How Any Good Writer Of Fiction Or Non-Fiction Can Make Good Money Writing Books (Part 1)
I say good writer because, let us be clear at the outset, that is finally the fundamental factor in having a successful book or books: on some level, the book must be reasonably well-done. It is important that we never forget that.
Yet there are plenty of good books out there — written by excellent writers, some of whom are friends I met in the capacity of book-editor — that just don’t sell, and the reason for this is that there is a formula (of sorts) to the process, a formula that requires a business mind, as opposed to artistic, and this, I believe, is where many writers founder.
Writers, as you know, are not, in the main, salespeople. I’m certainly no exception to this — which is one of the many ways you can be sure this post isn’t a pitch. The following, rather, the first in a series, is a documentation of a recent, eight-month-long experiment I’ve been conducting, which if you’re a writer or are interested in being a writer you’ll find, I think, reasonably liberating.
When my first book came out, Kindle was barely in her infancy.
When my second book came out, Kindle was still a baby.
At that time, neither my publisher (and friend), who’s now retired, nor I knew anything significant about Kindle, and it turns out that we did about everything wrong — or, at any rate, not quite right.
My latest revelation — and that is exactly how it dawned on me — is controversial. That revelation, which is the main subject of my post, is this:
Platforms, so-called, are virtually meaningless when it comes to selling books. And for writers looking to sell books, platform-building is a colossal waste of time.
Twitter followers, Facebook friends, website subscribers, email lists — none of these things sell books.
That position is heterodox, and it’s contrary to everything you’ve been taught, I realize, and yet it’s unequivocally true.
I know whereof I speak: in my life, I’ve set-up and run seven different websites, all of which have been successful to one degree or another — two of them wildly so, in the sense that these website have gotten plenty of traffic and have had excellent readerships. Yet the amount of book sales that this traffic generated was, to say the least of it, poor.
The overwhelming majority of the books that I’ve sold have come through hand-selling.
So here’s the point:
If one wants to sell books, the first thing one needs to do is concentrate less on platform-building and more on the following, all of which will be the subject of future essays:
Your book title.
Your book cover.
Your Amazon page.
Your book description.
(Note: I focus on Amazon and Kindle not necessarily because I personally like Amazon but because, whether I or anyone likes it or not, Amazon is the 2000-pound gorilla of book-selling, and you ignore it at your peril.)
Looking forward to the second part of this one. As quickly as the world of publishing is changing, this whole business of platform is changing.
cydmadsen
December 8, 2012 at 1:56 am
Thank you, El Cyd. Please stay-tuned: there’s much more to come.
journalpulp
December 8, 2012 at 9:25 pm
I’ve been pondering the usefulness (or lack thereof) of social media to sell books myself lately.
Emma
December 8, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Hiya Emma! It’s good to see you. The subject is a deep and complicated one, but it’s not insoluble. Stick with me: I’ll make you a millionaire.
journalpulp
December 8, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Excellent
Emma
December 9, 2012 at 2:32 pm
And me too? Bu88ered if I can work it all out. Awaiting your wisdom.
rozmorris @dirtywhitecandy
December 9, 2012 at 1:36 pm
You too, baby. You especially.
journalpulp
December 9, 2012 at 8:36 pm
There is a common misconception with self-publishing that once an author has his/her book up on Kindle, and a website, blog, and a host of twitter followers, that all they need do is sit back and the whole thing will take its course. It’s lazy to believe that these platforms will do the work for us, but on the other hand many people have been sold the idea that they will do just that.
Ultimately, like you say in your fantastic article, you need to be a damned good writer in the first place to attract attention, and, I say this tentatively, the great many writers I come across self-publishing on the net are really not very good writers: cliched, passive, sentimental prose or poetry. Very few breaking new ground.
Secondly, in my opinion, the best way to kickstart a career in writing is still the old fashioned way; that is to find and secure an agent. This is not easy. Not easy at all. A good agent understands the industry, they understand the publishing landscape and know what will sell and what can be marketed, and most importantly, they will see the promise (if you have any) in your work, and they will know which publishers to take you to. But each of us are just one of thousands of “promising” writers and they have to make a decision based on many variables, so getting an agent who will navigate your book through the quagmire of the publishing world, and seeing it through to a completed published manuscript, is an arduous task that may not pay off financially at the end. This is why self-publishing has become so desirable.
