Musings on Author Events and Why I am Stopping (at least for now)

I went to an author event today that was sponsored by a local author’s association.  I took my almost 11 year old with me who was excited to sell books…though anxious about how. “How do I take a credit card? What do I do when they give me a check? What do I say to get them to buy your book?” As we drove over the two bridges that it took to get to the library where the event was taking place, I was peppered with all kinds of questions.

Like most kids who experience firsts, she was super excited. However, I, older and far more experienced with all kinds of firsts, knew that disappointment would be inevitable.

Fast forward three hours later and we are back in the car and she is slumped in her seat, “I can’t believe we didn’t sell one book, Mom.”

Well, I could.

I knew it the minute I walked into the event. The major tell was that we were all put into a room off the lobby entrance of the library. Not a spot where good foot traffic could occur. This means people would have to go out of their way to find us, and when you are a collection of unfamous local authors and it’s a nice summer day, no one is seeking you out in a room off to the side of the library. In my 15 years as an author, this consistently is a sign that no books will be sold. 

By the end of the first half hour, I got another major tell when I observed that the youngest patron to stroll through the room was around 70. Not a population that was interested in a fun-loving and sweet YA novel that deals with mental health issues and features jelly doughnuts as its main symbol. In fact, each lovely older person who approached my table was far more interested in the Brach’s hard candy I had strewn around over the piles of books. “May I take one?” They all asked and I would, deadpan, “Only if you buy a book.” While this made them laugh, they all shook their heads and said no. My daughter would then interject in her sweet soft voice, “We’ll give you extra candy if you buy a copy.” They did smile and nod…and take more candy before moving on to another table.

Sadly, this is not the first time that this has happened to me as an author…where you come to the event with a certain amount of books and leave with the exact same amount. Over the last year that I have been marketing my new book that came on out on July 5, 2018, with Black Rose Writing, I attended 8 book signing events and two of those resulted in zero sales. I was supposed to attend far more than 8 events, but I know this road and I decided that unlike how I marketed my previous books, I was going to be selective with what events I chose to do. However, even in my careful screening, over 20 percent of the events I attended resulted in zero sales. (Incidentally, I’ve sold far more online through blog tours, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram).

The point of sharing this with you, dear blog reader is that after a while, after almost two decades of this life as a self-pubbed-indie-pubbie-traditional-pubbie unfamous author, I’m not doing this type of stuff anymore.

Here’s why: At the end of 2018,  a school hosted an event in conjunction with a major bookstore chain where I was invited to be the featured author. Marketing was done as well as proper coordination with the bookstore chain event planner.  Yet, when I arrived, the store manager (not the event planner who was mysteriously not there) stuck me in a corner near the self-help nonfiction section (I write YA) at a table the size of my laptop and ignored me for the two hours I was there. I didn’t sell one book and when I left, no one said goodbye.

 After that event, I became very leery about doing author events, so as the winter turned to spring and I was invited to attend some more events as a guest author, I went on high alert for any possible signs of trouble. Sure enough, red flags began to wave frantically. No! Stop! This is going to go horribly wrong!

Here are some signs that an author event may not go well:

Red flag: A bookseller agrees to take on your book but doesn’t provide you with any consignment paperwork or indicate a date for a possible signing: Example: A bookseller at a local indie bookstore has held onto a copy of my book for 3 months and counting and has promised to give me a date for a signing…but it’s now just about July and despite my reaching out to her several times, no planning has happened. Maybe it's time to get my book back.

Red flag: You are invited to attend an event as a featured author but zero marketing is done and the event coordinator doesn’t provide you with any details about what the exact event and your role in it is: Example: A well-intentioned librarian several towns over invited me to be a featured author at an event. As the date of the event neared, I saw that no marketing was happening and no one had reached to me about the details of the event (Do I bring my own books? Who will the audience be? Am I hosting a talk? How long is it?). When I inquired about these things, no details were provided. I then did something I would have never considered doing years ago, I backed out. I know the signs of a gig turning out terrible. This is one of those where chances are I will show up to no one, no books will get sold, and no talks will be had.

