Today, I have a little story to tell you.

This is the story of an author and her long-standing partnership with her publisher.

Over the years, Sally Author worked her heart out for this publisher.  She worked through power outages, birthday parties, and bouts of flu.  She sacrificed date nights, weekends, appointments, and other opportunities in order to meet the publisher’s deadlines.

Each time Sally submitted her work to her editor, the editor always requested “a few little changes”.

Now these “little changes” often required scores, sometimes hundreds of hours of work, but Sally was committed to doing a good job.  She didn’t want to be blacklisted in the publishing industry as “hard to work with”.  And she wanted to maintain a good relationship with her publisher, because after all, they were partners.

So she poured in more effort, more long hours, sacrificed more personal time.

From a business perspective, when Sally compared the hours she worked to the payment she received from her publisher, she knew she was earning minimum wage–sometimes less than that.  But this work was her passion.  Her calling.  And she truly respected the publishing house.

Besides, their partnership, their work together to do something great and truly make a difference, was part of the payment.

Then one day, the publisher came to Sally with a new request.  “We love working with you, and we want you to pioneer this new project for us” the editor said.

Joy!  A chance to continue her work with the publisher!

So Sally canceled all her plans, planted herself in her chair, and for weeks plowed through the massive research needed to prepare for the project.  Of course, none of this work was paid work, but hey!  She had a partnership with a publisher she respected!  She had an exciting new project!

At the end of these weeks, she had also had detailed outlines and a thorough proposal, and she was ready to go.

Then the publisher reviewed her proposal.

Silence.

Sally Author fretted, until an e-mail arrived from her editor:  “We’ve put your project on hold.  We’ll get back to you in a few months.  Stay tuned.”

Well!  She’d obviously worried for nothing.  They were partners, after all.  Not only that, they shared a mutual faith.  She might even consider them friends.  And with the recession, who could blame the publishing house for being cautious?  If there was any problem with her proposal, if they need her to rework it or wanted her to go a different direction, her editor would have told her.

Meanwhile she was excited about the other project she already had with this publisher.  Her editor often mentioned the great reader feedback they received, and she felt proud of all she’d accomplished.

Several months later, her editor e-mailed, asking for a conference call. Sally couldn’t wait.  This was it!  She was certain this was the green light for the new project.

But she was wrong.

“We’ve changed our minds,” said the editor. “We’ve given someone else the new project. In fact, they’re already half done with it.  Oh, and we’ve been delighted with your work, but we’re deleting your current project from our backlist, and we also won’t be working with you in the future.”

Sally’s stomach twisted tighter than a New York pretzel.   WHAT had gone so terribly wrong?

The editor continued, “But we did love your work.  And we’ll recommend you to other publishers.  May God richly bless you.”

Click.

Sally sat in her worn out office chair, stunned and disoriented.  Nothing was as it seemed.  The publisher wasn’t her friend.  Her editor wasn’t honest.  And the publishing relationship she’d sacrificed so much for was gone.  Just like that.

—–

Authors, does this story sound familiar? I don’t blame you if you’re shuddering in horror at this point.  We’ve all heard stories about publishers reneging on deals, breaking authors’ trust and hearts in the process.

But this particular story is a little different, because it’s not an author’s story.  It’s PulsePoint Design’s story.  Go back through the tale above, and replace the words editor and publisher with “design client”.  Now replace the word “Sally” with “web designer”.

In our line of work, clients are like our publishing house.  We, like authors, work our hardest to make each project better than the last.  And we pour our very best into building and strengthening long-term partnerships with our “publishers”.

The sad thing is, authors who would be horrified and devastated if their publishing house treated them in the manner I described above, treat their design teams in the same way.

So with this post, I’d like to make a few suggestions about how to handle a break up with your design firm:

 1.) Remember the “Changing Horses” Principle.  To avoid conflict, it may seem easier to dump your design partner and find someone else, but easy isn’t always smart.  As Abe Lincoln once said, “don’t change horses mid-stream”.  You may get swept away by the current and realize too late how foolish your choice was.  Instead, try sharing your concerns with your designer(s).  Ask for a different price, request a new direction, communicate.  Just as Sally would have done her best to accommodate her publisher’s request, so most design teams I know will do their utmost to meet their client’s needs.

