In this issue:

• Marketing Your Self-Published Book / Sam Henrie, ABPA President
• March Meeting: How to Make Big Bucks Selling to Your Niche Market
• John Kremer Rocks ABPA / Bette Dowdell
• Don?t Miss Out on the Arizona Book Festival / Laura Naro
• Ten Things You Can Still Do for Small Press Month / Lisa Krebs, contributing
• Southern Arizona Chapter / Robert Casler
• Communicating with the Black Dog / Bill Fessler
• Bette Dowdell earns PMA Scholarship
• Publishers Reaching Out
• ABPA Board of Directors & Committee Chairs

Marketing Your Self-Published Book

Sam Henrie, ABPA President

ABPA publishers range from mid-sized houses to self-published authors. This diversity is one of our organization’s greatest strengths. While this President’s Letter is addressed specifically to our self-published author members, I hope publishers of all stripes will find at least some useful tidbits here.As a self-published author you face unique challenges that warrant a somewhat different approach to book marketing. Here are some tips specifically for you, the self-published author, to keep in mind:

• DON’T focus on brick-and-mortar bookstores first Brick-and-mortar bookstores are the obvious place to start selling, right? Wrong! On top of the problems that all publishers bemoan, including heavy discounts, substantial returns, lack of pricing flexibility, and stiff on-shelf competition, your self-published book may have a couple of additional disadvantages in this market. Without a distributor it is often difficult to get bookstores to carry a self-published book, and with only one title (or even a few titles) it can be difficult to get a good distributor. Bookstores, especially the large chains, frequently have a bias against self-published books, making it an uphill battle to get book signings, good shelf placement, and reasonable inventory levels. Luckily, less than half of all books are sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores, so there are plenty of opportunities in markets that are friendlier to self-published books. Develop a track record of sales there before trying to tackle the more difficult brick-and-mortar bookstore market.
• DO focus on online bookstores, and online marketing Each year online bookstores grab a larger share of the total book market. Online bookstores are perfect for the self-published book because they offer a level playing field. Your book gets equal “shelf placement” with the titles from major publishers. Many publishing houses are slow to take advantage of the cornucopia of marketing opportunities available on the Internet, creating an opportunity for the self-published author who does his/her homework.
• DO focus on nontraditional and special sales Nontraditional and special sales markets include specialty stores, discount stores, libraries, supermarkets, retailers, book clubs, specialty catalogs, websites that sell books, promotional product companies, display marketers, corporations and associations that give away books as premiums, and schools that use books as textbooks. Many of these markets require direct sales, at which self-published authors have a distinct advantage—the person making the sales pitch is the person who wrote the book. These markets also offer greater pricing flexibility, better profit margins, and often fewer returns, making them generally more lucrative than the bookstore market.
• Think backlist, not frontlist Ask the typical book marketing and publicity expert how to market and promote your book, and they’ll usually describe the process used to sell “frontlist” (recently published) titles in brick-and mortar bookstores. Most bookstore sales happen during the first six months after a title’s release. Thus, it’s critical to schedule highly synchronized PR, advertising, and distribution campaigns right after publication. Conversely, sales on online bookstores tend to take several months to get going. It takes time to accumulate online reviews, reciprocal links, high search engine rankings, and Internet buzz. The same is true with selling into nontraditional and special sales markets, which typically have long sales cycles. So, you may be better off using the marketing and publicity strategies traditionally recommended for “backlist” (released over six months ago) titles. Keep this in mind as you plan.
• Manage your own marketing and publicity No one can represent your book like you can. Contract marketing and publicity professionals can be a great help, but you are primarily hiring them for their contacts, and for their understanding of how to get these contacts to pay attention to a product. You are still the keeper of the message and the spokesperson for your book. No one will ever understand you, your book, your message, and your audience the way you do. You need to stay intimately involved in all aspects of your marketing and publicity.
• Saturate your local market We all know the cliché: it takes seven impressions to make a marketing message stick. Good luck making that happen on a national level! Local news programs, radio shows, libraries, schools, independent bookstores, and museums, however, love booking local authors. You can easily find seven or more inexpensive ways to get your message out to your local market.
• Choose self-publishing services carefully If you are going to use one of the many firms that help authors self-publish and distribute books, study your options carefully before making a decision. Print-on-demand publishers, subsidy presses, custom publishers, and self-publishing services vary widely in their offerings. Make sure you compare their distribution discounts, author discounts, royalty calculation methods and percentages, retail pricing systems, returns policies, rights policies, upfront costs, editorial and design capabilities, imprint policies, and marketing programs before making a decision. You don’t want to find out after your book is published that you can’t make a bulk sale because your self-publishing service doesn’t allow for returns and/or only sells at short discounts.
• Create a website and an online media room A promotional website is an essential component of your marketing arsenal. Similarly, an online media room is an essential component of your publicity arsenal. Whether you create and host these yourself, or hire someone else to do it, you’ll need both to succeed. With passionate, continuous marketing and a bit of luck, you may become another ABPA self-publishing success story.

