Kids,
This writing is the result of receiving several direct messages on Twitter.
In Officer School in the Navy they teach a " Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you just told them" approach to communication. I am told by others that is how I communicate. I am aware some ( especially younger people ) can view it as condescending or abrasive. Please know, that is not my intention. I am also aware I have a sense of humor that tends to be sarcastic.
- My ' business plan' approach to selling books.
Long before I began to write, I put together my business plan. I set a goal of selling 30,000 books with the goal of earning $10.00 profit per book. I spent a fair amount of time putting together my plan and I did a fair amount of research to test my plan.
I own and run an "Executive Search" firm that operates globally.( Which means I sleep in three hours shifts through each 24 hour cylce as I have to deal with business in the Americas, Europe and East Asia.) I have a database of about 50K names of people who earn an "upper six figure/seven figure" income. I leveraged this database with broadcast emails on a weekly basis that said " Hey, you trust me with your career related moves, buy my book for your wife/girlfriend" . I was well aware that many would buy it because they wanted to maintain the working relationship with my firm. I doubt most who bought it will ever read it. I don't care. My goal was for them to buy my book. That was my only focus, to sell books.
I wasn't finished writing and I had a very rough draft on Amazon way in advance( I seem to recall I had a " publish" date that went on many, many months, to be honest, I don't know as when I say " I", often what I mean is my Personal Assistant, Brittany- so if I ever deliver any commentary that is inconsistent, please know I was not actively involved in every step of the process. During that advance window, I was sending emails out in batches periodically, and by the time I arrived at " Publish" date, I had in excess of 1,000 'preorders'. It wasn't really a great accomplishment as I basically nudged people I assist to obtain a several hundred thousand dollar a year income increase, they weren't going to hesitate to drop a few dollars on something they probably won't ever read.
My plan was to step back from being actively engaged in my business and fall back on running it from behind the scenes. That plan changed when two particular clients offered up nice contracts with the caveat I be actively involved. It was at this point I backed off of my approach of soliciting candidates to buy my novel. I did not want candidates to believe I was not focused on business , and I did not want to be in a position where I would be told I erred as I was not focused on business as I was splitting my attention to the " author game".
When the current in-place contracts end, I intend to hammer everybody in the database to buy my novel , and by the time the contracts end I will have my second novel released.
(( Edit: 7/28/2023 - approaching the 20K sales mark across several platforms. ))
- Book Clubs /Social Venues
Not being in a situation to leverage my database, I hit upon the "Book Club" idea. Many ask me " why", or ask how I came up with the idea. I understand most of you are focused on writing and may not have a business/marketing background. I do, it is just how I am wired. I focus my efforts on clubs in NYC, as when I go home to NYC I can meet with them.
Book Clubs are groups of people who read books. Why would I not approach these people? They are not secret societies cloaked in mystery. They are groups of peope who share a passion for reading. The want to read books, I want to sell books. I have a book. Why would I not approach them? ( Why aren't YOU doing this?).
It is important for me to emphasize, I don't have a lot of free time, and with the current contracts in place, I have about an hour daily to focus on my marketing. I spend that hour approaching book clubs with a simple " Hey, you are a book club, I have a book" approach. I do not know why so many are surprised at this approach. It has to be the easiest sell - selling books to groups of people who gather monthly to discuss books they read. If this isn't as close to the proverbial " shooting fish in a barrel" scenario, I ask what is...
There is a reason people sell " Rolling Stones" tee shirts outside of concert venues where the Rolling Stones are performing. They know the foot traffic is people who like the Stones. They aren't selling just ' shirts', they are selling ' Stones ' shirts .
And this bring me to the 'how to' of approaching book clubs. There are many, they have FB pages, website, blogs, etc. You can search one in your area at Useful Book Clubs Directory Link . I have been quite successful with book clubs who have Facebook pages; Facebook allows me to interact with the club members. I did not write a science fiction book. Thus, I don't put time in to marketing to a club that is " Upper West Side Sci-Fi Book Geeks". They are not my target audience, I do not have a product they want.
When dealing with book clubs( which really are usually a collection of socially maladjusted people, bitter divorcees and others who have been unlucky in love and have turned inward,those little accomplishments on their live resumés that they seek validation by avering to the world their reading prowress, and the physically infirmed who often participate via video- come on, these people really are sitting ducks to whom to market), you will encounter a " group leader' or " moderator". These people, are the Kings and Queens of the Dolts. One has to approach them in most instances. As I have stated, I limit my approaches to NYC based clubs - and I limit my focus to clubs with a membership of at least 50.
My pitch is standard, I approach the "leaders" and offer the following:
-A free copy for the club leader(s)
**If you offer these dweebs a free book, they will "push" your book to their club.
-A discount to the listed price for club members.
-I agree to meet with the clubs and do all those things these people want; meet with them, do a short reading, drink their coffee, take photos ,sign books.. and suffer through a Q&A , which is usually a session of pseudo-intellectuals who pose ridiculous questions to validate themselves to other club members. I bite me lip and suffer through it all.
