Really does a new publishing book marketing model really exist or is it still a work in progress? During the past decade all writers have gone through the discouraging efforts of trying to solicit a discussion with a publisher or agent. Notice I said dialog, to hell with getting an actual offer or advance. Back in 2005 I went through the novel marketing exercise briefly and discovered it perplexing, incredibly wasteful and somewhat silly because of its inherent inefficiencies. As part of my first book marketing exercise I sent out ten inquiry letters to a handful of arbitrary agents and got only a few replies. In one case, I actually did get a formal rejection letter that I kept, as do most new authors. I won't reference the agent's name because they at least had the good manners of returning a rejection notice but their response was curious in that the agent stated to be working with an writer on a project of a related nature. Yeah right, more likely the agent never bothered to read my synopsis in its entirety but this is my opportunity to vent my spleen about this na?ve book marketing effort. Oh, yeah, where the heck is that novel they were working on anyway?
Slush piles and the like were the standard for this industry as editors failed to keep pace with submissions from wannabe authors. Michael Allen, who wrote the depressing "The Truth About Writing", observed that there are a lot more lotto winners than there are financially successful writers. And as form of mea culpa, writers are to blame also with the advent of the word processor and Internet any blithering idiot can now string some words together and proclaim to be a writer. I include myself among the league of blithering idiots but I will continue to work to improve my writing form. In any case I'm probably better at book marketing than I am at writing.
So what about the traditional publishing industry? Is the end near and what of book marketing? Well, I'll tell you a little anecdotal story that might give you a little insight. I have a good friend who works for Doubleday and I met up with her at a friend's party. She knew of my work and she gave me the name of a head huncho to forward my manuscript to. I dragged my feet for a few months frankly because I felt the manuscript wasn't ready; it really wasn't! Now keep in mind I have my other friend telling me to write another book and move on because nobody cares if you have written one book. However, this book is my obsession and getting it right is more of a priority to me than writing other stories. Anyway a couple of months pass and the word comes back to me that my friend is looking for a job because the entire Doubleday division was laid off! I didn't know if I should laugh or cry so much for book marketing.
So what the heck is occurring? I'll tell you since I am marketing type and I see this type of failure all the time. We call it convergence, new technologies being disruptive and challenging the established traditional business models. Nothing is more traditional than the present publishing model but the Internet, ebooks, podcasting and blogging are altering the book marketing model in so many different ways. It happened to the computer industry and now it is happening to newspapers, tv, music and other conventional educational/communication forms. Change is a bitch and it is up to us to separate the noise from the facts.
Author Resource:-
Book authors need not face the challenge of book marketing alone. Visit www.BookIM.org for more information on affordable book marketing.
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