Congratulations! A small press has agreed to publish your book. You may have started out with Writer’s Market, and you may have gone to all the big name publishers first, and they may have turned you down without ever asking to read a sample of your book. But reluctantly you turned to lesser known presses, and finally one has accepted you.
The process of typesetting and proofing is over. You are happy with the cover. The book looks great. And then when it is published, nothing happens. No review in The New York Times Book Review section, no mention anywhere that you can see. Nobody buys your book, and it’s almost as if it had never been published at all.
Some new authors get disillusioned with the small press that published them, and they start to regret their choice. They wonder if they should have waited indefinitely for a big named press, or alternatively, whether they should have published the book themselves.
Here is what a small press does for you:
1) Typesets your book.
2) Creates a cover.
3) Gives you an ISBN number that identifies your book as belonging with the other books published by that press.
4) In some cases, a small press will also create a book trailer for you. (Inverted-A Press does that.)
5. Circulates your book among small press reviewers and online reviewers.
If you can do all that yourself, then perhaps you do not need the services of a small press after all. But the time to decide that is before you sign the contract. After you sign with a small press, and after they have put in all that work to publish your book, then you are partnered for life, and the more things that you can do to help publicize and sell your own book, the better.
In the next few sections, I will share with you a few tips about marketing your book, some of which apply before publication, and some of which work very well after.
1. Choosing the Title of Your Book with SEO in Mind
If you have a non-fiction title, search engine optimization of that title is easy. Just describe your subject matter briefly. If you are writing about finite math, then Finite Math makes a great title. If you are writing about how to potty train your child, then How to Potty Train is a wonderful, self-explanatory title. If you want to teach the reader how to declutter the house, then How to Declutter just might work in attracting readers straight from Google who want to buy your book.
Fiction titles are harder. Watch the video I’ve embedded below, and then I will summarize the lessons for you in linguistic terms.
To make a title search engine friendly:
1. Avoid opaque collocations whose meaning only becomes clear after one has read the book. (Example: Vacuum County.)
2. Use proper nouns, as what they refer to is more fixed. (Examples: Kaifeng, Theodosia.)
3. Use general terms that describe the actual subject of your book. (Example: Pirates.)
4. Use phrases that bring to mind exactly what your book is about to those people who know about your subject. Example: (Theodosia and the Pirates.)
2. Three Tips About Publicizing Your Book.
A big name publisher has an advertising budget and may also send you on a national book tour at its expense. A small press cannot do that. You, personally, also may not be able to afford to do that. But there are some things that you can do for your book yourself that will not cost you anything.
Watch the video, and then I will summarize it.
In order to help your small press to publicize your book:
1) Keep a blog in which you mention your book often. The blog can be related to the subject matter of your book, or it can be autobiographical.
2) Make local appearances. Arrange a book signing at the the local bookstore. Give a talk at the library or in a meeting of a civic organization.
3) Make appearances long distance via Skype. Identify groups who are interested in the subject matter of your book and get them to invite to give a live talk with a Q & A session through a Skype appearance.
3. Get Your Book Reviewed
Watch the video embedded below, and then I will summarize it for you.
To summarize:
I. Get some reviews!
Getting some actual reviews means being realistic and not aiming for the moon.
II. Get reviews from people who write reviews.
Your reviewers should be people who are already in the habit of reviewing books. Find them on blogs through search and on Amazon through their own reviews of other books.
III Get reviews from highly ranked reviewers.
Since the more people read the review of your book, the better it will be for you, you must find highly ranked reviewers. But, conversely, since readers help to determine rank, once you do have a review, help out the reviewer by asking people to read and rank that review.
4. Conclusion
If you have been published by a small press, that partnership is for life. Unless your book goes out of print, the contract between you and your small press is valid forever. Unlike traditional presses, most small presses using print on demand technology will never allow a title to go out of print. Keeping that in mind, the best thing to do is to join forces with your small press and help it to sell books. And it does not cost a fortune to do that.
All it takes is work and thought and determination!
Books by Aya Katz
Other Inverted-A Press Titles
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