So given all of this, why, you may ask, did I agree to go to today’s event? Because I didn’t see any glaringly red flags. In fact, based on past events that were hosted by similar folks, this should have gone relatively (as in selling 3-4 books) well.

I know the “Zen” and “enlightened” perspective on author events is: Go to these things for the experience of it, for the connecting with other writers, go because even if you sell one book that’s one more person who will read your work and that’s what really matters—that one reader. Believe it or not, especially as you read my words above, I do ascribe to this Zen perspective and feel that all authors should because it is true that you can go to these events and have one or two nice moments and those moments are important and wonderful.

In fact, today, at the event with my daughter, I sat next to an AWESOME fellow YA author who told me how much she enjoyed reading my book—she compared me to John Green! She was lovely and sweet and really made my day.

The thing about being Zen or enlightened and HUMAN— is that we can feel two seemingly opposing ways at the same time (it’s a concept in philosophy called a dialectic and it’s also something I use with my psychotherapy clients all the time). So, I do feel good about author events AND bad at the same time. It’s a good feeling to go and even just talk with other writers (like the lovely fellow YA author Angelina Singer) AND it’s a bad feeling to not sell books. Both are true and both can happen at the same time at author events.

And yet, despite the good that comes with the bad, and despite that I understand the “Zen” aspects of author events, I’m in at this point in my life as an author where I have probably attended over a hundred author event/signings and I’ve done everything from signings to talks to panels to expos. And this all doesn’t include the many years I spent teaching writing workshops. What I realize is that attending these things used to be fun, used to feed my creative self, no matter if I sold books or not. But, that is no longer the case. It hurts to go to an event and be ignored or to not sell one book. It hurts to waste an entire day inside and sad when you could be with your children or sitting on your porch.

Watching my daughter through the rearview mirror slumped over and defeated as we pulled out of the parking lot of the library, I asked her how she felt. “I feel bad, Mom. I feel bad I couldn’t sell your books.”

I bit my lip and held back my tears, wanting so badly to tell her that it’s all fine and who cares and it doesn’t matter.

But I couldn’t because it does.

After a few more minutes of silence, she said, “But it’s okay. It’s not liked we failed. Sometimes people just don’t want to buy books and sometimes they do. You’re still a writer. It doesn’t matter.”

I smiled at her through the mirror and brushed away my tears. “You’re right, sweetie,” I told her.

And she really is. 

*Part 2 of this piece will be about what I AM going to do to market as I give up these events.

Self-Trust, Self-Publish, Self-Promote

The Rug Pulled Out

I am getting better at riding out the shit that life throws me. Right now, in my personal life, the life I don’t write about in my blog (believe it or not I do keep some things to my self), I have had something happen to me that is best analogized with this: You are walking on, what appears to be, a lovely bike path, nice and flat, miles and miles of easy asphalt ahead of you.  You are just going and swinging alone, enjoying the feeling of moving forward, the lovely scenery with water to your left and a thicket of trees to your right.  Then, suddenly, upon the next step, you drop, fall, down, down, down, and land in  new place, bruised and lost. It’s sudden. There’s no warning. And now, you have to figure out what to do.

This “shit” that life has thrown me is not the worst thing to have happened to me ever-that would be death, divorce, or illness. It’s none of those. Maybe that’s why while this sometimes wakes me in the middle of the night, but my heart doesn’t pound and I don’t get a tightness in my chest. While I am consumed with it in my head during the day, it’s more just the buzz and noise behind everything else.

So, it’s not that bad. I guess.

But, the point is, the reason for me sharing this with you all is that this “shit” has given me some perspective on my writing, and more importantly, (what this blog entry will eventually be about) on the marketing of my new book, Fear of Falling.

Struggle?

Due to this shit in my life, marketing my book seems like a minor concern and yet, at the same time I say that, I feel guilty. I shouldn’t neglect this book.  Marketing is my duty in a way that when you create something, with it comes the responsibility of caring for its well being. I know the book isn’t my child, and I have blogged about realizing my old metaphor of birthing books and parenting them into the world doesn’t really work. A book is not a child. I get that. But still, I wrote the thing and published it. Shouldn’t I tend to it regularly? Or, is it like what happens with your pets once you have children? Where all your energy used to go to loving Fido, now poor guy is lucky if you clean his food bowl once in awhile. 

