How do you suggest I market my book?
1. Go to the marketing experts. There are 1001 Ways t o Market Your Books. That's actually a title of an excellent 640-page book by John Kremer.
2. Get Dan Poynter's book The Self-Publishing Manual, and in Linda and Jim Salisbury's book Smart Self-Publishing.
3. Go to your local bookstore and see if you can arrange for a book signing.
4. Go to your local library and look in the List of Associations. Depending on the subject of your book, you may find some you will want to contact to see about advertising or adding your book to their newsletter.
5. Create a Web site.
6. Sell your book at conventions and at your church
7. Create a letter head or flyer and send them, post them and leave them everywhere
8. You have at least 1000 friends and family combined right? That alone is a thousand books sold!
9. Write articles for your local news paper and get free advertisement
10. Do lots of readings wherever somebody will allow you to and learn to be very good at self-promotion.
The following information was gleaned from the various web resources at the bottom of this page. Please follow the accompanying links for more valuable information.
I've read online about the big three vanity publishers, Authorhouse, iUniverse and Xlibris, and I wonder if you could help me pick one?
My first choice is "none of the above." However, the big three have over 40,000 books in the Amazon catalog, so somebody must be choosing them.
iUniverse, is owned by Barnes & Noble. There is also Authorhouse, Xlibris and lots of other small companies. I am mentioning them so that you can have a fair chance to choose whomever you will but keep in mind YOU WILL BE DEALING WITH STRANGERS. Also they all share one thing in common. Their business models are based on selling authors services (publication and marketing), not selling books. That part is entirely up to you, so don't waste any extra money on their promotional packages.
iUniverse had around 11,500 titles listed at Amazon when I checked, though some of those are multiple listings (i.e., e-book or hardcover versions counted separately). Their cheapest publication program is entirely without distribution, so only relevant if you want to buy a few copies and give them to your family. Their least expensive package will make your book available via special order and online. You don't get any extra editorial work or proofreading with any of their packages, these cost extra and I don't see any value in their more expensive plans.
Xlibris, just like IPC, does not acquire any rights to your book, their agreement is non-exclusive, so you can even publish somewhere else simultaneously. There is a basic package ,a "professional" package, and a custom package. Royalties in all cases are 10% of your net. IPC DOES NOT RECEIVE ANY OF YOUR ROYALTIES. Xlibris has something called a book review campaign for $99, though the odds of your actually getting reviewed anywhere meaningful are near zero. The serious promotional money (all wasted, in my humble opinion) starts with newswire releases at $999 and peaks with press releases to the whole universe (nobody reads them) for $1999.
AuthorHouse is the biggest of the subsidy publishers, with over 20,000 titles in Amazon. at last check. Their cheapest publication package starts at $698, and they tack on a $20/title format/year fee for distribution. They charge $150 for filing a copyright. They also charge $1199 for an original cover.AuthorHouse also sells the most useless investment you can make, that New York Times ad for, $2650. They also charge $699 to accept returns.
Although they have been the most successful of the subsidy publishers in selling their services to authors, they strike me as the worst deal of the three. I should know. My second book, The Top Ten Dumbest Christian Beliefs, was published by Author House.
Should I place a word ad in the New York Times Book Review?
Do not pay $2350.00 for a 40 word ad in the New York Times book review. Some of these publisher will try to sell you that, but its just a rip off in my opinion. It's a rip off that will almost always result in no sales .
The general rule of thumb I've heard from publishers who have experimented with large NYT Book Review ads is you need a big quote praising the book from a really famous person or it's money thrown out the window.
Again, most subsidy publishers business models are based on selling services to authors, not on selling books. I saw a boast on one of these sites that they had just reached one million dollars in royalties paid. But if you divided that number by the 7,000+ books they published, it came out to less than $150 per author, and that probably amounts to the books the authors hand-sell to friends and family.
Experienced writers know that any advertising money spent on books written by unknown authors is a waste of money when given to the unknown publishers promising (small print) pie in the sky.
Sources and resources:
http://www.rainbowriting.com/
http://www.rjcom.com/faq/
http://www.ivanhoffman.com/helpful.html
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/09/14/five-reasons-why-you-should-not-write-a-book/
https://www.wishingwellgiving.com/home
http://morgan-james-publishing.com/default.aspx
http://www.everythingyoushouldknow.com/
http://sethgodi n.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/08/advice_for_auth.html
http://www.goodexperience.com/2008/07/following-up-on-these.php http://pubs.asce.org/authors/book/generalresources/partsofabook.htm
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/booksmanuals/a/book_parts_3.htm
http://www.wbjbradio.com/series/pod.php#