2.)  Don’t Lie.  If you’re leaving because you’re not happy with the work, say so!  If your publisher dumped you because of something you did, wouldn’t you want to know, so you could improve?  By choosing the path of least resistance and not being honest with your design team, you not only rob them of the truth, you also rob them of the chance to grow.

3.) Don’t Morph.   If you’re a Christian author, try to behave like one during the break-up process.  That means abstaining from fake Christian platitudes, nastiness, bullying (or sending in a spouse to do the bullying for you), screaming on your design firm’s answering machine, slandering, hacking into your design firm’s server, and other classy behaviors.

4.)  Don’t Gloat.  I realize this may be asking a lot, but when you’ve dumped your firm and launched out with a new company, try to be considerate in your announcements.  Using the analogy above, imagine if your former publisher sent out press releases far and wide, talking about how wonderful it was to work with another author in your place.   Imagine the humiliation you’d feel.  The defeat.    Now think about what it does to your former design firm when you boast on every writing loop and Yahoo group about your “new and improved” design.

Just a few weeks ago, we declined a design client and the sizeable fee that came with her project when we realized she was an active client of a design firm we respect.   Instead, we urged her to talk to her designer and to work out their differences.

When we do take on a re-design client, we try to be careful about how we announce their new site.  We’re careful with our verbiage when comparing before and afters, and we do our best to be as respectful as we can of the efforts of the past designer.

We do this because we firmly believe you reap what you sow.  If you sow disrespect and pain, it’s going to come back to you.  If you believe your mission is God inspired, but you build your personal kingdom on the broken backs of others, that kingdom is destined for collapse.

We hope clients of every design firm will take this advice to heart, and do to others as they’d like others to do to them.

Have a great weekend, and as always:

Sell your work…not your soul

Have you ever gone to bed reading, promising yourself and your spouse “just a few more pages, and then I’ll be done.”??

If so, you’ll enjoy this hilarious video.  In honor of authors, readers… and spouses everywhere!

Have a great weekend, and in the meantime remember:

Sell your work…not your soul

I hope you’ve had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas holiday so far!

I’m popping in with a few more Internet privacy and security tips to keep you safe in the New Year.

BookPlate Blues
One of our clients is going through an Internet security nightmare right now, and she hopes her misfortune can be used to protect others from going through the same thing.

Like many authors, our client posted an offer for free signed bookplates on her web site.  These book plates are a favorite amongst readers and a great way to add value and fun to an author site.

Unfortunately, the author signed her FULL name on these book plates, and now one of these book plates has been posted on an online forum crammed with hackers and thieves.

We’ve removed her book plate offer from her site, but that doesn’t remove her from danger.

Forgers, especially, love full signatures.  Whether they find them in your trash can, your online newsletter, your web site, or on a bookplate, they can use it to do little things like write $80,000 checks in your name.  (There goes the kids’ college fund).

My advice to our client was that from this point forward she consider just using her first initial and last name when signing book plates.  While this isn’t a huge deterrent against a focused forger, it is a start.

We also really, really recommend that authors don’t include their full signature on their web site or in their newsletter.

This may sound paranoid, but after working in the Internet industry this long, I’m no longer surprised by the levels hackers/forgers/phishers/swindlers will go to compromise authors’ personal data.

And that brings me to our second tip:

Beware BooksChristian.com’s Splash Page Offer

Many of our clients have been approached (read: harassed) by this company, and their latest “offer” has me so concerned, I feel a public warning is necessary.

BooksChristian is a Christianbook.com imitator, with a level of persistence equaled only by multi-level marketers and door-to-door salesmen. They continue to e-mail (pester) our clients over and over again, even after these clients have declined their services. They do not have good positioning in the search engines for important keywords. And few Christian readers even know about them. This past month, their site received only 78,000 hits, in comparison to Christianbook’s over 2 million hits.

Their latest “offer” involves e-mailing Christian authors to promote a splash page (which they design, and which links directly to their web site) that shows up when readers visit the author’s web site.

What they’re asking makes me see red.

1.)  Because they’re trying to recruit authors away from their design agencies- something I find morally reprehensible

2.)  Because they’re actually asking for access to/control of authors’ private web servers, domain names, and FTP details (which would be necessary to do what they need to do).

3.)  Because this “Exciting” splash page will actually drive visitors AWAY from the authors’ sites, and TO BooksChristian instead, and has the potential to wreak havoc with the authors’ search engine ranking.

