MSI Press Blog

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 looks at the difference between book marketing and book promotion, two terms that are frequently confused. Leading to the confusion is that some of the same activities are needed for both. In fact, good marketing is dependent upon good promotion. Perhaps the essential difference is that marketing focuses on sales, and promotion focuses on awareness --  noting that without awareness, sales generally do not happen. Book Marketing Book marketing includes promotion, sales, and increasing awareness of the availability of the book. It generally starts with a marketing plan that identifies the target audiences and selects marketing ...

    1.       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 shares information about tracking book sales. In complete frankness, it is a repeat of an explanation I provided to MSI Press LLC authors in one of our monthly newsletters.  An author recently asked (and others have previously asked) how to tell if a particular action results in a specific number of sales. Alas, we have no way to tell unless we are in direct contact with a bookstore making a large order. Book reports from Ingram (distributor) come as total sales. I wish there were a way to tell sources. It would make marketing and promotion a science instead of an art....

  One of the most common misunderstandings in the author–publisher relationship is the belief that all activities related to a book’s success fall under one big umbrella called “marketing.” In reality, three distinct processes shape a book’s life in the world: selling , promotion , and marketing . They overlap, but they are not interchangeable. When authors understand the difference, they can see more clearly what the publisher does, what retailers do, and what the author must do. Let’s untangle the three. 1. Book Selling: The Retail Side of the Equation Book selling is the business of making a book available for purchase. It is transactional, logistical, and retailer‑driven. Selling is what happens after awareness already exists. Book selling includes: Listing the book with retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, indie stores, Bookshop.org). Ensuring metadata is correct and distributed. Managing inventory and supply chain. Setting wholesale discounts and returnability. ...

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 continues the book promotion theme from last week and some previous posts but from a somewhat different perspective.  At the risk of seeming a bit meshuggeneh , I believe an understanding of human intelligence can provide some insight into book promotion. Intelligence (g) Basic human intelligence is often called (g) by psychologists. So, what is (g_? Here is one definition: " The term  general intelligence (g)  refers to a broad mental capacity that influences performance on cognitive ability measures."   There are many other definitions of (g), but they are all similar and less important than the proposal...

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 how authors can sell their books. After all, it makes no sense to put all the effort into writing a book, self-publishing it or getting it published, and then having it sit on a shelf for ever, with no opportunity for it to share its message. Unfortunately, many, if not most new authors, in our experience, never think beyond the day their book appears in print (or, in some cases, beyond their first month of book launch activities). They assume that, of course, they did the work of writing the book, and the publisher will do the work of marketing the book. It does not work that way, and marketing ...