I do a lot of one-on-one author coaching, especially around conference season. And in the decade or so that I\u2019ve been chatting with new, incoming, and will-be authors, there are certain recurring questions that I get asked. Most could be boiled down to \u201cHow do I sell a million dollars worth of books?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer to that one is very simple: Write a book, price it at $1 million, sell one copy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Badump-bump<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But of course, the reality is there\u2019s no way to answer a question like that. Or rather, there a million ways to answer a question like that, and every single one of them is contextual or dependent on an array of shifting and dynamic factors, making it impractical to even attempt a serious answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But for a million dollars, I\u2019ll give you my best guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, there are some questions I get that do<\/em> have answers. Let\u2019s take a look at five common questions that come up among authors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But since one-word answers are rarely one-size-fits-all, and this particular answer, coming from us, is going to sound biased, let\u2019s drill down a little. And let\u2019s be a little honest, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the honesty: Some authors are going to be better off distributing through an exclusivity deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mostly, those are authors with only one book (maybe up to three books), who aren\u2019t interested in marketing, and who more or less want things on autopilot. Exclusivity programs can often be a good way to make at least some money from a book (or books) without having to think about the \u201cbusiness\u201d side of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A couple of days back I wrote a whole blog post on my own experience with wide versus exclusive<\/a>. Take a look at that for a solid look at the ups and downs of using a service such as Amazon\u2019s KDP Select (commonly referred to as \u201cKindled Unlimited\u201d or \u201cKU\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as sort of summary, one reason you might choose to use exclusive distribution is that it can be a little easier to make some money, even if you only have one book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The downsides are a little hairy, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a start, you\u2019re locked into that exclusivity for 90 days, during which time Amazon is the only<\/em> place readers can buy your books. Which means that if you run ads on a platform such as Facebook or BookBub or even Google Adsense, there may be readers who discover you but can\u2019t actually read<\/em> you. Which means you may have spent some ad dollars to reach an audience who can\u2019t actually buy your book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, each of those platforms lets you target pretty specifically, so you might mitigate that waste by focusing only on Amazon readers. But in my opinion (for what it\u2019s worth), this means you\u2019re spending about the same amount of money you\u2019d spend targeting readers on multiple platforms, only to reach a much more narrow audience of readers. It costs you the same, but makes you dependent on one retailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, as I laid out in the blog post I mentioned above, the revenue you make from page reads in Kindle Unlimited is a teensy-tiny-miniscule sub-percentage of the overall cover price of your book. Amazon typically pays less than .005% of your book\u2019s cover price per page read. Which means that you\u2019re going to be lucky to get as much as 1% of your book\u2019s cover price. Even traditional publishing offers a better deal than that (and their deal is terrible<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Distributing wide, on the other hand, gives you the advantage of becoming discoverable amongst a bigger audience, worldwide, regardless of their preference of retailer or reading device. And you get a much bigger percentage of each sale\u2014typically anywhere from 35% to 70%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t take many sales to overcome whatever income you might have \u201clost\u201d by missing out on Amazon\u2019s global fund. If you focus your marketing on attracting readers who love your type of book, rather than on readers who love your book but are also only on one platform, your chances of success start creeping upward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New writers are obsessed<\/em> with word count or page count for their books, and I\u2019ve finally figured out why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you first start looking into this business, it\u2019s hard to know where to start. You\u2019re presented with a firehose to the face, spewing tips and guidelines and best practices that cover everything from writing craft to marketing. It\u2019s overwhelming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Add to that the fact that for years of our lives, through grammar school and high school and right into university, we\u2019ve been given guidelines and parameters for anything we write. And now, for the first time, we\u2019re left to determine such things on our own\u2026 well, it\u2019s intimidating.<\/em> We have no idea what the rules are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that, sadly, is because there are no rules<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are the aforementioned guidelines and best practices. There are the proverbial \u201crules of thumb.\u201d But when it comes to defining exactly what word or page count equals \u201cbook,\u201d forget it. Anyone\u2019s guess is as good as mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you Google \u201cwhat\u2019s the minimum length of a book,\u201d you\u2019ll be served up with a spectrum of answers. Far from solid, written-in-stone numbers, you\u2019ll get ranges<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anything with a word count between 1 and 10,000 words is a short story. