How to Recover from a Launch Disaster

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

How do you recover from a book launch disaster? Over 4,500 new books are published every day.  As someone who has been in publishing for years, I understand without the author's active role, little happens.

In recent years, I've watched authors launch books and participate in their launch teams. I've gotten advance reading copies of the book, read it then posted my reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble. I've taken online courses on launching books. As an acquisitions editor for a New York publisher, Morgan James Publishing, I've watched many other authors launch their books. Like many things in publishing, I've found not everything will go according to your plans.

While I've written more than 60 books, I haven't published a new book in several years. My newest book, 10 Publishing Myths released to the bookstores on December 17th. Last year, I asked New York Times bestselling author, Jerry B. Jenkins to write my foreword. Also I gathered 18 endorsements from other bestselling authors, publishers, editors, literary agents and publicity experts. 

When editor and writing coach Alice Crider sent her endorsement, she told me I was missing the 11th publishing myth: “If I send my book to Oprah, she will book me on her show.” I laughed then I decided to write this chapter and have it designed exactly like the rest of the book. You can get it immediately at this link. 

Plans were moving forward. The cover was designed and went to the sales team. Often they never respond but for my book, they suggested some changes to my cover. Simultaneously I worked with a former Hollywood screenwriter to create a one-minute book trailer (watch it here) and printed business cards (with my first book cover).  

Months ago,  I had Advanced Reader Copies. took them to a couple of writers' conferences and sold a few books. A reader emailed asking if I wanted feedback. I said of course. This reader turned out to be a proofreader and sent a detailed email with over 50 typos, missing words, wrong words and other errors. I fixed everything—thankfully before the print or ebooks were released in the bookstores.

My book launch didn't happen as planned. Maybe your published book isn't selling as you expected. I've got good news: it is never too late to promote your book. 

Here's some things you can do for your book—no matter when it releases:

1. Do what you can every day to tell more people about your book. It doesn't have to be a lot but be consistent in your efforts.

2. Gather your own resources and use them. They can be simple like use your email list, write a  blog, write a guest blog posts, or ask friends to read and review your book. 

3. Make your own promotion page. For 10 Publishing Myths, I created a page to help others promote my book. Look at the diversity and see if you can do something similar.

4. Make an excellent and short book trailer. People need to hear about your book over and over before they buy it. A good good trailer helps in this effort. Follow this link to see my one-minute trailer.

Your passion for your topic and book will carry beyond a launch date.  You can continue no matter what happens—part of being a writer is to have such persistence and perseverance. In spite of any glitches along the way, you can keep going.

Have you had a similar experience? Or even different with a book launch? Let me know in the comments below.

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How do you recover from a Launch Disaster? Get ideas and resources from a prolific author and editor,  @terrywhalin. #writingtip #pubtip (ClickToTweet)

Take Simple Action Steps

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

When I was a high school sophomore, my English teacher, Mr. Smith, saw something in my writing and encouraged me to join the newspaper staff. I started writing sports even though I was non-athletic and didn’t follow sports. I learned the jargon and began to write sports. Ultimately I was the editor of my newspaper my senior year and went on to Indiana University and majored in journalism. I thought I was going to be a newspaper reporter but instead joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and spent the next 10 years in linguistics. I began to work on the mission magazine and ultimately became the editorial director and in charge of the public face of Wycliffe in print.
  
My return to writing from linguistics began in the magazine world. I learned to write a query letter to pitch my idea and then got assignments and completed those assignments. Over the years, my writing has been published in more than 50 publications.

My first book was published in 1992 because an editor at David C. Cook asked me if I had any ideas for children’s books. As a company, their mission statement charged them to teach children about missions, yet they didn’t have a single book on the topic. Since I worked for Wycliffe, she asked if I had any possible children’s book manuscripts. I pitched a possibility and she said, “That’s a good idea, Terry. Write that up and send it to me.” 

I went home and submitted my manuscript. While I went through a number of versions but ultimately it became my first book called When I Grow Up, I Can Go Anywhere for Jesus. This 32 page picture book started my work in books. Since then I’ve written over 60 books for many different publishers. I’ve been an acquisitions editor at three different publishers and for a while had a literary agency (closed).  Many wonder how I’ve done it—and it’s really simple action steps.

