Why Online Book Promotion is a Must to Keep Your Books on the Bookshelves
Posted by pumpupyourbookpromotion on July 28, 2008
I hope everyone’s having a wonderful TGIM! No? Well, you might be better off than one author who emailed me with a problem that you might be interested in if you’re a mainstream published author who has books on the bookshelves in any bricks-and-mortar bookstore.
When you are published by a mainstream publisher, they have their rules. When you are published by a publisher who published print-on-demand or you self-published, you pretty well play by your own rules.
For the mainstream published author, your books end up on the bookstore shelves, and with the print-on-demand and self-published authors, it’s an uphill battle just to get them to listen to you and in 99% of the cases, it’s just not going to happen no matter what anyone tells you otherwise.
So let’s say that you are a mainstream published author and you’re playing by the mainstream publisher’s rules and one of them is that they will allow your book to have the privilege of being placed on Barnes & Noble or Borders’ or any of the other book store chain’s bookshelves, but the little catch in this is that if the book does not sell, it gets ripped off the shelves in XX amount of months with them even giving you the month that it’s going to happen.
You’d freak, right? You think your book is going to sell, you have high hopes and plans, but what if that month is coming up and you’re no closer to getting those great sales that the publisher is talking about than a man in the moon?
What the author has to do at this point is take some tips from the print-on-demand and self-publishing authors who have aimed for online book promotion as their most viable step to getting those books moving and keeping them moving.
The advantage that POD and self-published authors have over the mainstream authors is that as long as their book can be printed, their book can outlast most mainstream authors’ books. They may not get the immediate sales as the mainstream authors do, but they have a much longer lifespan because of the fact that their book is available forever.
So given that fact, I would like to ask the mainstream authors – the ones published by NY publishers with an advance and full distribution – once your book is pulled from the shelves, is it still available online (e.g. Amazon)? And for how long? Indefinitely?
I ask this question because if it is still available online even though it’s been pulled by the bricks-and-mortar stores, wouldn’t being published by a NY publisher still have more value over the POD and self-published authors because they have widespread distribution when the book comes out and then they still can sell their books through Amazon, the same strategies that POD and self-published authors use to sell their books all along?
So my question is, if you are a mainstream published author and your book is pulled from the shelves, how long does it remain at Amazon and would you consider your book is through once its shelf-life has run its course?
Leave your comments below because I sure would like to help out not only this author, but others who are trying to decide which publishing route to take.
Thank you!
V. Michael Santoro said
As a published author and Internet Marketer, I found your points about conducting an online book marketing campaign, the same as a POD or self-published author very insightful. Today all publishers require authors to provide their own book marketing campaign and understanding how to market using the Internet will help authors to brand themselves as experts very cost effectively.
If you get a chance, please visit my Website which address the need for an online book marketing presence.
All the best,
V. Michael Santoro
http://www.proauthors.com
Book Marketing Buzz - August 11, 2008 | All Book Marketing said
[...] Why Online Book Promotion is a Must to Keep Your Books on the Bookshelves [...]
Anthony James Barnett - author said
I found your post quite enlightening. I always considered that because my publisher chose POD as the print method, I was somehow ’second-class’.
The book production was up to scratch – the editing was first-class, the jacket design well executed. I just felt ‘cheated’ when I realised the implication of being POD.
The revelation of your post has lifted my spirits a little – not absolutely, because the unit cost of POD is still high – but I do know Without Reproach is available in dozens of Internet-store outlets in dozens of countries throughout the world.
Thank you.
stepperred said
save to my Bookmarks )