Chicken Scratchings

Posts Tagged ‘US’

15 stacks of books higher than this

by Bill Ruesch

Latest figures based on ISBN’s reveal that the US published nearly 190,000 books last year.  If you assume an average thickness of 1″ per book, and stacked them one on top of the other you’d have fifteen stacks of books each stack taller than the Empire State Building in New York. Last year–15 stacks of books taller than the Empire State Building. This wasn’t over a ten or twenty year stretch, but just last year. Try to visualize these fifteen stacks standing beside the Empire State Building and then imagine what would happen to the streets of New York City if two, five, or ten year’s worth of published books were stacked among the buildings.

All of this is from US publishing alone!  Another 130,000 books were published in the UK. If you added these books to the stacks it would create another ten more Empire State sized stacks. It boggles the mind.

The Questions to Ask

• Does my book stand a chance?
  • The odds are, please excuse the pun, stacked against you.  Every hour of every day over 21 books are published in the US. The competition is unbelievably tough, but as difficult as it is, if you don’t enter the fray you are guaranteed to fail. Remember as difficult as it is to win a lottery, lotteries are won every day. Like Han Solo said in the movie Star Wars, “Never tell me the odds kid.” That is the attitude you must adopt.
• What is the best path for me to pursue in getting my book sold and read?
  
  • First dispel the notion that all you have to do is write well and you’ll become rich and famous. That’s a fairy tale. There is no happily ever after for 99% or more of all authors. Even Mark Twain in his heyday knew the value of marketing. It has been recorded that he had 10,000 people selling his books for him. If Mark Twain had to arrange for his own book sales, it isn’t too far of a stretch to think that you would have to too. Even traditionally published authors have to participate in selling.  The Red Hen Association has downloaded an interview with a contemporary published author, Casey Sherman. Mr. Sherman has some very enlightening things to say about book selling today. Check it out at Casey Sherman interview.
  • Consider the genre of your book. Small independent publishers produce four times as many nonfiction titles as fiction. There is a reason for this disparity. A nonfiction book usually has an identifiable market.  A book of fiction has a more difficult time locating its audience; however, a novel has the potential for much greater sales in the long run. According to  http://BookStatistics.com popular fiction comprises 55% of book sales, followed by 10% religious nonfiction, and 9% cooking and crafts.
• How many books do I have to sell to make money?
  • Large publishers say they have to sell 10,000 books to break even, but for self-publishers without huge overheads break even can come much sooner. It is difficult to name a figure for profitability because costs of printing, editing, art, illustration, and cover design can, and do differ for each book. Simple math is all it takes to determine earnings. Add all the sales and then subtract all of the costs. Be sure to keep records of all costs including transportation to and from events, mail and shipping expenses, professional services like accountants and attorneys, meals if you are out of town, etc. Not only will you want to report expenses to the IRS to decrease your taxes, but you can’t get an accurate break even number without it. Self-publishing is a business. It’s best if you treat it as a business and not a hobby.
• How have other authors done it ?
  • In today’s world it is easier and more difficult at the same time to be heard among the babble. The Internet makes it possible to reach out to the entire world. You can setup and start a blog for free in minutes. Just think, you can launch a soap box and speak to the whole world right now. The problem is that 175,000 other blogs are started each day according to Cnet. Nonetheless, a blog has become a necessity. A stagnant blog, will not serve you. Just because you build a blog site doesn’t mean that you will attract visitors. You have to market the site, in order to market yourself and your book.
  • Arrange speaking engagements where you can sell and sign copies of books.
  • Go to where the potential readership goes. If your book is about race car drivers, see if you can get the book into NASCAR events. Maybe your book is about fairies, go to FaerieCon or other fairy festivals. Got a cookbook? Go to places where cooking is the topic. Be creative and think in terms of places people might be who would relate to your book even if it is a stretch. I have a friend who writes books about Dutch oven cooking. He has an arrangement with a Dutch oven manufacturer to put a sales piece about his books in the box of every oven they sell.
  • Be fearless. Call on buyers for stores and ask them to stock your book.
  • Get your book on library shelves. Contact the American Library Association for places and times of librarian conferences.

  Will these tips really work? They aren’t guaranteed, but they will help. The biggest tip is make your own fame. If you find a way to become a household name, you will sell books. There’s your guarantee.

What is there about business that allows people do terrible things to one another and justify it with, “It isn’t personal, it’s just business?’ Those same people in all other areas of their lives are caring, concerned, and helpful — with the possible exception of driving cars. There’s something about getting behind the wheel of an automobile that turns nice folks into competitive savages.

It has been said that we all have the capacity for good and evil inside of us. I suppose that is true because as a child I found myself doing something mean for no particular reason. I’d like to believe that I’ve outgrown that, and have risen above my mean streak. Mature people learn to replace hostility with nobility of character. Don’t they?

Therefore I was deeply shocked and disturbed when a person I’ve known for many years, and know to have the highest moral values, insisted I stop discussing the immorality of buying book printing from China, because it created feelings of guilt. Huh? Moral people don’t feel guilt if there is nothing wrong and there is something really wrong with Chinese printing competition — wrong, and dangerous to us and the American way of life.

I won’t expound on the China problem in this post, but please go to my post Chinese Printers Play Dirty In Stealing US Customers for more explanation.

Did you ever see one of those signs that said, “Don’t Walk on the Grass!”? If one person or a dozen, walks on the grass it won’t cause any real harm, will it? No, of course not, but if hundreds, or thousands, or if one person crosses that same place thousands of times will it injure the grass? Absolutely.

If one self-publisher, or one traditional publisher, sends a book title to China to be printed will it cause damage? No, but if printing goes overseas as the same rate of other US manufacturing jobs, we are surely on the path to becoming a third world nation. Again see my post for further detail. Is that an outrageous claim on my part? It sure sounds outrageous, even I will admit that. How could it happen? This is America after all, the land of the free.  If it costs too much to buy from this country don’t we have the right to buy from another? Oh yes, we have the right but is it the right thing to do? If our actions today, create a third world economy in the United States, who will be looking out for the disadvantaged in the world? Will China, Iran, or Venezuela step up and set the moral standard? Think about it. What will happen to the world if the United States of America is no longer in a position to help right the wrongs?

The congress and the business moguls have been selling us out for many, many years. Our cities are emptying because manufacturing jobs have been going off-shore. Who benefits from the reduced costs multinational corporations enjoy from cheap labor? Is it the US workers? No, it is the greedy tyrants at the top of the pyramid insisting that, “It isn’t personal, it’s just business.” The same in China. The workers suffer and the elite prosper.

There is only one way to defend ourselves and our way of life, stop buying products made in China. My wife and I are on a diet. I saw an offer for a diabetic cookbook promoted by Publisher’s Clearinghouse that looked promising, so I ordered it. My wife noticed the label on the back saying it was made in China. We returned it.

We went to Costco. They were selling women’s clothing made in the USA. The skirts and tops were more than what we could have bought from stores featuring off-shore goods, but the USA tag sold us.

The two of us are walking on the grass, or in this case, the noxious weeds. We know we can’t have much impact. Alone we won’t stop the ruination of America, but we will do what we can and we invite everyone who loves America to do the same.  Stomp, stomp, stomp.