-Often these clubs have a newsletter, or contact local newspapers to cover their events. In December 2022, my photo at these gatherings appeared in more than a handful of local NYC newspapers. One of them contacted me and we did an " interview' over video, one of them interviewed me after the signing.. of course getting free press is something that cannot be beat.
I will be in NYC for April-May. I have about 40+ clubs I will be meeting. These are clubs that have either already read my novel or are currently reading.
- The " business" end to selling to Book Clubs.
I will use 1/10/20 for simplification purposes. Numbers below are for example purposes.Your book is on Amazon( and I will give more "Amazon" commentary later) for $20.00. You sell one copy and you earn , what, $7.00, $8.00?
My " author copies" cost me $2.99. This has to be the greatest deal on the planet. For $3.00 I have at my access 24 hours a day a "printer" who will not only print my book, but will ship it where I want it shipped.
Let say my book lists for $15.00. I sell a copy and I get less than $5.00 in a royalty. Why would I do this? Why would I put effort in to such a venture? Why would I spend time /effort/money to drive people to a book selling platform where they end up buying a book by somebody else?
I take orders ( and receive money from clubs directly via Cashapp, Zelle, etc) directly and I offer my $17.00 book for a '25% discount'.The club members save $3.40 on their purchase that costs me $3.00 to get in their hands.
The math here is better than Amazon payout rates.
$17.00 - $3.40 -$3.00 = $10.60 profit per book sold.
Amazon does not pay me $10.60 per sale.
Yes, I lose the profit on the ' freebie' copy, so be it. Instead of making $10.60 profit on say, 60 sales, I make it on 59 sales. There are additional costs- shipping. Book Clubs have their readings window set far in advance. If you secured a deal with a club the day you read this, you would have on average, two months to get the copies shipped. You can select the slowest, cheapest shipping option and only lose perhaps profit on 2-3 copies.
In this example, I would make $10.60 on 56/57 sales = $593.60/$604.20.
Amazon would not pay me that amount of money if I sold 56/57 copies via their site.
Additional: I don't lug books around . I am not Willy Loman. The only book I carry is my copy that I use for reading at these events. I do not sell any physical copies at these events. Many clubs meet at a Public Library, a YMCA, a Church , etc. I don't have a lot of details as my personal assistant does most of the Amazon related work, but I am of the belief Amazon will offer a special shipping rate to a " Library" or a so-called " non-profit" destination.
In addition to book clubs, I focus my energy on venues such as " Starbucks", "Panera" and other places where the Cool Kids drink coffee as they are buried in their trendy, overpriced iPhone or Macbooks.
I reach out to the Store Manager or as with the case with Starbucks, you need to coordinate with the "Regional Manager". These coffee shops love this stuff.
They do the advertising for your event. Store Managers will be pressured be pressured by Regional Managers to push the event with the goal of packing the place.
They want to pack their stores with customers who will buy their overpriced coffee and snacks. Again, I do not lug books around. I never will. I coordinate these events a month or longer out. This gives time for the advertising to reach the regular customers - and they, because they want to be 'trendy' and attend and post stupid photos for validation on their Instagram or Tik Tok accounts- will buy your book. I just show up, and do the usual nonsense, a reading, sign copies, take photos and pretend I care about their opinions. Be aware Starbucks will often do this along with another 'guest' , so you may end up with some misfit who" plays" a theremin. In NYC in December, at one Starbucks I was a featured with a poet.
I have done this with Starbucks, Panera, Condo Association "Clubhouses" when the Home Owner Association have an " event night". I have also approached " so-called " Fraternal Orders'/Civic Clubs such Kiwanis Clubs, Knights of Columbus, Rotary, Ancient order of Hibernians, etc. These civic clubs are usually older people who are just dying for an excuse to get out of the house and do something once a month. They will latch on to any excuse to get out of the house and them BUYING YOUR BOOK is a great thing for YOU. There is usually an older woman who sports a smelly stained housecoat with a pocket full of used Kleenex who is ' secretary" of these civic groups, that person get the free book- in exchange she will annoy members to send her money for the book. As with book clubs, you get the cash, and order your " author copies" I will reiterate, I don't get involved unless the attendee size will be 50 or more. It isn't worth the time /effort to go somewhere to meet 5 people who have purchased my novel.
- This has been my approach to selling books.
I do not contend is the ' best way'. It is just a way that worked for me .It worked for me as it fit in to my schedule ( one hour a day of effort a few days weekly).
Surely others have their approach.
I have my novel on Barnes and Noble, Apple and Amazon. For reasons I do not know, I sell a lot of ebooks through Apple.( I haven't any idea why). My goal was to sell 30,000 books. I am , give or take a few hundred either way , about halfway to my goal. I would estimate I have sold approximately 12,000 copies 'direct' via 'author copy' sales. There have been times I have made less than my target goal of $10.00 per copy, but on average, it has been $10.00 or more.
- There are drawbacks to my approach
Some of the drawbacks are your author copy sales don't count in your sales number. If rankings are something that is important to you( they are the last thing I am concerned with, I just do not care), you must know this in advance if you pursue this course of action
As well, any 'reviews' ( and book club people never review, they just don't) will not be "verified reviews".
