Selling Books – by Anne Trubek
I’m having a January sale on annual subscriptions! For 15 bucks, you can support my newsletter—and me!—through 2023. That works out to pennies per e-newsletter. Not a lot for you, however, if sufficient of you join, a major increase in e-newsletter earnings for me. Receiving your monetary help would enable me to do extra analysis for every submit, spend extra writing every e-newsletter, and develop new options. Many thanks upfront!
A small press works in cycles: generally we’re very acquisition oriented; generally we’re primarily heads down, enhancing; generally we’re swapping numerous emails as we do rounds and rounds of proofreading and design, deep in manufacturing and printing mode, and generally publicity and advertising take the lead. And that cycle—selling forthcoming titles —is the cycle our trusty employees is on this January.
Nicely, actually, Phoebe is in it. Phoebe Mogharei, Belt’s publicity and advertising director for the previous yr (and who has labored for Belt on a contract foundation for the previous 4 years) is sending emails. A variety of emails. To a lot of individuals. She has spreadsheets for all six of our Spring titles which, on account of their staggered publicity lead occasions—some want extra advance time, some much less—all occur to all must be launched this month. Some are despatched to colleagues who know our books effectively; some are despatched chilly to editors we hope will open our CLICKY SUBJECT LINE! e mail. Some are despatched to the identical individual, six occasions over (NYTBR editors get ‘em all, so do booksellers, librarians and the like), and a few get just one (Buffalo different weeklies, recipe web sites, COVID researchers, bicycling magazines, Chicago literary publications).
Publicity is the hardest job in publishing, as a result of you have got virtually no management over the outcomes. You can’t blame your self if none of your emails end in opinions or orders, nor do many publicists take credit score once they do (although they need to). The vagaries of particular person curiosity, closing occasions, editorial priorities, viewers curiosity and the information cycle all think about. So do private relationships, and people take time—and, typically, proximity to New York Metropolis socializing—to nurture.
Authors, in fact, are additionally chargeable for publicizing and advertising their books. There’s numerous sighing and regretting about how a lot work authors must do nowadays to advertise their books, however that is nothing new (my analysis on nineteenth century American novelists bear this out! They have been on the market hustling and hustling and hustling. Six month lecture excursions! Knocking on the doorways of booksellers up and down the coast! )A minimum of at this time’s authors can do a lot of the hawking from their couches.
For years, I pooh-poohed the concept that authors had be good at advertising to ensure that books to do effectively. I don’t any longer, sadly. Ninety books below my belt (lol) and I can hint a reasonably, if not fully, clear line between an writer’s advertising prowess and energy and gross sales. I do assume it is a notable change from how the ecosystem labored, say, ten yr in the past, if not 150. The shift to social media—which is a shift to people and personalities earlier than organizations and concepts—means a author shilling for his or her e book is just simpler, for a lot of editors, booksellers, and readers, than an organization doing that very same. We don’t comply with manufacturers; we comply with individuals. Influencers are people, not establishments. This logic extends to selling books.
However let’s again up. Let’s return to the present cycle of 1 small press, at the moment in promotion mode. We are literally actually enthusiastic about our forthcoming books! We *need* to extol their virtues and brag about them and we actually actually hope individuals will likely be serious about them too. So it’s not from responsibility however enthusiasm that Phoebe is sending so many individuals emails this month, and that I’m now going to promote Belt Publishing’s Spring catalog to you.
Buffalo in 50 Maps. The third e book in our 50 maps sequence. It feels good to present Buffalo one thing good; they’ve had fairly a time of it recently.
The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World. Self-published by Main Taylor in 1928, a riveting first-person account of Taylor’s rise to the very best echelons {of professional} biking, turning into the primary African American biking world champion, happening to set seven world data within the sport. With an introduction by Zito Madu (who can also be writing a e book for Belt!)
The Girls by Edna Ferber. A sweeping take a look at the lives of three generations of ladies on Chicago’s South Facet, with a brand new introduction by Kathleen Rooney.
Midwest Pie With an introduction by the aforementioned Phoebe! With recipes for Hoosier, Schnitz, Buckeye, Sawdust, and different favourite pies! Plus photographs of individuals consuming pie from the olden days! It solely appears to be like spiral certain.
Who We Lost: A Portable Covid Memorial. It is a e book we crashed—I obtained the proposal in September, and we now have galleys (upon request!). I’m so proud to be publishing this lovely and vital and well timed assortment of essays by People who misplaced a beloved one to Covid. It additionally contains steerage for anybody serious about writing an essay themselves, and a dialogue of the ability of writing to the grieving course of.
Team Building: A Memoir About Family and the Fight For Worker’s Rights. Pittsburgh, unions, fetanyl, softball, and beautiful prose from the editor of our Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook: this e book will choke you up each methods.
An incredible shelf, proper? I’m excited. Phoebe is emailing. Welcome to January.