"Do you know anyone who has
self-published and made any money or even sold a lot of books? And if they
have, what is the correlation between time put in for marketing and profit? It
just seems that the market is saturated with e-books and self-published books.
Everyone is a writer and no one is reading. Just wondering."
I replied:
We have sold around 2000 copies of our
self-published coffee table book.
That's not a huge amount, but it meant that we
sold out our first printing, then re-issued the books in a paperback edition.
These are still selling well. Our experience was positive enough to encourage
us to go through the process again, this time with a book of short stories.
As I have posted before, anyone can publish a
book. All it takes is money, and something to fill the gap between the book
covers. Nowadays it's even easier, and much cheaper, to publish an e-book.
What it takes to successfully publish a
book is distribution.
This used to be the sole purview of publishing
houses, and their claim to bestowing the imprimatur of authorship on worthy
writers. The trouble is, there are far more worthy writers than publishers can
handle. Always have been. To make matters worse, there are far more
not-so-gifted writers than there are 'worthy' ones.
The publishing industry has historically
served as a tight-screened filter, keeping the 'un-worthies' out of the
process, and off the shelves. Obtaining the holy sanction of a publishing
house has in the past been the result of a curious combination of talent,
experience, persistence, and luck. Many good writers have fallen through the
cracks; many always will.
Fortunately, self-publishing allows many good
writers (and, clearly, many more bad writers) to get their work in print.
Without a system in place to distribute those works, however, these
self-published books often remain hidden in a cardboard box in the trunk of the
writer's car.
When I decided to become an artist, I read an
article that predicted I would be spending as much as 90% of my time not making
art. That time would be spent marketing my artwork, and
keeping up with the paperwork related to the business of art. Shocking, I
thought! I am an artist, not a bookkeeper!
Well, guess what, folks, I am now an
accountant, delivery van driver, business administrator, store clerk, art
publisher, advertising agent, janitor, & warehouse drudge who spends
far less that ten percent of his time actually making art. Fortunately one of my
jobs is also distribution manager – which means I maintain a system of
packaging and shipping my products around the globe. It means that I build and
maintain mailing lists, e–mail and snail mail, and keep in touch with a growing
number of contacts on social media sites and interest groups.
It means that I spend weeks investigating and
planning rollout campaigns for my new products, and make sure that I not only
have the pictures (and books) on hand to deliver, but that I also have the
envelopes, boxes, mailing labels, and packing tape necessary to get the
products out to the customers.
I suppose I could draw my pictures or write my
books, then wait for someone to discover them, and hopefully give me enough
money to allow me to do this kind of thing for a little while longer. But I
would rather share the fun of what I do with as many people as possible, and to
do that I have to in order to 1) Let them know that I and my creative products
exist, and 2) Find a way to get those products into the hands of my eager and
appreciative customers.
So write as much as you want. Publish as much
as you can. But if you want to keep doing it, you have to find some way to
advertise and deliver your creations.
Don
DS Art – The
Visual Humor of Don Stewart
2805 Crescent Avenue
Homewood, AL 35209
205-802-4700
800-372-7864
Twitter: @DSArtDon
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DSArtFans
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/DSArtStudio
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/DSArtVideos
My Book: www.PastMedicalHistoryBook.com
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