LEARN TO SPEAK IN PUBLIC

There's no greater fear than public speaking. Introducing yourself to a stanger is tough. Introducing yourself to a room full of strangers is terrifying. It takes guts, confidence, fearlessness, and a willingness to keep trying, even in the face of rejection.

Sort of like what it takes to get published.

Writers are public figures--even the terminally shy ones. There are wallflowers who never do signings, or never speak at libraries, or never go to conferences. And some of them sell a lot of books. But they aren't selling as many as they could.

Though I wouldn't suggest anyone do anything outside of their comfort zone, with education and encouragement comfort zones can change.

Getting a rejection in the mail is tough. Sitting at a table and having no one buy your book is a lot harder. Trust me on this. It's degrading, humiliating, and makes you feel worthless. Take all the self-doubt, depression, and dashed hopes of every rejection you've ever had, and multiply them by ten. That's how it feels, being ignored by patrons in a bookstore.

If you worked your butt off to get published, you might consider the next step.

Join a local Toastmasters. Take a public speaking course at a local community college. Take a part time job waiting tables.

All of these are options open to you. And believe me, getting through a public speaking course is much easier than selling a book. ANYONE can learn to speak in public. Not everyone can get published.

When you dreamt of becoming a writer, you had no limits. Why impose limits now?

Libraries are always happy to host author events. Some of them even pay. Call the libraries in your area, ask to speak to the Events Coordinator, and try to set something up.

Network with published friends---libraries often like a group of writers rather than just one. You can speak about how to get published (always popular) or do a reading and answer questions about your book.

Go to WWW.PUBLICLIBRARIES.ORG for a list of every library in the US, listed by state and county. And to see if they already carry your book, visit http://www.oclc.org/worldcatdownloads/#top which lets you download a toolbar that gives you access the the databases of US libraries.
 

A chapbook is a writing sample in booklet form, staple bound with a cardstock cover. In my experience, a free, limited edition chapbook (which you can print up for about 9 cents each, by buying paper and cardstock in bulk and refilling your own inkjet carts) is a much better bang for your marketing buck.

This could be comprised of a short story or two, or the first chapter of your novel. This gives people a taste of your writing, gives them something they'll keep (a signed, limited, numbered edition is collectible, and a lot of book buyers are collectors), and also serves as an advertisement for your book (website URL, blurbs, reviews, excepts, bio).
 
I've done seven different chapbooks, and printed 200 copies of each.

The first chapbook I ever made was for a short story featuring the lead character from my novel, Whiskey Sour. The story was about 4000 words, and fit onto 16 chapbook pages.

Here's how it works. You write a story using for favorite word processor. Then you change the paper size (in the WP program) from 8.5 x 11 to 11 X 8.5. So instead of the pages being eleven inches long, they are now eleven inches wide.

Then divide the entire story into two columns, using the word processor. So each full page will have two pages printed on the front, and two pages printed on the back. (take apart any staple-bound magazine and it will have four pages printed on each piece of paper).

When you print the chapbook, use the command to print it as a booklet. Your printer will automatically print it in order, so when it's folded and stapled, the pages all look like a real book. This requires feeding in each sheet twice.

So my 16 page book was actually four paper pages, folded in half and with printing on both sides. Plus a cardstock cover.

The front cover looked like a book cover. The inside had the copyright info. The margins were all justified, and I adjusted font size until the text took up all 16 pages (you have to think in multiples of four, because anything less will give you blank pages at the end).

The inside back cover had an author photo and bio. The back cover was a blurb for the short story, plus info about WHISKEY SOUR and my website.

The second chapbook I printed had an excerpt from WHISKEY SOUR, plus a short story.

The third had a short story that tied into WHISKEY SOUR.

The fourth had some horror short stories that I gave out at a horror convention (a different crowd than the mystery crowd. I played up the serial killer angle of WHISKEY SOUR, rather than the mystery angle.)

The fifth was a reprint of #2.

The sixth and seventh were a new mystery short story that tied into WHISKEY SOUR, and a new horror short story that tied into WHISKEY SOUR.

All had my bio, website info, and facts about my novel on the back and inside covers.

Because it's basically a mini-book, people keep them. They store on the shelf next to regular books. I also put a cover price of $2.50 on the booklet. At events, I NEVER sell the booklet, but the cover price makes it look a little more professional, and there's a perceived value to something that has a price on it.

With chapbooks, people don't feel like they're being marketed to--they feel like they're getting a gift.
 