Sam Henrie is president and founder of Wheatmark (www.wheatmark.com), a self-publishing service focused on helping authors maximize their book sales. A frequent speaker on the subjects of special market sales and self-publishing, Sam’s expertise includes new directions in production, distribution, publicity, and marketing in the world of book publishing. Sam is president of the Arizona Book Publishing Association. Sam can be contacted at Wheatmark, 610 E. Delano St., Ste. 104, Tucson, AZ 85705-5210; phone: 520-798-0888 x105; fax: 520-798-3394; email: shenrie@wheatmark.com.

March Meeting

Rich Wolfe, Publisher, Lone Wolfe Press How to Make Big Bucks Selling to Your Niche Market

Thursday, March 30, 2006 Chevys Fresh Mex Restaurant 2650 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix (N side at 26th St.) Please note this change of location!

Program (includes lunch) 11:30 a.m.1:30 p.m. Early registration (by 3/23): $25 members $35 non-members Late registration: $35 members $45 non-members

Learn more about how one niche publisher broke all the conventional rules for publishing and sold hundreds of thousands of booksmost of them outside of bookstore walls. Rich Wolfe, author and publisher, Lone Wolfe Press, is a former sports marketing consultant for various major and minor league teams. He has also owned minor league hockey and baseball teams. A native of Lost Nation, Iowa, Wolfe graduated from Notre Dame.

In 1997 he published his first book through another company (it was not a pleasant experience, but he repeated it two more times); his 21st and 22nd books will be released in mid-2006 . The rest have been published in between by Lone Wolfe Press from what a friend describes as a one-passenger Cadillac that doubles as the headquarters of a global publishing empire. Wolfe relies on a virtual team across the US (all the while eschewing technology such as computers and email). Like the tremendously entertaining and informative presentation last year, this meeting will encourage you to think outside of the box!

By 3/23, please register at http://www.azbookpub.com/, RSVP to the ABPA hotline (602) 274-6264 or info@azbookpub.com. Prepayment is required for registration.

John Kremer Rocks ABPA

Bette Dowdell

John Kremer, book marketer extraordinaire, poured out a veritable Vesuvius of information to help attendees at our January meeting reach new heights in their book sales. Smiling, personable and soft-spoken he may be, but when John Kremer speaks, information comes at you like a fire hose. You may be gulping as fast as you can—even setting a modern indoor record—but you absolutely, positively won’t be able to take it all in.

This deluge of information creates a problem for your humble writer: There’s no way any single article, including this one, could capture the breadth and depth of all the information Kremer gave us. Fortunately, thanks to your ABPA board, this problem comes with a solution. April will see the release of the newest edition of the Kremer opus, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, and the board has arranged to offer the book to ABPA members–at a discount no less! Kremer in person plus the book is the ultimate, but if you missed the meeting, at least you haven’t missed everything.

