Tag: #writers

Jumping on Early Promo and Sales Opportunities

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For authors, especially first-time authors, the urge to delay promoting their forthcoming book until the finished product is in hand is understandable but counterproductive. Waiting, especially during the sell-in window (that is, the six months ahead of publication when their book is available for preorder on retailer sites), robs authors of sales and promotion momentum. That’s money they (and their publishing partner) don’t earn!

The following are three reasons why authors must have a plan in play by sell-in opposed to waiting until their book is in print.

  • Early sales are pivotal—they inform retailers about the book’s potential demand, influencing their purchasing decisions. High preorder numbers can lead to retailers buying more units of their book and better shelf placement, driving even more sales.
  • Early promotion builds buzz and anticipation. Potential readers and book reviewers get wind of the book, creating a snowball effect. Social media posts and reels, email newsletters, and preorder incentives can generate word-of-mouth that post-release promotion can build on. Early momentum is important to a successful book launch; very few authors who miss this window recapture the momentum post-publication.
  • For authors who have received an advance, the preorder period offers a chance to start earning it out. Royalties from preorders go towards recouping the advance, and strong early sales can help cover this faster. Financially, this means the author can start earning additional royalties sooner rather than later.

Delaying promotion is a missed opportunity. I counsel my authors to get their book posted on their website, on their social media, announced in their newsletter, and so as soon as they hit sell-in period. I encourage you to do the same.

Good luck!

Saying Goodbye to Outdated Author Beliefs

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As we turn the page to 2025, it’s a great time to reflect on our approaches to publishing. For first-time authors, especially, the following three common misconceptions can hinder success.

The Myth of the Follower-Fueled Bestseller: Having a substantial online following is undoubtedly valuable. It provides a built-in audience and a platform for promotion. However, it’s crucial to understand that followers don’t automatically translate into book sales. A like on a post is a far cry from a pre-order or purchase. Some followers are showing up for the free content—a comedy skit to past the time during lunch break or a lifestyle hack to make planning easier. The smart author directs those followers to their newsletter, private community, and paid services to get a true sense of their audience.

The Illusion of the Self-Selling Book: Many authors mistakenly believe that once their book is published, it will magically find its audience. News flash: it will not! This is a competitive business, and book buyers are selective about where they spend their dollars. The smart author actively promotes their book and bakes it into their work.

The Trap of Passion Alone: While passion is undoubtedly a driving force behind writing a book, it’s not enough to guarantee sales. (And neither is a celebrity endorsement or feature in top media, but that is a separate post.) Enthusiasm for your topic doesn’t automatically translate into reader interest or effective marketing. The smart author has a strategy to reach their readers; this author understands the audience’s pain points and communicates how their book alleviates them.

This year, let’s embrace a more realistic and strategic approach to nonfiction publishing. Happy writing, and happy new year!

Choosing the Right Book Binding

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Nonfiction lovers often face a binding dilemma: paperback or cloth or spiral bound? All formats offer clear advantages.

Paperbacks standout for accessibility. Their lower price point makes knowledge more attainable for budget-conscious readers and book buyers. Plus, their flexible design makes them ideal for reading on the go—easily slipping into bags and backpacks. However, paperbacks are less durable. Their covers are prone to bending and tearing.

This is not a bad thing when reading professional development books, as best practices often change over time. So when the tears set in, you could consider it a sign to buy the new edition!

Cloth bindings, also called hardbacks, seem to suggest quality and longevity. These sturdy books withstand years of use, making them a worthwhile investment for serious readers and collectors. But there is a downside: Cloth books are pricier and bulkier, less convenient for carrying around.

Spiral bound bindings have gone the way of the dodo. They are great for notetaking or slipping into a backpack, but they tear easier than paperbacks and are a nightmare to package. For those reasons, readers can’t resell them on sites like Amazon.

Ultimately, an author and editor should consider the book’s priorities. If affordability and portability are key, paperback is the way to go—especially if the book is being positioned as a PD resource that readers will return to again and again. If you prioritize durability and collectability, invest in cloth.

Positioning Yourself as the Right Person to Write This Book

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A proper book proposal should position the prospective author as an expert or unique voice on the subject. After all, the writer isn’t just trying to convince the publisher to release a book on the subject but to contract the writer to author that book.

When making their case, the writer can include the following information.

  • Credential: Detail their level of education and institutions as well as training (internships, apprenticeships, jobs held) as it relates to the book’s topic.
  • Business: List any keynotes, presentations, or workshops they have put on about the subject. The writer must go on to share the audience size for these keynotes and workshops and how much they charge. Publishers want to partner with authors who can help promote and sell the book. Having a business that the book complements demonstrates that the writer can make a topnotch partner for sales and promotion.
  • Following: Add in social media followers or subscribers that turn to the author for news on the subject. Along those lines, include the location of those followers. Both Tik Tok and Instagram show its account holder what countries their followers are connecting from, which helps the prospective author demonstrate to a publisher that they have international reach. The writer should also share the open rate for their newsletter and emails.

