WHY SHOULD I CARE WHAT SEASON MY BOOK IS PUBLISHED? By Jerry D. Simmons Author and former executive with The Time Warner Book Group The answer to this question goes back to the central theme in my writing and web site, as a writer you must publish your book(s) right or face the results of a very competitive marketplace. The last thing you want to happen is become an author with a poor sales history. There is nothing more detrimental to your career as a writer than to have your book(s) published and not sell copies at retail. If your work is published wrong at any time during your career you may be heading in a direction that you cannot change. This could cost you a career as a writer. Basic knowledge of the business is paramount to improving your chances at being a successfully published author. The key is to understand the marketplace, your category, and the process of publishing a book. You need a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, from an inside perspective. Something as simple as publishing your book during the busiest time of the year may seem like a good thing, however you need to know the facts, gather all the relevant information to help your publisher make the right decision concerning the publication of your book. Books are published in seasons and they are sold as part of a season. Pub lists are created around that season. There are three seasons for most publishers and each season has a list of books that are positioned by month. Each season will contain dozens of books per month and a group of typically four months is included in each season. Every month of each season the top positioned titles are called anchor titles, those are written by the biggest name authors. The rest of the list contains titles from all categories and offers booksellers a wide variety. This is what a publisher calls offering customers a well-rounded list of books. The absolutely biggest season for any publisher is the fall, beginning after Labor Day and continuing through the New Year. Not only is this the biggest season for publishers it is also the biggest for their customers. The reason is obvious, the holidays create more foot traffic in stores and books are a great holiday gift. Books are heavily advertised and promoted during this time of the year and the cost of displaying those titles in store is at its highest point. During the fall and through the holiday season of each year publishers will publish and heavily promote two types of books: The first are the bestsellers from the mega-authors we all know, and the second are those titles they hope of turning into the next bestseller. Publishers pay dearly to place these two types of books on tables, in floor displays, and in the retailer’s large seasonal promotions. The rest of the list, published to make certain the selection is well rounded, can end up fodder for the marketplace. Publicity sells books. Certainly advertising and promotion are a big part but all publishers know that publicity is the way to get a book noticed in the mind of the book buying public. For this reason alone, unless you are a big name author or your book is getting lots of in-store promotion and hand selling, your chances of obtaining publicity from the most likely sources are greatly reduced simply because the competition for holiday attention is at its zenith during the fall months of the year. Immediately after the holiday season ends, the excess inventory stocked to take advantage of the seasonal traffic, is quickly returned. If your book was not heavily promoted, advertised, or publicized then chances are your title will be returned to the publisher along with the rest. So you managed to get published, but your book didn’t sell. You have created a negative sales history for yourself as an author. And this is difficult, but not impossible, to overcome. If you are a first time author and your book is scheduled during the fall, or you are an author struggling to improve your sales at retail, you need to take a long hard look at what is ahead of you and evaluate your situation. Certainly the foot traffic is better and the chain stores are selling more books but the competition for sales is at its most intense. If the destiny of your book is to be published during the fall of the year, then you absolutely must make certain the sale and distribution of your book is done in such a way as to give it the best chance to sell through. In other words, sell more copies than are returned. You do this by discussing the distribution amounts and locations of your book. You do not want a lot of excess inventory going anywhere in hopes of selling. Your publisher would rather distribute 12,000 and sell 4,000 as opposed to distributing 6,000 and selling 3,000. As an author you want to be in the latter camp with a sell through of 50% rather than 33%, regardless of the fact that you sold and additional 1,000 copies your returns would be only 3,000 compared to 8,000. The one thing you should try and avoid is launching your first book in the fall of any calendar year. Attention by consumers is often paid to the main attractions, those titles that dominate the tables, shelves and floor displays. Seldom do buyers browse shelves for that one particular title. The consumer’s time is taken up with other more important things than shopping bookshelves for titles. The chances of your book getting buried from lack of advertising, publicity and everything else that goes into making a book a bestseller, is much greater during this time of the year. Its like I’ve been saying all along in my writing, do it right the first time, you are only a first time author once, be smart about getting published, the key is understanding the basics of the business of publishing and being a participant with your publisher in the decisions surrounding the publication of your book. Become a student of the marketplace. You’ve made a good start. Jerry D. Simmons spent more than twenty years as an executive with The Time Warner Book Group in New York. He is the author of INSIDE The Business of Publishing What Writers Need to Know and the creator of www.WritersReaders.com, where information essential to writers and their careers is available, FREE.
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