Alternatives to Bookstores for Talks and Sales

One thing I’ve found most shocking during my attempts to distribute and promote my books is how little support I’ve found from bookstores, especially independent ones.  One would think that they would want to utilize the resource of local artists to draw in more local readers.  At the very least, you get the friends and family coming in.  Most amazingly, independent bookstore owners are asking their customers to bypass major corporate stores to go to their stores, but they refuse to bypass major publishers for independent ones, so there’s a large amount of hypocrisy there.

Some bookstores have been supportive, and I can go at length about this subject alone, both as a rant, and providing information.  But today I want to talk about some of the alternatives I’ve found.

While I was preparing for my book tour for Two Gun Hart, I tried to arrange talks at bookstores in Nebraska, Chicago, San Francisco, and Austin.  While Nebraska businesses opened their doors wide, none of the others did.  I was particularly surprised about Chicago and San Francisco.  Chicago, of course, is where the famous Capones lived, and San Francisco prides itself on having large numbers of book lovers and having the independent spirit.  But the bookstores in both entirely ignored me.

Meanwhile, one of the Capone family members set up a talk at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.  As I mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries, the event was a success, partially because students were offered extra credit if they came.  Also, it was a venue where people wanted to learn, and the staff was not inundated with requests by self-published authors to have readings and signings.  By going to the correct department, (in this case the Italian-American studies,) Corey was able to set up a highly successful talk.

It got me thinking of other venues where this sort of thing will work.  There are museums dedicated to the old west, Italian studies, and crime in America.  Each one would make good venues.  There are other departments at universities and high schools that would like to learn about this story.  Libraries, too, are good sources, though they are also often contacted by many independent authors, so the competition is fierce, and promotions can be difficult.

I’m of the mind right now that school systems will be the best as they’ll have a ready-made audience, sometimes even a captive one.  However, if one can work out the promotions correctly, especially if they can go to a venue that has members who meet regularly, they can be successful.

By the way, in this instance, I am defining “success” as selling a number of books of course, but more importantly, getting the word out.  You will not sell enough books at any of these venues to make it worth your while.  But, if successful, you will get enough people interested that they’ll tell others.

The American Game Will Be Free on Kindle

Beginning tomorrow, July 1, The American Game will be free on Amazon Kindle.  It will be free for 5 days, (July 1-5) to celebrate the 4th of July weekend.  You can download it at:  http://www.amazon.com/American-Game-Jeff-McArthur-ebook/dp/B00LJII7GG/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1435710093

Why do we give away books for free when we worked so long and hard on them?  Well, there are a couple reasons, but I'm first going to explain a reason that's somewhat unique to me.

I first wanted to make this story into a movie, and I tried to get it made for 18 years.  A child could literally have been born and grown up to adulthood in the time it took me to get this story told.  (And one that I knew actually did.)  That would seem like all the more reason to charge a lot for the book and not give it away for free.  However, in my view, I spent so much time on this book that no matter how much I charge for it, I would never make enough money to equal the time I put into it.

But the main reason that people in general do the KDP Select free giveaway is because it generates interest, and helps them get noticed.  How does it do this?  Well, first of all, Amazon places listings based on the number of downloads a book has had so far, not only how much money it's made.  Therefore, if you get 10,000 downloads and make no money you're going to go further up the chart than the person who made $100 and had 500 downloads.  Authors who are further up the chart get noticed more by other readers and then get more sales.

A good way to describe it is to have you imagine one person in a park.  He's shouting out a message, and no one's listening to him because it's just a crazy guy in a park trying to get people's attention.  When three or four people join him, well, it becomes a small group, but it's still probably just a group of crazy people.  However, when a bigger and bigger crowd gathers, this starts to catch people's attention.  And then when this group turns into a crowd huddled around a large area of the park, it really gets other people's attention, and soon people are going to the park just to see what that crowd is all about.  That initial crowd is the people who downloaded your book for free, and the other people coming are those whose attention was grabbed because of that crowd.  The trick now is to get them to pay.