The prospective author must show that they bring a unique and marketable perspective to the book deal.

Good luck!

Communicating Your Vision for Your Book’s Cover Design

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Cover design is one of the most exciting parts of the book production process. Undoubtedly, both author and publisher understand that a well-designed cover draws in readers, and all parties want to be proud of the end result. However, the author and publisher often have differing ideas of what that design looks like.

For the publisher’s part, it wants something that is engaging, complimentary to its brand, visually appealing in person and online, and compliant with any considerations pertaining to licensing of art and fonts. I suspect most authors want the same but often focus their attention on the look and “vibe “of their cover. So, how can these parties each leave the cover design process satisfied?

I recommend the publisher ask and authors communicate their vision. A meeting, email, or cover questionnaire can easily accomplish this. Along those lines, the author should consider:

  • What competing book covers look like—The author should look online, in industry catalogs, or in brick-and-mortar stores. Note the books that are billed as best-sellers or get prime placement (that is, forward-facing in stores).
  • What “feel” they want—The feel can be fun and accessible, authoritative, or something else.
  • What colors the author envisions—The author should note if he or she wants a cover with vibrate shades like red and orange, soft pastels like sage green or cream, or something else.
  • Fonts—Authors should communicate whether they want the title or author name be bigger than the subtitle, whether the main title be larger than all other text, whether they desire cursive or other special looks.
  • Art—Some authors do not want pictures on their book covers while others are indifferent. Others still, may have strong feelings about certain symbols. I once worked with an author who was vehement that her book on motherhood should not use a cover image that focused on a pregnancy bed. To her, images like that removed the woman’s personhood and centered her only as a reproductive agent. Any author who has strong feelings should communicate that.

If authors don’t know what they want or are open to a variety of designs, they have likely made their designer’s day. Who doesn’t like carte blanche to create a stunning visual!

After authors communicate their cover desires, they should trust their partner—that is, their publisher. Any reputable publisher has years—or centuries—of publishing success under its belt. It won’t want to jeopardize that on a slapdash cover that looks inferior beside competitors.

Identifying Your Primary Audience

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Whether reading a proposal or discussing a prospective author’s book idea, there’s a point when my focus turns to primary audience—that is, the customer who will buy the most copies of the author’s book. It is quite common for authors who want their books to reach as many people as possible and undoubtedly to sell as many copies of their book as possible to say everyone is their audience. That is never true and actually paints the author as ignorant to the promotion and sells component of what makes a book successful.

Audience should strike the balance of (1) being large enough to make a book worth a publisher’s time but (2) narrow enough that the publisher knows how to sell it and (3) authors distinguishes themselves in the field. Since most of my career is spent in academic and trade PD publishing, I would urge authors who want to work with me to consider the following when determining their audience.

  • Who is the current captive audience? That is, what organizations, firms, schools, or other client are paying the author for keynotes and training—and renewing contracts for additional workshops? Who comprises the author’s social and professional network (i.e., academics, system and school leaders, or someone else)?
  • What audience will the author be presenting to in the coming 1–2 years?
  • What conferences is the author attending or panels is the author sitting on?

The answer to these questions = the primary audience. Anyone else is ancillary.

If the first book finds success, the author is welcome to focus the next book on this secondary audience.

Optimizing Online Presence to Attract Trade Publishers

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I’ll begin with a quote by bestselling author Jeb Blount (2010): “People buy you.” In this case, people encompass acquisitions editors—the party a publisher tasks with signing new authors to books that support publisher goals. Before an acquisitions editor invites a prospective author for a meeting or to send a book proposal, they will likely do an online search to see what they can learn about you and your work.

A few of the things I look for:

  • Publicity about the prospect—I consider, “Is the author mentioned in professional or local news stories? What is the context?” Prospect authors should do online searches for themselves to see what information presents itself. I do not care if you’re divorced, but I do care if you’ve been given an industry award. I want to sign content experts.
  • Personal or professional website—I look for a bio, upcoming speaking or training events, prices of those events, and list of speaking or research topics to name a few. I look to see whether the author is affiliated with any professional organizations, schools, or individuals whose support can help book sales. A prospective, or even published, author would be wise to include these elements. They should keep the information up-to-date to accurately reflect themselves.
  • Social media—I look at the author’s following, frequency of posts, follower engagement with posts, and more. Again, I want to know if there is an audience that would support the book. Along those lines, I also want to see if there are any red flags that suggest the author is not a good fit. Those flags entail posts that suggest the author’s passion no longer lies in the direction that I am interested in pursuing, posts that harass others online, or similar.

