We are joined again today by Peter Bowerman, author of the book “The Well-Fed Self-Publisher” (TWFSP). If you missed yesterday’s installment, click here to get caught up.
Peter, you talk quite a bit in your book about taking marketing to the next level. What would you say are some of the most common mistakes new authors make, and how can they best utilize their time for the greatest results?
Probably the most common mistake is not putting time and money into creating a high-quality finished product – especially in one’s cover design. It’s categorically impossible to overstate the importance of a good cover, yet so many self-publishing authors skimp where it matters the most and then wonder why the book doesn’t go anywhere. A good book with a mediocre cover won’t do as well as a mediocre book with a good cover.
When it comes to promotion, if you’re an unknown author and especially an unknown author of a “niche” book, don’t waste your time with MSM (mainstream media). By and large, they don’t care about you. All my books are niche books. After all, how many people want to write for companies for a living (The Well-Fed Writer/TWFW: Back For Seconds) or self-publish their own book (The Well-Fed Self-Publisher)?
You’re much better going with an Internet-based promotional strategy like I took with my books. See the how-to detail of that a few questions ahead…
Can you tell us a little bit about why you prefer self-publishing over going with a traditional publisher?
Even those authors who manage to gain entry to The Publishing Kingdom quickly discover that the emperor truly has no clothes: paltry royalties, up to two years to publication, the loss of creative control and relinquished book rights. And the most unpleasant realization of all? Even after all those concessions, authors are still expected to shoulder the lion’s share of the book promotion burden themselves! All to earn – in most cases – far less than a buck a book.
Self-publishing offers the opportunity to take the reins of your own book journey. You keep control of the process, the timetable, the rights, and most of the money. Given that you have to do most of the marketing yourself even in a conventional publishing scenario, why not reap most of the rewards? Yes, you have to foot the bill for your publishing efforts, but if done right, whatever you invest can quite realistically come back many times over.
There’s no way I could have generated the income I have through a publisher. In fact, I’ve been contacted twice since the first book came out by two publishers (one a household name), asking if I’d be interested in exploring a publishing deal with them. Not interested. In both cases, after chatting with them, it was clear there was no way they could come close to offering me anywhere near as good a deal as I was pulling off on my own. Not that I wasn’t flattered… 😉 Feels pretty good to turn down a publisher.
I imagine it would!
Thank you so much for being here, Peter. We’ll continue our conversation tomorrow.
In the meantime, you can learn more about Peter by clicking here.
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