IT'S ABOUT THE LASAGNA
THE SET-UP: It was 2017 when my husband and I decided to become publishers with Devil's Party Press. It was right now days ago when we got good at it. Wait, we're still getting good at it.
Um, yeah, I just admitted that. I don't claim to be anything I'm not, which is maybe one of the best and most trustworthy things about me.
Whether you write and someone else publishes you (and go you! if that's your situation), you write and you publish yourself, or you write and you pay to publish, it's a process, the writing and the publishing.
THE SMALL PUBLISHERS GAMBLE THEIR MONEY Small publishers, like me, don't typically last long, especially if we're small (we are) and indie (we are) and traditional (meaning we don't charge fees, and we don't). Imagine that you have four books you are publishing this year, Small Publisher, and you are editing, and proofreading, and formatting, and buying copyright, and an ISBN, and getting a cover designed, and doing PR, and etc., etc., etc. It is either money (if you pay for all of those services) or time (if you do them yourself) or some combination of the two. In any scenario, Small Publisher, the money comes out of your pocket, and so does the time.
The Writer, in the traditional scenario we all wish to encounter, gives the publisher the book and waits for the publisher to hand over money.
WRITER, IT IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW THIS, BECAUSE YOU CAN DIRECTLY AFFECT HOW MUCH MONEY THERE IS FOR THE PUBLISHER TO GIVE YOU.
If Simon and Schuster are publishing you, Writer, they have so much money from Steven King that they have plenty of green to throw at you, and can pay their own team of editors, and proofreaders, and etc.
IF a small guy like me publishes you (and I am from Philly. I use "guy" as a non-gendered pronoun, like any good Philadelphian), there is no money until, and if, the book sells.
MORE AND MORE THE WRITERS are the ones who sell their books, especially when they self-publish, or publish with us small guys.
And I will tell you how they sell it, not through door-to-door, but by building themselves some reason to be of importance, and to sell their book to likely readers, without, really, ever mentioning the book.
SO I AM TAKING A CLASS AT IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association, which you can and should consider joining), and, to date, as a publisher, all the money, from my membership on, that I have given to IBPA has been the best money I have spent on my company. GO IBPA!
And I am currently taking this course:
And it is really good, and worth the money.
And I am learning that, when you have written a fiction book, you need to identify non-fiction topics in the book, and then (usually together) the publisher and the writer pitch, NOT THE BOOK, but the author, as an expert on these non-fiction topics, to bloggers, to local news, to newspapers, what-have-you. And the author, with any luck, gets to go on that podcast, let's just say it's a podcast, and talk about the art of making lasagna for one (because, in the author's romance novel, the lead character makes lasagna for one), and then, at the end of that, the author is given a quick minute to pitch the book.
So it's not the fact that you have a novel about a single person trying to find love that sells the book. I mean how many of those are there? Why are readers going to risk their book money on your romance novel?
THE LASAGNA!!!!!
They are going to buy your book because you taught them how to make lasagna for one!
And if you do it in a charming and interesting way, you're going to sell more books, because the people who listened ended up liking you, Writer, and they want to help you, because you gave them a kick-ass lasagna recipe, and you seem like someone they'd like to be friends with.
And so we all need to sell not the book, but the hook. What non-fiction things are there in the book, that might interest readers, and draw them in to finding out about you, and, by extension, your book?
I am also an author, and I think we all have to learn to shift our thinking.
MY BOOK IS NOT MY COMMODITY.
I AM MY COMMODITY.
D'you get it?
If you don't get it, or if you just want to know more, I cannot recommend enough that you take the class Scalable Book Marketing for Publishers at IBPA.
Thanks for reading my post! Sorry I was a bit late to put it up here. I've been so busy editing and taking classes, and trying to make the company work. Will I make it? How the heck do I know?
Be well, be writing, and be the commodity!
PS!!!! In the USA it is PRIDE month!
HAPPY PRIDE!
I just bought my "supporting trans people" shirt from this great little shop.
I have had so many queer friends in my life who have been fundamentally wonderful and enriching for me. GUYS (she wrote, using her Philadelphian non-gendered pronoun) I LOVE YOU and THANK YOU FOR BEING IN MY LIFE. I, and Devil's Party Press, will always support you!
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