A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: How Much Should You Celebrate a Huge Sales Response to a Book Launch

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 addresses dealing with something that can be deceptive. The question is how you should react to something that seems quite positive -- a great launch. Should you consider it a sign of great things to come or a rude landing?

Great things to come:

• Yes, indeed, a book launch can be the start of a very popular book finding its readership.
• Yes, a highly successful book launch can lead to continuing good sales (but you have to work at it through continuing good promotions).'
• Yes, a great book launch can bring your book to the attention of groups, organization, and influencers who will increase its popularity over time.

Rude landing:

• If you think of book selling like a race, then the sales from a launch might be more like sprinting for a bit and then, out of breath, not being able to finish the marathon. If the launch is not part of a larger promotional package, those sales become a flash in the pan -- very typical.
• Not long after the book launch, if you launched via book signings at bookstores, any unsold books will be sent back to the publisher, and royalties will take a huge hit. It is not a one for one situation. A returned book is not simply a negative sale, leading to zero income. It leads to negative income because you have to pay for the postage and service fee to get the book back (yes, of course, you can always ask that the book be destroyed, but you/publisher will have paid to have the book printed, so that amount is a loss if you do not have a book to sell to try to recoup some of the loss).
• Very commonly, with or without a special launch or series of launch events, a book will sell well in the first 1-2 months as bookstores stock up, followers on social media platforms acquire copies, and friends scoop up their copies. When that stops, euphoria turns to disappointment.
• The farther out you go from launch, the fewer per day sales you can expect. It is hard to get reliable figures (and they change by the year), but currently the estimate is that an average first week is 50 books, an average first quarter is 200, and an average first year is 400. Here at MSI Press, we observe a somewhat different post-launch set of figures, but the curve is still there, up to 100 sales the first week, up to 300 sales the first month, averaging 300-400 the first quarter and falling significantly after that to even out to about the industry average. I chalk that up to a combination of author excitement and investment initially and promotion/marketing fatigue setting in around the third month. After all, authors like to write; they are not generally by nature salespersons.  

The bottom line is that authors must be fully engaged long-term in order for the launch results not to be a fluke or, rather, a flash in the pan. Launches need to be part of a larger marketing plan, and that plan is going to bank heavily on author involvement. Getting discouraged is counterproductive. If you are running a marathon, there are definitely times you will feel like dropping out, exhausted, but you have to keep going to get your second wind. Books can get a second wind, too.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Don't place too much importance on a book launch's results -- stay focused on the long-term goals.

Read more posts about publishing HERE.

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.

                                Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.