| When authors think of their audience buying books | | | | audience. He said business people. What kind of |
| they think of bookstores. This myth sends authors | | | | business people? Do these people go to the "brick |
| taking the long, arduous road to seeking out an | | | | and mortar" bookstore for a business book? Or, will |
| agent, a publisher, hoping their book will become a | | | | they be more likely to subscribe to online business |
| best seller. It won't. Why? Because you are not | | | | ezines or visit a business Web site for specific kinds |
| famous, your publishing support amounts only to a | | | | of business books? Your book coach knows that |
| three-month book tour, billed against your sales. Your | | | | online promotion is the cheapest, easiest, and most |
| book's shelf life at Barnes and Noble or other brick | | | | profitable way to sell books. DID YOU KNOW? |
| and mortar bookstores is about three months too. | | | | *Seventy percent of US adults haven't been in a |
| And, you the author must promote it full time to | | | | bookstore for the last 5 years. |
| receive less than 50% of the profits. Another reason | | | | *Bookstores sell only 45% of all books sold. |
| bookstores disappoint the author is that most people | | | | *Bookstores return non-sold books to the |
| go into the store to browse. They want fiction, | | | | author-think of the Starbucks people dripping their |
| some non-fiction, but they aren't sure what. If your | | | | coffee and scone on your book. |
| book is shelved among more popular authors, | | | | *Bookstores will take 90 days, even a year or more |
| potential buyers will pass it by for the well-known | | | | to pay you for your total book sales. |
| name. Marketing guru, John Kremer, author of "1001 | | | | *Bookstores only order two or three copies at a |
| Ways to Market Your Book" says "I'm glad I don't | | | | time because of limited shelf space. |
| rely on retail "brick and mortar" bookstore sales for | | | | *Bookstores buy only from a distributor or |
| my income, but it will be nice to add that icing on the | | | | wholesaler. Why the big push to get a wholesale or |
| cake into my cash flow again." Before his updated | | | | distributor and get into the bookstore? These people |
| version this year, in three years, John has sold | | | | represent so many other authors don't you wonder |
| 45,000 copies of his book. He is a marketer par | | | | how much attention your book will receive? They |
| excellence. He uses non-traditional marketing | | | | exact healthy fees, around 55%. That leaves a small |
| strategies; his web site, his ezine which offers tips, | | | | profit for the author, and remember, bookstores, |
| products and seminars, specialty stores, foreign | | | | distributors and wholesalers don't promote your book! |
| markets, libraries, and back of the room sales from | | | | After her distributor went belly up and she lost |
| speaking engagements. Because John is a recognized | | | | $160,000, one author said she would rather have |
| name, he gets a lot of shelf space in the | | | | more control over her priceless products. She |
| bookstore--cover side out. For your lesser-known | | | | distributes them all herself now through various |
| book, only your spine will show and after three | | | | venues that suit her personality. Authors spend a lot |
| months of initial placement, your book will fade away | | | | of time and money chasing the improbable, when the |
| unless you put on your promotion hat to get | | | | "golden egg" of self-publishing and self-promotion is |
| customers to the store. In one book coaching | | | | right in front of them. In my opinion, I'd sell my |
| session, a new client thought he wanted to sell to | | | | books everywhere except the brick and mortar |
| the bookstores. I asked him who was his particular | | | | bookstore! |