R. L. Stedman

Writer

The Business of Writing

Publishing and Profits

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Publishing and Profits —

This post is a continuation of the previous blog post. So if you’re starting here, I suggest that before beginning, you read this.

fairytale book
Image source

Publishing Industry

Today there are five large publishing houses. They’re headquartered in NYC and are international; that is, they publish work across the globe.

  1. PenguinRandom
  2. HarperCollins
  3. Hachette
  4. MacMillian
  5. Simon and Schuster

Mergers and acquisitions have become common in the publishing industry. You can see this in the names of these companies: PenguinRandom, for example, was once two separate  publishing entities: Penguin Books and Random House.

Each house has a number of specialist imprints, such as Mills & Boon, Tor, Picador and Doubleday. My first book, A Necklace of Souls, was published under the Voyager imprint of HarperCollins; Voyager being a specialist Scifi-Fantasy imprint.

Although some of these large houses have an office in New Zealand, the NZ based office is really an offshoot of an Australian-based industry. Interestingly, some of these publishers operate in regional territories. Thus, rights that are held by one branch are independent of another.

So, if you sell your rights to the NZ office of say HarperCollins, you should not assume that the English branch of the same house will publish your work in the UK. The UK office have told me that an author holding a publishing contract with the NZ based office is a disincentive to obtaining the rights, because they will have to pay an additional fee to the NZ-based enterprise than if they, the UK office, owned the rights.

It is worth considering territories before you sell your work to a NZ based publisher; because in so doing you may build a barrier to reaching a global audience. This is particularly problematic in today’s ebook publishing industry; after all, Amazon and iBooks have a global audience.

history of publishing - the online store
image source

Retailers

Traditionally, publishing was broken up into the following functions:

  1. Selection, curation and distribution
  2. Printing
  3. Retail

All three arms of publishing were quite separate and (generally) performed by different entities.

But today many online retailers act as publishers. Some, like Amazon, also have a print division (CreateSpace). In the online space the differences between the functions are blurred.

Changing Technology: Online Bookstores

There are four main online bookstores:

  1. Amazon
  2. iBooks
  3. Kobo
  4. Nook

Amazon is the dominant player. See the image below for the US 2015 market share (image from Author Earnings). This proportion and market share is likely to be reflected around the globe, although some significant non-English speaking regions, such as Russia and China, are dominated by language-specific stores.

Market share by publisher
Image Source

Books for children and adult nonfiction are still mostly sold as print. This is probably not surprising, as parents want kids to have less time on screens, not more. However, with the rise of Augmented Reality (AR), schools purchasing ePub files, and the increasing use of AI and voice activation technologies, its likely this may change.

It’s already changed for adult fiction. In the US, adult fiction sales are now 70% digital. That’s a MASSIVE shift.

2016 book sales by format
Image Source

I don’t really know how I feel about this. Personally, I love my bookshelves, and there’s something deeply satisfying about holding a book in the hand. But when I’m travelling it’s a simpler to take a kindle, and it’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to buy with one-click. So because I’m a book lover I mourn the decrease in books, as a reader, I love having access to cheaper and plentiful stories.

publishing market
Image Source

As a writer, though, I’m pretty excited. Because not only are most fiction sales digital, nearly 42% of sales are NOT through the large traditional publishers. So although there are only 5 major international publishers, there is an increasing proliferation of small-time and independent presses. It’s easier now to have your work published than it ever was. Publishing is no longer the provenance of the wealthy and well-connected.

As long as you have a computer, time, energy and a little money, it’s possible to share your work with the world.

How to Market Your Book (without feeling like a salesman)

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How to Market Your Book —

Marketing seems to freak out many writers, me included!

writer's notebook
Notebook – Image from Pixabay

I guess it’s because we’re generally introverts who are happiest alone or in small groups – the thought of engaging with strangers to talk about a deeply personal work just doesn’t come naturally.

(Before I write a bit more, a big shout-out to all the salesmen and women who work ethically and professionally. You’re not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about the dodgy folk who prey on the elderly and vulnerable. No-one wants to feel like that.)

