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Your new novel may have
3,000-year-old
competition
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1. (Modified) Nonfiction outsells fiction in terms of dollar volume and number of titles, but not in the number of books (because there are so many 99-cent novels). Poetry sales are tiny. It’s been said that poets and
novelists are interesting to talk to, but nonfiction writers have nicer homes. Fiction and poetry are not necessary to readers. People who want to read a novel may be
content to borrow a copy from a friend or the library instead of buying
it—even if they have to wait a few weeks. Fiction books are entertainment. That means they are options. They are expendable when money is tight; and they
have to compete with movies, ball games, video games, music and more.
2. Novels may be read just once or twice. A nonfiction
book—particularly an important
reference—might be referred to hundreds of times and be a vital part of a
personal or business library.
3. Fiction is usually timeless. We still read
the works of Dickens and
Homer (above). Your new novel must compete with other
books written centuries or even millennia ago.
4. Nonfiction is
usually information or instruction, and may have a limited lifespan before it
becomes obsolete. Readers want the latest information. They may replace your
book bought just a year ago with your new version—or a new book from another
author.
5. People will generally pay more money for information than for
entertainment. The more important the information is, the more you can charge
for it. However, the more people who are
likely to be readers of your book, the more expensive it will be to
reach them.
6. Obviously, if you are a
self-publishing writer, you can publish anything you
want to. HOWEVER, if you want to make money rather than just fulfill a dream,
impress your family or inflate your ego, it’s better to think carefully about
what you publish.
7. It’s extremely difficult to sell many copies of
self-published fiction or poetry—or the memoir of a non-famous
person—on paper. In
order to sell thousands of copies, you’ll have to be either extremely lucky
(not likely) or generate a huge amount of “buzz” through viral marketing, public relations and
advertising (time-consuming and often expensive), or
you’ll have to impress one or more reviewers enough to praise you in the media.
8. If
you are a novelist, poet or memoirist, your ebooks can sell for much less money than printed books, and
may allow you to build an audience and make money. It’s easier for an
unknown author to sell 99-cent ebooks than $19.95 pbooks (books printed on
paper).
9. Another reason not to self-publish fiction (unless aimed at a narrow and easy-to-reach
audience) is that most fiction is aimed at the mass market. You’ll be competing
with big publishing companies with much more experience, much
bigger budgets and much better distribution than you have. The world is not waiting for your
novel, poetry or memoir to be published. If your book should appeal to “everyone,” can you
afford to let everyone know about it?
10. It’s much easier to target a market and devise
a promotional strategy for nonfiction. If you write a book for
owners of small businesses, Little League coaches, obstetricians or pig
farmers, it’s much easier to reach them with your marketing. Novels, memoirs and poems depend on push marketing—you have to
“push” books on a public that has no need for them. On the other hand, if you
write nonfiction about an interesting and important
subject or—even better—a how-to book, you can use much simpler pull marketing and have a much greater chance of success.
With pull marketing,
you take advantage of an existing desire
by the public to know more about a subject. Readers will “pull” the books from
you.
11. Find a niche! People who want to know more
about growing strawberries, raising an autistic child, getting a college
scholarship or traveling with a dog will search for that information on Google, Amazon.com or elsewhere, and
there’s a good chance they’ll find your book. (But that doesn’t necessarily
mean they’ll buy it.)
12. Timing is important. The
world’s best written, most authoritative book about Sarah Palin probably sold a lot better before she lost the
election in 2008. If she runs for office again, the Palin specialists get
another chance to sell books.
13. Pick a hot topic, and one
that may stay hot, or at least warm, for a few years. Consider combining two hot
topics such as “Gay weddings on a tight budget.”
14. It’s important to investigate the
competition before you start publishing. Pick something you
know about, which you can contribute something new about, which lots of people
care about, and which lots of people have not already written about. If there
are other books on the same topic (and there probably are), make sure you have
something important to add so your book can be better than the others.
15. Price, value and speed count, too. A $2.99 ebook is available instantly and competes against pbooks
that cost three and four times as much and don't have color or hyperlinks.
16. If you go ahead, don’t print lots of copies the first time. For test
marketing, print on demand (POD) or an ebook will be
much less expensive than a large “offset” print
run.
17. If you’ve put information online with websites and blogs that people can
read for free, your book will be competing with your own free words. Make your book more complete than
what you give away. Modify your online content to plug your book and to point
out that the pay-for book is better than the online freebie.
From my 1001 Powerful Pieces of Author Advice.
(Bust of Homer from The British Museum, Palin photo from AmericanTimes.org, Gay guys from Shutterstock.com)