#2 from Guest Blogger Barry Eisler on Recruiting Your Publisher

It seems reasonably clear to me that a publisher can go a long way to making a book a bestseller if the publisher decides to make it happen. Make the book a sales rep pick; announce a several-hundred thousand copy first print run; talk the book up at BEA and elsewhere; include a letter from the head of the house in the ARC; devote a few hundred thousand dollars to advertising and in-store promotion; send the author on a big tour. The publisher might lose money in the process -- I get the feeling that happens fairly often to first-time authors who get the treatment I just described -- but the book will hit the NYT and other lists.

I say all this to emphasize that your publisher can do much, much more to make your book big than you can. It stands to reason, then, that the primary goal of your self-promotion efforts should be to recruit your publisher -- that is, to persuade your publisher's people to promote you the way you want them to promote you.

The question is how.

Start with attitude: if your publisher's people aren't doing all you want them to, it's not because they're stingy or stupid or mean. It's because you haven't yet fulfilled your responsibility to demonstrate to them that it's in their interest to do more. Look, if you knew a certain stock was going to go up ten percent tomorrow, you'd invest in it today, right? And if there were another stock that you knew would go up 15% tomorrow, you'd invest in that one instead, right?

The point is, everyone wants to invest in something that will give them the best possible return on that investment. If your publisher isn't investing much in you, it's because they don't know yet what a great return you'll offer them. It's your job to demonstrate to them that they'll get that return -- that you're that winning stock.

You start by doing all the obvious, relatively affordable things: genre conventions; drop-ins in all the bookstores near where you live; etc. But what's missing from many of these efforts is a systematic focus on keeping the publisher informed. Does your publisher know what you're doing? Do you apprise your publisher of the efforts you make and the success you achieve? If you don't, you're missing an opportunity to demonstrate: (i) your confidence in yourself (investors are always persuaded by the confidence of other investors); (ii) your initiative -- that is, your ability and willingness to work hard on your own, which is likely to increase the value of whatever the publisher decides to invest); and (iii) the substantive value of investing in you regardless of where the investment comes from (your efforts are paying off, so it's reasonable to assume the publisher's would, too).

A few examples from my own experience:

For my first book, Rain Fall, Putnam sent me to only a few cities for signings. I'd been hoping for more because I have a lot of public speaking experience and was confident I could connect with booksellers and customers. But I didn't complain; instead I recognized they just didn't realize yet that they'd get a return on investing more in a tour. And for each bookstore I visited, I asked the bookseller to shoot me an email about how the event went -- how many customers, how many books sold, my performance generally. These, of course, I forwarded to Putnam. I also visited a few territories on my own nickel, again keeping Putnam apprised of my efforts and the results. The tour was small but the results were good. That got Putnam thinking, "Hmmm, what if we sent him to a few more places?"

Early on, I decided there were a few hooks in the Rain books that might attract media. I half-jokingly thought of these as the "Three J's:" Japan, Jazz, and Judo, all of which were prominent aspects of Rain Fall in particular. So I spent a lot of time contacting media and organizations that focused on Asia, jazz, and martial arts. I got some interviews, which I then supplemented by taking out ads at my own expense. I got a few speaking engagements. Eventually there were a few feature articles. It was all useful in itself, but again the primary value was in demonstrating to Putnam my efforts and successes.

I didn't have a panel at my first Bouchercon (Las Vegas), but I went just to get the feel of the whole thing, to meet booksellers and other people, and to have a beer with Victor Gischler 'cause I loved Gun Monkeys. I learned a lot and met a lot of good people. One of the folks I met was George Easter, editor of Deadly Pleasures. George wound up reading and loving the Rain books -- so much so that he kindly featured me on the cover of his magazine. Again, that's great publicity in itself, but I also made sure to send a bunch of copies to Putnam and to tell them how it happened. I also paid for a bunch of reprints, which I distributed in the goodie bags at subsequent mystery conventions (Sleuthfest and LCC). I kept Putnam in the loop on all of it, and they were pleased.

For my third hardback (Rain Storm) and the paperback of #2 (Hard Rain), Putnam started paying bookstores for special placement. And each book tour was bigger than the one before it -- about five cities for Rain Fall, ten for Hard Rain, 20 for Rain Storm, and a whopping 30 for the new book, Killing Rain. On each tour, I worked hard to keep Putnam's costs down, paying for meals and a lot of other things myself (remember, you have to demonstrate confidence in yourself, otherwise why should your publisher be confident?). For the latest tour, I told them I wanted to reduce air travel, do more driving, and eliminate escorts to help control their costs. They responded by sending me to more places (beware of what you ask for...). And on this tour, I felt like we were really getting some nice synergy: I visited many more stores, and most of those stores had the books prominently displayed, increasing the value of the visits and of the impact of the displays. Which brings the conversation full circle to how to get the most impact out of your drop-in signings...

These are just examples. There are others, but the point is that the main value of all my efforts has been that Putnam has decided to match (or exceed) them. If Putnam hadn't increased its promotional investments, my own efforts would have had a fraction of the impact.

So I would argue that your most important constituent will always be your publisher. It seems so obvious that I think a lot of people overlook it.

