This week, a
statement in Hugh Howey’s blog, Renting vs. Owning, hit home for me. Howey
states that many writers still believe that traditional publishers do most of
the promotion and marketing. I realized how right he was when I gave a workshop
(mentioned in last week’s blog) on landing a book contract.
I explained to
attendees how authors are expected to do a variety of tasks that include
everything from arranging book signings, to creating their own website, to
paying for conferences, and buying copies of their own book at a discount. This
was an eye-opener to most of them and unwelcome news for some who later told me
they had no desire to do all that promotion and marketing.
In his blog, Howey claimed
that, although both traditional and self-published authors work hard, the
traditionally published do it because they have to while self-publishers do it
because they want to. Huh? That’s not what I’ve heard.
I’ve spoken with many
self-publishers who work hard because they have to, because they know no one
else will do it for them. Trust me, like traditional authors, indie authors
would much rather be writing the next book. If they work harder than
traditionally published authors, it's because they are eager to recoup money
spent on production costs. Others are hoping for at least a little profit.
Most have become realistic enough to understand that they won’t make a
living at this right away. Sure, some indie writers do, but they are still in
the minority.
Aside from asking
yourself what you want to write in the first place, the next most important
question is how much time, energy, and money you’re willing to invest in
promoting and marketing, regardless of how your book will be published? If you
don’t know the answer, do some soul searching. Ask yourself, if you’d be happy selling
just fifty copies? Do you want to sell five hundred? Five thousand? Five
million? You’ll need to tailor your plan according to your goals and your lifestyle.
Certainly, an author with young kids at home and/or a demanding full-time day job
simply won’t have time for all-out seven-day-a-week promoting. Realistic
expectation is as important to success as talent, tenacity, and marketing skill.
Regardless of how
busy your life is, though, there is always something you can do to move your plan
forward. The most counter-productive thing you can do is to publish your book,
then have no idea what to do next. Based on some of the forums I belong to,
there is still far too much of that happening.
Hello Vikram, and welcome to The Write Type ~ Multi-Author Musings. We are so happy to have you visit us. Since I’ve used BookBuzzr and fReado.com myself, I can say that you offer a terrific service for authors and their readers. And it’s free!
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Are you a writer? Reader?
I’m a serial entrepreneur who’s obsessed about building the next big thing on the Internet. I earned an MS in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University some years ago. I’m also a keen martial artist and practitioner of Aikido. I’m an avid reader of books and listener of audio books. I do have a book inside me that is waiting to come out some day soon.
Where did the idea for BookBuzzr come from? Why did you decide to create it?
A few months ago, an author friend of mine – Chetan Dhruve – was describing the pain that authors face in marketing their books online. There are two problems with traditional author sites:
1. Most of the traffic goes to 'destination sites' such as Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo or the New York Times. So your author site may not receive the kind of traffic that you would want. 2. Even if a fan of your book comes to your site, it's not easy for her to easily share information about your book with her friends.
So how do you market your book in an era where the attention-spans of consumers measure a few micro-seconds? How do you tempt your potential readers to flip-through the pages of your book? How do you allow easy sharing of your book on networks such as Facebook, MySpace and other social networks?
So I asked him what would be a dream online marketing tool. Chetan, in a few moments of inspiration, described what he’d want and we sketched out the screens of the ultimate online book-marketing tool. I got the product developed in a few months using developer resources at another software business that I own.
What exactly is BookBuzzr and how does it work?
BookBuzzr is a free, online book-marketing technology that can be placed instead of your book-cover image on your author website, Facebook profile and blog. BookBuzzr is more than just a replacement for your book-cover image. It's a portable author website that allows your book information and extract to be shared on Facebook, Blogs, MySpace and more. So every time a fan of yours decides to post your book-widget on his or her blog, your entire information (including where to buy and buzz about your book) becomes available there. It’s like your business card on the Internet!
Apart from the easy share-ability, we've worked hard at making the pages of your book look and act like a real book. So when a reader clicks on the edge of the book, the page turns like a real book. Somehow, this seems to elicit a "wow!" from most people who try BookBuzzr.
fReado.com is the site which carries all the books that are available in BookBuzzr format.
Is it difficult for an author to set up a BookBuzzr widget?
Putting up your book into BookBuzzr format is quite simple. If you know how to share your videos and photos on Facebook or MySpace you know how to use BookBuzzr.