Guilt?

While I feel guilty about Fear of Falling not getting as much of my time as it should, I am well aware of how futile book marketing efforts can be. That I can do every single thing short of tying the book to my neck like a necklace and still not sell a lot of books. I have talked at length about the going-up-hill-with-a-bag-of-rocks-on-my-back experience of book marketing.  The reality is that you just don’t know what will work, and you do a lot of shooting arrows in the dark.  That was fine with the first and second book and that was fine before I had two children and that was fine when I wasn’t in school and that was fine when my business was slow. But now, I am pressed for time. Now, I have other things that are simply more important.

Frustration

Even when I was a marketing nut, the result was almost the same as not doing a whole lot. With book one and two, I did every single thing possible and sold a total of a bit more than 1500 (and I still sell some here and there). That is fantastic for self-published with no help. But the amount of time and energy it took was enormous, and I don’t regret it, but my life is very different now and I can’t live that way. I have to make money to support my children, and so my time has to go to children, work, and husband. Plus, I am in school, and school comes before marketing my book. I have to accept my limitations, and I have to let go of these voices that say “You should have waited to publish this one” or “You should have tried harder for a new agent or tried at least once with submitting to a regular publishing house.”

Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.

And...more frustration

It’s frustrating to love your book and believe in it but feel as though the time it takes for promotion is futile. Shot in the dark, and if you keep shooting and missing, you get pissed because your time could be spent doing something else. Recently I sent out a gazillion press releases, spent $800 on it and got only one response. Seriously? WTF?

And...more struggle

The struggle is with the guilt I feel for not devoting the amount of time I did with book one and two. The struggle I feel is the sadness of how so few will get to read this current book.  How, in many ways, this is the most important one. The struggle is to say, “I did this for simply the sake of my art and not to sell or promote.”  Which is the truth.  I went into this one saying, “I am publishing book three because I have to.  Because if only two people read it and are moved and touched– it’s worth it.”  I don’t regret self publishing it. I just wish that the few things I do for marketing would snowball effect out and bring in more readers.

Self-Trust When You Self-Publish

When it comes down to it all, I have to trust my self and my process with this book, and I have to remind myself why I did it and reconcile myself with the reality that some of the marketing I have done, which cost lots of money and time, isn’t working, and so that’s it. That’s it, as in, time to stop wasting money and time and just do what’s easy and accessible and free. 

Forgive and let go...

I am done efforting with marketing and from here on, I will market only in ways that are easy. And if I don’t sell any more books, I accept that.

The struggle between work, school, marketing, children, husband, house. I really understand I no longer can do it all and do it all to the best effort. One of those things will suffer. It can’t be the children or husband or work or school. Those are, in ways, effortless.  It’s the marketing of this book. Sorry, book. I love you, but I can’t do much more than I am doing.

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Told you all, way back before I released this book, that  I would be really honest about the third time around in self-publishing.  So, here’s the update on the book’s progress.

Middletown High School in Middletown, RI ordered 12 copies to give out as awards to teachers for a unit they did on bullying.  MHS is my alum and place I taught a few years back. I wish they would invite me to come and do a workshop. Cross your fingers. I have put it out there so...

I had a signing at Barrington Books and sold 20 copies between the three books.

Reviewing/blog goddess and student/friend of mine Joanne Carnevale posted the first official review.

A fellow named Marc Marc Archambault, author and blogger, will review the book on his blog My Indy Book Review.

Devyn Burton from 5 Awesome YA Fans has the book and will review some time next year on his blog http://fdreview.blogspot.com/. The Faerie Drink Review

I submitted to the IPPY awards.

I have acquired 73 fans on Facebook!

The Bristol Phoenix Wrote a lovely piece about the book and me. http://www.eastbayri.com/detail/131943.html

The Jewish Voice will be running a blurb and a head shot in their next issue.

Mt. Hope High school here in Bristol asked me to come and do a workshop.

The Barrington Library– so I hear– has a display of my books!

