Booknolia

In my previous two blog entries, I mentioned the first two steps to becoming a successful author:

1. Writing the book (or at least a book proposal).
2. Publishing the book (self-publish or traditional route).

The third step is the step that most authors fail to do. They believe that once they publish the book, they’re done. “The book will sell itself,” they expect. Or, “The publisher will market and sell the book for me.”

Wrong.

The third step to becoming a successful author is promoting the book.

The best book on book promotion is 1001 Ways to Market Your Books.

Today publishers are like venture capitalists: they place 10 bets and hope one will be a homerun. Although some VCs will put some sweat in the game and work hard to make a company a success, most will just sit on your Board of Directors, give you general (and sometimes useless) advice, and they will depend on you to execute.

Similarly, for every 10 authors a publisher takes a chance on, they hope one will hit it big. The publisher will do little, once the book is published, to ensure its success. They will dole out some advice, perhaps put you contact with a few folks, but ultimately expect you to do 99% of the promotion.

In short, the publisher just edits the book, does the layout, designs the cover, and then makes it available through the distribution channels. Although this is all useful, notice that marketing and promoting your book isn’t part of the package.

There is one exception: the publisher will bring out the heavy marketing artillery when they have given the author a beefy advance. For example, if they give you a $200,000 advance, they need to make sure that the book earns its advance. That means it has to get on the bestseller lists. Although an advance is based on future royalties, the author doesn’t have to return the advance if the book is a flop. Therefore, the publisher will put the author on a book tour, get them on radio, and make sure reviewers review it. Otherwise, the publisher won’t recoup its investment.

However, most first time authors get only a $10,000 advance. The publisher is unwilling to throw more money at an unproven author. In its mind, the $10,000 advance and the printing costs is a big enough bet. The publisher hopes that the author can gain enough traction and organic success without any further investment. This is similar to an angel investor providing seed funding to a startup. It’s just enough money to prove the concept. If it looks promising, they might throw more money at it and replicate the success elsewhere. If it doesn’t take off, they will cut their losses and let it fail.

Therefore, a first time author must be prepared and willing to do most of the marketing and promotion, even if Random House is publishing the book. This means organizing a book tour, trying to get on radio stations, sending review copies to potential reviewers, writing articles about your subject, and using the power of word of mouth marketing.

This is where Booknolia comes in. Booknolia is a platform where authors can promote their books for free. It’s a website that attracts readers who want to find their next book to read. It’s a place where fans enjoy discussing and meeting new authors.

Booknolia is particularly attracted to authors who have written works in one of these four non-fiction categories:

1. Religion
2. Politics
3. Science
4. Self-help

Whether you’ve written a book in of those four broad subjects or some other subject, we want you to join Booknolia. Contact us to see the special incentive Booknolia is offering you to join our community!

As I mentioned in my last blog, the first step to becoming an author is to write the book. However, it’s a common myth that your labor ends there. Writing the book is an important first step (if you write non-fiction you only need to write a couple of chapters and a book proposal). However, the second important step is getting published. There are two ways to get published:

The traditional route

This involves finding an agent, or, if it’s a small publisher, contacting the publisher directly. Big publishers (e.g., Random House) won’t talk to you unless you have an agent. Small publishers will consider drawing up a contract directly with the author. The advantage of this route is that you get immediate distribution and credibility. The disadvantage is that most first time authors don’t get any marketing support from their publisher and you get a poor economic deal. To go this route, pick up a book like The Writer’s Market.

Self-publishing

There are three ways of doing this:

The first (and the easiest, with the least capital outlay) is to use a Print On Demand (POD) publisher. There are several to consider, including Lulu, Blurb, iUniverse, Lightning Source, and AuthorHouse. The advantage is the low capital costs and the turnkey solution. The disadvantage is that there is limited upside potential and many bookstores won’t stock the book because you won’t be able to offer it at a sufficient discount.

The second way is to create your own publishing company and outsource whatever you want (e.g., cover design, internal layout, editing). You’ll need to spend at least $10,000 to get the book printed in quantities that are meaningful (at least 3,000 copies). The advantage is that your per book price is low and so if you sell out all your copies, you’ll make a lot of money. The disadvantage is that you have to be good at business and capable of spending up to $20,000. Buy The Self-Publishing Manual if you’re interested in this route.

The third way is to publish an eBook. The market for eBooks is doubling every year. The advent of Amazon’s Kindle device (along with the Sony eBook Reader) is making eBooks more popular than ever! The advantage is that it won’t cost you much to make your book available digitally. The disadvantage is that you will be limiting the exposure of the book since most people still prefer a traditional physical book.

Which is the best way to get published? Join Booknolia and ask our authors! Authors at Booknolia come from all backgrounds. Some of gone with the traditional publishers, others the self-published route.

Congratulations on writing your book! Now go get it published! In the next entry, I’ll share step three to becoming an author.

It’s a common, romantic dream. However, like most romantic dreams, reality isn’t as pretty and perfect as the rosy dream.

Myth: You just need to write a great book. Budding authors believe that the cliché “build it and they will come” also applies to writing books. In other words, they believe that if you write a great book, people will buy it.

Not so.

Everyday someone, somewhere in the world, is finishing up an amazing, seminal book. However, that book won’t hit the bestseller lists while dozens of less interesting books will.

Why?

