Today’s post truly comes from my own experience. I’m here to tell you that hard work pays off. I landed a traditional publishing deal! Whoo hoo!
Not only that, the publisher, Writer’s Digest Books, is happy–no thrilled–with my platform, which has been 8-10 years in the making.
I often speak about the fact that it takes more than a good idea and good writing to land a publishing deal. It takes being a good business partner — building author platform, knowing your markets, checking out your competition, finding a unique angle on your topic, and developing a strong promotion plan. That takes work. Hard work.
I’ll be sharing much more information about the process as time goes on. For now, here are the basic details. My blog, How to Blog a Book, will become a book by the same title. (Yes, the concept of blogging a book really does work!) My deadline is August 19th. (Good thing the majority of the manuscript is complete…) The book has a pub date of March 2012 — if not before. (And, yes, that’s very fast to market.)
For today, let me simply ask you this: What are you doing to become a good business partner for a publisher? And if you plan on self-publishing, what are you doing to become a good business person?
I have a client who started working on a Facebook page but gave up when it was too hard. She doesn’t yet have a blog. She hasn’t sent up a mechanism for a mailing list and hasn’t even thought about what to put in a newsletter. She wants to self-publish. Who will know about her book when she publishes it?
I have four blogs, each with several thousand unique visitors per month — no not a million, but enough. Plus, I blog on several other popular sites. And I am featured on a popular podcast and just landed a weekly radio gig. Additionally, I try to write ezine articles and press releases and post them. I do a ton of social networking on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I also get out and speak and offer teleseminars when I can.
You don’t have to work as hard as I do, but you definitely have to work harder than my client, if you want to sell books to publishers and to readers.
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I have been thinking about writing an e-book. I have noticed that there are a number of ways to self-publish, How should I gauge when to publish? Is there a “rule of thumb” in regards to X number of blog hits a month, X number of twitter followers etc.? Is it possible to publish AS you build an audience? Or is this a good way to produce a dud? Sorry to bombard you with questions, just looking for some additional insight. Thanks!
There is no rule of thumb. I just landed a publishing deal and the sale and marketing team were happy with the fact that I have several thousand unique visitors per month. However, I have more than one blog and I publish posts in more than one place as well. The more tweeple, followers, connections, etc., you have, the greater your chance of success. You can build platform as you go — and sales for your book — or you can build platform first and make a bigger splash (more sales) when the book comes out. I think it’s better to build a decently sized platform first, but many of my clients do not have a one and don’t want to take the time to build one first. I took me about 8 years…It can be build much faster though, especially these days.
Thanks for your comment! Watch for a rendition of both your comment and this reply in an upcoming post. Good questions get noticed!