Clark’s Alum magazine featured a quick blurb about the book.

A reviewer from the Young Adult Book Club website is set to review the book shortly.

On the other hand...

The Newport Daily News has passed on writing an article about me.  Too bad. They did a nice job a few years back on my first book.

A few weeks back there was a request from the press release service I used. Haven’t heard back, though. I spent $800 on this wire/press release service. I only got one response. Lesson learned.

I haven’t set up any more signings yet.

Ran a contest only one person submitted to. : (

If you have any easy and quick marketing ideas, email me!  I will post any that I try out. 

Random Thoughts On The Journey of Self-Publishing

The Undiscovered Gem

Coral, a deep red or pink precious gemstone, can only be found by divers who are deployed into the faraway waters of Northeast Asia, Northeastern Australia, and areas in the middle east.  Lapis Lazuli, a deep blue gemstone, is retrieved by professional climbers who traverse the “inhospitable” mountains of Afghanistan. Tanzinite, a violet blue rare gemstone, is found by miners in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  My question is, how did someone know to look in these places to find such rare beauty? Was it more of an accident?  Where they looking for something else and then just stumbled up gorgeous stones?

I wonder if my books will be like an undiscovered gemstone, hidden in the deep crevices of some mountain or buried deep in the middle of the ocean or, worse, found in some mine no one can get to? Perhaps, one day, probably when I am dead, someone will uncover my books, buried beneath the ruins of my home office. Someone will find them and hold them up for all to see, hailing, “I have found the precious books! They are rare, they are beautiful!”  Maybe deep sea divers and miners will be deployed to excavate the remains of my office so that all the remaining copies can be retrieved. And, finally, the world will know the adventures of plucky Maddie Hickman, her angst, her friends, and her foibles.

It's a nice fantasy.

But a better one is that someone stumbles upon them now, holds them up to the masses, and proclaims that they are the next big thing in YA literature. I would rather be alive for the Big Moment, you know?

Seriously, this is going to be hard.


Back at it with book three....

I have to pound pavement with a heavy sack.  I have to knock on dead bolted doors. I have to send emails and post information on websites that no one may even read. I have to get the word out because no one else will.

I hate how self conscious and dumb I feel going into the local indie bookstore, three four times because the owner says she wants to host a signing, says she will display the books I have given her.

Yes, given her...until she puts the order she says she will put in...She keeps saying that she wants to get the best discount and make sure they are returnable...I keep reassuring her that if she calls iUniverse, they will take care of her, even gave her the extension to dial once she calls.

She has my books bound together with a large rubber band on the shelf in her office and hasn’t been able to contact iUniverse...Something about “they didn’t pick up.” I don’t argue with her. I give up. I will go and retrieve my books by the end of this week if I don’t hear from her, and then, I will just let go of the idea of a signing there anytime soon.

I have pounded on that door enough.

I Know The Leaf

I struggle with the marketing and publicity of this book.

Ignorance was bliss the first time around with self-publishing. Knowledge kills ignorance and can also kill the spirit that comes from not knowing. The sprit of not knowing is curiosity.

Watching my 14 month old journey through our yard, pausing to inspect leaves and rocks.  She can do this for hours.  She can sit with one leaf and inspect it, rub her fingers over it, tear it up.  Learn about it viscerally. Lose herself completely in it, in order to know it. 

I know about that leaf already. I know that if it’s dry and dead, it makes a crinkle noise.  That if it is freshly fallen, it has an earthy smell and smooth feel. I know because I have experienced the leaf thousands of times. Each leaf is unique and each experience with it is too, but I am not going to spend hours inspecting and learning about it. My curiosity about the leaf is less than it was thirty years ago.  I will have a moment while sitting with my baby outside. I will reach over, out of curiosity about what she is seeing, smelling, and feeling.  But it will be a flash, and soon after I inspect it, I’ll be on to the next thing.