Cynics might conclude think that it’s because Americans are uncultured and stupid. They think we all enjoy trashy books. Although some do, smart and profound books make it to the best seller list often (consider Freakonomics, The Third Chimpanzee, and The World Without Us).

Therefore, if writing a great book doesn’t guarantee success, what does?

Marketing.

Reality: You just need outstanding marketing. Amazing marketing is what separates the bestsellers from the unknowns. Obviously, writing a breakthrough book helps, but what really makes a difference is killer marketing. It’s the common DNA in nearly all contemporary bestsellers.

Therefore, if you want to be an author when you grow up, remember that there’s more to it than just sitting on the beach in Bali and writing a great book.

As an author, you’ll have to hustle and promote your book nonstop. That means writing articles, getting others to write articles about you, getting others to review your book, and getting on radio and TV. That’s hard enough, but now imagine doing all that when you have no budget (which is what most publishers give you). Not so romantic anymore, eh?

At Booknolia, we’re helping budding authors to market their books. Unleash the power of social networking at a site that is exclusively devoted to book lovers. Join today!

We all learned in econ-101 the guns vs. butter model as a classic example of the production possibility curve. It shows how a nation would choose to spend its resources: defense vs. domestic civilian spending. What pushes guns over butter? Public fear, either manufactured or real.

Public fear is easily manipulated, especially in today’s world of media consolidation. Who doesn’t want security? who doesn’t want those terrorists brought to justice and their nests demolished? Who could argue that president’s job is to ensure the security of the nation? so the argument for guns is a no-brainer.

Butter, on the other hand, is generally perceived as luxury and privilege. Anyone who talks too much about universal healthcare, unemployment protection, education, and the like is automatically accused of being fiscally irresponsible at best and a socialist at worst.

Today’s election, as every other one, is about guns and butter. Given the fear climate of the post 9-11, guns win every time. How’s this related to books? Education - schools and libraries - all belong to the “butter” category. Ignoring them, however, will require more guns in the future. So in the long run, they will all belong to the “guns” category as we need to fight our way for resources instead of using them wisely.

For a current discussion on the cost of wars, see Joseph Stiglitz’s The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict (ISBN: 978-0393067019). Guns cost too much…

In 2006, U.S. customers spent $56 billion for over 3 billion new and used books. They are between 25 and 54 with a female skew, educated and affluent, highly vocal, loyal and are more likely to engage in participatory reading activities.

Who writes these books? The 3 million authors in the U.S. who write more than 185,000 new titles annually. Who publishes them? Over 62,000 small, medium and large publishing houses with net annual revenues of $36 billion in 2006. There’s world of authors, agents, publishers, distributors, and booksellers working almost seamlessly such that we get to read the books we like.

How did all this come about? Read about it in Epstein’s short book “Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future” which reads like a personal memoir with focus on book publishers. His many years in the industry qualifies him perfectly to talk about the past and the present as well as giving him the vision to speculate on the future of this non-linear industry.

Until 2006, publishers’ sales statistics did not include smaller publishers with under $50 million in annual sales. The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) changed all that. BISG’s latest publication, Book Trends 2007, estimates that total publishers’ net revenues in 2006 reached $35.7 billion, up 3.2% over 2005’s total, and that unit sales in 2006 exceeded 3.1 billion. TRENDS projections show revenues reaching nearly $42 billion and units at 3.24 billion by the end of 2011. TRENDS 2007 which covers the entire U.S. book publishing industry is pricy ($875) if you are not a member of the group but you pay $125 if you are a member.

Lately I have been reading about online conversations and blogs. My first book about online conversations was The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business As Usual by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger. I think I read it in late 2000 after first following their website back in 1999 with their 95 Theses. I encourage you to read those theses written almost 9 years ago. Still fresh after a decade of change!

There is another book I picked up last week from the famous blogger (and a pioneer) Robert Scoble, co-authored with Shel Israel. With a great cover design and catchy title, Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers is about blogging and why it will revolutionize business communication. I haven’t finished reading it yet but if you are still wondering why to blog, you should read this book.

Read more…

I came across a pretty good diagram of how blogs are working. Unfortunately it’s not easy to view it online since once again Wired magazine is trying to make things artful :-( See the article by Frank Rose. Great work!

There are some very good books on how to start your own blog, how do blogs work, or how to promote your blog. I browsed “Blogging for Dummies” (ed. 2008) at a local bookstore last week and it’s nicely written. It’s a good start.

Read more,

_parham

In September 2006 my wife, an avid reader, bought: The Kite Runner, a book recommended by one of her friends and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, a book she heard on KQED (bay area station of NPR) a while back.

The whole process was somehow complicated. Couple of her friends recommended books that after browsing them at a local bookstore, she didn’t buy. Amazon reviews, although helpful, were polarized on a controversial book such as “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. She asked me what good it is to read a review from someone without knowing his/her background. Interesting, isn’t it! Just imagine a Republican reviews “Audacity of Hope” from Barack Obama and a Democrat reviews “Real Change” by Newt Gingrich.

Few days later, I drove down to Los Angeles to meet with Touraj, an avid reader of non-fiction books and a bookworm with a bookshelf of more than 2500 books. Within few months of talk and brainstorming, Booknolia was born in January 2007. At Booknolia we would like to help readers picking their next great book and meeting like-minded readers while helping authors meet their current and future fans.

That simple :-)

Read more,

_parham

If you like books, you’ll love Booknolia!

Stay tuned…