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anything between 10,000 and 30,00 words is a novella.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anything that is more than 30,000 words is a novel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah? So what\u2019s a novelette?<\/em> And what about Ian Fleming\u2019s James Bond<\/em> books\u2014some were only around 30 words. Were those novellas or novels? And what about this other set of guidelines<\/em> that says the minimum word count for a novel is 50-thousand?<\/em> And this one over here that says anything that falls between 20-thousand and 60-thousand words is a novella.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Trust me\u2026 there no rules. Not really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the answer to this question is going to come down to which set of guidelines you choose to adopt as your own. Or, alternatively, if you are beholden to some third party you\u2019ll need to adopt their<\/em> guidelines on length. Traditional publishers, for example, may have a minimum threshold of 80-thousand words for their novels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And then there are the genres!<\/p>\n\n\n\n One dares not submit that their 50-thousand word fantasy story falls into the \u201cEpic Fantasy\u201d genre, where books routinely top 130-thousand words. It is laughable. And laughter can hurt one\u2019s feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So again, in deciding what length is right for your book, consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh yeah\u2026 those count. For some of us, we feel most comfortable writing something around 60-thousand words and stopping. Dean Wesley Smith once told me that 60K was a pretty comfortable length for a book, in his mind. His publishers used to demand more, but now that he has the clout to do what he wants, he writes \u2018em his way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can, too. Just make sure you understand the risks and rewards. The most important thing is to meet reader expectation.<\/em> If you readers are complaining that your books are too short, considering that with your next book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But don\u2019t fret so much over length. Write the story\u2014beginning, middle, and end. And if you\u2019re telling a complete story that resonates with you, it will likely feel like a \u201creal book\u201d to your reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketing scares the bejeebers out of authors for some reason. It may be due, in part, to the fact that many of us worry about \u201cselling,\u201d or coming across as pushy or egotistical or a dozen other negative ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is, if you have created something that can enrich and improve the lives of others, you have an ethical<\/em> obligation<\/em> to market your work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Which probably doesn\u2019t take much of the pressure off. But let\u2019s deal with some basics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, marketing is the process of improving the odds that the right reader will discover your book at the time they are most ready to purchase and read it<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the broad definition, but it is intentionally so. Because marketing is a very broad science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anything\u2026 and I mean literally anything<\/em>\u2026 can be considered marketing, in the right light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Forget the scary stuff, like learning about analytics and setting aside budgets for ad-spend. That\u2019s only a very narrow approach to marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You might also consider creating content, and consistently posting it online\u2014blog posts, social posts, YouTube Videos, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might also go to live events, do readings at local libraries, visit school classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might hand out business cards to wait staff at the restaurants you frequent, or wear T-shirts or use stickers or signage that advertise your books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything you\u2019re doing has even the slightest chance of getting a reader to your book so they can decide to buy it\u2014congratulations! You are a marketing machine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, all of that is a lot to consider. And there are pressing, scary questions on top of it all. We worry about whether we should be on Instagram and\/or Pinterest. We get stressed out thinking we should be posting video to TikTok and\/or YouTube. We start to lose our minds thinking about taking that elaborate and expensive course on Facebook advertising, or going through thousands of tutorials to learn how to use Google Adsense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n STOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s easy to drive yourself nuts. But the answer to all of this can be found right in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This blog post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I kid! I kid! <\/p>\n\n\n\n The real answer is something you may already have applied to another aspect of your life: Focus on one thing at a time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are terrible at chewing gum and brushing our teeth at the same time. I can\u2019t sharpen knives while riding a unicycle to save my life. And when I\u2019m reading, I\u2019m pretty much the worst there is at using a telescope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are built to do one thing at a time. Especially if we want to do that one thing well<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, when it comes to something like a marketing strategy, there can be a lot of moving pieces. Ads, social media, blogging, videos, etc. are all a potential part of that. But no one ever said you had to know all of it and use all if it right now<\/em> and all at once<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One piece of advice I give authors regarding writing their first book (or any book) is kind of applicable here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We sometimes freak out thinking, \u201cHow am I going to write fifty thousand words<\/em>?