As for my own platform, the main reason I have a website is because I’ve found it to be an invaluable place to test draft material. It’s a great way to get instant feedback, to get a feel for what a readership wants, likes and dislikes about my work. I am under no illusion that if I go down the self-publishing route I will somehow end up a successful author. I’ve been happy to float along for now, testing some of my work online, getting it right offline, and when the time is right, I will seek out an agent. Anything else on the Internet is just an added bonus.
My two-pence…
asjellis
December 9, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Hello, friend. It’s good to see you. I loved your comment, and I more-or-less completely agree with everything you say, though I would note that there are a lot of piss-poor agents out there. I also agree that there is much value in having a platform, and for those, like you and I, for whom it’s not a grind, I encourage it. My primary point is that these platforms don’t really sell many books. (The one exception is if you’re a celebrity.) Also, I know a lot of writers and other artists who loath, for example, Facebook and yet feel that they have to have a strong presence there. This, I think, is sad, profligate, and totally unnecessarily so. Yet the notion that one must have that kind of social media presence is fostered by agents, publicists, and publishers alike. It is a misbegotten view.
Hope you’re well. Thank you for dropping by.
journalpulp
December 9, 2012 at 9:22 pm
Something else I would add to this discussion is that publishers and agents alike are leaving more and more of the marketing process to the author. This isn’t new — in publishing houses, publicizing books has long been relegated — but with the rise of social media and other online outlets, the trend has grown greatly. So that even if you have a good agent and a good publisher, you’re still expected to do much of the marketing yourself.
journalpulp
December 9, 2012 at 9:59 pm
Oh absolutely there are bad agents, too. And I agree with the crux of your article that these platforms (Facebook, blogs, twitter, etc) don’t sell books – I may have digressed into a rant in my previous comment and skirted around your primary point!
In a nutshell, I think we are in total agreement. There *is* more emphasis on the author (from agents) to publicise him/herself, and an expectation that social media will play a large part in that self-promotion. But as for the hard graft of navigating the marketplace, book cover design, press release, reviews, etc, etc, that’s when a decent publisher and its contacts comes in handy. It’s their job to make a profit from our work, so they will do whatever they can to sell your book. And it’s still those old fashioned variables of book covers, press release, etc, that sell books. As I said, anything else is just an added bonus.
But who knows what the landscape will look like in twenty years time?
asjellis
December 10, 2012 at 3:09 pm
For me literature has always been about capturing something beautiful on the page. That is why I fell in love with literature when I was young, and it is why I chose to be a writer all those years ago. It’s also why I continue to write, and it’s what drew me to your literature in the first place — that quality, I mean.
That process is, for me, the alpha and the omega. I’ve never wavered on it, and never will, even if I were to not ever publish another word. And yet,and yet… And yet I do think the business side is not something to neglect — in part because I believe that having a book published and promulgated is also a component of the process. It completes the circle.
journalpulp
December 11, 2012 at 8:27 pm
I do think you’re right, Ray. Particularly for fiction writers platform is an amorphous thing where you are selling not so much your specific book but you, yourself. And whether that contributes to book sales is hit or miss, IMO. One of the things that I find interesting and frustrating about marketing books is that the elusive pursuit of the reader-fan is time consuming, and fans are fickle but they can be oddly loyal too. The other thing I have noticed but have not been able to put into practice since I only have one book out right now.
is the correlation between prolific writing and success…the idea that your current book sells your last book(s) too, particularly if they are connected in some way.
Kecia Adams
December 11, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Hi Kecia. Thank you for the beautiful comment. I myself listened to the platform peddlers for far too long, and truth be told, it took me a rather serious mental shift to finally grasp the flaw in that model — so that now I almost feel as though the scales have fallen from my eyes.
I hope you’re well. Do you celebrate Christmas? Merry Christmas, if you do. And thank you for dropping by.
journalpulp
December 11, 2012 at 7:55 pm