They’re cloaking this snake oil salesmanship in offers of “free” design services, and promises of payouts, but this offer is to their benefit, and not to Christian authors, or to their readers.

As one of our bestselling author clients said (whose publisher fell for the BooksChristian pitch)  “I couldn’t wait to get that splash page off my site!!”

A legitimate company, (like Amazon or Christianbook) would never suggest such a ridiculous “offer”.  Just the legal liability alone would keep them from doing so.

A company with this kind of moral and business practices shouldn’t EVER be given access to, or control of, authors’ web usernames and passwords, or their inbound web site traffic.  They’re trying to hijack authors’ web sites, and make it look like a good deal.

Bottom line?  Friends don’t let friends get swindled by BooksChristian.   Please warn your writing friends about the real story behind this “offer”.

Stay safe out there, people.  Have a fantastic New Year, and in the meantime remember:

Sell your work…not your soul

Sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of the holidays–with all the pressure, deadlines, and loose ends to tie up before the end of the year–we lose a good chunk of our joy.

As our joy evaporates, our creativity wanes, and all we want is a long rest beneath a quiet tree, with the sound of birdsong and a babbling brook filling the air around us.

Is this you?  Do you long for birdsong and babbling brooks?  Has your creativity withered under the stresses of the season?

Well!  fear not!  We’ve found the perfect remedy.

Just watch this little video on “Creative Juices”– it’s guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, and a whole slew of creative thoughts to your mind:)

Happy Holidays from the PulsePoint Design Team!

Just popping in to share a hilarious YouTube video about the “Perfect Publishing World” .

Hope this brings you a chuckle.

As always, remember:

Sell your work, not your soul!

I’m popping out of my cave of insanities (otherwise known as 5 web site launches and 2 book trailer launches in the next two weeks) for a quick note about multidimensionality in marketing.

Recently I read a post on Publisher’s Weekly, about the interactive, multidimensional, two-year marketing plan Scholastic has created for their upcoming book series, The 39 Clues.

Scholastic hopes to position this 10 book series as a blockbuster successor to the Harry Potter series, and they’ve left no dimension neglected in their preparation for the first book’s release this September.

The corresponding web site will launch September 9th, and, according to a report in the New York Times:

“An online game will allow readers to search for the 39 clues themselves, while solving puzzles and playing mini-games that will be refreshed daily. Mr. Levithan said the site would include blogs written from the points of view of characters, and maps, treasure hunts and videos, many with historical and geographical content.

Each book will come with six collectors’ cards that can be used to find further clues in the online game. Players can also win cash and other prizes. “

The marketing efforts, and buzz generated pre-release, have paid off.

Dreamworks studio has acquired the film rights for all ten books, with Steven Spielberg signed on to direct.   The print run for the first book, The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan, has doubled from 250,000 to 500,000.

And publishing industry gurus are heralding the interactivity and multidimensionality of the plan as the next gen in book marketing.

Thoughts for the Overwhelmed:

I know many authors who already feel overwhelmed by the demands on their time and creativity.  Maybe you’re one of them.  Maybe you feel you’re already at your limit, multi-tasking like crazy…and now, you have to be multidimensional too?

For some of us, our only claim to multidimensionality is that our favorite jeans don’t button like they used to because we’re too busy to exercise:)

In a world full of unexpected illnesses, carpooling, computer glitches, financial struggles, and a pace of life generated by our culture that borders on insane, sometimes its a victory just finishing that book or proposal, or having any kind of web presence at all.  Much less a two-year web strategy complete with targeted demographic studies, and Spielberg producing movies to go with your books and web launch.

So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t lose heart.  Ultimately, we must let God pour us out when, and where, and how He chooses.   There are a million marketing possibilities, a million choices for our time and our energy.  But in the end, there are only 24 hours in a day, only so many days in a year, and only so much energy in our reserves.  He chooses our goals.  He decides when we’ve achieved greatness.  Our job is to not run ourselves dry (and believe me, I’m preaching to myself here) but to simply do and give our best.  That’s all He requires.

Thoughts on marketing in a digital age:

Our world is changing.  Or more to the point, our technology is changing us.  Changing the way we live, the way we think, what we expect.

It’s changing the way we work and play.  Everyone from children to baby boomers are using the Internet for news, entertainment, search, and social networking.  First we unhooked from our desktops, and enjoyed mobile computing from our laptops.  Now accessing the Web via cell phones and PDAs is the new norm.

