I
built my home-based business and my reputation as an expert in the home-business
industry through a combination of publicity, word-of-mouth advertising,
speaking, regular direct mailings, a newsletter I published for fifteen
years, and magazine columns written over a period of thirty years. I first
began to promote my books on the Internet in mid-1998.
The
Power of Publicity
I
never spent money on traditional advertising, but I did invest in some cooperative
mailings in the early days of my business, and even produced a couple of profitable mailings myself.
However, nothing has worked
as well for me as publicity and word-of-mouth advertising.
My first book was published in late 1979, and for the next twenty years there
wasn't a month that I didn't receive publicity for one or more of my books or publications in one
or more newspapers, business magazines, newsletters, or home-business
periodicals.
When I finally got on the Web in mid-1998 (space on a friend's site), I found my name
and publications mentioned on dozens of sites; now they are mentioned
on thousands.
In
earlier years, major mentions of my books in Family Circle, Woman's
Day, Parade, and Time put thousands of dollars into my pockets,
both directly and indirectly. All my PR efforts were crowned in 1989 with
a week-long appearance on ABC TV's Home Show, where I was the home-business
expert on their "Homemade Money" series, titled after my book.
For a few minutes each day, my book and I were in the limelight, and my
royalty checks a few months later proved the enormous power of a few minutes
of television exposure. It's difficult to know for sure, but I estimate
my appearance here sold 12,000-15,000 books at the bookstore level. I
know it added enormously to my satisfaction level and credibility as an
expert.
Ten
years later, my total life's effort in making Barbara Brabec a "household
word" in the home-business industry led to my
work as a "personality"
on a major e-commerce site and some very satisfying work as Series Editor
on a line of eleven books published by Prima Publishing in 1999-2000.
Indeed, I am proof positive that constant promotion pays off in the end.
Building
a Network
If
you plan to publish (or simply aggressively promote) your own books, I
cannot overemphasize the importance of networking with your peers and
building and using promotional and "key contact" mailing lists.
It took me years to develop my mailing lists, but they gave
me an important edge over my competitors during the years when I was
selling my own books and newsletter. One of the most successful strategies
I've used through the years is to identify and work with other successful
business writers, from free-lancers and syndicated columnists, to fellow
authors.
Many
of my best contacts have come merely from reading a lot of publications
and networking with my peers. Since I no longer sell my books by mail,
but merely promote their sale through established retail outlets, I don't
do the kind of intense marketing and publicity mailings I used to do,
but I periodically send e-mail releases to selected contacts on my key
mailing lists. Over the years, I got a lot of mileage out of direct mailings
to educators such as teachers, extension specialists, directors
at small business development centers, SBA and SCORE personnel, economic
development directors, and organizations. This was always a great
"word-of-mouth army" for my books. Individuals who received my
mailings seldom ordered anything from me, but I knew they had an appreciation for my
work and a willingness to tell others about it. If you can identify such people
for your snail mail or e-mail mailing list, you will find they are in a position
to influence other buyers through their personal recommendations, as
well as through the bulletins, newsletters, resource lists, or workshop handouts
they may distribute at conferences, seminars, or local networking groups.
Speaking
As a Promotional Tool
Most
of the successful writers I know end up speaking sooner or later and,
for many, "back-of-the-room sales" of books and tapes often
generate more money than the speaking fee itself. This was never the case
for me because I never had more than four books to offer at any one time
but, during the years when I was actively speaking professionally, book
sales were nonetheless profitable. My speaking engagements fell into two
basic categories:
1.
Keynote speeches
for home-business
or entrepreneurial conferences, usually coupled with a short business
or marketing workshop. (A speech, by itself, isn't as likely to generate
book sales as an intensive workshop built around one of the topics in
your book.) At such events I always asked for free display space so
I could be on hand during the day to answer questions and offer my books
for sale. (As the years went by, I stopped hauling books to conferences
and simply displayed sample copies on the table and took orders for
them, shipping when I returned home.)
2.
Day-long workshops
(on a variety of topics)
where one of my books was the recommended text for the day and was either
included with the workshop fee or offered separately at day's end. If
sold at day's end, I would generally sell one or more books to about
70 percent of the total audience. The profitability of such workshops will
always depend upon the number of people who show up, which in turn depends
on the sponsor's ability to get publicity. (I was never interested in
sponsoring such workshops myself, although a lot of writers do.) Shortly
before a workshop, I would ship in however many books I thought would
be needed, based on total number of people registered at that point.
I
encourage all nonfiction writers who are able to travel to branch out
by offering workshops because they provide a great way to learn more about
your reader-market, build your mailing list, and improve both your speaking
techniques and marketing strategies. In the beginning, you may be lucky
to get $50 or $100 for a talk or workshop in your community, but as you gain experience
and become known in your field, you may be able to command fees of $1500
a day or more. (If you're working within the home-business or crafts industry,
it will be difficult to get more money than this, as budgets are always
extremely tight. The sky is the limit, however, if you can break into
big business conferences.)
In
Summary
I stopped
traveling in 2000 when my husband's health became an issue, and he needed me at
home all the time. If the truth be told, however, I had long before grown weary
of the stress involved in traveling, speaking, and selling my own books. After
you've done anything for thirty years, it tends to get tiresome (to say the
least). Today I'm quite content to
merely stay at home and write full time for the Internet, work on new books and
websites, and help
other authors get published.
God
willing, I will continue to publish eBooks and perhaps a couple of POD books
since the latter can easily be sold through online bookstores and by mail
through my own websites. For several years, I aggressively promoted my books on
the Web, but I quickly learned that
visibility on the Web does NOT sell books at the retail level, and when a trade
publisher sees declining bookstore and library sales, and only a few sales
through online bookstores, it's usually just a
matter of time before an older book goes out of print.
And
this is one of the hardest lessons an author has to learn. Publishers
traditionally give all new titles (or new editions) a promotional push,
but after that, all they do is list the book in their trade catalog. So
authors who are published by a trade publisher and then sit back waiting
for their royalty checks to roll in are likely to find their "baby"
on the publisher's remainder list within two years. To keep a title selling in
bookstores, authors must relentlessly look for ways to promote it in print, on
radio, or on television because that's the only proven way to drive consumers
into bookstores in search of it.
|
He
who has a thing to sell
and goes and whispers in the well
is not so apt to make the dollars
as he who climbs a tree and hollers!
-
Author unknown
|
2009 UPDATE: All my books are getting older
now right along with me, and I have no interest in updating any of them, even if
my publishers were interested. Ironically, the one publisher that has all but
one of my books hasn't paid me my royalties for the last six months of 2008 or
any sales this year. This is the second time royalties have been more than a
year late. My agent is working very hard to resolve this matter because she has
three of her own books with this publisher, but she has made no headway with
this incommunicative publisher, and we don't know if the company is bankrupt, or
simply thinks it can get away with this outrageous behavior because it is such a
huge operation.
Royalties
aside, sooner or later, all of my trade books will go out of print, and I'm now
bracing myself for the inevitable "out of print" notifications that are sure to
come in time. And that's okay. My books and I have had a great run. Most trade
books go out of print in two to five years, so I'm grateful to have had two
hundred-thousand+ copy sellers that have been in print for 25 to 30 years. My first out-of-print notice may actually
be just the boost I need to get off my duff and do something with this lifetime
of content that I already have the electronic rights to. I can take the best of
all the writing in my books right now, update it, and repackage it, or I can simply move in a new direction entirely and write and
publish a new line of books.
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by Barbara Brabec
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