Remnant Review
An old author, meaning an author of the era prior to the Internet, does not easily learn new tricks.
He did not learn the tricks of marketing in the old days. He expected a book publisher to do this. So, he has no intention of learning those tricks today. But he is now in competition with vastly more authors. In the old days, his book would be in competition only with other printed books. Today, his book is in competition with websites, videos, Amazon, and every other medium to get words in front of readers.
This is the golden age for authors. But, to be successful, an author must adjust his thinking to a digital world. He must stop thinking about printed books. He must start thinking about websites, videos, and other means of communication.
BOOK PUBLISHING: OLD AND NEW
I was a publisher of printed books from 1976 until 1997.
Book publishing is not for sissies.
I got into the field because I had a mailing list of several hundred newsletter subscribers. Had I not had those subscribers, I would never have been a success as a book publisher.
Initially, I used a $10 book as a source of developing my mailing list. Having sold somebody a $10 book, I found that I could sell a $45 annual subscription to my newsletter, Remnant Review. I broke even on the sale of the book. I made my money from the newsletter subscriptions. I did direct response advertising in magazines to sell the book. The book was a hook. This marketing strategy worked very well. I never would have been able to make a living based on the income from the book.
Next, I used Remnant Review to develop my newsletter mailing list for the Institute for Christian Economics. I published books both through my newsletter publishing business and through the Institute. In both cases, the newsletters sustained the book publishing. Yet I also used the books to develop the mailing lists. Book sales and newsletter sales were part of a symbiotic marketing strategy. But, in terms of profitability, and also in terms of the number of people I reached on a regular basis, the newsletters were crucial. The books have had long-term impact, but in the short term, they were not the source of my influence.
Prior to the Internet, very few authors published their own books and developed the marketing skills to find paying readers. This made book publishers the gatekeepers. Low-level employees would read the manuscripts and decide whether to recommend publishing the book. Most manuscripts were either tossed out or returned to the authors. Authors hoped that their manuscript would be converted into a book, but the stories of rejections are legendary. An author had to be persistent to have any chance of getting his book published. The manuscript for the first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times. Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected 144 times.
Today, if you do not have a book agent, the best way to get your book published by a publishing house is to develop an online presence, sell at least 2,000 copies of your self-published book, and then approach a publisher. But if you do this, you are not going to make much money. You will get maybe 10% of the retail price as a royalty, whereas you could keep 70% by selling the book on Kindle Direct at a price of $2.99 to $9.99. Richard Emmons has gone into the details of doing this. I recommend that you view his lessons.
Older authors are still living in the past. They still see their pathway to fame and fortune by way of an independent publisher of printed books. But publishing houses are going out of business. They cannot effectively compete with online book sales, especially through Amazon.
Very few books are worth publishing. They are not going to make the publisher any money. Publishers make their money by publishing occasional bestsellers. Bestsellers do not come along very often.
GETTING OUT THE MESSAGE
The typical author of a nonfiction book wants to get his message to readers. But he does not know where those readers are. He does not really think carefully about who those readers are. He does not think about how the publisher can get news of his book to a subset of those potential readers. He knows nothing about marketing. He cares nothing about marketing. He expects somebody else to do that for him. All he wants is to get his message out, and, most important of all, get his name on the book. He is driven by ego primarily, but secondarily by the desire to get the message out.
Almost every first-time author will sacrifice his message to his ego. He does not want an editor tampering with his flawless prose. He resents editors. He would rather not see the book published than to see his manuscript revised to make it meet the standards of readability imposed by an editor.
I have been in that situation. I once wrote a manuscript on Christian student survival on a secular campus. The small book publisher turned it over to a young man who had spent seven years trying to earn a degree at a Christian college, but had never succeeded. The man was utterly incompetent intellectually. He completely rewrote the book. I told the publisher he could not publish it. It might have been a reasonably successful book for him, but I was not going to sacrifice the content of my book to the whims of an editor who had never graduated from college. I later self-published the book in PDF.
On the other hand, I once ghost wrote a book for which I was paid $90,000 upfront. It took me about three weeks to write the manuscript. It was edited by some low-paid editor. That was fine with me. My name was not on the book. I wanted the money. I have never bothered to read the finished book. The check did not bounce. The book lost money for the publisher. I like to think it was because it was poorly edited.
Any author who is not willing to submit his manuscript to criticism and rewriting ought to self-publish his book. But most authors are egomaniacs. This is especially true of first-time authors. They are convinced that their books are going to transform the thinking of important people. The books are going to make them famous. They do not want to compromise. They want the book published exactly as they submitted in the manuscript.
The first-time author does not sit down and ask himself these questions:
What is my targeted audience?
How must I write for members of this audience?
How will I get my book in front of them?
How will I persuade them to buy a copy?
Even more important, the author does not address the crucial question from a profitability standpoint: "How will I sell something else to those who buy my book?" The money is made on back-end sales.
For decades, I adhered to what I called North's first law: every piece of paper sells another piece of paper. Today, I do not sell pieces of paper. I sell digits. But the marketing problem is the same.
MY ADVICE TO FIRST-TIME AUTHORS
I have written about this repeatedly.
So, You Want to Write Your First Book
Your First Book
How to Publish the Book That's Inside You, Waiting to Get Out
Before You Send Your Self-Published Book to Reviewers, Do This
On Self-Publishing a Negative Book
A mistake that first-time authors often make is this: they want to tell everything they know in their first book. Instead, they should present a general introduction of what they know on the topic. The book should lead the readers to a website that goes into greater detail on each of the major issues. Ideally, in every chapter, there should be a link shortener (such as bit.ly) that takes the reader to a webpage that goes into greater detail on the topic. The book's task is to get readers who are interested in the topic to the author's website.
It is naïve to think that a book can serve as a stand-alone motivational tract that is both comprehensive in its presentation and motivational in terms of taking action. Such an attitude is a remnant of the Gutenberg era. It is now obsolete.
This is especially important for any book that presents a controversial topic that needs comprehensive documentation. If you fill the book with footnotes and detailed documentation, you will lose readers.
The book must persuade the reader to go to the book's support website. The website should provide comprehensive documentation.
The book should have links to a highly detailed PDF volume that defends the case for anyone who is really serious about accepting the general thesis of the book and also promoting the thesis. It needs proof. Not everyone will need such proof. But the proof should be there for the true believers who are ready to commit.
So, there should be a short book, a medium-size book, and a fat book. The fat book should be a PDF. If a reader is not willing to click his browser's print icon, he is not ready to commit for the long haul. Do not pay to print fat books.
There must also be a website. It should have embedded videos.
CONCLUSION
Writing a non-fiction book is comparatively easy. The difficult aspect of the publishing process is to devise a marketing plan that will get the book in front of potential readers, and then persuade some of these people to buy the book. The book's introduction should persuade the reader to read the first chapter. The first chapter should persuade the reader to read the second chapter. And so on.
It is not good enough to write a non-fiction book. Writing a manuscript is merely the starting point of a detailed marketing and educational process. If you are not willing to support the book by a comprehensive program of marketing, education, and motivation, then do not write the book.
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