It’s changing the way we read.  It started with skipping the local bookstore for the convenience of online sites.  Now people are skipping the online sites and buying books with digital readers through on-demand access.  The popularity of this system is not a fad.  It’s the future.  Which is why the Amazon Kindle sold out in 5.5 hours at its release.  And why many publishers are exploring e-book formats.

It’s changing the way we connect.  We started sending each other silly messages via e-mail.  Then instant messenger came around.  Then blogging.  Then we invited friends to keep up with us on Facebook or Shoutlife or MySpace.  Then that wasn’t immediate enough, so we switched to Twitter.

And through it all, marketers have been watching.  Customizing our internet experiences because they see the truth:  God wired humans with curiosity, multiple senses, and an escalating desire for more.

Authors can use this same understanding of human wiring, and use today’s technology - video, audio, crazy contests (Ted Dekker’s Books of History challenge comes to mind), web interactivity, etc - to engage readers before, and beyond, the book.

Looking Deeper:

The bottom line is this:

1.)  We live in a hectic, noisy world.  Readers, especially in the US, are over stimulated already.  With so many things competing for their attention, we’ll need to be savvy to draw them back to the simple pleasure of reading.  But with that said…

2.)  God is a master strategist, and a master at wooing the hearts of listeners.  He knows exactly how to draw your audience to the message He’s given you for them.   As far as He’s concerned, there’s nothing new under Heaven, even if some of this technology is new or even frightening to us!  So fear not.  Do your best.  He’s on your side.

Just For Fun:

If you’d like to be multidimensional while doing something fun, create an avatar, grab a couple friends, and go hunt for treasure at Puzzle Pirates, a virtual world filled with treasures and sea battles.

Then be sure to stop back soon for samples from my marketing and internet classes at the Mt. Hermon Writing Conference, and in the meantime remember:

Sell your work…not your soul

They’re out there…flashing, teasing, intriguing, beguiling, scrolling, thundering, and occasionally boring us comatose. Have you seen them?

Whatever name you use, whether it’s: Book Trailer™, Book Preview, Book Video, Book Teaser, Book Clip, Book Short, or Book Flick, these products of the Internet Generation are becoming more common every day.

But are they worth the investment? Do they influence sales? Are current trends moving to or away from Internet video?

If you’re wondering what all the hype is about, and whether this is something you should pursue, read on! This article is written with you in mind.

What Are These Book Video Things?

Wikipedia defines a book trailer/video/teaser as:

“A video advertisement for a book which employs techniques similar to those of movie trailers. They are circulated on television and online in most common digital video formats.”

Basically, a book video is a brief, (hopefully) entertaining teaser that presents intriguing bits of the plot to readers, or features clips of the author interspersed with plot points, while using a contemporary visual medium to draw new audiences to the book.

A quality book promotion video, like well-written back cover copy, will intrigue while maintaining the mystique and promise of the story.

Do People Actually Watch Online Video?

Consider this: Google recently modified its search engine results to include video in the main search pages, not just in the video sub tab.

The writers strike last November that robbed us all of new episodes of LOST (sob!) was staged primarily because writers felt they were being deprived of the major profits studios gained from online and digital media consumption.

And there’s more:

• According to comScore estimates 73% of U.S. Internet users viewed video online in February, 2008.
• eMarketer estimates that one in two Americans, or 154 million people, will watch an online video at least once a month in 2008, and that audience size for online video will hit 190 million by 2012.
• A study by Nielson Online shows traffic to online video sharing sites has more than doubled since November of 2007. YouTube claims an 18% increase in traffic, while video start-up Crackle, has seen traffic double to 2.4 million users.
• A new study from the Solutions Research Group shows a MAJOR increase in people viewing primetime programming on the internet in the past year. SRG says that almost 80 million Americans — 43% of the online population — have watched one of their favorite shows on the internet. That’s up significantly from 25% a year ago.
• Pew Internet & American Life recently released a study showing that 53% of men and 43% of women watch online video, and over 70% of Internet users under the age of thirty actively visit video-sharing sites.
• Simmons, a unit of Experian Research Services, suggests that consumers are 47% more engaged in television commercials online than on television. The study also found that people are 18% more engaged in ads online, as opposed to print versions in magazines.
• A new report from the Convergence Consulting Group suggests that by the end of the decade, “about one out of every four times somebody sits down to watch a show, they’ll be facing a computer monitor or a television connected to a computer.”
• And according to the “Streaming Media, IPTV, and Broadband Transport: Telecommunications Carriers and Entertainment Services 2008-2013″ report from Insight Research, streaming online video and music revenue is expected to increase at an annual growth rate of 29% over the next five years.

