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A Publisher's Conversations with Authors: Reviews

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  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 about reviews. How do you get reviews?  How should you interpret them? How should you handle bad reviews? So, let's take each question separately. How do you get reviews? There are professional reviewers. Some will review before the book is published -- they want a 3-4 month heads-up (i.e. book in hand, with a later release date). These are highly desirable. Examples are Library Journal , School Library Journal , Foreword Reviews (the free version), and Publishers Weekly . All of them accept submissions sent directly to them. (There are also otherLs; Google them.) You can put your book up on Net

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Republishing Self-Published Books

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  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 about republishing self-published books. Can you get a traditional contract from a traditional publishing house for a book you have self-published?  Well, that depends. As the acquisitions editor for a traditional press that also offers hybrid publishing contracts for untested writers, the answer is an across-the-board no, but there are some publishers who might. Let's look at the reasons for and against republishing a self-published book, from a publisher's point of view. Why a publisher would not want to re-publish a self-published book -- Typically, an author thinks that he or she has exhau

Book of the Week: Tucker and Me

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About the Book Tucker & Me: Growing Up A Part-Time Southern Boy  tells the story of a child growing up in the Mad Men era of the 1960's. Filled with humor, sadness, and harrowing incidents, the memoir reflects all the emotions of life one experiences growing up, in this case, with a single mom who lived in Los Angeles and a father who lived in a small town suburb of Atlanta, Georgia known as Tucker. Traveling in the summers to the alternate universe in Tucker, the author experienced a roller coaster ride of two completely different lifestyles. Book Endorsement "Readers can feel and taste the magical moments. You feel like you’re sitting by the fi replace with Uncle Andy, sipping coffee and listening to his fanciful yarns.” J. Bennett Easterling, author of Of God, Rattlesnakes, and Okra   Review of the Book From Readers' Favorite:  Anyone who has lived a double life like [Harvey's] will understand and enjoy these stories... This book is not just about Harv

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Some Explanations of Diminishing Book Sales

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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 the path of book sales from launch to later one. The question that comes up again and again is why do book sales decrease, rather than increase, after the heady days of the book launch are past? While one might think and hope that a launch is just that--a platform for moving forward, too often the book launch brings the highest levels of sales with a modest or rapid dropoff thereafter. So, what gives? Sometimes, the author has put all his/her money and efforts in one basket of eggs: the launch. Once the launch is past, so are the set-aside money, energy, interest, and plans. What now? is a frequent que

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: The Myths and Reality of Book Promotion

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  Because we work with first-time authors, we are exposed to some "interesting" ideas about how best to promote a book. Reality is often counterintuitive to assumption, perception, and imagination. Let's look, then, at reality. What new authors often expect from promotion--and why they are either unrealistic or undesirable or both:  Book tours from city to city; one new author asked if we would be flying her around the country on a private plane (honest to goodness, she really expected that although she was an unknown person with a first book). Clearly, city book tours do occur--but for people like Dog the Bounty Hunter, not for Joe Blow in Smalltown, America with no platform. The name of the author is what attracts people to these tours, not the title of the book.  Book tours like this -- and we have had some authors do them, usually with the help of a publicist -- are generally a dollar-losing proposition; however, if you can afford the cost, have other things to do in

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Is the Age-Old Advice to Authors Still Viable?

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   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 asks, very simply, what of the standard advice to authors is still viable, given the many changes in the book industry and life in general during and post-covid? Let's look at various pieces of advice that most authors have received from their publishers or from online writing sites. For books to sell, you need a lot of reviews.  Over 100 reviews is the recommended quantity. That is the classic advice. However, we have had hot-selling books that have had nearly no reviews. In those cases, there has been word of mouth "selling," in which influencers have recommended the book, book clubs hav

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Assessing Giveaways As a Marketing Tool

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  It is Tuesday. 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 giveaways. Do they really help in obtaining book reviews and promoting your book? Let's take each question separately. Do book giveaways really help in getting book reviews? Once upon a time they did. Today is seemingly a different story. Library Thing was and likely still is a popular place for giveaways. After all, it is a beehive of book review postings. We used to give away a couple dozen copies each time a book was released. We do not do that anymore. In the past, when Tim (last name forgotten) was the head of Library Thing, a book given away was tracked; it resulted in a review, typically on LT, Amazon, and B&a

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: The Deafening Noise of Today's Book Market

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  It is Tuesday. 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 post, as a follow-on to last week's discussion of the  seismic change in the book publishing industry over the past 5-10 years,  discusses the difficult nature of today's book market for new authors. The nature of book marketing today is more than anything a matter of getting seen, of the hand of an author (or publisher) to be able to hold up his/her book above a sea of raised hands. I doubt that any publisher (or author) will say that they have a great answer to this problem (including to those "specialists" who promise such solutions to authors for a hefty fee -- with many authors disappointed with the results