Marketing Your Own Book

By Kenneth Guentert

Have you thought about writing a book but
stopped because you can’t figure out how to
market it?

Do you wish marketing your book were
someone else’s job?

Have you had a book published only to be
disappointed with the publisher's marketing?

This book is for you. The bad news? To succeed, you must market your own book. The good news? You can do it, and it could even be fun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Guentert
• Release date: Jun 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476458724

Kenneth Guentert

With the exception of a short stint as a Chicago cab driver, Kenneth Guentert has been in the publishing business since graduating from college. Today he is president of The Publishing Pro, LLC, which is dedicated to making professional publishing easy—and fun—for everyone. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, a Himalayan cat, and a greyhound.

Book preview

Marketing Your Own Book

without losing your shirt

KENNETH GUENTERT

Smashwords Edition

Copyright (c) 2012 by Kenneth Guentert

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be photocopied or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the author.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover Design: Kenneth Guentert

Contents

***

Step One—Forget about Bookstores (for now)

Step Two—Get Perspective

Step Three—Plan Your Book with Marketing in Mind

Step Four—Lay the Groundwork

Step Five—Prepare Your Book for Publication

Step Six—Follow Up

Step Seven—Now About Those Bookstores

Appendix One—Sales Planning Worksheet

Appendix Two—Production Planning Worksheet

Appendix Three—Business Planning Worksheet

Appendix Four—Revise, Revise, Revise

About the Author

Dedication

***

To the two men whose wisdom most influenced this book—John Huenefeld, a consultant to independent publishers, and Bill Burns, the publisher who employed me for eighteen years.

Step One

Forget about Bookstores

(for now)

***

Most first-time authors that I meet have a misconception about how books are sold. They think books are sold mainly through bookstores.

They can be forgiven for believing this. After all, bookstores are the place where it is easiest to see a book being sold. And seeing is believing.

The other piece of this belief is that you want to believe your book will be sold in stores. If you’re an author, nothing feels more like success than walking into a big chain store and seeing your book on the best-seller table.

Obviously, some books are sold in bookstores, but I am not enthusiastic about any but large and knowledgeable publishers following a sales strategy that relies principally on bookstores. Here’s why:

First, selling to bookstores is unlikely to be profitable. In order to get your books into bookstores, you must sell them at a substantial discount. If you sell to them directly, you will probably sell them for 40 percent off of your list price. And then you will need to set up an account for them, invoice them, collect payment, and deal with returns. If