What Does This Mean For Authors?

It means that television viewers are migrating to the Internet for their entertainment. It means that more users than ever are sharing and watching online video. And it means that if you want to meet them when they arrive at your cyberdoor, a book video or trailer could be a solid addition to your book promotion arsenal.

Videos are sharable, promotable long after your book’s release date, and they capture the attention of potential readers in a way back cover copy cannot.

ABA Publishers Turn to Video:

A recent article from the Christian Science Monitor entitled “Why Book Tours are Passé” confirms the move toward book promos and online video by ABA publishing houses, saying

“Author readings and signing sessions, once the staple of publishing publicity, are being usurped by virtual encounters and promotional videos.”

And a quick search on Google confirms this:

Hyperion, Bantam Dell, Simon and Schuster, Harper Collins and Penguin all offer book videos.

Penguin’s UK branch recently ran a world-wide competition for creation of a book video for author Chris Mooney’s The Missing. (See the winner of the competition on Penguin’s web site.)

Author Dean Koontz, in partnership with Random House, recently ran a competition for a book promo video for his latest book, The Good Guy.

Smaller presses such as Kunati and Mercat Press of Scotland are also featuring book videos.

Technology Savvy CBA Publishing Houses Pursue Video:

In the CBA, publishers such as B & H, Harvest House, and Thomas Nelson have all commissioned book promo videos.

According to a press release from Thomas Nelson’s Publisher, Allan Arnold, the reason for their choice is simple:

“Movie companies have discovered how to promote story in the most emotive, memorable way possible. Books are entertainment. The power of the story is what draws people. We are creating mini-movie trailers to engage readers in the story.”

Trailers & Online Video in Bookstores:

Publishing houses aren’t the only ones capitalizing on reader interest in video promotion of books.

Publishers Weekly now features a Sunday Matinee by columnist Barbara Vey, showcasing her top picks for the latest book videos.

Out of the Book Productions - a branch of Powell books, now offers trailers featuring author voiceovers.

Christian bookseller Christianbook.com has begun featuring trailers for novels, including the trailer for BJ Hoff’s new release, Song of Erin (Scroll down to the section entitled: Video Featuring this Product)

Barnes and Noble has dedicated an entire section of their web site to trailers and author videos.

Amazon now accepts reader-generated video reviews of books, as well as book videos, in their Add A Review section.

Borders has a dedicated section on their web site, as well.

Awards and Bold New Frontiers:

I’m wrapping up here, but I should mention just a quick word about the awards and new frontiers in book promotion that have sprung up in response to this fresh art form.

The Moving Stories Film Festival was created specifically to highlight book video excellence, and the well-known review magazine, Kirkus Reviews in partnership with Random House, has sponsored the Teen Book Video Awards several years in a row. And the Telly Awards known for their awards of excellence in the Television industry, have recently expanded to include online videos and book promos as well.

Besides the dedicated sections on Barnes and Noble and Borders sites, readers can now view entire web sites dedicated to book videos, including BookVideos.tv, ExpandedBooks.com, YourBookTube.com, ChristianBookVideos.com, WatchtheBook.com (viewer discretion advised), BookWrapCentral.com, and PreviewtheBook.com

Looking Deeper:

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” ” Isaiah 30:21

Here at PulsePoint Design, we’re strong advocates of trailers and online video. Not because we believe in chasing trends, or even in setting them (although we do lean toward that second one:). We advocate the use of this medium because it’s another way to use today’s technology to love and uplift your readers. To reach out to them, and to share your heart and the beauty of your story.

With that said, I hope very much that NO ONE will go away from this post feeling terrified that they must get their own online video or else. The reality is that God can do marvelous things with the work of your hands, whether you have some fancy online trailer or not.

Online video is a useful tool for spreading the word about books in a new way. But like every other promotional medium, it is not one-size-fits-all. Not all authors are comfortable in front of a camera. Not all books lend themselves to trailers.

Ultimately, you must listen to the Coach in your heart, and invest where God directs you to invest. This is true of your time, your energy, and your technology!

