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Okay, I have been participating in a thread on the Murder Must Advertise Yahoo group about what authors think their publishers should do. This morning, after much deliberation, I went ahead and posted some of the things I, as a publisher, do and some things that I won’t do any more.
I had someone ask me privately (concerning a different post) why I get so frustrated and complain about my authors when they work so hard. This question actually came from one of my authors. They also wanted to know why I don’t do more for my authors. It seems to them that I make excuses for not doing things. Okay, fair enough. I answered, even kindly since this author has sold a total of 113 books in the last year.
But this made me think. How come my excuses are bad and an author’s are not? With that in mind, here are the last ten excuses I have received from authors hen I asked them about their personal marketing efforts. They are in no particular order and are very real.
- I have family and I have to put them first. I don’t have time to call stores or travel around for nothing.
- No one is going to come to a books signing anyway so I don’t bother.
- I wrote the book and am writing my next one for you, so the least you can do is market it for me.
- I sent out 100 post cards when it first came out and no one contacted me back, so I am not going to waste my time or money.
- I didn’t get in this business to be a salesperson. I am a writer and have no desire to have to sell.
- All of my money goes on my family, I never expected to have to pay to market my own book.
- The economy is really bad and people are not buying books anyway.
- I work a full-time job, take care of my family, and I need down time. That doesn’t leave time for me to market, that is why I got a publisher.
- It would seem to me that you would have a lot more time to market my book since you don’t work a full-time job. (this is my personal favorite)
- If I market it myself, why do I need a publisher?
- Bookstores and libraries never pay attention to the author, all that marketing stuff has to come from the publisher.
- No legitimate author does their own marketing.
- I don’t know how to find readers. If you find them for me, I will talk to them.
- Nobody sells books from promoting on the Internet, it is a huge waste of time.
- Social networking is not going to reach readers. It never does.
- If you want your business to succeed, you are going to have to prove to your authors that they should even bother with you.
- It is not my responsibility to fund your publishing house.
Okay, more than ten, but I was on a roll. This doesn’t even touch the list. I would very much like to make a very general statement to authors.
IT IS YOUR BOOK!!!!
Journey of the Heart 