I'm going to report on this giveaway as I do it.  I've been preparing for this giveaway for a month now.  I'll describe how I prepared in another blog, and then report on the results as they come in.  Keep following to see how it goes.

Radio Talk Shows and the Extremist Bent

In our constant search for promotional opportunities for our books, one of the best options for us seems to be the radio, namely, talk radio.  They work primarily in words without images, just as we do.  They need content 24 hours, we are trying to get ourselves heard by the public.  It seems like a perfect match!  Alas, it is much harder to make that match work than one might imagine.

First, you have to wade through the majority of radio stations that play mostly music and only interview celebrities.  That leaves a much smaller number of talk and news shows that will actually consider what you have to offer.  You can narrow down to these stations using the Radio Locator found here.  This will still provide you with a pretty large number, especially if you’re looking for stations nationwide.

However, when you go to these stations, you discover a very discouraging trend.  Most of these talk radio stations are dedicated to irrational, angry hate speech, most of it conservative.

This is not to say there is something inherently problematic with conservatism.  Though I’m a centralist who leans left, I see value in beliefs on the right; and above all, I’m a big believer in everyone having the right to their opinion.  However, most extremist talk-show hosts do not.  Shock-jocks like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are nothing more than authoritarian bullies.  They pretend to be conservatives to gain an audience, but the truth is, they don’t really care about politics or what’s best for the country.  All they care about is the controversy they spread to raise their ratings.

This is not where I want to talk about my books.  It has nothing to do with what side of the political fence I stand on.  It has everything to do with the fact that I don’t want to be on a show that refers to people as “pinheads” and tell callers to “shut up” just for disagreeing with their opinions.  As for the stations that carry them, that is a bit more of a gray area with which I have struggled.  For a while, I sent my press releases to stations that carried these shows, but had other programming that might be worth my time.  But I’ve stopped doing this.  Part of the reason is I have such a long list of places to contact now that I’ve narrowed down the number of places I contact in the interest of time.  But another reason is because I got to thinking about what kind of station manager would play programming of that sort.  Let’s take Rush Limbaugh for example.  When Robin Williams died, he heartlessly said that he deserved it.  When Michael J. Fox came out about his disease, Limbaugh callously made fun of him.  A station manager who plays Limbaugh actually listened to those things and said, “I want that on my station!”  That is a channel for which I have no respect, and no time to appear.

What I do instead now is look for “news” channels.  “Talk” channels have become so overrun by these extremist that they are virtually code words for “duchebags who merely want to spread the seeds of hatred.”  It’s still difficult to get news producers to notice you because you still need some angle that is informative for today.  (My books being historical in nature often don’t have any relevance to today, but I try to take advantage of any opportunity I get.)  I also try to get onto NPR.  Some like to say they have a liberal bias; but regardless of whether they do or don’t, you don’t hear them raging against someone day in and day out, belittling anyone who disagrees with them, as you often do on talk radio.

Either Do Social Media, Or Get a Publicist

I have to confess something.  I hate doing social media.  That’s an ironic thing seeing as this post is appearing on social media and I’m wanting a lot of people to follow what I say.  But I really do.  I’d rather be writing one of my books or short stories, putting together a game, or videotaping for one of my shows.  Basically, I’d rather be creating the things I set out to create.  Anything else feels like a distraction.

It especially feels like a distraction when I’m having to promote to get people to look at these side projects, such as blog posts, Twitter, etc.  In essence, I’m promoting the promotion.  I have enough side projects as it is; I don’t need another one.  And on top of everything else, it feels like I’m wasting my time when I look at the number of views, and I make up a quarter to half of the views!

I know that social media has an effect.  I’ve seen it myself.  It’s subtle and has not made too large a change in my numbers, but I have seen occasional spikes when I tweeted something important, or posted something people wanted to read.  But it’s frustrating how much work goes in to such little results.

But then, a couple months ago, a man named Stefan with Skyboat Entertainment, an audiobook company, gave me the kick in the pants I needed.  Someone at a GLAWS meeting was asking about social media.  They kept going on about it, and it became clear that what they really wanted was for him to tell them they didn’t have to do it, or at least provide an alternative.  He gave them a wake-up call by shrugging and saying, “Then you have to get a publicist, or just not expect anyone to read your books.”  He laid it out there as plainly as could be.  It may suck if you don’t enjoy doing social media, but you have to do it, or you have to get a publicist.  Those are your two options if you want to sell books.

