Ideas From Published Authors Needed

Another blogger and writer is seeking ideas, in order to put together a book to help all writers sell their books. She has requested that anyone who is willing repost her call for help, so here it is, below. You can also click on the link to view the original, with links.

"After posting about some interesting movements in the music industry, Colleen at Loose Leaf Notes asked me to look into book publishing.

Inspired, I set out to answer her question.

At little background first. Book publicity has changed drastically in the last seven years. When we started the Open Grove in January, 2001:

* In-house publicists from hundreds of publishers sent dozens of copies of books. I received 12+ books a day. I heard that Oprah received over 50 books a day. Yikes!
* Almost every author went on some form of a multi-city book tour.
* I received telephone calls, letters, and a few emails (2001) from publicists hungry to get their clients on the Open Grove.

Within two years:

* publishers began to merge into multinational conglomerates,
* the tide of books became a trickle, (Thank God)
* authors financed their own book tours,
* some savvy best selling authors began publishing their own books, and
* small book presses were growing.

By 2007:

* many of the major book publishers had closed their publicity departments,
* authors whispered that they spent their entire advance on a publicist - some where helpful, most were not, and
* the publishing industry lost 17%! Book publishers closed left and right.

Walt Whitman sold his book door to door. What’s an author in 2008 supposed to do to sell his or her book??

* What works?
* What doesn’t work?
* What are people doing to promote themselves?
* What was the data? Which marketing endeavors increased sales? What had no effect at all?
* Self publishing? Big New York Publisher? No advance publishing? E-book publishing?

I asked my favorite Marketing forum and came up with some good ideas, but no data. I sat through ridiculous seminars run by sharks and charlatans. (No, Janet, I didn’t kill them, I only WANTED to kill them.)

What sells books in 2008?

No one knows.

I mean, I have some ideas? But I’ve already written about them.

Unsure of what to do, I did nothing. Then I noticed a little project of Brad Feld’s (Liz, he’s the venture capitalist I was talking about). I decided to steal his idea.

I’m sending out an SOS.

Let’s collect our information and experience. We don’t have to toil alone. Together, we can create a resource for authors. With information, we wrestle our creative efforts from the mouth’s of sharks.

(100% of these proceeds will go to Wounded Warriors. )

What I’m looking for:

* Direct experience marketing a book, selling a book or even getting a book published.
* What is working for you?
* What hasn’t worked for you?
* What do you believe is the single most important factor in selling your book?
* You book can be a self-published book, an e-book, a New York publisher.
* Did your book tour work?
* How much publicity help did you get from your publisher?
* What sells your book?

I’m thinking a short (100 - 300 words) this worked, this didn’t.

In return for participating, you will receive a free copy of the book. I’m hoping to collect 100 authors to participate in this project. If you are interested, please send me an email at: opengrove@gmail.com or leave a comment at On a Limb with Claudia. If you know a published author, please let them know about this project."

Is Amazon Seeking to Dominate Small Presses?

Thanks to Fiction Scribe, I discovered an article which details the attempts by Amazon.com to use their dominant position in book sales to force independent publishers to contract with a POD provider Amazon owns, one which seems to generate a lot of customer complaint.

The expansion of opportunity provided by the Internet and POD (Print-on-Demand) technology aids small presses, offers more alternative titles to readers, and expands publishing opportunities for writers. Competition is the only way this expanded opportunity can continue to thrive, benefiting everyone. Now, all this opportunity appears to be threatened by Amazon.

Should a huge corporation be allowed to squeeze larger profits out of the crushed hopes and dreams of small press owners, authors, and readers everywhere? I don't think so. I have already contacted both of my US Senators, asking them to pass on this information to the United States Department of Justice for investigation as a possible violation of anti-trust laws. I have also asked them to pass this information on to the appropriate committee members who may be able to initiate hearings into the matter.

I encourage all of my readers who agree that a free press is a healthy press to contact their own elected representatives to express their concerns. Amazon is a multi-national company, and should be investigated in any country in which it does business. In the meantime, remember, there are other places to obtain books than Amazon.com.

In fact, thanks to Amazon's own efforts, Amazon is no longer the best place to find any book - only books published by those who will concede to Amazon's unjust demands. So, please, forgo convenience, forget free shipping (although Barnes & Noble often offers this as well), and get your books anywhere except Amazon.com! You can also sign this petition to protest Amazon's tactics.

And spread the word! If you have a blog, write a post about this yourself. Tell your friends. Amazon is seeking to do this in secret; they seem to have an aversion to putting this policy in writing. Let's do it for them; get the whole story on record, across the Internet, so everyone knows the truth about Amazon and what they're trying to do. Don't let this happen quietly, unless you want a single corporation to dominate publishing and control what you can and cannot read.