Part 2: What Doesn’t Work & Why

Since I started this Self-Publishing adventure, I’ve researched several companies that provide publishing services. In doing so, I also checked out the products offered on their websites. Amazingly, these aren’t just books though some sites like Booklocker offer only books.

CafePress offers the ability to design your own products from coffee cups to clothing and sell them through your own storefront. (I have some shops there with the most popular being The WRITE Way, probably because it’s the only one I promote. I love any writing design which is why I create them.)

CafePress offers the ability to publish books and music as well, and so does Lulu and CreateSpace, the site I chose for my Mom’s memoir Memory Lane: My Sentimental Journey.

Most of these self-publishing sites now offer some or all of these products: Books, Calendars, Artwork, Music/Audio, Software, and Video.

CreateSpace is big with musicians and indie film makers. There are CDs by groups you may never have heard of as well as movies, documentaries, and whatever else you can imagine on DVDs being produced and sold through CreateSpace.

The DVDs range from movies of every genre to documentaries to workshops on writing by well-known TV and film writers like James Brooks and Joe Eszterhas to mention two.

However, I’m going to focus on books since that’s where my primary interest lay. I can tell you what I’ve seen, how the process was for my mom’s book, and what kind of sales I’m making with her book which is also available through Amazon. Many of the self-published books aren’t available anywhere except the publishing site unless the user pays extra for ISBN and bar code.

In searching through the books offered on these various sites and in visiting with the communities on the sites where I’m registered, the one thing that seems consistent, site to site, is that certain projects work better than others. What follows are my observations and opinions based on more than 20 years in the writing business and in being published by traditional publishers thus knowing my print runs and sales records. (If you have self-published a print book and would like to share your sales records, please feel free to contact me at joan @ joanreeves.com. I’ll certainly put your information on the blog. Place “self-published sales numbers” in the subject box so my filter won’t eat it.)

What Doesn’t Work

Novels
Children’s Books
Other books that depend on impulse purchasing

Why don’t these work well when self-published? All for the same reasons which all boil down to one factor: distribution. But, let me explain.

Impulse Purchasing

Sales of these kinds of books are usually made via impulse purchasing.

You’re at the bookstore browsing the shelves. You see a cover that interests you. You pick it up. Read the blurb on back. Flip it open, read the first few sentences. You either buy it immediately, or you put it back on the shelf. Publishers spend millions trying to find the magical answer as to why people will immediately buy a book. They have entire marketing departments devoted to writing the most-compelling cover copy; designing the captivating cover art which involves not just the artwork but the font selection, placement, color, and sizing; and choosing the right book title.

Package Quality

Most self-publishers don’t know much about those marketing aspects, and it shows when they don’t. Most authors who’ve been in this business any length of time can immediately spot a self-published book because of those elements – so can readers. So package quality is a factor that will affect your sales even if you get people to the point of purchase: your book web page.

If you have a book that falls into this category, you make a sale only if someone finds your book. You have to drive traffic to the web page where it’s displayed because you won’t get impulse sales. You can’t catch the attention of browsers at bookstores, in the checkout line at the supermarket, or in airports.

Rack space rules in publishing. Distributors have contracts with publishers that determine which books will be found where. Some books may appear in airports, but you won’t see them at your local drugstore. A drugstore book might not be found at the supermarket. A book at Target may not end up at WalMart.

Distribution

Distribution is a hurdle self-published authors can’t leap over. Their distribution is on the web, tied to a specific page where the book is displayed. They can have the most wonderfully-written book in the world with a quality package, but if no one finds it, they’ll never make more than a couple hundred bucks on it.

In essence, the self-published author of fiction, children’s books, or similar type books that don’t have a built-in platform (more on platforms later) faces the daunting task of helping readers discover his/her book. Trust me on this, that is a daunting task unless:

1. You’re well-known and people will seek your book because of this.

2. You have a platform that makes readers seek your book.

3. You are an expert at Internet marketing and know how to drive traffic to your book page.

4. All of the above.

In a few days – sorry about the time lag between these parts of the series (blame it on too much work and trying to have a life during the holidays) – come back for Part 3: What Kind of Book Does Work, Part 4: How To Drive Traffic, and other posts in this series that will follow.

Takeaway Truth

Knowing what doesn’t work and why will help you discover what to do to compensate.