It occurs to me that all this relates to a model I've been thinking about for some time: the writer as entrepreneur. That's next...

Bestselling author Barry Eisler will be back tomorrow for #3 in this series.

Comments

[JA Konrath]

Great post. It's no wonder your publisher is behind you.

You haven't (yet) brought up the pros and cons of advertising, though your face on the cover of Deadly Pleasures was good example of advertising, and I know you've been on the cover of a Japanese magazine and the latest issue of Crimespree as well.

If you recognize the importance of that, I'm still not sure why you remain unconvinced about the single greatest form of advertising in the business... short story sales.

By the end of the year, I'll have had stories and articles in 4 issues of Ellery Queen (250k circultation each), 3 issues of Writer's Digest (180k circ. each), 1 issue of Alfred Hitchcock (250k circ), 1 issue of The Strand (50k circ,) 20 other magazines and anthologies (150k circ.) including the upcoming THRILLER anthology edited by James Patterson (which sold for the biggest advance in the history of anthologies and will get huge press and a huge release.)

That's my name in almost 2 million magazines and books. But not just my name---my writing. And my writing is a much better form of advertising than any three color brochure or tiny b/w ad in the back of Mystery Scene.

If people read and enjoy a short story, they'll seek out the books. I have 1000's of emails from fans that back this statement up.

Cost to author: free, or you get paid. There's a time investment, but spending a week on a story that reaches two hundred thousand people seems to be a good return, plus you have the story forever. Writer's Digest reprinted my first article in two other publications (Novel Writing Magazine and Selling Your First Book magazine).

Your blogs on self-promotion could easily be made into an article. Why not approach WD? Why not write a Rain short story for Ellery Queen or an anthology?

Another thing I want to bring up; you've done two guest blogs in two weeks---why not start your own blog? Half an hour, once a week, and it goes far to connecting with your fanbase, getting your name out there, and drawing attention to your website and your books. My blog almost has as many daily hits as my website, and I've only been blogging since May.

So, sensei, while your Shao Lin Monkey Marketing Style is strong kung-fu, I suggest you give Drunken Tai Hamster Self-Promotion Stlye a shot and reach the short story readers, the newbie writers, and the blogging community.

Plus, we're all waiting for the 2007 Barry Eisler Nude Calender. At Bouchercon, I'll be auctioning off the opportunity to be the camerperson on your shoot. I've heard James Crumley plans on bidding big.

[Barry Eisler]

LOL, Joe... all good points about the value of short stories, articles, and blogs. I guess my answer is: there are only 24 hours in a day, and you write faster and need less sleep than I do!

It's not that I'm not tempted to blog. But so far I've steered clear of it for the same reason we don't get TV in the house: it's too easy to turn on, and too hard to turn off. And it comes at the expense of other opportunities.

I agree that everything you mentioned is valuable, and all should be considered by anyone who's seriously self-promoting. And then you have to find the right balance between writing, marketing, and personal stuff.

When I have the answer to that, I'll let you know...

;-)
Barry

[Naomi Hirahara]

I agree--great post. This particular angle, about how to woo your publisher, is one that is not often discussed. The relationship is usually characterized as being contentious, and in some cases, appropriately so. But it doesn't always have to be that way.

Blogging is also an interesting topic. Some colleagues and I have bounced around the idea of joining forces and blogging. But I think for a blog to really work, you need to be transparent. And I don't know how much my readers and the general public need to know about my personal life and beliefs. With that said, Barry, I really enjoyed your political comments on Sarah Weinman's blog. You really went crazy--it was wonderful. I haven't had that much time to read recently, other than books by friends. I have heard great things about your books, even recommended them to the English-language book buyer at Kinokuniya Bookstore in L.A. based on those good reports. But I have to say your blogging has won me over and I intend to read one of your books once I complete my Book #3. So I guess Joe has a point--blogging does work!

[Barry Eisler]

Thanks Naomi, and I hope you'll enjoy John Rain's politics as much as mine! And thanks too for recommending the books to Kinokuniya.

:-)
Barry

[MJ]

Joe - do you sleep?

This is so complicated - there are so many things an author can do but first and formost the book has to be the best book possible. No matter how much any book gets you want the reader to come back for more. That's really, I think one of the biggest problem for authors I talk to/teach marketing too. It's not just about desire to promote - which is hard to muster up - it's also time.

[JA Konrath]

Hi MJ--

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

I agree that the product (book) is very important. I'm lucky in that I'm a very fast writer, which frees up more time for marketing.

But here's the thing--lot's of excellent books never hit the NYT list (or never even get published), and lots of crap sells like crazy.

Granted, my opinion is subjective, but many agree with me.

Talent doesn't always lead to success. In many, perhaps most, cases, it's the marketing that sells the product, not the product itself. Is McDonalds really better than Burger King? Is Coke really better than Pepsi?

Brand loyalty, and the bigger advertising budget, dictates who wins.

Which is why the new Dick Dickson thriller will sell like crazy, even though the last three were terrible. And why the wonderful new Duck Duckson thriller will sell poorly, because it was a released with little promo money and the author hates public appearances.

The writing is a part of it---but only a part.