I considered it a first step in my social media efforts when I attended a book fair/festival - and an author-now an agent-said -oh yeah, the one from Instagram! Social media does work for the name recognition.