Marketing - to Publishers Internet book Sales

4 October 2011, Marketing - to Publishers Internet book Sales

Introduction: I realized that I need to introduce this blog a little.  I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.  The working title was Daemon, and this was my 21st novel.  Over the last year, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing.  In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes.  You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published.  I'll keep you informed along the way.  At this moment, I'm showing you the marketing material I put together for a novel.

Today's Blog:  We've covered classical publishing runs, discount book sales, bookstore book sales plus a few other topics.  You might be asking how you can get your books sold if you can't get them into the bookstores.  The answer is Internet and electronic book sales.   

Let's talk about the other types of publishing today.  Classical publishing runs are going by the wayside in favor of Publishing on Demand (POD).  I'm not really certain that any book companies are really publishing in publishing runs any longer (even if they say they do).  Once a book is set up in POD format, you can print it on demand in as many copies as you want, and the process is all automated.  Human hands don't need to touch the books.  POD is cheap, easy, and very smart.  POD has given rise to and caused many regular publishers to move to be POD publishers in word and deed.  A POD publisher usually has limited access to bookstore sales, but that may not necessarily be completely  the case.  The cost advantage in POD comes from printing only the number of books you need to sell right now, so it doesn't make sense to print up a whole print run to stock in a bookstore where there is a great chance the book might come back to you for cash or credit.  Instead, POD publishers make most of their money on Internet or direct sales.  Once you've made the sale, you just have to print the book and ship it. 

A large number of the books purchased through the Internet are POD books.  Now, let's talk about POD publishers.  Many new POD publishers have sprung up in the current market.  They are usually smaller businesses than the classical publishers and they usually specialize more.  For example, in inspirational, Christian, eroica, homosexual, specialty romance, Christian romance, etc.  The opportunities in POD publishers is to make the regular print market open to more specialized works and to more good writers.

I'll posit my novels as an example.  They are all mixed genre and very difficult to place in any specific genre.  The regular publishing houses were direct in pointing this out to me.  I found a publisher who was looking specifically for my style of writing and type of novel.  The advent of POD and specialty publishing made it possible for my works to be published.

I have a very strong presence in Internet sales at almost every Internet bookseller on the web. 
You likely also realise there are opportunities to sell electronic books.  I'll write about that tomorrow.

I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples:   http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites:  http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonor.com/, and http://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.