I Know Self-Publishing

I know self publishing. I don’t have the stay-for-hours curiosity I had five and a half years ago. I pounded pavement and knocked on doors happily, hungrily, blindly, ignoring the wrinkled noses and funny looks of people when I told them I published with iUniverse that, yes, I was self published, but I did have a publisher you could call and order the books from.  Hell, you can get them from Ingram too. I schlepped those books to every gig I had, every class I taught, every speech I gave, every workshop I ran. I brought them with me if we were visiting family in other states, and I would scour the areas for local indie bookstores, and I would bustle in and say “Carry my book, whatever percentage you want to consign with me is fine. Just carry them.” No ego. No fatigue. I just cared about getting my book to people, any way I could.

It’s hard now.

I know the pushing-the-rock-up-a-mountain-with-ankle-and-wrist-weight feeling of self publishing. I know exactly how hard it is and exactly what hurdles I will have to traverse. It makes the pounding pavement that I know I must do all the more difficult. To market and publicize, you must have energy, time, and money. I have very little of all three. How will anyone reach this book?   I used to have the spirit of this whole experience is amazing. It’s new and fresh, and even when I would attend a whole bunch of gigs and not sell a lot, the experience of those gigs was just fabulous. I didn’t care about numbers.  Things have changed now, and I have a lot more responsibilities. I have two children instead of one, and I have a business with clients I really know, care about, and frankly provide me with my income. I am in school working harder than I ever have on my craft. I have to focus my energy on those things, giving myself whatever crumbs are left over.  The fact is, I can’t do marketing the way I did before  any more. I just can’t, and I believe that I need to approach this in a completely different way.  I can’t do every single thing that floats by my in box. I can’t give away books to friends and family. I can’t beg bookstore owners to buy my books and host a book signing.  I just can’t.

I Know This Book Is That Good

See, I don’t want me to sell the book.  I want the book to sell itself, and I am just the author. I don’t want to be on the red carpet, but I want my book to be. I like being behind the scenes and that’s why I write. The way I sold a lot of books the first time around was by attending sooooo many gigs,  I stopped keeping track. I sold books only because of me and my unwavering tenacity.  Also, I can perform well and work a crowd.  When I taught middle school, I could get a study hall of 250 kids to shut up and sit down. In a crowd, I can lose myself in a role and entertain, and if you get a kick out of me, you will probably buy my book. When I showed up at a gig and felt on, I performed and sold books. When I felt off and sat quietly or just did my thing robotically, I sold little or none. It never occurred to me that pulling back would ever work, that the books would sell themselves. What, in life, works that way? Nothing.

And I certainly don’t expect the book will sell without my effort, but what I want is to expose this book to as many people as possible, without draining my time and energy,  in the fastest way.  I need to figure that part out.

I want to have a book signing 

Yet, books signings are not always fun.

And...the reason is marketing. Booksellers usually put the signing in the local paper’s calendar section. But I’m not sure  how many people read that section any more, since so many people get their news online. Some bookstore owners may display the books with a poster or some visual to attract readers. 
But, some don’t.  And, bookstore owners may or may not put it on their website because they may or may not have one that they update more than once in a while. I always do a crazy blitzkrieg online marketing through social networks and my own data base. But not everyone on my list wants to or can attend the signing. Some of these things are really no ones “fault” just facts of the situation.

If little marketing was done or if the marketing was just not effective, when you actually show up for the signing, people come in and look at you, sitting with your books at a table. You feel a little like an orphaned puppy in need of an owner, and people look at you like they should come over and pet you, but they hesitate because they don’t want to take you home.

Right now I am trying to book myself  a signing, but it’s proving to be so difficult.  There appears to be an interest, but a hesitation to commit. Consignment isn’t really an option.  It’s a big pain in the ass.  I did that a lot the first two times. I had to purchase my books, and then sell them, and I am not good at the bookkeeping of that and wound up giving too many away or at too low of a discount. Some bookstores lost my books and never bothered to tell me.  I had to call or come in many times.  If they lost it,  I didn’t want to put up a fight. It seemed so ridiculous.

