Replies

  • jeff herman July 26, 2012 at 11:47am

    The elephant in the room is the possibility that some of the time all of the marketing in the world won't make a difference. For instance, it's not uncommon for uber-rich people to spend millions of their own money and still lose the elction for the simple reason that most of the voters preferred someone else.

    • Sharon Lindenburger > jeff herman July 26, 2012 at 6:46pm

      Yes, there have been authors who spend mega-bucks on PR and marketing and their book goes nowhere in the long run. But the spending of big bucks does give the author a brief flash of "dominance", kind of like a Roman candle firecracker that goes off, then sputters out. The Amazon bestseller book campaigns are a prime example--people spending thousands of dollars to get to #1 in their category in Amazon for a period of less than 24 hours. In some cases, they're bumped from number #1 within two hours. Imagine $10,000+ spent for a couple of hours of being Amazon's #1 in your category, then plummeting....not a very good ROI in my opinion. 

  • Sondra Sneed July 25, 2012 at 10:53pm

    Totally agree with that.

  • Sondra Sneed July 25, 2012 at 10:49pm

    I'm sure there are already independent distributors working on that very model.(?)  

    I'm also sure that the big six will incorporate self-publishing services like Balboa for Hayhouse.  That's certainly one way to get to have a foot in both doors.  Independent, POD printers are already selling services like drop shipping to individual writers, it seems logical they will start joining forces with distributors to compete with top publishers, and then give retailers deep discounts to compete.  

    These are just guesses based on what I don't know about the buying and selling game of books, but there are plenty of smart people working this out.

    (EDIT): Amazon already gives distributors a platform to sell from.  These are the people who sell books at the 'new/used for less' options on Amazon.

    I have some friends who buy book inventory in bulk and sell them on Amazon this way.  They make a decent dollar at it and also have frequent garage sales and book sales at their house.  Kind of a cool little gig they got goin'.

  • jeff herman July 25, 2012 at 5:46pm

    Karma, I'm not sure that most successful self-promotional authors are self-published, though it may be moving that way. Many auto-successful authors want the credibility of a brand-publisher, and don't want to be bothered with all the tedious logistics. Or they just want to maximize retail presence. For many of them royalties are the tip of the ice berg because the book is used to generate much more valuable commerce.

  • Monique Colver July 24, 2012 at 9:39pm

    That would be terrible. Fortunately I've been happy with sales so far.

  • jeff herman July 24, 2012 at 9:37pm

    Monique, Don't be so hard on yourself, we all forget things. 

  • jeff herman July 24, 2012 at 9:35pm

    However, the ultimate rejection is getting it published and selling few copies. 

  • jeff herman July 24, 2012 at 9:21pm

    Good question that defies a simple answer. Amazon is your best bet, but you will still need to drive your customers to buy the book. Other retail channels are very difficult to access but far from impossible.

  • Sondra Sneed July 24, 2012 at 9:17pm

    I think it may recycle every 6 mos, like fashion.

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