A Publishers Conversation with Authors: Should I Take That Marvelous Offer for Help with Book Promotion That Happened to Find Its Way into my Mailbox?

           

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic is a response to the question I get from time to time from our authors: "I just got an unbelievably good offer for X in the email; should I take it?"

The quick answer is "maybe." Not all unsolicited offers are scams.  How, not all offers are genuine, and some that are genuine might not be good for you and your book.  What you need to do is analyze the offer in light of your own circumstances.

You should answer NO when:

• the offer is a scam (Google it -- or ask your publisher); Science Fiction Writers of America also keeps a list of scams and shares information through its blog, Writer Beware, and you could check their site; their blog is a good one to follow, regardless of your genre.
• the offer is less effective than it claims; search results to see if it is generally effective in the way it claims -- find out others' experiences; Google it.
• If you can do the same thing (e.g., various kinds of social marketing) on your own.
• If you can do the same thing by paying a lot less (e.g., press release distribution); some press release businesses charge an arm and a leg (some may only charge a leg) to send out PRs that you can get distributed as widely for a lot less investment.
•  MSI Press LLC posts press releases for its authors to 240+ sites; while this is done for free for its authors, MSI offers the same service to its affiliated authors and any non-MSI authors through its PR distribution services for $50; hard to beat that.
• If a Press Release has not been prepared, MSI Press LLC will prepare one for $60; again, hard to beat that price. (Astute authors can often prepare their own press releases; in any event, we do not recommend that authors pay hundreds of dollars for some of the press release preparation offers that are out there.
• If you cannot afford it; no matter how great the potential, if you cannot afford it, walking away is best IMHO -- unless return on investment is guaranteed in an enforceable way.

You should answer YES when all these conditions are present:

• The offer is genuine and likely to pay for itself in increased sales.
• It will reach people you cannot reach.
• You can afford it.

Here is how you can tell if you made the right decision:

• Pick a book that is not selling well and see if sales increase during and slightly after accepting the offer.
• Pick a time of slump in sales and see if you get a bump.
• Carefully follow sales for a year (i.e. get a year's readout of sales) and see if there is any improvement from the same period the year before; this is not as good as choosing a slumping book because different economic forces can prevail from year to year, but it will tell you something.
• Test it once or twice (though the guidance is multiple iterations matter) just to see if you have an increase at all; it is not wise to throw good money after bad.

Here are some examples that we have considered and either used and walked away from or not used at all. Remember: these may be idiosyncratic to our press and our authors; you may have a different experience.

• Net Galley was expensive for us, and the return on investment was just not there; we also had a bad experience with a purloined book copy, but we understand that there is now more security.
• Library Thing was at one time a very good source for reviews, but in more recent years, we have been disappointed in the % of reviews actually written for the books sent out in exchange for a review (it seems no one is enforcing the commitment to write a review in exchange for a free book) as well as in the quality of reviews, with some reviewers having certain vendettas or wanting to show off at the expense of the author.
• Twitter ads at $99/month did not bring in either an increased followership or sales.
• Face Book boosts also have not brought in an impressive increase in followership or sales, but they have brought in some; we consider them cost-effective for books on highly popular topics.
• Direct advertising - we have seen falling returns on investment. Foreword Reviews, for example, used to be cost-effective and we advertised regularly, now not so much, given increased costs of their advertisements and the dwindling number of sales we could trace back to the publication.
• Leading Edge has been cost-effective for our spiritual and new age books.
• iUniverse and a number of other vanity presses will offer all kinds of promotions. Remember, they exist to make money from authors, not to make money for authors. Although we are a traditional publisher, our affiliated authors are generally self-published. Our advice has always been to run from these kinds of offers.
• E-blasts by others sometimes are cost-effective; we have used them with varying amounts of success.
  
• Advertising through appearance in book catalogues have been somewhat cost-effective, and we do get listed in catalogues.

The bottom line is that no two books are alike. Scams aside (and you should check for them), marketing offers (including offering to re-publish a book, which is usually a scam), vary in their effectiveness. Authors could go broke testing out the waters with them all. So, approach those offers with caution. Embrace only those you should say "yes" to, using the criteria listed above.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Protect yourself from scams, while exploring the value of legitimate offers for book promotion opportunities. Do the cost analysis to determine if that is the best place to put your limited book promotion budget.

 Read more posts about publishing HERE.

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 (Publishing for Smarties: How to Find a Publisher available from MSI Press LLC; discount of 25% with coupon code FF25; currently on sale for $5, but that offer will not last forever).

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