The reason I don’t consign any more is because my books all have the highly coveted returnability.  Highly coveted to a Print-On-Demand published author. Now that I have this returnability, there’s no difference between me and a regularly published author, from the book purchasers point of view.  The whole thing with return-ability is that many of us Print-On-Demand published authors have our books available with the big wholesalers that bookstore owners purchase from at a discount, like Ingrahm, but our books, historically, have not been able to be returned.  iUniverse, for a relatively low fee, allows its authors books (only the ones that are deemed qualified which means the well edited ones)  to be returnable.  Due to some errors (which have all been corrected) on the part of iUniverse through the process of publishing my recent book, they offered this to me for all three books at no cost.  Now every bookstore can house my book or have me be at a signing without worrying about purchasing books from me on consignment. They can order the books, and whatever is left over, send back to the distributor. In other words, it makes having me do a signing much easier and less of a pain in the butt.
This bookstore owner seems skeptical of my returnability.  If I was an author with a mainstream publisher and a publicist booking the signing, none of this would matter. None of this extra wasted time would happen–for me or for the bookseller.  The bookstore owner certainly doesn’t want to be calling publishers, etc.  This is a fact of the self-published author, not me being bitter.  It’s a fact I accept. I don’t blame the bookstore owners for being so conservative. But it makes all of this more difficult. 

A Party

So, I have decided that instead of launching this book at a bookstore, if I can’t get anyone to host me by the end of this week, I will have my own book party. Location and time to be announced.  But, you are all invited. : )

And...I think that this journey with this book will begin to shape into something that reflects where I am in my life.  My time and energy constraints will simply force me to narrow the focus on the things that work, that work with little struggle.

For example, I recently got a reply from one of my favorite, award winning authors, Alex Sanchez, who agreed to allow me the pleasure of sending him a copy of my new book. I admire and respect his work so much and just to have him say yes, means more than anything.  To me, this is the type of reaching out efforts I want to do with my book.  I also just sent a mini media kit with some of my books to a charity event.  This was little effort but felt good and right. So, I will step forward, one foot at a time, focused, eyes open. One reader at a time.  No struggle.

Self Publishing: Round Three

Preface to the following blog entry:

I am using this entry for a blog contest on the website backwordbooks.com which is a self-published authors collective, the first of its kind, I believe.  In an effort to support their site and perhaps makes some nice connections, I add their link to this blog entry. Please check them out.

www.backwordbooks.com

The following entry was originally posted on September 7th, 2009.  

Commitment to Blog 

Previously, I blogged when the fancy struck me. However, I have decided to take my self as a writer and author SERIOUSLY...Well, in terms of the craft, at least.  The publishing world, that's another story. I think, in order to survive as an author, you need to NOT take it too seriously.

In light of trying to blog religiously, as I have realized with my MFA program, I think choosing a focus will help.  That way the task of the weekly blog will not overwhelm me. I want to focus on something that I need/want to work my shit out about. Since I have a new book and since being a self published author has brought up so much ANGST in me, I think focusing on the journey of my newest book, FEAR OF FALLING, will be both useful and therapeutic.

Hollywood Ain’t Calling

I have gone into this book without any rosy notion that it will change my life. I do not have fantasies of Hollywood calling. I also know how much time and money it really takes to do justice to a self-published book and that you can do everything “right” and still not sell as many as you thought you would. In fact, I have no expectation of numbers. I published this book for the several thousand readers who read the previous books and for me. This book and its foray out into the world is about my desire to connect with each individual who chooses to pick the book up and open it, and more importantly, continue to read it after the first page.

I know the realities of going at it alone. So, with this in mind, I need to market this book with my head and not my heart. I need to really get it in my head (and out of my heart, which can easily break over such things) that I may show up to a book signing and not sell a single book. I need to accept that I have to do all the legwork of getting reviewers to review the book. I have to not-cry-for-me Argentina that I will have to purchase probably 150 books on my own to use for marketing (online reviewers and contest give-aways) and consigning to bookstores. I have to not feel guilty when friends, students, and clients ask to purchase a book from me. Or, rather, I will not allow the guilt feelings to make me hand over the books for free. Additionally, because it’s just me marketing the book, I have to accept the limitations of my life.  I have children, my work, and school, right now.  Marketing is going to have to be accessible, and my goal cannot be on the number sold.  Rather the goal must be, getting the books to readers, one reader at a time.