I hear Stefan’s deep, gravel voice every time I want to quit posting.  Like a trainer shouting from the edge of a boxing ring, Stefan’s words lay it out there for me.  Do it or quit.  Those are your options, plain and simple.

Self-Publishing Promotion 3 - Release (Release - 3 months after)

As I stated in the last blog entry, the week of release is vitally important.  This week is your best chance to reach the New York Times Bestseller List, and other important lists that will be seen by thousands of people.  You need to work hard this whole week, but it can't be the start of the work.  This will be the time to follow up all the work you've been doing for the past six months.  Remind everyone who's been showing interest that the book is now out.  Post anywhere you can that all the clips you've been showing are connected to a book that just released.  Basically, get all those people who have been on the fence about whether or not to purchase to take the leap and buy it already.

Also, this is very important, Amazon and Barnes & Noble to not allow reviews to be posted until the book is released.  So go to all those folks who said they'd post a review to do it now.  This is vital as it determines how far up in the list you'll be.  I have books still on Amazon that, when you type in the exact title, are not the first to come up.  (Instead it's other books that don't have the exact title, but have more reviews.)  Even bad reviews help you reach the top of the list, so have them post it immediately.

I did all of these things.  I took time off from work to reach out to everyone.  I was even on a true crime podcast the week of release.  Still, I had dismal results.  On retrospect, I believe the reason was because the entire six months I was dependent upon news organizations to spread the word.  Of course I did a number of things as well, informing people in groups that the book was releasing, and putting up an ad on Goodreads and on Facebook.  But ultimately nonfiction depends heavily on readers hearing about the story from people they trust.  This is usually the news media, such as the radio, NPR, television, etc.  The fact that I was largely ignored by them hurt my chances greatly.

This has explained to me why that other author said fiction is easier to promote when you're self-published; you have more control over reaching your niche.  You do need to make them trust your writing style and storytelling abilities, but they're not so stuck on reading and listening to traditional sources that they won't give you a chance.

However, all hope is not lost for non-fiction.  The week before release, I was flown out to Salt Lake City to speak to an Italian-American department at a university.  Many of the students got extra credit if they went to listen to my talk.  Others in the university who was what the subject was about came out to see what it was all about.  Since that time I've also found other venues with the same sort of niche; genealogy groups, other universities, old west and crime museums, etc.

I thought that bookstores would be interested in this, but again, I was largely ignored.  Most surprising were the bookstores in San Francisco, who claim to pride themselves on supporting independent artists.  I guess that doesn't include independent authors, as most authors they have listed are from major publishers.  (So, they don't want you going to the big company called Barnes & Noble or Amazon, but they themselves will only deal with big publishers.  Great.)

However, these niche locations are far more interested.  I am now scheduling those events, and each time I go, I see the people's eyes get wide, and they take their books home to tell everyone about it.  I always notice my sales go up after these.

So that's about it.  I know I didn't cover it in anywhere near as much detail as I intended, and there's for more that would be helpful, but too much for me to think of and include in the blog.  So the best thing for me to do is leave it as it is, and let anyone reading this ask me questions.

Self-Publishing Promotion - Phase 2 (3 months before release - Release)

This phase is, in many ways, the most crucial, as it is your best chance to get into the New York Times Bestseller List, or other lists of the same sort.  You can put your book up for pre-order during this time, and start getting it purchased by bookstores.  All sales during this period count during one day, the release date, so the longer time you give yourself, the wider your net.

The first obvious thing you want to do is have the book go on pre-order as far from release date as possible.  This will probably be 90 days.  You also want it available in as many sites as possible.  The top ones are Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the latter of which should be done through Smashwords.

Now is the time to build the buzz as large and as fast as you can.  Reviewers who were getting it during phase 1 should start putting out their reviews now.  You want to do a general press release to go to as many places as possible, and to write to the places that you believe will be your biggest supporters early on so you can schedule interviews to happen before release.  These will probably be on your list you made on the Excel sheet.