See this article, then, as a mere introduction to the many facets of book marketing, a la John Kremer.

Starting with a burst of reality, Kremer assured us that 90% of our marketing efforts will fail. What to do? Get used to it and keep on keeping on.

He further challenged us by stating the fact that nobody but the author can market a book. Sure, the publishing company should help. Publicists may help. Marketing gurus might be of assistance. Get all the advocacy the budget allows, but realize that only the author brings the passion that results in successful marketing.

Furthermore, successful marketing is based on relationships. People help people they like. People buy from people they like. But the necessary relationships must relate to our target market and their needs and desires, so we heard about how to establish the needed connections in a way that makes everybody a winner.

By use of examples, Kremer then described the how and why of creating a book brand. Since 80% of books are sold by word of mouth, a memorable title that people can easily remember and repeat is essential. Using recognizable variations of the title from book to book will solidify the brand and further assist its word-of-mouth potential.

A good way to create a marketing buzz about a book is to give it away, whether by the piece, as an e-book or in its final form. For instance, Seth Godin gave away 180,000 e-copies of his first book before release—which created such a huge buzz that publication date sales tore the doors off the barn. But, like everything else, giving away books in a way that leads to success has ground rules, and Kremer discussed how to make the giveaway enhance sales and not devalue the book.

Kremer admonished us to get over our idea that a book is only a book. Creating a book also creates a nexus of valuable rights, and he told several stories as examples of rights such as translations, audio, serialization, posters, premium sales, etc. Successful publishers, he said, put 50% of their marketing efforts into exploiting a book’s inherent rights, and that’s where large publishing companies make all their profit.

Finally (skipping several major points for reasons of space), Kremer emphasized the need to treat people well. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the successful thing to do. Recognize that what goes around comes around and give more than you receive. Write thank-you notes. Send quick, encouraging e-mails when you happen across information the recipient could use. And especially treat the media well by helping them get the information they need to do their job. For instance, don’t hesitate to recommend others, even your “competition,” if that helps to make an article more complete. Be the available, accessible person they can rely on—and thus will rely on—to your benefit and to theirs.

This isn’t head-in-the-clouds Kumbaya thinking, but long-term reality vision. Once again, people help people they like. People buy from people they like. What goes around comes around—whether it’s good or bad, so throw in good stuff. To do otherwise is volunteering to deal with negative consequences; what kind of a cockamamie plan is that? In business as in life, teleological thinking wins the day.

To sum up then, we ate, we networked, we laughed, we learned and we came away with ideas to grow our business. Great evening, that.

Bette Dowdell, former IBM Systems Engineer, small business consultant, software company owner and the author of How to be a Christian Without Being Annoying, invites you to visit her at www.confidentfaith.com

Don’t Miss Out on the Arizona Book Festival

Laura Naro

The Arizona Book Festival, April 1, 2006, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Carnegie Center in Phoenix, is one of the largest in the state and is dedicated to promoting and celebrating local talent! The annual event is expected to draw an audience 10,000 strong this year—what a fantastic opportunity to market your published titles. Exhibiting your books with ABPA not only provides you with an excellent location, but also provides you the support only an organization like this can offer. With such a large group of attendees, you are certain to reach members of your target audience. This is a great chance for you to meet your buyers as well as members of the media. Promote your books with the enthusiasm of a published author and increase your overall sales by building a local following. Some of your strongest support is local support so sign up today and reserve your space for the 2006 Arizona Book Festival.

http://www.azbookfestival.org/

Laura Naro is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Great Potential Press, Inc., Scottsdale, AZ.