\u201d Or insert your target word count here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And the answer, of course, is you are not<\/em> going to write that many words. Not all at once. You are going to write five<\/em> words. Or 100<\/em> words. Or maybe 2,000<\/em> words. Whatever word target you\u2019re comfortable with that day<\/em>. And then you\u2019re going to repeat that tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, until you have all the words written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t write an entire book all at once. We write it in chunks. A little here, a little there, and it all adds up over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same is true for marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick one thing<\/em>, and master that for 30 to 60 days. And start with whatever you\u2019re comfortable with\u2014if you feel good about Pinterest, focus on mastering Pinterest. If you like making videos, focus on videos. If you\u2019re a data nerd, focus on learning how to run ad campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever it is, stick with that one thing until you have it down so pat you could do it in your sleep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And then go focus on another<\/em> marketing task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do one thing at a time, for 30-ish days, and when you\u2019ve got it mastered you can add something new. In this way you\u2019ll eventually learn all the skills you need, and you\u2019ll be the one people ask for advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I told you it costs $60,000 to publish your book, what would you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What if I said $1,000? Or $100? Or $0?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is, the \u201ccost of publishing\u201d is another slippery little worm to try to snag. Because when we say \u201ccost,\u201d we might all be working from a different playbook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are services out there that will gladly charge you $60K to publish your book. They often pad their offering with attractive-looking \u201cperks,\u201d like including marketing and PR, cover design, social media management, websites, things like that. If you look around hard enough you\u2019ll likely find everything they\u2019re offering from hundreds, maybe even thousands of other services, running a whole range of prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want to make something clear, because it\u2019s very, very important:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Services that offer to publish your book for an upfront fee are almost always predatory.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m willing to allow that there may be legitimate exceptions. But I haven\u2019t yet found any, and I\u2019d still be dubious either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, we should distinguish here between two concepts: Cost<\/em> and Overhead<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cost<\/strong>, in this context, means that a service is charging you to publish your work.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Overhead<\/strong>, by contrast, means that there are some expenses that are inevitable for the self-published author. <\/strong>These can be called a cost of doing business<\/em>, but shouldn\u2019t be confused with the cost for a service to publish your book.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Overhead costs might include things like professional editing, professional cover design, professional copywriting services (writing your book description, writing a press release, etc.), and things like graphic design and web design. These are business expenses. If you were going through a traditional publisher they\u2019d cover some of this, but as a self-publisher these things fall on you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to fear, though\u2014there are a lot of ways to keep overhead down. It\u2019s outside the scope of this post to go into all of them, but just as an example you can use a service such as Canva<\/a> to design your ebook cover, and you could hire a copywriter on Fiverr.com<\/a> to write your book description or edit your manuscript, or use it to find someone to design your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spending money on overhead is a normal and acceptable part of being in a publishing business. But giving a company thousands of dollars to \u201cpublish\u201d you is simply not a good idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a lot of predatory services out there, and one way to be on the lookout for them, or to vet a service that may sound too good to be true, is to Google the phrase \u201cwriter beware,\u201d and then use any of the reputable sites you come across to sniff around the less than reputable service that has approached you. You might also Google \u201c[Service Name] scam\u201d to see what kinds of things pop up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Should I distribute wide or stay exclusive?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. How long should my book be?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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3. With all the different marketing options, how do I learn them all?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. How much does publishing cost?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n