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DON’T START YOUR BOOK AT THE BEGINNING Chapter one in many nonfiction books lays the foundation by covering the history of the subject or the research done for the book. This is a mistake for an old challenge and a new one. Someone said years...
YOUR BOOK WILL ENHANCE YOUR PRESTIGE Joe Vitale, author and speaker, brings to our attention that the word authority contains the word author. (AUTHORity). Once you publish, people perceive you to be an authority on your subject. People...
WHAT IT IS LIKE TO WRITE A BOOK Lewis Black, comedian and author of Me of Little Faith, talks about what writing a book is like to him. http://writersremorse.com/news/lewis-black-writing-book
PROOF MY SYSTEM WORKS There is an Afterword toward the and of my Self-Publishing Manual. Many books have Forewords; some also have Afterwords. This is where I congratulate the readers and wish them luck. I also asked them...
THE PRINTED BOOK SHOULD COME FIRST During my publishing programs, I’m often approached by members of the audience who tell me that they would like to work on their audio product first and delay the publication of their book. My reply...
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Note: I’m a compensated affiliate for some of the programs I tell you about. I only tell you about people and programs I have checked out and believe in.
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–30–
Following World War 2, book publishers visited the famous product promoter Edward Bernays. How could he help them revive the war-torn book publishing business?
Bernays studied books and people. He discovered that books were found in libraries and that a primary motivation for visiting libraries was that it made people feel smarter.
So, Bernays visited major homebuilders such as Levitt and sons. He suggested that homebuilders add bookshelves to the new homes to make buyers feel smart and enhance their pride of home ownership. As new buyers moved into the Levittowns across the U.S., they saw the empty shelves and soon visited bookstores to fill the vacancies.
Edward Bernays came through for the (printed) book industry.
During the holiday season of 2009, Amazon (Kindle) and Sony (Sony Reader) promoted and sold a lot of eBook readers. Soon these companies were joined by Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iPhone and iPad), and others. Many people received eBook readers for Christmas. People became aware of eBooks and sales of eBook soared following the two holiday seasons.
Online booksellers came through for the (electronic) book industry.
For example, following Christmas 2010, Knopf sold about 165,000 eBook versions of the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson compared to 155,000 print copies. eBooks had reached the tipping point.
During the last nine weeks of 2010, Barnes & Noble store sales increased 8% while BarnesAndNoble.com sales were up 67 percent.
pBook (printed) sales are flat-to-declining due to the expense of paper making, printing, and trucking.
And, each day, there are fewer brick-and-mortar stores to display printed books.
eBook sales are increasing exponentially due to the growth in eReader ownership and lower cost of content.
Also, online stores have much lower rents compared with downtown stores.
Are people reading on Kindles, Nooks, and iPads smarter?
Or do they just feel they are?
Chapter one in many nonfiction books lays the foundation by covering the history of the subject or the research done for the book. This is a mistake for an old challenge and a new one.
Someone said years ago, “an author’s challenge is to get readers past page 18.” He explained that people often buy a book, bring it home, begin to read it, place it on the bed-side table and … never pick it up again.
That was the author’s fault. The book was not interesting enough for the reader to be drawn back to it. It was not a compelling page-turner.
Today, we have an additional challenge. Many eBook resellers, such as Amazon, allow customers to test a book by reading the first 20% at no charge. When you reach the end of the free read, you are asked if you want to pay for the rest of the eBook. Click “yes” and the entire book is in your reading device in 20 seconds.
If your book is 150 pages in length and the frontmatter is 12 pages, the 20% of reading material is (well, surprise, surprise) 18 pages. You still have to get the reader past “page 18.”
Start your book with an action chapter. For example, in Parachuting, The Skydiver’s Handbook, the title of chapter one is “Your First Jump.” It takes you step-by-step through your initial skydive. This is what the reader wants to know. So I do not bore them with a history-of-the-sport chapter. That is chapter four.
Check your stats. How many people are sampling your eBook and not buying the balance of it?
Get the readers into your book and keep them reading. Just selling them the book and losing them in the initial pages is not enough.
Category : Marketing
It has been said that publishers should ignore brick and mortar bookstores and focus on the online stores such as Amazon and B&N.com. But is this a good idea?
Brick and mortar stores are displaying or “showcasing” your books. Many people visit the stores, see the books and then order the pBook or eBook from Amazon where it is less expensive.
Without the display in the store, readers might not be alerted to our books.
The brick and mortar stores may not be moving many of our books but they are increasing sales of the online stores.
Your Publishing Poynters Marketplace Newsletter – February 2011
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Category : Newsletter
The February 1, 2011 Publishing Poynters newsletter.
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