Self-Publishing — Is It Right for You?

"Are you going to self-publish?" "Did you know you can put your book on Amazon and sell it?" "Why are you wasting time trying to get an agent if you can just do it yourself?"

If you're pursuing traditional publication and you aren't a runaway success story, you've probably had well-meaning friends and relatives ask you about self-publishing (I know I have!). It can sometimes be tough to explain your reasoning when it's taking years to make forward progress.

One very good reason? Self-publishing the right way, to give yourself the best chance of success, is expensive. Author Susanne Dunlap published a blog post this week that breaks down the costs, including cover design, editing, and social media marketing.

Distribution can be an issue, too. If you've always dreamed of seeing your work in the checkout line at Target or at the Scholastic Book Fair, you'll have a much better shot if you publish traditionally.

Of course, the decision between self and traditional publishing is largely dependent on your goals. Do you want to make a career out of writing, or are you happy if it's something you do on the side around your day job? Do you enjoy and/or are you good at marketing yourself? (It's important to note, though, that traditional publishers expect their authors to carry a good chunk of the marketing load themselves these days too.)

Here are some good resources for researching the pros and cons of self-publishing:

Writer's Digest — The Pros and Cons of Self Publishing (& Traditional Publishing)

NY Book Editors — TRADITIONAL OR SELF-PUBLISH: WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU?

Business Know-How — Advantages and Disadvantages of Self-Publishing

Marketing Magic

Whether you love Disney or hate Disney, you have to admit, Disney has the magic recipe for success.  Why?  Marketing!  So what can we writers take from Disney's success?  Here just a few of the secrets to success.

Branding
Use Social Media
Keep messages short
Connect with the audience so that they can truly have a wonderful experience
Pay attention to details
Have a theme

So here's to Disney.

 Not so sure it is the happiest place on earth (what with the long lines, not so yummy food, and sometimes irritable staff), but it certainly is magical (the cleanliness, the artwork, and the attention to detail).



And here's to you.

May all your marketing dreams come true!

Authors are Marketers, Too

I was talking to an acquaintance at a party recently who mentioned that she also wrote books. She said she was pursuing traditional publication so she could "just concentrate on the writing, not all that marketing stuff."

I said something polite, but internally I was thinking about all the traditionally published authors I know who are constantly working on their marketing. Some of it, like doing market research or coming up with a synopsis to sell the book to a publisher, isn't visible to people on the outside. But most authors I see are also hard at work on improving their social media presence, doing blog tours, and in person appearances like school visits and book signings.

(Agent Jessica Faust has an excellent blog post on this topic here.)

The writer's conferences I've attended have been eye-opening, too. Many authors sign up as faculty for these conferences, not because they get paid extremely well (they don't, trust me on this), but at least in part because it raises their visibility and gives them a chance to network with other industry professionals and aspiring writers.

The bottom line is that anyone who thinks they can just write a book and forget about it immediately in this day and age is probably in for a very rude awakening. Publishers and authors form a marketing team, and an author who's willing and eager to pull his or her weight is going to look far more attractive than the alternative.

Marketing lesson: building a "call to action" into your marketing and social media efforts

Rule #1: You Must Have a Call To Action

As a writer, whether you recognize it or not, you have certain actions you want your potential readers to take when they engage with you on social media. For example: follow your blog, follow you on twitter, friend you on Facebook, add your book to Goodreads, buy your book, enter a contest, leave a comment, etc.  In the marketing world, asking a consumer to take a certain action via digital media is called a Call To Action, or CTA.

When you get to the stage in your career where you are marketing your book, every digital engagement opportunity you have with potential readers should have an easy to follow call to action.

I don't mean that everything you do in the social media space should have a "buy my book" message. I just mean that you need to make it as easy as possible for potential readers to engage with you further should they have that desire. That can be as simple as including a link to follow you on twitter or join your blog, or adding a link so they can add your book to their Goodreads "to-read" shelf.  Never assume that potential readers will take the next step on their own.

This is true even if you aren't yet selling a book. If you want people to engage with you, you have to give them a clear and compelling way to do so.

Here's an example. Have you ever been on a blog and decided you wanted to receive future posts (either via email or by following the blog), only to find that there was no visible sign-up button?  This has happened to me on multiple occasions, and I'm sorry to say that I ultimately left the blog and didn't come back. Not only did the blogger miss getting a new follower, but they missed having repeat opportunities to engage with me via future posts. This can easily be remedied by having a clear and easy to find CTA button on the page.

Rule #2: Make It Easy

This gets me to the second part of the CTA equation: it has to be as easy for the potential reader to engage with you as possible. The more clicks or steps you add to a desired action, the more likely you are to lose that person's interest.

To use the blog example, I could have written down the URL for the blog I wanted to follow, or even emailed the blogger to ask how I could receive regular blog posts.  But that's difficult and time consuming. I wanted a one-step button to click so the blog would be added to my regular Blogger listing, because that's how I read blogs.  Sure, there are some people who will take that extra step.  But most people won't.

Let's use the query forums from last month's WriteOnCon as another example. As you hopefully all know, the best way to get people to comment on your query is to comment on their queries, so that they in turn will pay it forward.