How many authors are using fReado?
We expect to have over a 1,500 authors & books on fReado by the end of this month.
Are there any recognizable names using BookBuzzr? Any “big” authors”?
We have quite a few big name authors using BookBuzzr. Chetan Dhruve whose inspired vision gave us the start for BookBuzzr is a pretty well-known name and his book has become an international sleeper-hit that’s been translated into 5 languages. Author Tony Eldridge whose book “The Samson Effect”, acquired by a Hollywood studio, is also using BookBuzzr.
Are publishers using your service to promote their authors’ books?
Yes. We’re making it easier for publishers to mass upload their books and author information with just a few clicks. We’ve got about 60 Publishers who have begun using fReado and BookBuzzr.
Can you give us an example of a BookBuzzr book widget?
Where do you see BookBuzzr in 3 years?
The other day, we got a testimonial from the author Lee Murphy and he said, “I think you have a terrific service and I know I have already sold one copy on Amazon as a direct result of it.”
So we know that we have a unique little book-marketing technology that every author needs. Our challenge is to let authors know about this free resource that can help every author in building and extending their platform. So in terms of where we see BookBuzzr in 3 years … we want to be the first place where every author goes when he or she begins to think about marketing books online. If every book-cover image on every author, publisher and book-seller’s website is replaced with the BookBuzzr book-widget, then I would say that most of our mission has been accomplished.
Towards this end, we’re making several improvements to BookBuzzr in the coming months to make it easier for fans to distribute a book-widget on their Facebook profiles, Twitter, blogs, social networks and cell-phones.
Thank you, Vikram!! I am sure that authors will be very excited about your service/product, especially after they've tried it once.
In response to fellow author Debra Purdy Kong's previous post on author burn-out, I left this comment and then decided it needed to be an actual post here.
Writing can indeed become an obsession, as can promoting one's book. I always suggest to authors (and often remind myself) that we must find a balance between writing, promoting, other jobs/chores, family, friends and fun. Each needs to be a slice of the pie for authors to feel completely successful and not burnt out.
Over the years I've witnessed author burn-out many times. I've come very close myself a few times. I've known authors who have given up writing; some have continued to write but no longer do book signings. I've seen some who barely promote their books at all.
Why do they burn out? Usually because they put so much time, energy and money into writing and promoting their most recent book and have experienced little money, reward or feeling of success. Sometimes they burn out because they had no idea what they were getting into, that writing and promoting is a fulltime career. Being an author doesn't mean instant success; we have to work very hard for it.
All authors must be very wary of burn-out, and there are some warning signs:
1. Do you dread turning on your computer to write or even answer emails? 2. Do you make excuses not to write? 3. Do you make excuses not to blog, hold book signings, write articles etc that promotes your book? 4. When I say "book signing" do you immediately go into whine mode and say "aw, not again"? 5. Do you feel your days are spent on the computer, nights too? 6. Have you turned down an evening or afternoon out or even a few hours this week with a friend, husband, wife, child because you're "too busy"? 7. Have you watched the sun come up from your office window in the past month? 8. Does your agent, publisher, editor, husband, wife, friend, child irritate you?
If you've answered yes to 4 or less, you are doing well, right on track and coping with your obligations.
If you've answered yes to 5 or 6 of these questions, be on guard for burn-out. It is looming around the corner. Take a break now to prevent it.
If you've said yes to 7, you're at the verge of a burn-out melt-down. Time for a break. Take a day or two or 7 off now. Don't wait. Take a break now, or break down later.
If you've said yes to all 8, you are seriously burnt out and this makes you useless to everybody, so go take a 1 week holiday in Mexico or Bermuda and start fresh afterward! :)
Here are some tips to preventing burn-out:
1. Pace yourself! Set limits per day and goals. Prioritize and take each deadline one project at a time. Don't overbook or overcommit yourself. 2. Learn to say no. Learn to pick your projects; say no to ones with urgent deadlines if possible. Just say No. 3. Schedule your day each morning, allowing time to have a break. Have lunch while watching Days of Our Lives. 4. If feeling exhausted, take two days off and do nothing but watch soap operas or On Demand movies all day long. 5. When you have a good, well-balanced day of work and play, reward yourself that evening. Chocolate works well...or margaritas...or mohitos...