MARCH IS SMALL PRESS MONTH Ten Things You Can Still Do for Small Press Month

1. Take National Small Press Month posters to your local bookstore or library and be sure that they are displayed and distributed.
2. Contact the book review editor at your daily newspaper about any events that you plan. Also speak to the features editor. The business editor is always interested in a successful publishing story.
3. Get in touch with weekly papers in your area about events and submit the information to the listings editor.
4. Approach an interviewer at a local radio station about airing a segment regarding the problems and rewards of running a small press, or set one up for an author.
5. Make arrangements with any local non-bookstore outlet that is appropriate for any of your books. For example, if you publish cookbooks a grocery store might display them up near the check-out for Small Press Month, particularly with a special discount as an incentive.
6. Try for an interview at your local daily paper or the weekly paper, remember that the media is always pleased to find to find that there are successful publishers and writers in the neighborhood. So pitch not only yourself, but also your colleagues.
7. If you have a personable, articulate author who is available to speak in his or her area, try setting up interviews with local television or radio stations.
8. Keep your alumni magazine up to date about you and your small press.
9. Host a wine-a-cheese party in your office for the press, booksellers and other friends of your publishing house. Celebrate National Small Press Month!
10. Link to the Small Press Month website from your own: http://www.smallpressmonth.org/

Courtesy of Lisa Krebs, Associate Director PMA, The Independent Book Publishers Association

Southern Arizona Chapter

Robert Casler

March 16: Southern Arizona Chapter Monthly Meeting – Location to be announced (suggestions welcome) The Southern Arizona Chapter of ABPA is holding meetings again in 2006. Watch your newsletter for more details.

Communicating with the Black Dog

Bill Fessler

Last year, I read a great article in ForeWord This Week about libraries that succeed in attracting customers, even though they are competing with everything from theme parks to websites. The article drove me to Bidlack Creative Group, the creative genius behind “Communicating with the Black Dog.” They have an excellent website worth visiting, www.bidlack.com, filled with succinct messages about marketing and communications. I have summarized their points here, but I want to recommend that you visit the site for a better understanding. – Bill Fessler, Primer Publishers

You can’t see a black dog on a black night. But if it’s your dog in the yard, you know he’s out there. If you want him to come in, you call him or offer him a dog treat. But you don’t know if your message worked until the dog appears. Marketing is like communicating with the black dog. It is a one-way conversation with an unseen audience. Communicating with the black dog is also recognizing your audience is initially uninterested in your message. That is, until you reach them with a sincere, relevant approach worthy of return contact. Like a dog treat! But, how do you find it? How do you call the dog? How do you make it come inside and do what you want it to do? You must make your message relevant, distinctive, and believable. Say something meaningful, don’t say too much, and be bold. And if your message isn’t important, or is too wordy, or blends in with all the other messages, the Black Dog simply won’t respond.

Bidlack stresses ten rules to Communicating with the Black Dog:

• See The Big Picture. If your book is about Romance, tie your promotion around Valentines Day, not Christmas (even though your books arrived from the printer in November). Remember, “Stand too close, and you won’t see the forest for the trees.” Stand Out. There are other books out there on the same subject as yours—figure out how to market yours in a distinctive way, so that people will talk about it after they see it.
• Be Brief. Make your marketing-piece work like a street sign (Stop, for example), and avoid sounding like those medicine commercials (warning, this inhalant may cause…). Know Your Niche. Don’t try to be everything to everybody, instead be known as the best at something specific. Your cookbook can easily work for anybody with a stove and oven, but targeting people with braces will help clarify the marketing. Make Sense. Just because it makes sense to you does not guarantee that it will make sense to others. Ask friends and colleagues for their thoughts before you print something on paper for distribution.
• Always Appear Professional. Don’t ask your cousin to design your artwork; instead, find someone with experience and an understanding of their job. Choose The Best Mechanism. Don’t pay for national publicity if your book is about Arizona (and vice versa).
• Know Your Soul. When promoting yourself and your books, apply the same passion that got you to create the book in the first place.
• Be Visually Consistent. You should be recognized with just half a glance. It may be your book cover, or a logo, or a size or shape that is unique to you, but use it over and over (, and over…) on letterhead, business cards, envelopes, advertising, and everything else.
• Realize That Your Audience Is Not Interested In Your Message. Don’t lose track of the fact that your audience barely knows you; they only pay attention to things that interest them. How do you get them to be interested?

