Have a marketing plan down on paper, and
update it on a regular basis. Any kind of marketing plan – for your business and for
individual titles.
Track your sales and marketing data closely.
Rely mostly on your own hard work, self marketing and publicity
to sell your books.
View every book as a profit center and work to maximize the reach
and penetration of each title.
Make your authors into stars. That means push them into every
book signing, radio appearance, speaking gig and public appearance that will benefit
awareness and sales.
Use the whole wide world to sell books. That means aggressively
selling subsidiary rights to European, Asian and Latin American publishers, when
appropriate.
And, exploit the audio, video, Internet or movie potential within
all titles.
Use the "Star Power" of brand recognition to move
titles when allying your books with a company (like Nabisco) or a person (like Martha
Stewart) with immediate consumer awareness will increase sales and propel them over the
competition. (See my article "Star Power: Building Value into Your Titles and
Company", PMA Newsletter, August, 1997.)
Focus, focus, focus. It’s sort of like location, location,
location in real estate. It means that you find a vein of unsatisfied consumer want and
you mine it until the ore runs out. You build your company into a strong niche marketer
and then defend your niche with the best possible books on that subject.
Remain flexible and opportunistic when selecting titles to
publish – and don’t become so rigid in your business model that you cannot
change with the times.
You have a low MQ if you…
Don’t have any kind of marketing plan. Except one
that’s vaguely circulating around in your head.
Don’t really know where the books you published are
selling…or how fast.
Rely on distributors, wholesalers and reps to get the word out on
your titles.
What publicity?
Are on to the next titles before the last batch has even hit the
stores. I call it "orphaning" and it means that you find more pleasure in
editing and producing books than you do selling them.
Don’t push your authors to do anything on their own behalf.
Never tried to turn a book into an audio program, videotape or Internet web site. Never
attend international book shows and don’t build awareness for your publishing
company.
Stick to a rigid business model, even if it is not working.
Something like, "Darn it, I know that square dancing is going to make a come back
soon. My wife just wrote this great new little book. I think I’ll publish it"
Get so caught up in your "mission" that you ignore
the warning signs that the market does not share your enthusiasm. (We see this a lot in
religious, spiritual and self-help publishers.)
Publish what you like…not what the public demands. And what
you like keeps changing like the seasons. (A little fiction, a little cooking, a little
spirituality…makes a little publishing company that will never get any bigger.)
Repeat after me, It is not acceptable to blame
wholesalers, distributors, reps, the school system or any other channel or institution for
your company’s distribution problems. A publisher with a high MQ recognizes that
every intellectual property must have four or five pathways to the end user. Despite what
you may have heard, it is not the rep’s or distributor’s job to get your
products on the retail racks, library shelves or in the hands of end users. Retailers,
reps and distributors are merely the extension of your own distribution system. In short,
they are the fingers…but you are the arms and hands.
You must start by bolstering your publishing company with people
who possess the talents that you lack. If you find you have a low MQ and a low
FQ…you’re in trouble. I hope that you have the money and the skill at picking
good people who can do what you do not do well. You will need such apostles if you are
going to carry out your mission. Look for alliances everywhere. An Italian publisher, a
corporate brand name, a talk show host, or a toy maker are all potential allies in your
battle of the marketplace.
Every book must be viewed as a profit center…a timber in
your publishing house. And what happens if even one timber is weak? That’s right, the
whole house can come down around your ears. Publicity, promotion, subsidiary rights sales
and propelling your authors to do their part is how you shore up those timbers and make a
strong house.
Focus, focus, focus. You can’t do everything. Thousands of
books of great books of literary merit will never be seen by the public, just as there are
thousands of brilliant screenplays that will never be made into movies. That is how the
marketplace works. The hardest question you may need to answer is not, "Is this a
good book…but, should I be publishing it?"
Do not be afraid of changing your business model if the one you
have embarked upon is not working. For example: If you cannot make a profit with a line
of books or videos on square dancing… change your model. What’s hot, what’s
selling? Don’t just keep putting out better square dancing stuff in hopes that
one will make it. Maybe you should be doing videos on Cajun country dancing? If
that’s what’s selling. But, darn it…stick to dancing. Do not start
producing books that serve a market that you do not know.
Hundreds of publishers have proven that you can be an English
major and still posses a high MQ. It all starts with the marketplace. The books you
publish should simply be the satisfaction of a crying need of the marketplace. When you
understand that, you have just elevated your Marketing Quotient.
