During the Avilla Freedom Festival my family and I heard two good bands, met a lot of people including a new writer, toured a car show, and ate some really, really good food (for which I paid in another way later).
What I didn't do was sell a lot of books.
I still got 'em.
It would have been nice to at least break even ... but on the other hand I did sell some books. I've been to a few author appearances in which not a single copy was bought.
The important thing is to learn from experience, something some people are better at than others. Personally, I kind of suck at it. Still, here are a few conclusions:
Just because you tell people where you'll be doesn't mean they'll show up. Partially it's about the busy world we live in; partially it's a lesson in promotion. I hit the promotion hard, with social media, a press release, invites sent through Facebook and Goodreads event posts, a newsletter entry, and enough related blog posts (five!) that I was worried about driving people away.
When I say driving away, I don't mean the car show.
I can confirm, as a result of all the work I put into publicity, exactly two sales. Not only that, but we had no new sales of my newest book, Coming Attractions.
Part of the problem might be the time of the year, when people are outside doing summer stuff instead of being online and/or looking for books. A few weeks ago I also heavily publicized a TV interview I did, which showed not only all of our books, but also blurbed our http://markrhunter.com/ website. The increased website visits? Barely a blip, and sales remain flat.
Okay, so, 'nuff complaining. What can we take away from this experience? That writing is a horrible way to make money? That the art of writing had better be its own reward, because nothing else is guaranteed? That you can't reach people through social media as much as you used to? That people walking around at a summer festival will give you odd looks when they realize you're selling books?
All true.
My sister-in-law Cathy, on the right, had a bit more luck with her jewelry. That's Emily on the left, and my camera-shy brother Jeff took the photo.
I'm going to explore other promotion options in the future, and I'll continue trying to get the word out where I can, because you don't just give up when you have a few bad turns. In my mind, two rules remain as true today as when I first started writing:
- You must deliver a good product. Yes, sometimes bad books become best sellers, but usually quality tells. There's no shortcut: Put the work in, from the moment you fire up your laptop through revision, editing, and polishing. People might not buy my books because they don't care for the genre, but I never want someone to walk away because of the quality.
- You must love writing. Again, occasionally we see "overnight sensations", people who get a hit with their first swing. Most authors--by a huge margin--never earn enough to make a living at it. If you're looking for a way to supplement your income, there are a vast number of easier and healthier occupations. Complain all you want about submitting or promoting, but if you don't love the writing, don't bother.
If I'm going to keep doing it--and I am--last week won't be my last setback. But I'll keep going, because nobody ever bought a book that wasn't published.
Besides, that fair food was really, really good.
Bacon, lettuce, and fried green tomato. Yum.
Well, the main thing is, that you like writing. Regardless of how many people buy the books. As long as you write because its your "thing", everything is ok. I mean, you don't have to sell books to get some food on the table, do you.
So all what happens on the writing side is kind of a bonus.
May be you also have picked (well, you didn't by choice perhaps) a bad time to become a writer. To sell your romantic novels as traditional paper books may get increasingly difficult, in the times of e-books. In the fact book segment it still is different, if you have the right subject.
There is a YouTuber called Ian McCollum (aka Gun Jesus) who just published a book with great success. Its called - wait for it - "Berthier to Famas - French Army Rifles from 1860 to Present Day". Talking about niche markets...
Its a big hard cover book that costs $85 or so, and yet its almost sold out right at its publishing date. But that is still a book that people put on their shelve, with lots of photos and drawings and all. As a e-book that would be much less appealing and also harder to use as a reference book.
But such books are less "writer friendly", of course. There is not much so room for imagination and artistic freedom, even if the facts are wrapped into a entertaining surrounding, like your book on Indiana.
Yep; as I've always said, a bad day writing is better than a good day doing (almost) anything else. But even though my books are available as both print and e-books, you're right--it's a bad time to become a writer. You'd think being easier to self-publish would be a good thing, but it means more and more competition for what seems like fewer and fewer readers.
And no, I don't have to sell books to put food on the table ... but I'd like to. By which I mean I'd like to both have to do it and be successful at doing it!
My Images of America: Albion and Noble County book is similarly a niche market, like that one ... and it's one of my better sellers. But I had a major publisher behind me, beating the bushes for buyers, and I'd collected some beautiful old historical pictures to go in it. The number of people interested in historical stuff continues to amaze me. I should add that you're right about that, too--it wasn't a writer friendly project. I love history, but I'd rather be writing fiction.
Enjoy the vote and some free shit!
Well, I suppose anything that's free is good ... isn't it?