Ironically, it can be difficult to find the simplicity in your message. You have created a book that has captured your heart, and you want to tell every single person on the planet about it. But you need to focus on finding the right message and delivering it to the right audience. Don’t get complacent on the marketing efforts; otherwise your books (the dog treat) won’t be attractive enough to the audience. And who wants a garage or room full of old dog treats, anyway?

Bill Fessler, Primer Publishers

Dowdell earns PMA Scholarship

Bette Dowdell, Confident Faith Institute, has been named the ABPA recipient of PMA’s Publishing University Scholarship. Bette, author of How to Be A Christian Without Being Annoying, will attend Publishing University this year in Washington DC and will report to the membership the best tips and trends she discovers in that cauldron of publishing knowledge. Congratulations, Bette!

Publishers reaching out In an effort to restock its shelves after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Public Library is asking for donations of hardcover and paperback books for people of all ages. Library staff will decide which books should go into its collection; the rest will go to destitute families or be sold to raise funds for the library.Please send books to: Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations, New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Ave., New Orleans, La. 70112. Mention to the Postal Service that the books are for the library in New Orleans in order to send the books at the library rate, which is slightly less than the book rate.

Mark Your Calendar

• March 19: Society of Southwest Authors Forum: Jerry Simmons 11:30-2PM; Sheraton Four Points Jerry Simmons, “What Writers Need to Know About Publishing” To R.S.V.P. Forum Leave Phone Message at 546-9382 before noon the Wed. before the Forum; $20 paid at the door http://www.ssa-az.org/writeword.htm

• April 8: NSA-Arizona: Matt Holt from Wiley and Sons Publishing 9:00 a.m.-12 p.m. NSA International Conference Center 1500 S. Priest Dr., Tempe, AZ http://www.nsa-arizona.org

ABPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

• President: Sam Henrie (520) 798-0888 x105, shenrie@wheatmark.com
• External VP: Open
• Internal VP: Sharon Tully (480) 961-5456, info@bookproduceronline.com
• Treasurer: Bill Fessler (602) 234-1574, Bill@PrimerPublishers.com
• Secretary: Michael Bercaw (480) 947-7727, mbercaw@sirspeedyscottsdale.com
• Immediate Past President: Robert Rosenwald (480) 945-2001,
• Board Members:
• Bob Albano (602) 712-2037, BAlbano@azdot.gov
• Michael Cox, Sr. (480) 940-4046, michaelc@gotwords.com
• Susan Hughes (480) 419-9980,
• Victor Linoff (480) 967-4729, vlinoff@twtdbooks.com
• Sherry Randell (602) 265-4392, sherry@GoldenWestPublishers.com
• Pam Swartz (480)609-0426, pam@cloudninepress.com
• Executive Director: Gwen Henson (480) 777-9250, info@azbookpub.com

ABPA COMMITTEE CHAIRS:

• Advocacy: Open
• Educational Events: Open
• Coop Marketing: Gwen Henson (480) 777-9250
• Coop Purchasing: Open
• Glyph Awards: Open
• Hospitality: Bette Dowdell (623) 572-5038
• Membership & Benefits: Michael Cox, Sr. (480) 940-4046
• Newsletter: Open
• Planning: Michael Bercaw (480) 947-7727
• Catalogs and Publications: Sharon Tully (480) 961-5456
• Programs: Pam Swartz (480)609-0426
• Public Relations: Alan Korwin (602) 996-4020, alan@gunlaws.com
• Southern Arizona Chapter: Robert Casler (520) 621-7177, rcasler@Ag.arizona.edu
• Trade Shows / Exhibits: Laura Naro, (877) 954-4200, laura@giftedbooks.com
• Website: Rich Hamilton, (602) 438-2345, rich@sellbetter.com

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