Just For Fun:

If you’d like to create a silly video online, check out Dvolver

To create your own book video for free online, try One True Media’s site.

And to watch a book video that is GUARANTEED to make you want to read the book, and is the video that, in our opinion, puts all others to shame, check out Frank Beddor’s trailer for The Looking Glass Wars.

Then be sure to stop back soon for samples from my marketing and internet classes at the Mt. Hermon Writing Conference, and in the meantime remember:

Sell your work…not your soul

We’re back with the conclusion of our four part online bookstore series. In this installment, we talk about a genius substitute for selling your own books.

Conclusions… and The Perfect Alternative To Selling Your Own Books:
The four lessons we’ve featured are the main reasons we’re convinced selling books on your own site can work against you. Not only because these sales erode your time, money, and word of mouth exposure opportunities, but because they may put you in conflict with your local bookstores, and may even be a violation of your contract with your publishing house.

But is there an alternative? A way to garner higher profits from your books, get the contact information for every customer who purchases, and avoid the hassle of payment processing, etc?

The answer is yes.

This week, I talked with Tracey Higley of SignedbytheAuthor.com, and asked her to put together some information about her revolutionary company and the support they provide to authors.

Here’s what Tracey had to say:

Signed by the Author.com allows you to list your book through a simple submission form, and then refer your readers to the site to purchase autographed copies of your books. When a reader orders a signed copy, Signed by the Author.com forwards the order, along with a postage-paid shipping label, to you. You sign a copy, attach the label and send the book. The labels have Signed by the Author’s return address, so there are no privacy issues. And each quarter, Signed by the Author pays you 75% of the retail price of all books sold.

Signed by the Author.com provides the benefits of selling books yourself, without the hassle. You receive your reader’s contact information for future follow-up, and a much higher profit margin on the sale. Your reader receives a personally signed copy. But you are saved the time and aggravation of setting up a shopping cart and dealing with the credit card transaction and shipping fees. You also benefit from Signed by the Author’s extra marketing on your behalf, like home page features of your books, and our monthly newsletter to our customers which can feature your news, contests, and giveaways. There are also opportunities for cross-selling. Readers shopping for other author’s books will see your books on our site.

Signed by the Author.com is a great alternative to setting up online sales yourself, and gives you much more in return than other sites where you would refer readers.

Here at PulsePoint Design, we encourage all our clients to offer Signed by the Author links on their books pages. Not only for all the reasons Tracey listed above, but also because the human touch of a signed book is a wonderful way to develop customer loyalty.

We also suggest that clients include affiliate links to Amazon and/or Christianbook. Because, to paraphrase what Steve Weber said earlier, “People are going to buy there any way.” So make purchasing your book on these sites easy for your visitor through providing links, and get a little of the profit in the meantime. Don’t make them fight to buy your book from their vendor of choice!

Stop back soon for our in-depth article on Book Video Trailers.

And, in the meantime, remember:

Sell your work…not your soul

We’re back with the final segment in our four part online bookstore series. In this installment, we talk about how to avoid the instant gratification trap selling books from your web site presents, and how to create a smart strategy that will serve you long-term instead.

Lesson 4: Smart Strategy Goes Beyond the Latte Fund

The marketing expert I mentioned in my first post claims that selling books from your own site will garner you more money, more contacts, and better market positioning. But is that really the case?

Let’s talk about this, and the bottom line issue, which, with book sales, is money:

1.) Time is money. How much of your time will you invest in setting up a credit card processing account, handling bounced checks, keeping your books stocked, buying or locating boxes for shipping, printing out or purchasing postage, tracking down wrong zip codes or mistyped addresses, transporting packages to the post office, and dealing with undeliverable mail? How much is all that time worth? Can you put a price on it? Or a price on hiring an assistant to do it for you?

2.) Money is money. Let’s say that once you get your PayPal code, or e-commerce cart set up, and all your items listed, you receive two book orders in a week. You’re one of the few authors whose contract allows you to purchase your books from your publisher and re-sell them on your site. You buy your books at a discount rate of $6 and you’re selling them (in order to be competitive with ‘evil’ online monoliths like Amazon and Christianbook) at $12/book. You’ve just made a whopping $12 in profit. Congratulations!

But wait.