For the major press release I used PR Web, and I used the $250 option.  This wasn't the top service, but it wasn't the bottom.  It provided wide coverage without offering a lot of information I didn't need.  There are "cheaper" options, but nothing that's actually cheap.  There are a few sites that do this for free, but no one does it with the sort of coverage and results PR Web gives you.  What I've discovered from doing all this is "go big or go home."  I've done the free service in the past, the $100 option, and now the $250 option.  The free option barely got picked up by any news sources.  The $100 got some moderate coverage, but not a lot.  The $250 option got covered by several hundred places, so it seemed to be worth it.

The one problem is that the news sources who picked it up barely mentioned the book, if at all.  I had done the press release near the beginning, so the book still wasn't releasing for nearly 3 months.  Therefore, most sources seemed to ignore it since it was going to be a while before the book would be out.  I had done it so far in advance in case some of them wanted to do interviews, but that didn't happen.  I don't know what to say about this.  The results seemed really positive, and in some ways it was as the news of the subject of the book really got out there.  But the book got no sales directly from it, and people didn't really learn of its existence.  Bottom line, if you're going to do this option, do it closer to the release date, and make a bigger deal about your book.

As the release date got closer, I talked more and more on Facebook groups and sent out to Twitter.  (I'll be honest, I suck at the latter.)  I let out bits of information and clips from the book to get interest.  This worked in small, yet sure ways.  People showed interest who backed it up with sales, though VERY few bought pre-order copies.  They wanted to make sure the book was out before they got it.  But I did see people talking about it, and not always just with me.  Those same people bought the book when it came out.

The month leading up to release, I spent all my time working on the book and its promotions.  (I still had a little work to do on it.)  I wrote to every media place I could, especially public radio and television.  They pretty much entirely ignored me, which was bizarre considering the incredible story.  One of them sent a link to the kind of "historical" stories they do, and it went to someone who went to a psychic and got "possessed by the ghost of Montgomery Clift."  I guess, how can the long-lost Capone brother who broke the Italian stereotype compete with that?

I had scheduled the release date for a Friday, assuming it would follow the same rules that movies do.  Have it released through a weekend that people will want to buy it and read it.  About halfway to release, I learned that the best day to release is Monday, as the New York Times and others count the first week of sales along with the pre-releases, and every day will count to your total all the way to Sunday.  I couldn't push it back without losing the right to do pre-orders with Amazon again in the future, so I had to pull the date back from Friday to Monday of the same week.  It made a few things have to rush, but I got them all done...

...and had only 11 sales.  It was disheartening.  I know I made a few mistakes, especially in sending out the press release too early, but I'm satisfied that I did enough things right to feel I couldn't have done a lot better.  I can't force the media to tell my story and talk about my book.  I can't make them interview me.  And the subject matter is dynamic enough that I refuse to believe that's the problem.  I mean,it's Capone's long-lost-freakin'-brother, and he was a freakin' Prohibition officer.  If that isn't a perfect story for public radio and history stations, I don't know what is.

I have been remembering what I read from another self-published author, that he self-publishes fiction, and traditionally publishes non-fiction.  I didn't understand why at the time, but now I do.  When promoting non-fiction, you are counting on news sources, such as newspapers, radio stations, and especially NPR and PBS.  You count on them because your readers trust them more than they'll ever trust you.  History readers are typically more traditional, and they want to know that what they're reading is the truth.  Most have bought into the idea that a traditional publisher has multiple readers and editors scouring over the facts and double checking them to make sure they're accurate.  They do not realize this is all a myth.  Nevertheless, the media outlets perpetuate this stereotype by connecting with the traditional publishers, and their time and space is filled up with authors from these publishers.  Many of them are friends with the editors and producers of these media outlets, having made these connections while they were both climbing their career ladders.

It was a discouraging lesson, and I was frankly very depressed by it.  But I did start having a small ray of hope as I began moving into phase 3...

#self-publishing #bookpromotion