I have a young girlfriend who published a sci book and she joined with about eight other authors of sci fi books and they arrange book fairs in various towns around and she has been pretty successful at selling her books there, but not on Amazon.
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I know, Say that some celebrity will be at the signing with you. Then just keep hyping your book and give your 15-minute spiel. Say things like "he was here a minute ago", or "You just missed her". It sounds sleezy and even stupid, but maybe it's no worse than wearing a lot of make-up.
Unless it's Star Trek or Monster makeup.
An interesting idea. I have a couple of friends who write similar books. Maybe we should think about this!
Joan, that is one of the smartest things I have ever heard in my life. What you say is really eye opening. One author alone can be lost in the shuffle. But you know...this is such wonderful stuff...thank you for bringing this up...if more of us got together, it would create buzz in and of itself.
In my long-ago days as a magazine fiction editor during the early internet (www.deepoutside.com, www.farsector.com) I used to try and get authors to buy each others' stories that I published, but it seemed to always be every man (or woman) for him (her) self. We published about sixty authors at a rate of one a month, including a few Nebula nominees and so forth, and they could have formed a core group...but it just never happened. Maybe it was my fault as publisher and editor not to organize better. In some sense, I think authors tend to be lone wolves who are so busy surviving and hunting/killing on their own on the dark paths of night that it never occurs to them to band together.
I've tended to shy away from writers' organizations because the professional (read: gatekeeper-vetted) ones generally have a blood ban on self-pubs, and the rest seem to be geared to "have you ever thought of writing something?" which is far behind in the dust for a serious author. But I've been to a few library-sponsored events where I felt very welcome, and people bought books with no effort from me. Just be there, and you sell.
There are many possibilities. Say a dozen struggling but promising authors with something to say band together and have not one, but periodic book signings and similar events...it becomes potentially newsworthy. That is the key for a good book signing--having the press pay attention.
In my experience, book stores, coffee shops, and similar venues will usually help out, since it brings them business. For the religiously inclined, churches and synagogues etc may be good places to hold author events. Renaissance Fairs and other possibilities abound.
Your friend can easily start selling on Amazon in both digital and print formats. What's the hangup on that? She does not need to spend a lot of money (or really any money, for that matter). Check out the self-publishing forum on this website, where we will be discussing the technical side of publishing Do It Yourself (DIY).
I'm kind of new to his forum, so I may have missed something...but please keep us posted on this exciting story. Thanks.
She originally did her novel in ebook and then she did a paperback through Create Space and she held several single book signings in her local vicinity, but sold very few and she sent her MS off to several publishers with no luck and then she ran into this group and since they are all selling sci fi, they dress up like their characters and she says she sells the most because she is always so exuberant and isn't afraid to strike up a conversation with anyone, but it doesn't seem to pay off as far as selling on Amazon. And she also periodically advertises on Facebook and this young group has started an on-line newspaper where she vents about daily stuff. But now she has taken a college course in script writing and she is going to take her novel and turn it into a script. The problem is that then she has to find a producer. She is trying to follow in the steps of Stephane Meyer but it isn't working.
Well, sounds like she got the technical stuff right in the first place (Kindle, CreateSpace).
Doing the group, and dressing up, and selling in person -- all that is really wonderful.
Selling online is a totally different matter, because it's not face to face or, as a sales guy I knew used to call it, "shirt button to shirt button." I can sell books all day long if I have people in the room with me. Online, it's like a totally flat, impersonal experience where the personal touch doesn't translate. I think this must be a universal experience. Maybe that's also why, when people appear on talk shows (TV, more so than radio even) they become a real person to the viewer, rather than just one more disembodied name or little blob of ink specks.
I think the online newspaper is fine, although she'll be competing with literally tens of millions of similar things on Facebook, Twitter, and so on.
When it trails off into script writing, that's another world entirely. I've written screenplays from novels and vice versa, but never really sold anything or had anything produced. I tend to think it's enough of a challenge to try and make it in one art form.
So what I take away from this is that this young lady must have a very compelling personality, and has had a lot of fun doing her act-ups with costumes and so forth. Maybe something video would be the next step? YouTube? Turn those act-ups into little quasi skits or episodes of a faux science fiction TV show?
Come to think of it, a couple of people I know got into podcasting. That's audio produced like a broadcast, over the web. It can be live (streaming) or recorded. Again, it's a bridge I have not gotten to for lack of time and energy.
Following any big name author (Rowling, Meyer, you name it) is a losing proposition because everyone is doing it. Just my opinion FWIW.
Bottom line, too, she has had fun with this. We all need to stop doing it when the fun and the passion go away...when it becomes a struggle...If it were just for money, I'd rather sell used cars than sit at this keyboard 14 hours a day typing, frankly. That's what killed Isaac Asimov at age 65 (we now know). Need to get out and exercise, be with people, do skits and laugh and interact. I still think the whole concept this girl thought up with her friends is wonderful.
Is her stuff for sale on line? Is there a name or a book title we can look up? I'd really like to know. Thanks, Joan. Great stuff.