Online presence is an easy vehicle for self-promotion.

Citation: Blount, J. (2010). People buy you: The real secret to what matters most in business. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Choosing a Publisher for Your Book

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So, you have a book proposal (or a complete draft manuscript), and you’re ready to submit it to a publisher. With thousands of publishers all proclaiming that they can help a book find success, how do you know which is a good fit for you?

Drawing on my experience with scholarly and trade publishers, I encourage you to ask yourself the following questions to find the best home for your book.

  • Who are you reading for books on a similar topic? Consider who publishes the books you cite in your own work and who’s publishing the leading voices in the field. That’s a good indicator of the publisher’s interest. Publishers are strategic; it’s safer to market to their captive audience—an audience that trusts their reputation—than taking a risk on a first-time author writing to a new audience.
  • Who is the target audience? Many academic presses publish for scholarly readers; these books tend to be niche and written to advance the field of research rather than entertain the masses. Academic presses consider proposals from academics who have the credentials, resumes, and unique perspective to contribute to the field. A commercial trade publisher, however, generally caters to the general interest reader. While they still consider the author’s expertise and unique perspective or story, they often consider author platform and whether the author has an agent. When acquiring in a scholarly press, for example, I didn’t look at a prospects number of followers; but I definitely do as an editor for my trade publisher. In the latter case, I want an author who can promote their book to their followers while I support my publisher pitching the book to our retail partners.
  • What business model complements your platform and objectives? There are traditional publishers that take on the responsibilities of book production, marketing, and so on and pay authors royalties but rely on authors to help promote their books. Others offer to publish the work and book an author for professional development, which might be great for an author with a small profile and limited reach. Those with thriving businesses or consulting services might bristle at this arrangement. And of course, there are self-publishing models that charge an author for all expenses incurred or leave it to the author to arrange cover design, developmental and copyediting, and so on.

As an author, you have to know what your bottom line is. Once you generate a list of publishers that are a good fit, send your proposal to them all according to their book proposal requirements.  

Here’s a bonus for the academic author:  Visit the Association of University Presses (https://bit.ly/3X91dXI) to access a subject-area grid that lists academic presses and the subjects they publish in. The list is usually updated yearly.

Good luck!

Coauthoring a Book: 4 Recommendations for a Smooth Publishing Experience

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I noticed that quite a number of books that I acquired have multiple authors. Whether they’re longtime business partners penning their first book or previously published authors sharing a byline for the first time, coauthors can do the following to make the process easier on them and the publisher.

  • Have a clear, joint vision for their book: Successful books have a clear audience, message, and cohesive voice. Before submitting their proposals, coauthors should discuss and agree on these elements.
  • Know how they will split royalties: It is not a given that all parties will split royalties equally. If one is contributing more in terms of authorship, research, marketing, or celebrity, it is okay for that person to get a larger percentage of the royalties if coauthors agree. Or coauthors may want all royalties to be paid to a single entity like a charity or institution. Either way, they must notify their acquisitions editor, so she can add the proper designations to the contract.
  • Choose one party to be the primary contact: Especially if there are three or more authors involved, it will make for a more cohesive publishing process for editorial, design, and production if the managing editor or acquisition staff can contact one person to respond to questions or assign tasks. This does not mean all parties can’t be copied on all email correspondence. It is just more time efficient to have one person compiling and then communicating cover design considerations, for example, instead of the publisher receiving multiple emails that may state very different desires. That leads to the next point.
  • Designate collaboration time and assign tasks: Coauthors should create a schedule that gives them time to discuss their writing strategy, promotion and sales information from their publisher, deadlines, and so on. Along those lines, considerations when designating work include asking who will:
    • Solicit or compile endorsements
    • Review the copyedit and respond to editor queries
    • Review page proofs
    • Proofread the draft before sending it to their publisher

This is by no means an exhaustive list but does help coauthors plan for a smooth publishing process.

Naming Your Book

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A book’s title is arguably as important as its content. A vague title or one too common runs the risk of being overlooked by retail customers. A title that’s too niche is also unlikely to gain traction.

One must also make sure the book’s title complements the cover art. Simple, short titles look great on covers with little or with tremendous artwork. On the other hand, a long title (think more than seven words) on a 6 x 9 trim book or on a cover that already has a lot of images may look too busy and off-putting, especially as a thumbnail–the size the cover will as on online retailers.

The following are a few questions to consider to get a title that resonates on the market.

• Does the proposed title identify the book’s audience and the book’s goal?

• What key terms will buyers use to search retailer sites or inquire at bookstores about books on the topic?

• What terms are popular among leading competitors?

Authors shouldn’t consider titling their book a solo task. They should consult their publisher, which has access to marketing and sales professionals. The latter know which key words, title, or subtitle will best position the book for success on the market.

Good luck!