I used to say that these books are like my children–I made them, I raised them, and now it’s my responsibility to make sure they go out into the world, properly. However, I have been a mother for almost six years, and now I have another child.  With the first two books, Chelsea, my oldest was very young and I had a lot less on my plate. My books are not my children. In a way, they are like my pets. I will feed, groom, and care for them always. But they probably don’t get cuddled and snuggled as much as they should.

More on the Reality of Self Publishing

If any of you keep up with this blog, you know that FEAR OF FALLING  went "live" to the web for purchase this week.  This means that you can purchase it from online bookstores, like Amazon. It means that if you go to your local bookstore, they can order it for you.  It also means that I can go to the local bookstores and implore them to order my book from the publisher or distributor.  It also means that my publisher will be sending me my free 40 copies. Some of those will get consigned to independent bookstores. Why am I sharing all this with you?  Because here’s the first of many hurdles I will have to traverse with this book. Hurdles I already know about because this is my third time around. That hurdle is…How do I get this book to my readers? You might say, “Well, through bookstores. Right?”

In theory, yes.  The book is available–I know I keep reminding you of this.  This is all part of my scary and efficient marketing plan. : ) So, yes the book is easily available at your online bookstores. So, what’s the problem?  Well, it’s not the purchasing of the book online. It’s the other, old fashion way of purchasing your books–which many people still do. Going to a “live” bookstore! And this is where I have a possible problem.

Typically, if you are a self-published author, you are totally on your own and that means NO ONE helps you with the way your book reaches the hands of the readers. Now-a-days being self published can mean that you are totally alone, but it can also mean that you purchase the service of publishing from a company, as I have from iUniverse. So, I am not totally on my own. The publisher and I are partners in the publication of the book.  My publisher, for a relatively small fee and after a lot of editorial evaluation (this means they don’t just agree to publish any thing), agrees to do some of the marketing and most of the distribution of the book.  This is a GREAT thing for the self-published author.

But, here comes the glitch. Without getting too technical, iUniverse is a print-on-demand self-publisher. With POD books, the publisher prints them one at a time, or as the demand is made. When a bookstore owner calls into the publisher or distributor and asks to order my book, they can easily do so, but they are not allowed to return the books, should they not sell.  This is not good motivation for a bookstore owner to agree to stock my book. Now, my publisher says for a pretty fair fee, they can make it such that my book is deemed returnable.  That’s great, but I have already spent quite a bit on this book, so right now I can't add that item to the growing list of things to buy for this book's possible success. Mainly because the way my previous book sold was through the web, through me, and through my consignment with local bookstores. So hurdle one is traversing the non-returnable issue with local bookstores.  How? To agree to sell the book on consignment. Great except…take note of hurdle number two in the next paragraph.

Hurdles and More Hurdles

Upon perusal of the author copy that arrived early last week, I noticed a minor error on the back cover.  Something that I have corrected in the numerous proofing rounds with the publisher. This isn’t the first publisher error I have encountered with iUniverse this time around. Errors that were immediately corrected, not to mention that they kindly gave me little additional marketing services at no cost.  However, it is still frustrating and time consuming to call them to correct the error.

They are going to take care of this error.  But this now delays me from being able to get those forty copies of the book­ to the local bookstores for consignment, so I can set up some of my first signings. I also wanted to run some contests to give away a few of the books, plus send some to reviewers, so I can post some reviews of the book online.

All of that now has to be put off until the error is corrected and books are sent to me.  So while the book is “live” on Amazon, I am stalled in really launching it.

The Rock Up The Mountain

I hope that I haven’t bored you all with this, but it’s the parts of being self published that frustrate me. I feel like if I had a regular book deal, this isn’t what I would be worried about. I would be able to spend this last hour as I have on this blog on my writing. When these things happen, things that remind me of being on my own in this huge task of marketing my book, I get a little depressed. It feels like I am pushing a huge rock up a very bumpy mountain.

And, yet, I am doing this again, for the third time! : )

But like parenting, the task of self publishing is hard, yet worth it more than I can express in words.

Tune in next week to see what happens next with FEAR OF FALLING!!!!