This is the third post in a series of three on selling your rights and publishing, sparked by a recent radio interview with Vanda Symon on Otago Access Radio. You can check out the first of these posts here (or you can listen to the podcast!)

 

5 Steps to Marketing Your Book

1. Know your audience.

If you don’t have an audience, think about the audience you want. It helps if you can get really specific here: not just male/female and age, but where they live and what are their interests; where they hang out, and who their influencers are.

Marketers call this ‘building an avatar’ – not a big blue alien, but an ideal customer. This has never worked for me, because being a writer, I have an extremely fertile imagination – and an avatar has to be reasonably accurate (i.e. not imaginary) to be useful.

Instead, I think of my two most passionate fans (that aren’t related to me:)) I don’t stalk them, obviously, but I know roughly how old these two fans are, where they hang out (facebook, goodreads, instagram, blogs etc) and I know what they like to read.

I develop content for ONLY these two fans. I call them K and N.

Quick side-note: if you’re new to writing, or you’re not really sure who your biggest fans are, then have a look at this podcast on the Author Hangout. Here you’ll find a quick step-by-step guide to developing a reader profile.

 

2. Develop content for your audience.

Every blog post is written for either K or N. (Except this one, although K might find it interesting). Every post on social media is designed for them. My only criteria about each post is: would K or N like this? (This approach also MAKES me sit down and write my current WIP, because I know that the thing they most want from me is my next book.)

Share your content. When I’ve developed content, like this blog post, I go onto twitter or facebook or whatever, and I say, hey, I’ve made this! I don’t say ‘Hey N, here’s another post just for you,’ – that’s kind of weird. But often one or the other will pick it up and share it or retweet or whatever, and I love that, because it means I’ve done something that makes them happy.

 

3. Marketing Through Sharing Love

It took me a long time to learn this approach, and I’ve only just started working like this since the beginning of March. But since then interest in my blog is going up and downloads of my books are increasing. Why? Because it’s not just N and K buying my books – hell, I’ve given them my books – it’s because there’s enough people out there like N and K, and they also like the same material.

I am really, really grateful to N and K for their support and I want to deliver more content that makes them happy. It’s just a side benefit that other people like it too.

I’ve summarised this approach in a pdf, which you’re welcome to download.

Before I wrap up this extra-long post here’s a couple of things to consider.

 

4. Social Media is Not Essential

Don’t be spammy. Don’t stalk. Be compassionate, respectful and behave like a normal human.

Marketing doesn’t mean you have to slather yourself in social media. Old-fashioned print or radio works too.

If your fans don’t live online you may not even need a website (although I would, but that’s another post for another day); the point is, once you know who your fans are, you can design your marketing to serve their needs. Robert Free meets his fans through sending a ballad to Radio New Zealand every day. It seemed to take Robert AGES to get his website up and running, but I’m not sure this really mattered; he was already meeting his audience through radio.

Play to your strengths. If your fans are out and about on a variety of different channels – like blogs, youtube, instagram – chose the channels that suit you best. I like taking photos and I’m totally in love with my iphone, so instagram works well for me.

Kyle Mewburn, who writes books for kids, is a natural entertainer and has a youtube channel. This suits her fans, too, because teachers and parents can play it for their kids.

Finally, although I say you don’t need to be involved in social media, it sure helps you to meet more readers than traditional media. And unless you’re running adverts, social media is free. (As a side note, if you are thinking of running ads on social media, check out Mark Dawson’s Facebook training videos. They’re free, and are almost guaranteed to save you a ton of money.) It always saddens me when I hear (usually older) writers say “oh no, I don’t get facebook.” They’re missing out on an opportunity to hear and connect with readers, and surely, that is why we write, isn’t it?

 

5. Writing is Connection

Which takes me back to the beginning of this three-part series of blog posts: Why do we write? For me, it’s to connect; to share; to provide enjoyment. Writing, actually, is not about me. It’s about my reader.

Thanks for sticking with me through this incredibly long post. If you have any questions, please get in touch.Here’s a summary as a slide-deck:

 

And thanks again, Vanda and Otago Access Radio, who sparked this series of posts. Now you’ve navigated your way to the end of them, here’s the link again to the podcast interview. I hope you enjoy!