• Sales - The actual number of books that are sold. Publishers frequently inflate or reduce the actual number. For the most accurate sales figures, subscribe to WWW.THEBOOKSTANDARD.COM.
   
• Royalties - The amount of money an author makes off of each sale. A standard hardcover contract will offer the author 10% royalty off the cover price for the first 5000 sold, 12.5% for the next 5000 sold, and 15% for everything over 10,000 copies sold. If your publisher has world rights, and sells those rights to another country, you typically split the royalties 50/50 with your publisher. So every hardcover Australian copy of your book will net you 5% for the first 5000. For mass market paperbacks, the royalty is 6% of the cover price. it may go up to 8% if you have escalators in your contract (so many hundred thousand sold). There are also escalators for appearing on the NYT bestseller list.
   
• Advance - Royalty money an author gets before the book is published. An advance does not need to be repaid if it isn't earned out.
   
• Earn Out - When the author makes enough in royalties to cover their advance. Once your advance is earned out, the publisher cuts you a check several times a year. If you had a $1000 advance, you'd have to sell 500 copies of a $20 hardcover (at 10% royalty rate) in order to earn out.
   
• Sell-through - Books sold versus books printed. The average sell-through is 50%. New authors may have slightly less. The books that don't sell are stripped or remaindered.
   
• Remainders - If you've ever bought a new hardcover at the store for $3.99, the book was remaindered. When a book is remaindered, it is sold at cost to a wholesaler, warehouse, distributor, jobber, private party, etc, and neither the publisher nor the author earn royalties on it. Paperback books are stripped---they have the cover ripped off and are thrown away.
   
• Rights - As the author, you automatically own the copyright to whatever you write (no need to file that US Copyright form). You don't sell your actual writing, you sell rights to use the writing: first American rights, world rights, TV rights, movie rights, audio rights, etc. Different rights offer different royalty rates.

Others aren't.

I have author friends who love their publicists, and other who don't even know they have publicists because their calls are never returned.

As a writer, it's your job to work help your publicist help you. That means you must keep her informed about everything you're doing to promote yourself, stay receptive, gracious, enthusiastic, and appreciative, and never be pushy, demanding, or ungrateful.

A publicist is the one who sets up booksignings and tours, sends out the press release, makes sure your galleys go to the appropriate reviewers and bookstores, and tries to book media events for you.

Don't be surprised if you don't get any signings or media events, and if you never hear about the press release or galleys. Chances are, your publicist has many authors that she's doing all of this for, and her boss will make her devote most of her time to the bestselling authors, not you.

Help her out by giving her a list of folks to send galleys to, writing your own press release, exhaustively filling out your Publisher Author Questionnaire, and booking your own signings.

Authors often ask me if it's a good idea to hire an outside publicist. I've never done so, and my feelings about this are mixed. Some of my friends love them, but they're expensive, and they really can't do much that you can't do yourself, other than book you on radio and maybe TV.

Have you ever bought a book because you heard the author on the radio? Me neither, so I don't believe paying someone $500 to get you on the AM hit "Good Morning Sheboygan" is worth it, considering you'd have to sell about 160 hardcovers or 830 paperbacks to break even with royalties.

If you do have a chance to do radio, or TV, jump at it.  But keep in mind that simply being an author isn't newsworthy. You need to have a hook other than "I wrote a book."

If you've ever worked for the media, you know that hooks and spin are all that count.  A publicist can help you do this, but unless your dad was the Black Dahlia Killer, it's unlikely you'll appear on any big shows.

That said, you can still help your publicist sell you to the media, by completing the Publishing Questionnaire that they supply you with, and assisting in writing a Press Release.

If you'd like to see samples, here's the PRESS RELEASE I wrote for Whiskey Sour, and here's my QUESTIONNAIRE for Bloody Mary. You can also download a SALES BROCHURE I created for Whiskey Sour before the book came out, to hand out to libraries and at conventions, and the REVIEW BROCHURE that I made after it came out, to hand out at booksignings.

For the release of Bloody Mary, my publisher created an ad for me that I also use as a flyer. HYPERION AD.

Your ultimate goal is to become a brand, just like Pepsi or Nike. To do this, you need to get your name and your books out there, for the public to see.

It's hard. Very hard. Writing a good book simply isn't enough. But you can influence your sales, by doing some of these techniques. And if you have a marketing or promotional idea that really worked for you, I'd love to hear it.

Email me. We'll talk.

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