I think I'm on schedule again after an early summer of dithering. "100 Things Retired Guys Should Avoid" has finally reached the finish line and I can add it to my little collection. I'm happy with the cover and the lay-out and set-up - and I'm very happy with the drawings. Next step is marketing. Since this is a pretty unsophisticated and light weight publication about retirement and senior guys, I'm hoping to tap into the gift market. There are quite a few retirement gift websites around, and some of them have a submissions page that tells how to submit products for sale. I'm sure the percentage of sale price taken by these companies is significant, but that's just part of the game - and by the way, most publishers take a large proportion of book sales anyway, so what's the difference? Well, the difference is that when or if I can get this book picked up by a commercial publisher or publisher's agent, the book could appear in hundreds of book stores around the country. I will send manuscripts to as many of these folks as I can stand the time and postage charges, but will simultaneously try to market on my own.
The first big step in that direction comes in October here in Minneapolis. An outfit called Raintaxi sponsors an annual Twin Cities Book Fair. I've been accepted as an author to have a table set up in a group of 100 or so other authors - side by side - row upon row where interested book buyers and the general public comes cruising through to look at what you have written.
It's like an art fair for writers and publishers. I've never been keen on selling my paintings at art fairs because of the expense and hassle involved. Plus, art fairs are generally outdoors and subject to weather. You need a tent, and it's usually a two-day affair with all kinds of set-up rules and crowds of bored fair-goers, eating ice cream and hot dogs and - well, I haven't been keen on doing the art fair thing. This book fair test has me interested.
Books are small and come in nice little cardboard boxes. The fair is indoors and lasts for only one day. The cost of exhibiting is less than a hundred dollars and you are supplied with a small table and a chair. How convenient is that? Very. And books are simply what they are - books. No big deal puzzles by potential buyers about how this painting will go with the drapes and sofa. If there's a commercial book buyer in the crowd - and I hope there is, he or she will simply consider how the book will sell to their clients. No heavy art discussions necessary. Plus, I'll get to meet other writers and check out what they have produced lately.
My stuff is pretty off-the-wall and I guess that's where I'll see if John Q. Public has a sense of adventure or not. In the mean time, I'll consider my next little writing project which at this time is slightly undecided. If I intend to make this a habit, I need to think about sales - and the information that comes across this desk tells me that self-help and how-to books sell better than nitty-gritty full fledged anything else - unless of course one is famous for just about anything. I can already tell that my big deal novel is lagging way behind in both sales attention and general interest by anyone but me. That's a sign. Plus, writing small, how-to books about questionable subject matter sort of gets me ticking. I like it because there's so much social commentary involved. "100 Things Retired Guys Should Avoid" makes for a super good gift for any fellow who is about to retire, thinking about retiring, just now retired - or, a guy who has been retired for awhile. Buy it and give it away. You can get it by contacting me at teawater@rocketmail.com or go to Amazon.com and look up either my name or the title of the book.
As always - and I'm beginning to feel like Anderson Cooper on CNN, inviting the BP executives to appear on his show for commentary about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - I invite you to comment or question or just chatter away about anything of interest connected to this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment