The Book Marketing Network

For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers

What's Your Biggest Challenge with Your Book?

I'd be interested to learn what authors/publishers on this network think their biggest challenges are with their book. I wonder if there's any common, pervasive challenge we all face.

Views: 9098

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Bill said: «A good alternative for you may be to sell the foreign rights to your book to a US, UK and Canadian publisher. Each publisher pays you a royalty advance against sales for the rights to your book. The publisher is responsible for translating, editing, re-packaging, printing, distributing, selling and marketing your book in their country. If book sales exceed the advance you are paid, you'll also get royalties.»

I completely agree with you. The problem is that I found no publisher in USA or UK interested to translate and publish an Italian author even if published. Or better: I found no literary agency interested to find such a publisher. It seems that there are so many English authors that they have no room for foreign ones.

By the way I do not expect to become rich. It would be a success for me to sell few dozens thousands copies.
How many books have you sold in Italy? Is the book getting attention in your home market? The answer to these questions will impact the interest a foreign publisher has in your book.

I'm not sure I agree with your statement about literary agents having no room for foreign authors. If you're looking for help in this area, I have successfully worked with someone who may represent your book to publishers, Deanna Leah. Check out her web site, http://www.hbgproductions.com/1.html.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is coming up in October. There is no better place to buy and sell foreign rights to books than the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Time is running out to secure representation at Frankfurt, however. It takes time for representatives, such as Deanna, to make appointments with interested publishers to see your book.
What do you think about all of us sharing our blogs and writings..and making a commitment to make comments on them. I think this alone will work well for all of us..as long as we do not overdo it...I write for Seattlepi reader bloggers,,Would love to have some comments and it puts me on front page...WHat does anyone think? carol stanley
I'm willing to look into it. What's your blog? Mine is http://www.blogspot.com/rita I also have a blog on amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A1H77C8RP7446D/ref=cm_blog_dp_artist_...
Well, my blog is http://lindipendente.splinder.com, but I do not write there as a writer but as a journalist. I also publish articles of other people, that is, I have collaborators. It has an ISSN number too, like a real magazine. Most articles are in Italian language, but in the last few months I wrote also English articles. I accept comments in Italian, English, French, and Spanish.
blog site www.spectacularlifeaftersixty.blogspot.com and www.carolstanley1.com...and commenting on comments...also works well..carol
Promo! I'm open to innovative suggestions that think outside the box, particularly those that access the net.
A promo technique I have used, is not expensive, and effective is to design bookmarks containing incipit's of my books. Then I ordered 10,000 bookmarks at a professional typography. It required only few hundreds euro, but bookmarks are a good way to promote books. I distributed them in the major bookstores in Italy. Everybody wants free bookmarks since they are useful, whatever book you purchase ;-)
Bookmarks are a great promotional tool. The most effective bookmarks were 2 inches wide by 8 inches long. An effective layout for the book mark is to put the picture of the book cover plus the publishers’ contact information. Nothing is printed on the back.

A cost saving trick is to gang print the bookmarks when you print your paperback book covers. Typically, there is extra space on the printing sheet when a cover is printed. Use the extra space to print your bookmarks. The bookmarks can be laminated at the same time as the book covers, then separated when cutting the cover.
You are right..bookmarkers are great...and people love them and they are so approp. Good luck with that and let us know if you get biz from it...carol
I actually work for a very small publisher. We recently published a first novel by David P. Shepherd entitled Resurrecting Randi. (www.resrandi.com.) One of the first endorsements we got was from one of the world's most important writers, Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetze. That was soon followed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Oshinsky who said he "couldn't put it down." Suddenly we knew we had a much bigger book than we realized, but alas, our budget was fixed. So, we decided to put enthusiastic readers to work. Those who had read the book and were willing to advocate for it can join our networking site at http://resrandi.ning.com. And, we even have a program to give away complimentary copies to some applicants. While sales have yet to explode, they are ticking up and the popularity of the site suggests that it will lead to critical mass.
My main problem is distribution. Right now my books are ONLY available from my website. I believe this severely curtails the ability to reach possible buyers. The reason for this limitation is that I published them by having them printed by a traditional book printer (Bookmasters.com). I have the boxes of books in my basement, and every time I look for distribution methods I bounce off.

The easy way to get distribution these days is POD, but in order to go that route I would need to republish them and I've not yet felt that this would be worthwhile. So I feel stuck and am gearing up on my third book ("How your life story is the ultimate self help tool"). I hope I can figure out how to sell this one better than the last two.

Jerry
Memory Writers Network

RSS

© 2024   Created by John Kremer.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service