Hi friends,
This morning, I finally (finally!) finished the edits and formatting for my Freelance Writer’s Guide series of books and generated the files. This takes us from step 1 (get books ready for publication) to the next step (publish the damn things already). Or, in my case, republish them under my new name.
I’m stupidly excited about this relaunch because all but two of these books were Amazon bestsellers (five made the Hot New Releases list) and—I hate to admit this—I did almost no marketing or promotion for them. I sent three emails out to my list (all of you lovely people) each time and that was the end of it. I barely even mentioned them on social media.
Two years ago, I gave them space on The International Freelancer website and that’s led to a steady trickle of sales. I’ve had 34 consecutive months of small but consistent and automated book income, which is no small feat given that I changed my name mid-way and all my branding went for a toss.
Given how little love I’ve given to these books, I have to admit, I’m kind of thrilled at how much love they’ve given me back (and how many of you have read and enjoyed them.)
So, it’s time to stop playing small and give these books the platform and marketing push they deserve.
Which is exciting because after an exhausting six months of posting daily in Bookish Pursuits that I’m “still editing” I’m ready to talk about sales and marketing.
And that brings me to an important discussion that we absolutely must have, both in our businesses and with each other.
What is the ultimate goal for this book, this project, this piece of work?
Is it being able to hold the book in your hand?
Is it the number of books sold? Is it getting on a bestseller lists? Winning an award?
Is it making money? It is building a consistent income?
Something else?
I once spoke to an author who had sold 20,000 copies of her book in the first year, which is incredible, but because all those sales had come through high levels of Facebook advertising, not only was she in the red, she was crumbling under a mountain of debt. It is not uncommon for entrepreneurs who want to write a book as a form of lead generation to spend tens of thousands of dollars on promoting their books because profit from the books is not the goal. Getting new customers for higher-priced products is.
My goals are different for each of my books. With my fiction, I am absolutely looking at the big awards and bestseller lists, which is why I will exhaust all the traditional publishing options before I go indie. I have always, even when it doesn’t necessarily look that way, chosen the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance for my novels, in order to achieve the goals I have for them, is traditional publishing. (I have always found it incredibly easy to attract agents, so I have no doubt that publishers will eventually follow, too.)
With my books for writers, it’s a no-brainer that I’d take them to my audience directly. I have a large and loving audience, for which I’m grateful (THANK YOU!), so why not serve them directly in ways that publishers can’t or won’t? For instance, I give fantastic bonuses when I launch and run price promotions, which is more difficult to do when publishers get involved.
With other nonfiction, I’m leaning indie, too. I’m outlining a book of narrative nonfiction right now, in fact, that I will be crowdfunding for. And I have an idea for serialization that I want to play with when Amazon Vella becomes available to UK authors.
My goal is, and always has been, to create consistent, reliable, scalable, and automated income from my work.
Which means that I’m unavailable for signing bad publishing deals or spending thousands on advertising if it’s not turning a profit immediately.
It also means I’m 100% available for teaming up with other indies and publishing companies to do direct-to-reader promotions that lead to thousands of copies sold but no movement on author or sales rankings. (I just signed such a contract this month.)
I’m still old-school, I guess, in my belief that money should flow towards the author.
It doesn’t always, even when you see big successes, both in indie and traditional publishing.
Which is why you must do your own research. Dig a little deeper. Run the numbers.
And then take the steps that lead you to your own unique publishing goals, whether that’s winning the Booker, making a million dollars, or both.
Cheers,
Natasha