Think first

Oh my. I’m not sure I dare even try to do a post today. How can I follow Dave’s post yesterday? I don’t know whether to smack his sad puppy nose with a rolled up newspaper or just give in to the laughter. Maybe both. VBEG. Add to that a laptop that has decided it really, really likes give off-the-wall error messages (usually at the most inopportune times) and I find myself wishing I followed my own advice and had a backup post ready to go. I don’t, so I will try to push through before the laptop goes wonky yet again.

Over the last week or so, I’ve had occasion to talk with several authors who are looking at dipping their toe in the indie market. Each of them had one common concern — promotion. They recognized that their publishers weren’t giving the sort of promotion they had hoped for but feared it was better than what they could do for themselves. Even when I pointed out that they are already doing most of their own promo now, it took a while for the lightbulb to go on. They weren’t tying their FB posts, their tweets, their blogs, etc., as promotion. One of them actually talked about it as their author platform because that was the terminology the publisher had used. When he finally realized it was promotion, it was almost a V-8 forehead smacking moment. The look on his face was priceless. I have a feeling if we hadn’t been sitting in a public place, he might have banged his head against the desk.

Even once he — and the others — realized they are already doing most of their own promo now, they worried about how they would be able to do more. Did I know a good PR firm to promote their book? Who could they hire to make sure word of their book got out? That is when I wanted to pound my head against the desk. Why? Because I have yet to talk to any author who has been successful hiring someone to do the PR for them. (By success, I mean something that results in more than a temporary bounce in sales.)

The first rule you have to remember when you go indie is that it is a business, your business. That means you have to make informed decisions about what you are considering doing and you have to look at what the potential return on investment happens to be. Whether you are talking about editorial services, cover creation or promotion, you have to ask yourself one very important question: will you be able to not only make back the money you spend but then make a profit? The next question you have to ask is equally important: how long will it take for you to make back that money?

So, when I saw this post over at The Passive Voice yesterday, I quickly emailed the link to the authors I had been talking with. It is the tale of an author who learned the lesson of “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” the hard way.

Let me start by saying that I almost passed out when I saw that the author in question spent $10,000 to launch a book. Of that, $3,500 was for cover design, interior design layout and proofreading. That, alone, was enough for me to bang my head against the table. I can’t speak about the interior design because I haven’t looked beyond the first couple of pages of the sample. However, the cover design is nothing innovative and nothing to stand out from all the other books like it. Then I noted — and did pound my head against the desk — that she paid for proofreading but not editing. What? If she has a publisher, and it sort of sounds like she does, then they should have done the editing AND proofing. If she doesn’t have one, then why pay for proofing and not editing?

The rest of the money, by far the bulk of it, was given over for promotion. Promotion that did not come through. You can read the post at TPV. Then follow the link to the original post. There were so many warning signs that the author ignored or let pass. I get wanting to avoid conflict. I get that she wanted to believe the promo folks would actually come through at the end. But there comes a point wher eyou have to remind yourself that this is YOUR business and you have to act in a businesslike manner. That means demanding accountings before the proverbial excrement hits the fan. That means doing the hard thing, even when you would prefer to keep your head down and avoid making the hard decisions.

I’m not saying that all those who promise to promote your book are con artists. I’m sure there are some out there who give a good value for your dollar. But, before you agree to go with one of them — and certainly before you give them any money — read every word of the contract. If you don’t understand it, have an attorney look at it. Ask for references and google the names of not only the company but any employee you might be working with. If you start working with someone and that person quits answering your emails or calls, escalate the matter to their supervisor asap. Don’t wait until it is almost time for your book to come out. Most of all, make sure there is an out clause in the contract, something that will allow you to vacate the contract for cause — and without accruing a penalty. There is one other bit of advice I’d give. Make sure they are willing to give regular accountings of not only what they have done but the time spent doing it, monies spent, etc. You are their client. That means they work for you and should answer to you and not the other way around.

Finally, remember that for all the money you spend before a book is published, you have to make that money back before you can say you have made any sort of a profit. So do the math and try to figure out how many books you would have to sell in order to become profitable. This brings up one last “don’t do this” warning. Don’t sign away a percentage of your roylaties. That leaves you with the onus of having to keep the books in such a way that you are giving regular accountings to someone else. It means you might be paying someone years after they last did anything for you. It also means you leave yourself open to a call for an accounting and that will put the burden on you to prove you only sold so many books. You pay for a service at the time the service is rendered, not in perpetuity.

Since we’re talking promotion, I guess I ought to do a bit myself.

Sword of Arelion (Sword of the Gods Book 1)

War is coming. The peace and security of the Ardean Imperium is threatened from within and without. The members of the Order of Arelion are sworn to protect the Imperium and enforce the Codes. But the enemy operates in the shadows, corrupting where it can and killing when that fails.

Fallon Mevarel, knight of the Order of Arelion, carried information vital to prevent civil war from breaking out. Cait was nothing, or so she had been told. She was property, to be used and abused until her owner tired of her. What neither Cait nor Fallon knew was that the gods had plans for her, plans that required Fallon to delay his mission.

Plans within plans, plots put in motion long ago, all converge on Cait. She may be destined for greatness, but only if she can stay alive long enough.