Focus Pocus!

There is an old saying that the urgent often wins over the important.  

Are you spending so much time flitting about chasing after every little thing that comes up that you are missing the biggest opportunities?  Your overriding goals in publishing should help you focus on the things that matter.  Set your goals realistically, measurably and reachable so you have a way to tell if your goals are being met.  

I recently helped an author retrieve her publishing rights from a POD "self publisher". There were some legal documents she had to sign and some files she needed to get from the publisher. There was also the not-so-small detail of being paid the royalties she was overdue prior to cancelling. Rather than waiting until all the "I"s were dotted and "T"s were crossed as I recommended, she proceeded to cancel the contract ahead of the other items. Suddenly there were no royalties for that whole quarter in question. Trouble was, I could see through my own channels that there indeed were over $10,000 in ebook sales for that quarter.  How much the royalty should have been was not clear in any of her paperwork, but I assure you that it was not "nothing." Now, with auditors, attorneys and accountants, everything is delayed for her, and her book is time sensitive.  

Another author told me that she had already printed 3,000 of her hardcover book through Lightning Source because she knew there would be sales. Now she was in my office requesting help to sell the six-month-old book.  So she has a garage full of books -- 2,920 of them!  She had concentrated on getting a low unit cost for a book that had no readers or buyers, no distribution, no customers, no website, no marketing materials, no nothing. The list in the prior sentence should illustrate a few things she should have done prior to printing all those books. 

Bottom line, really look at what you are doing now, what you are doing next, where you want to be a year or two from today, all while looking back at you did yesterday to see what worked. Are you focusing on the tasks that will bring you big sales today and in the future? Are you truly supporting your book? Are you focusing on building and strengthening the hive or just flitting around to smell the flower of the day?  

The Contract Between the Writer and the Reader

As I was listening to the 15th of 25 hours of the Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Issacson audiobook, I realized the depth of the promise the writer must make to the reader, and the trust the reader gives the writer. It doesn't have anything to do with the retail price, or how I downloaded the book, or how pretty the cover is -- those are publishing issues. Who in their right mind would choose to listen to 25 hours of an author reading his book? Who has 25 hours to listen to any audiobook?  What is the "reader" going to get out of this book?  At that moment, I thought this book better deliver what it promises for that much of my time.

We ask all new authors:  What is your intended goal? What do you want the reader to come away with from your writing?  Then we use that stated goal as our Reader Contract for all decisions throughout the publishing process.  If something about the book does not fit within the stated goal, it needs to be changed, added to or deleted.

Walter Issacson's work is nothing short of genius in this contract, and I appreciate that he never wavers from his promise that each reader is experiencing his books in a way that he has visualized.

Are you visualizing your reader while you are writing your book?  What do you want your reader to get from your book?

Weigh Your Options -- And Your Book

If you are expecting book sales that will require mailing single copies, have your printer make a mock up of your book with the actual papers and page count prior to printing, and then weigh it. Then add an envelope and a mailing label -- and any other collateral items you are considering including in your orders. This is operations, my friends. And operations can make or break a publishing company (or any other type of company for that matter).  Does it really matter?

Challenge:  We completed a project wherein 75% of the books were sent out to individuals one at a time.  The book weighed 15.2 ounces, but with the envelope, bookmark and label, the final weight was 16.1 ounces. That meant that rather than paying $2.41, he was paying $2.82 per piece. (see Media Mail pricing sheet). With a margin barely at $4 per book when he arrived, that was a pretty significant difference. Prior to working with us, my client had paid for the whole second pound on each package because of one stinking 10th of an ounce. In this case, he was already using the lightest weight envelope and a regular mailing label, and my client liked the papers used in his book, so we didn't want to change that.  Did we have an option?

Solution:  On the next printing, we cut off 1/8th inch off the height of the book -- and that did the trick. There are creative solutions to nearly every problem, and this was a great fix for a potential profit hog. In our case, the buyers didn't even realize anything was different, and my client's profit margin rose over 10% per sale.

Moral of the story:  Consider how you will be selling and fulfilling your books, and make the shipping operation part of your initial planning process. Make sure your shipping costs reflect the actual weight of the book, and that you have thoughtfully considered whether or not your buyer values that extra fraction of an ounce over saving a little on shipping. It could be the difference between making a profit and losing money on books sold, depending on the buyer's terms.