Some forum posters make it super easy for you to find their query by adding a link in the signature of their comment. After you've read their comment, all you have to do to pay it forward is click the link and poof - you're reading their query.

Here's an example of the signature I used during WriteOn to get people to comment on my first 250 words (the "First 250 ~ First 5 Pages" lines are active hyperlinks that jump to my post):

I received return comments from ~80% of the posts I commented on, and the high return rate has everything to do with the fact that I made it super easy for them to find my info.  Otherwise, they would have had to search through the hundreds of other forum posts to find my post.  Who has time for that?

Rule #3:  Apply Rules #1 & #2 Everywhere You Can

This post was inspired by several recent cover release blog posts I read that did not include a single way to engage with the author. Had they included a link to their Goodreads page, or even twitter, I probably would have engaged further.  But they didn't, and I'm sad to say that I didn't take that next step.

Take a look at the places you are posting and marketing yourself.  Have you made it easy for potential readers to engage with you? Contact you? Buy your book?

In a perfect world, every potential reader would remember your posts, tweets, pictures, messages, book blurbs, book name, and cover reveal you put out into the world.  But the reality is we're busy people with a lot on our plates.  Make it easy.  Make it simple. You'll have a higher level of engagement with potential readers as a result.

Writer's resource: websites vs. blogs and why you should buy a domain name

Websites vs. Blogs

Blogs are about connecting with like-minded peers that share similar interests. In the writing world, they offer a way to connect to the writing community and trade information (and support, of course!)

Once published, your readers might want to engage with you on your blog. But in all likelihood those readers will also be writers, because the content of your blog and the network you've built prior to publication has been focused on writing. And that's perfectly okay.  That means your blog is attracting the exact audience you set out to attract. (Yay you!)

For the rest of your fans, you'll want to have a website where they can learn more information about you and the books you write.

When should I start a website?

If you read my post about your brand vs. your product, then you know that in the writing world your brand is the name you publish under and your products are the books you publish.

Author websites are no different than brand websites like Tide.com and Clorox.com. There are tons of places on the web consumers can go to for product info, but a brand website acts as a central hub housing info about all the products that fall under a given brand.

Some writers choose to start a website when they're on the hunt for an agent or publisher. In that instance, their audience is not their ultimate readers, but the agents and publishers they hope to attract. The content on their website should be developed with this audience in mind.

I have the utmost respect for writers who do this, and I do think it can be a useful way to showcase your marketing acumen and writing portfolio to agents/publishers.  BUT I personally don't think you need to have a website until you actually get published. This is just my opinion, and I know there are others out there who can offer a different and completely justified POV.

Once you have a publishing deal a website is critical, because you'll need it to grow and maintain a fan base. Fans of your work will want to learn more about you and learn what other books you've written or when your next book will be released.  While there are lots of other places readers can go for book info (Goodreads, Amazon, etc.) your website is the only ownable platform where you can establish your brand - you drive the content, and you control the message about who you are. It will also be the only one-stop-shop location with all of your product and brand info in the same place.

I should note that all of your public assets - blogs, Facebook, twitter, etc - are branding tools.  The difference with social media is that the content, to some extent, is out of your control. For example, you can't control book reviews, and people can post negative comments on your blogs or mention you in tweets in ways you can't influence. But the content on your website is 100% owned and operated by you.

So why the hell did I just buy StacyStokes.com if I'm not yet published?

I promise I'm not talking out both sides of my mouth!  But yes, I am a proud digital land owner even though I'm not yet published.  The reason is because I know that some day my publishing dream will come true (do you hear that dream? You WILL come true!) And when that day comes, I will want a destination site for my readers to learn more information about my books. And I want to make sure that I can leverage my brand name when I do that.

There can only be one StacyStokes.com, but sadly there are many other Stacy Stokes in the world who may want the domain (That's right, I Googled myself...and may or may not have checked out the other Stacy Stokes...(Stokeses?  Stokesi?)) Anyhoo, when I saw that my website name was available, I made a preemptive strike and chose to purchase it.  

If you happen to have an unusual name you may not need to do this, but for the majority of us there is probably someone else in the world who may want to buy the same domain as you, and for that reason it's can't hurt to think ahead.

If by some chance your domain name is taken, you might want to consider something such as yournamebooks.com. For those of you who are fans of Lauren Oliver, this is what she did. The key in cases like this will be developing an SEO strategy so that you can ensure your fans can search and find your site. Although, to be fair, you should think about your SEO strategy regardless.  My post on Blog SEO strategies can help, although with websites content will always be key for driving natural search (feel free to post a question if you want me to elaborate.)

How can I become a digital land owner like you, Stacy?

Remember all those awkwardly sexual GoDaddy.com ads that ran during the Superbowl? Turns out they're actually a viable and useful company that sells domain names. The typical cost to buy an unused domain is around $10-$20 per year. Not too shabby. I'd recommend going to their site to see if your domain name is available.  If it is, it's a small annual investment to ensure you've secured the domain name you want when your magical publishing dreams come true.

So what about you? Do you have a website? Blog? Both?