Today's question comes from A.C. in Ms. Jurkowski's class. A.C. asks: Why do you need to have a book published before you can sell it?
Answer: Now, some of you might think this is a no-brainer - you need a product to sell; something the people want, but honestly, it is a bit more complicated than that. As authors, we have to promote our books long before they are published and sometimes that means "pre-selling" our books. Amazon does it all the time, especially if it is listed as a coming soon title.
The selling of your books is monetary. The promoting of your books goes deeper. You need to have a near finished product to start the promotion process and sometimes we start promoting a year or more in advance. We have to get our covers out there so people will be anxious to get the book when it is finally published; we have to have websites and blogs in place several months to a year before hand so that we can talk about our wips (that's works in progress for you students) and keep the desire up. We want people ready to purchase our books as soon as they are published. Of course, the promotion doesn't stop once the book is published. There are events and other things that go into promoting a book.
Right now, I'm working on a piece (non-YA or children's novel) that I will start promoting probably around September of this year, depending on how my research goes and how the story goes. I have plans to publish it by February of 2013. That may not happen if I don't get my research done and write the story. I hope by October to have a cover to show off and start really promoting the story. I've mentioned it in passing on this blog but haven't really talked about it much. I would love to see more copies of my YA novel sell but again, I've been in a non-promoting mood since December. Since it is now the conference and book festival season, I am back to promoting my state stories and my YA novel, Finally Home.
In essence, A.C., an author is really selling her books before they are published by promoting them up to a year before publication. Sometimes a shorter period of time for promotion happens but usually by time you get a cover, an ARC (advanced reader's copy) and publishing the book, a good bit of time has passed.
Thanks for the thought provoking question, A.C., and ya'll keep on writing and sending in those questions. Mrs. E :)
2 comments:
I enjoy checking out these Q & A blog posts. Wonderful information.
And most of these questions, at least the ones from Mrs. Jurkowski's class, are 3rd graders. The ones from Mr. Hughes' class are 6th graders. They do tend to keep me on my toes. I'm glad someone is reading my blog and the Q&A postings. I wish others would comment as well, but to my really loyal reader, I think you for stopping by and leaving comments. I need to find more classes to participate in my Q&A sessions since I'm almost out f questions. If you know anyone who teaches writing and would like to have their students questions answered by a published author, please send them my way - E :)
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