Responses to Advances - the New Marketing Budget

Today and tomorrow I'll be posting comments from several authors about "Advances - the New Marketing Budget."

And then on Tuesday & Wednesday a special guest blogger, best-selling author Barry Eisler, will be giving us his take on the issue.

1. From Anonymous debut author

$500 airfare for self and husband to attend Left Coast Crime 2005 $300 fee (2) for conference
$1000 hotel in El Paso
$500 food, etc. El Paso

$595 for Book Passage Mystery Writer's Conference(local, no hotel)

$175 fee to attend Bouchercon 2005 (Chicago)
$400 airfare (Chicago)
$500 (estimated) shared room at conference hotel(Chicago)

$500 retainer for author website design
$500 more due upon completion of website

$100 luncheon fees (5) for local MWA chapter
$95 annual MWA dues

And then I paid my daughter's tuition for 7th grade next year, so it's all gone. In the meantime, BEFORE any money happened, I have attended:

$150 Left Coast Crime Monterey (stayed with Mom)
$220 Bouchercon Toronto (with banquet)
$450 airfare Toronto
$200 youth hostel Toronto
$300 food etc.

$650 Book Passage conference '04 ($560 + $90 consultation)
$650 Book Passage '03 ($560 +$90 consultation)

I probably bought $2000 worth of paper and printer ink, bought a $400 printer... AND... whatever...The next $10,000, D & A money, will go to taxes. Yee ha. Had promised myself a haircut and sneakers if the book got bought, but no dice. Now my fingers are crossed that someone will actually buy the damn book when it comes out next June... I'm off to Boston to visit relatives in the a.m. Aunt Julie paid for the tickets for my birthday...

2. From Anonymous author: I overdid it during my debut year. I went to three mystery conferences, two of them out of state, including one out of the country. I think all three of them were helpful in different ways. But professionally, one was really worth the time, effort, and money because I was able to nurture a relationship with a reviewer for a major daily newspaper and even hand-deliver an ARC. The resulting review, published six months after my book had been released, was worth its weight in gold. I received book club invitations, and large independents were ordering dozens of books. I still receive invitations to speak (for money sometimes) because of that review.

I didn't have a real game plan; it just sort of happened. I think the best publicity gained is if you don't force it. You have to show up--that's why going to these conferences are so important. But you don't know if and how one thing will lead to another.

I also hired a media escort to help me to do drive-by signings in a large metropolitan city. It was worth it to have a driver to handle the traffic AND a cheerleader to sing my praises to the right managers. I find drive-by signings a little demoralizing, but I was able to secure at least one signing at a major chain bookstore. (The bookstore actually sold out of stock before the event, but the following year, they ordered a lot more of the second book.)

I did send bookmarks and a simple Q&A flyer to booksellers before Book #2 came out. I don't think that this was effective at all. The production value of the flyer was poor--I just printed it out on the computer, so that may be one of the factors. Bookmarks are just a nice giveaway--I don't think they really sell that many books, but it's nice to have them for schools and signings.

I think it's all about RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS. Just like any business. Whether it be with readers, librarians, booksellers, reviewers, other writers, or your publisher, act like a decent person, deliver, and follow-up.

Now that I spent all that money during my debut year, I can only attend about one out-of-state conference every other year. It's unfortunate. I thought that an author's debut year is the most important, but I'm realizing that you slowly build a following from one book to another

3. From Angela Henry, author of, The Company You Keep: A Kendra Clayton Novel: I'm one of those authors who used a portion of my advance money to supplement my publisher's promo efforts. A couple months before my pub date, I started getting really anxious and worried that my book wouldn't get any coverage or reviews. I'm with a midsized publisher that wasn't planning a big campaign for my book. I knew there were things I could do on my own to publicize my book. But, since I'm pretty shy, I knew I'd need help. A fellow author recommended me to an excellent freelance publicist who I hired to target long lead publications (magazines) and to do follow-up on all the places my publisher sent ARCs. I can think of a million other things I could have done with that money but it was the best investment in my career that I could have made. Even though I should have thought about hiring a publicist months in advance of my pub date, my publicist was able to get my book reviewed and featured in several publications. Now, I'm planning an even bigger campaign for my next book.

4. From anonymous best-selling Author

On the other side of this, I suspect publishers have always been reticent to part with their cash, and it no doubt takes a steamroller of an agent and client to get some of that publishing gold and spread it over their book's ad and promo budget. A novelist is foolish to spend her advance on the promotion of a novel for which the publisher and bookseller split 90% of the cover price yet refuse to promote, and the novelist is lucky to walk away with 10% of the book's profit and 100% of its ad/promo expenditures.

So, call me a fool."

More comments tomorrow.

Comments

[Fran]

Several years ago I went to a writer's conference; that was a very expensive weekend for me but it was so much fun! One of the best times I've ever had at a social gathering. I think conferences are worth going to for that fun aspect alone and wouldn't consider them a career expense as much as I'd consider them a career perk--though they can get very expensive, yeah. It's unfortunate: I think they often are overpriced, especially considering so many writers seem to be so damn poor.

Even if a writer must do promotion work for herself during a conference, she still gets to spend the whole time around nothing but writing, writing and more writing. I think that's a kind of "heaven" for many writers....