At a conference or on the phone or on email, I pitch my ideas to editors. When they respond positively and are willing to read it, I follow up, write it and send it to them. I don’t get published each time—but I do give myself a chance to be published. From being an editor and asking writers to send me their work, I know only about 10% or less actually submit it for consideration. They miss the opportunity by not doing what the editor has asked.

I’ve spoken with hundreds of writers and read thousands of submissions. I compiled a lot of my lessons into my new book, 10 Publishing Myths, Insights Every Author Needs to Succeed. Watch my one-minute book trailer for the book.

One of my 18 endorsers told me I was missing the 11th myth. I decided to write that chapter and give it away (looks exactly like the rest of my book). You can use this link to get the 11th Myth right away. 


My journey as a writer continues with simple action steps: do what the editor asks and submit what they need. 

Are you taking these simple action steps? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

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Get A Realistic Publishing Perspective

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

I've spoken with many authors about their plans and ambitions for their published book. Authors pour a lot of energy into writing their manuscript and creating a book proposal or careful pitch of their book for editors or literary agents. These authors make statements to me like:

“My book will be a bestseller.”

“My book will make a lot of money.” 

“My book will sell ____ copies.”

Also over many years in publishing, I've had publishers tell me that my book would be in airport bookstores and they had plans to market and sell many copies of the book. Conventional wisdom in publishing says the larger the advance, the greater the publisher investment and the greater they will have to invest in marketing to get this investment back and more. I've been blessed to get a couple of six-figure advances—but I have lengthy stories (not good ones) about how each of these books turned out in the market.

From my years in publishing, I know and understand that much can go off course (wrong) in the publishing and marketing process. A great deal goes into publishing a book and then selling that book to readers, getting their enthusiasm about the book and telling others for even more sales. Many of the details of this process are outside of anything the author can control or do about it—a reality.

On December 17th, my next book, 10 Publishing Myths, Insights Every Author Needs to Succeed will release to bookstores nationwide. I wrote the book to give authors practical action steps they can take with their book to get it into the market.

Let me encourage you to watch the one-minute book trailer here:


Also when I was gathering 18 endorsements for this book from editors, literary agents, bestselling authors, PR experts and others, Alice Crider told me I was missing the 11th Myth: If I send my book to Oprah, she will book me on her show.  When I heard this myth I laughed but then I decided to write this chapter. It is designed like the rest of my book and you can get it free here (follow this link). You will get this PDF immediately and it will have the foreword by New York Times bestselling author Jerry B. Jenkins, the various endorsements and the chapter with the 11th myth.

Help Me Promote 10 Publishing Myths

I hope you will order my book through one of the four options on my website—but even if you don't order the book, I would encourage you to tell others about it using my ClickToTweet links on this page.

As you need gifts for the writers in your life, I want to encourage you to buy a copy of 10 Publishing Myths and give it to a friend who needs the encouragement and practical advice.

I'm excited about how 10 Publishing Myths is going to help authors all over the world—whether you have a new book or want to put more life and sales back into a book that has been in the market for a while. As long as you have enthusiasm for telling others about your book, there is hope for you in the market.

Do you have a realistic publishing perspective? What myths have you fallen for? Let me know in the comments below.

 Tweetable:

How to do you get a realistic publishing perspective? Get ideas and resources here from a prolific author and editor. (ClickToTweet)

Use Every Possible Marketing Tool

When it comes to selling books, I written about many different marketing tools in these entries on The Writing Life. If you read various books on marketing, you will quickly learn there is not one method for selling your book but many different paths to sell books.

One of the tools that I've been watching and learning about is video book trailers. I was unsure how to find the right person to create one for my new book, Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. Then I met Misty Taggart at Trailer to the Stars! Productions. She did a fantastic job of listening to my needs then creating this less than two-minute book trailer:

I'm thrilled to have one more tool in my arsenal to tell people about the availability of my book.

Every author needs to actively work at gathering the right resources. Some people will watch the book trailer that will never bother to act from a physical postcard. While it is reverse for other people, they will respond to the postcard in the mail and never go to their computer and watch the video trailer. In my view, you want to be in both areas to interest people in your book.