If you order a lot of "author copies" Amazon's algos slot you in to the "this person orders order copies all the time" and your book never shows up in the " People who looked at this book also looked at this..." suggestion section on the Amazon page. Amazon has you pegged as an account that is actively ordering author copies and does not need/want assistance...moreover, when you order 'author copies' Amazon's profit is less than .15 per dollar. They haven't any incentive to assist you with a " suggested reading" recommendation if you are not generating revenue for them.
Twitter is fun and all, but as much as I enjoy the fun, the daily " writer lift" is not going to help me( or you, really) sell books. Daily marketing of our books to other authors is just comraderie , it is not a business model. I will buy your books, ( I will get around to buying 1 from everybody.), but I think I am the exception to the rule.
This was my 'business plan'. I will admit, I worked on various " plans" long before I started writing.
Which I guess addresses the recent tweet of ' do you want to be famous'.
I wanted to sell books. It wasn't about fame, and it wasn't about the " creative process" that process was a road I took to make a product to sell. My goal was to sell books.
I wrote the story I had inside of me because I wanted to write it, and I knew I could write it and I would enjoy selling it. I don't believe I would have been motivated to the degree I have been if I was selling a novel about aliens or whatever...
In case you happened to buy my novel, it is my story, the only divergence from reality being the name " Marla" as her real name " Ántonella" would just be too ethnic . And in the event you haven't figured it out, I am " Tommaso". So if you read my novel, you read my life story to a certain extent.
I stuck to my plan. I never had any intentions of getting a publishing contract. If that is your goal, I wish you all the luck and I will support you and buy your book to demonstrate my support. A graduate of ( at the time) one of the so-called
"Top 25 Universities in America", with a few degrees, one being ' English Language and Literature", I never feared the writing process. For me the challenge has always been (1) time , as I run a business (2) my 'story ' with Marla had to play out...
I have never sent a " query letter" and the odds of me ever doing so are absolute zero, for a few reasons. One, I don't believe I could give up my independence- I have always been self -employed and the idea of playing by the rules of others just does not fit in my life. Two, I don't see the point in trying to win favor of nominally educated , under credentialed young gals( most are females) who don't know a fraction of what I know, have not lived a fraction of the live I have lived. I don't need those gals who get jobs for which they are not qualified based on a Sorority connection or a family connection.
Moreover, I am a so -called " boomer".
I am a heterosexual male , a practicing person of faith, and I don't experience apoplectic shock when approaching a rest room.
I know which rest room is for me to use. And I am ' very Italian' in my views, language use, etc. I am not going to deny I am " very ethnic" and probably everything these publishing hacks despise.
I am everything those unqualified , undereducated nitwits loath- I never saw any reason to waste my time with these "girls", and they are " girls", hardly " women", and most based on their persona on Twitter are certainly not 'ladies'. I am financially set for life, in the 8th inning of my life...I don't need a ' publisher'...there isn't a publishing house that want me and I am fine with that. I was approached by two publishing houses( the introduction was made by connections I have). It was a farce for me; I met with young kids who haven't a damn clue about life , their lives are devoid of any real accomplishment and they seek to validate their pathetic existence by playing the role of social justice warrior. Fuck that, I am too old to waste my time with such immature clowns. I have vinyl 78s that are older than these pretentious, clueless fools who landed jobs for which they are not qualified.
If your goal is to " have a publisher", that is great. I wish you nothing but success, I will stand in your corner and support you every step of the way and take photos with your book.
It just isn't something I wanted, my goal was, and remains to sell books. I don't have any desire to be trendy, heck most of the time I don't understand what is happening on Twitter( what the hell is a "list' and what is a 'circle'? Do I want to know? Who would want me, a guy in his 60s to be in their " circle of Cool Kids"? Comfortable with who I am, what I am and where I am in life, I set out with a plan. I put the plan in my hands, the success or failure of the plan rests with me. - As it is with life in general. I don't seek the advice of unexperienced, undereducated kids for my life issues, why would I seek their advice for a business issue?
These are my views. I am aware others have their views. There isn't any ' right' or 'wrong'. My approach has worked for me , it may not work for you. Yes, I hope you get a huge contract a tremendous advance and sell millions of copies. That wasn't going to happen for me, I am too old, my writing is reality based- not trendy shit such as warlocks,childs with fantasy magical powers, vampires, shape-shifters or aliens who have sex with people when they are sleeping. That is popular now and those of you who are riding that road, do so. It just isn't my road.
I intend to stick to my business plan. I will be in NYC soon; spending about six weeks with a packed schedule of signings. In order for me to sign, they have to be purchased. My focus is on getting them purchased, not begging for favor from a kid who has a job because they were members of a certain sorority house. I have too much self-respect to lower myself to play that game. I remember being in a publishing firm office in NYC and I mentioned Jean Paul Sartre and all the kids at the conference room table had that " who?" look on their face.
As to the " do want to be famous or read" question, my answer is neither. I just want to sell books.
I enjoy Twitter, and I want everybody to be a ' best selling author', 'award winning author', etc. Me, I am 'justPt'...it works for me.
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