What about the credit card or PayPal processing fees? Gotta deduct those. And the shipping and handling charges you paid the publisher to get those books in the first place? You have to deduct that from your profit. too. You also have to pay postage to ship these books to the customer. And set aside the sales tax for your state (you have been tracking that, haven’t you?) and sometimes your city, as well.

And you’ve just spent an hour fulfilling the orders, when you could have been writing. That’s one hour less you have to meet that big deadline. Was selling those two books yourself worth it?

3.) Sales Numbers are money. The books you purchase at a discount from your publisher do not count towards your sales numbers. Your re-sale of these books do not count towards your sales numbers. Every book you sell from your own site is one less book sale your agent can count when pitching your next project (if you’ve ever been turned down by a publisher for a new project because your last book sale numbers weren’t high enough, you know what this means.) And it’s one less book sale you can count toward your arrival at the blissful otherworld known as book-royalty-land.

4.) Word-of-Mouth is money. The more books you sell on Amazon or Christianbook or Barnes and Noble, the more credence these sites give your book. Which means they will display your book more frequently, and raise your book’s position in search results, which increases your book’s exposure. Every book you sell yourself subtracts from this. What is that subtraction going to cost you in the long term?

Amazon sends out New Product e-mails to past customers. I’ve received many of these. In these e-mails they tell me about new titles that might interest me based on my past purchasing history. I can’t count the number of times Amazon has suggested a new title or author to me in this way. Titles and authors I would not have known about otherwise. Free word of mouth marketing from the biggest bookseller in the universe. What’s that worth?

5.) More buyers are money. Steve Weber, of Plug Your Book, says,

“Many, perhaps most, online book buyers prefer purchasing at Amazon. So if they’re going to go there anyway, why not post an affiliate link so you can earn an additional 6 percent from the sale?”

I can’t help but agree. Amazon received 56 million visitors last month. More people know about, and are comfortable with Amazon purchases than with purchases made from an author site.  Christianbook received over 2 million visitors last month.  These are visitors looking specifically for Christian books.  An extremely specific target audience.

Amazon also offers the Customers Who Bought This Also Bought… feature to its visitors. This feature indexes your book’s key content, compares it to other books, and suggests it as an option to readers who wouldn’t know of it otherwise. These suggestions are offered to all of their 56 million visitors per month. How many of those 56 million people would know to look for your online store?

And Amazon gives authors a free Amazon Connect blog, right on the site. They promote this blog on every one of your book pages, and on the Amazon start pages of every person who’s purchased one of your books in the past. Direct marketing to your book buyers. And you didn’t even have to get them to sign up for your mailing list. To me, this is invaluable.

Click here to read our concluding remarks about the reasons selling books from your web site could work against you, and a great alternative to market your books.

And, in the meantime, remember:

Sell your work…not your soul

We’re back with the third segment in our four part online bookstore series. In this installment, we talk about how to determine which hats you’re supposed to wear as an author…and which hats will crush you.

Lesson 3: Author or Stock Clerk, You Make the Call

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with an author several years ago. She was exhausted. As a type-A doer, she’d taken major responsibility for promoting her books, and was doing everything she could to build her readership. Book signings, appearances, interviews, newsletters, the list went on.

Then the marketing team at her publishing house told her she also needed to start a blog. And not just a simple blog, but a high-octane, high-maintenance, high-reader-interactivity blog that would require hours of her time each week.

Panic filled her voice as she told me about this new task. “I’m doing so much already I can’t find any time to write! I’m so tired! I have manuscript deadlines pressing, responsibilities as a wife and mom, and now this!” She was nearly in tears.

If , at that point, I had told her she also needed to be responsible for book sales on her site, I think she would have had a psychotic break right then and there. So would many authors.

Which is why the “expert” advice I mentioned in Part 1 troubles me so much.

Authors wear many hats: writer, self-editor, parent, spouse, friend, speaker, church member, coach, marketer, researcher, boss, radio personality, house cleaner, grandparent, chauffeur, mentor, the list goes on.

Finding the time to create thoughtful, quality prose is already a battle. So authors must choose very, very carefully where they invest their time and stamina.

Unless adding a sales clerk hat to your pile is a God-given mandate, it will simply become one more distraction. One more obligation. One more thing leeching away your energy, and thereby robbing your readers of a better book.

If you’d like more information about the reasons selling books from your web site could work against you, click here to read part 4 of our series!

And, in the meantime, remember:

Sell your work…not your soul