A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Your book sales are low; so, why DID you write your book?

 

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 book sales that are not meeting an author's hopes. Why are my books not selling? That is the typical question at such times. Perhaps the first question should be, "Why did you write the book?" That will help you answer the question about sales and how you should react to the level of sales in a more helpful way. Let's look at some possible reasons:

Self-esteem 

• You wanted your five minutes of fame and thought you could get it with a book; this is not a negative thing -- it can be a very good thing.
• Even if your sales are low, you can still have your fame. Your book itself is not the goal in this case. Promoting yourself (your expertise, your significance, whatever you think will help your self-esteem) is what is important.
• Using your book as your credential, look to the media - not to hype your book but to offer an article, interview, or even a column on the topic of your book. Offer to let the book be serialized if they would like, but there is no need to focus on the book. Your purpose in writing was you, not the book. Keep it that way. The book sales, with time, will come -- and if they don't, your "fortune" is likely to come from your opportunities to consult, present, and the like.
• Take on a publicist or media outreach specialist, if you can afford it, to do the legwork for you (they have contacts you do not); sometimes you can hire someone for a specific number of hours that you can afford.
• You thought having a book would make you feel good about yourself. It is likely that what will come in the aftermath of the book will indeed make you feel good about yourself -- if you do not get hung up sales volume.

Ego

• You want to see your book in every library and bookstore. This will make others sit up and take notice of you.
• Of course, you also want best-selling status. NYT bestseller list, please.
• These comments may sound tongue-in-cheek, but really, there are authors who write (typically only one book) for reasons of ego, and that is often not a healthy thing.
• There are some very important reasons why writing a book for reasons of puffing up one's ego rarely works out.
• Being in every bookstore may sound cool but getting there as a self-published author is going to be difficult. Most bookstores want to buy from established publishers. 
• Even publishers can go broke, basing their revenue on bookstore sales. The latest statistics indicate that 5% of books are sold in bookstores and 80% of books returned (for reimbursement) come from bookstores. That is not a good revenue model, and small publishers and self-publishers who are not wealthy cannot afford that model
• There are also some people who just want to be able to say they wrote a book; that is an ego thing, too. All too often, the only shelves these books end up on our those of the author, the author's family, and the author's friends. This is not a good publishing model, and if a publisher gets a sense that this is the purpose for writing the book, the publisher will not offer a contract; it is a losing proposition for the publisher. Authors need to be involved with book promotion and cognizant that a publisher is sinking money into the author's creation and therefore deserves a strong promotion effort from the author. 
• Books written for purposes of inflating an ego are generally the first to get backlisted by a publisher because they simply do not gain traction with readers.

Message

• Some, if not many, authors write a book because they have a mission or advocacy they want to share or spread.
• Others want to share lessons learned--often, this is the case when authors write memoirs. Among memoirists are those who want to pass along the family the stories of their lives and of the family.
• For those who wish to pass along a message, generally sales volume is not what counts, but rather whether the people for whom the message was meant hear it.

Job 

• Some professionals benefit from having a book they can refer to, either to us as an aid or for establishing credibility. Coaching, advising, college teaching, and business training fall into that category -- as do a number of other fields.
• In these cases, sales volume can be quite high -- if the book is used on the job. The volume can also often be predicted and controlled by the author. 

Catharsis

• Some books are written by the author for the author -- for catharsis. Books about abuse often fall into this category.
• Cathartic books often resonate with readers who have had similar experiences, so they can sell surprisingly well even if a high volume of sales was not the original intent.

The bottom line is that every author has to ask and then answer the question: why are you writing this book/why did you write this book? If it is to be a NYT bestseller, you probably picked the wrong dream. If it is to be a published author, well, you have accomplished that. (Unfortunately, for a publisher, when an author has that narrow goal, it usually means a loss on investment.) If it is to get the message out, then keep sending the message. Continually look for new venues. Make book sales secondary to “selling” your message. One of those venues will ultimately work out. The emphasis is on the word ultimate. Our bestselling book was nearly backlisted. It sold just enough each year for TEN years to pay for remaining in the distributor’s catalogue and not much more. Then, it went on a feeding frenzy and for months sold as many books a day as it had in a year during that 10-year period. Now, sales are more balanced and stteady, and it sells a healthy enough number every month to compete for our top book slot. So, if you feel at times like giving up, it happens to many authors, work at sales but don't let them dominate you or depress you. Reframe your definition of success in terms of why you wrote the book in the first place.  

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Judge your sales success not by the total number of books sold but how closely you are coming to fulfilling the reason for which you wrote the book.

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.

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