1 – Synopsis

Without an obvious target market or news hook, new fiction can get lost in the sea of novels published every year, no matter how well written it may be. Successfully Marketing Your Novel in the 21st Century is a step-by-step guide that’s jam-packed with proven tips and ground-breaking strategies to make your novel a sales success. Mystery and thriller writer Austin S. Camacho offers hundreds of winning tactics that he has personally used to get his six novels onto the shelves of major bookstores and into the hands of thousands of readers. This book will show you how to:

• Overcome the stigma of being POD or self-published.

• Create a basic marketing plan

• Make positive contact with booksellers

• Make your book signing an event

• Handle interviews for newspapers, radio or TV

• Make the best use of web-based marketing tools

Austin S. Camacho wants you to succeed as an author, and he shares everything he has learned in a decade of self-promotion in Successfully Marketing Fiction in the 21st Century.

2 - Interview

Who is Austin Camacho?

Some people think he’s a public affairs specialist for the Defense Department, but inside he’s a philosopher and a teller of morality tales thinly disguised as mysteries or adventure stories. He’s also a husband and father, a flirt and a loudmouth, with a big heart and an even bigger ego. And he’s a hard-working marketing fool who wants every adult alive to read his novels.

You’ve published several fiction novels. Why did you decide to pen a book about marketing?

When I was first published I read a number of excellent volumes on how to market self-published books, but none of them did a good job of addressing my specific needs. The most successful self-published books are nonfiction, but the best advice on marketing nonfiction books won’t help you sell your novel. So I set about culling out what was most useful to me. A lot of trial and error was involved, and more than a few disappointments. This book is the result of the synthesis of knowledge found in those books, my public affairs training, and my ten years of hard won personal experience.

Who is this book for?

This book is for all those novelists out there who got tired of waiting for Simon and Shuster or Ballantine to give them a chance. Print on Demand, self publishing and small presses are all reasonable options, but those authors need to know what to do to get their books the attention they deserve.

What are some key tips you offer authors to help them sell successfully?

If I were to offer just 3 basic tips they’d be:

1. Camouflage – make your book look like those the big publishers put out, and behave like a big time author.

2. Planning – decide what tools and techniques you’ll use and map out the timing of your marketing strategy.

3. Evidence-based Marketing – Don’t spend money on any marketing technique unless someone can show you proof that someone has made money doing it.

You publish your own work. What benefits are there to that?

The advantages are financial and emotional. When you self publish you don’t share the profits with a publisher so you can make a real profit on even a small number of books sold. Also, you own all the rights to your books and can sell them to anyone who wants to publish you in print, electronically, overseas or in audio.

Just as important to me is the total control I have. I choose the cover, the back cover copy, the interior design, the font… everything about the physical product. I like the feel of really owning my books.

What hurdles do you face?

Of course I face the obstacles every author faces: getting my book noticed in the crowded field of genre fiction, getting booksellers to stock them, building my name.

But I face some barriers that mainstream authors don’t. It is very hard for self-published and POD authors to get distribution, one thing that’s a given for mainstream authors. It is also much harder for us to get reviews in major papers and magazines. And we’re shut out of many of the most prestigious awards. For example, I’m not eligible for the Edgar awards, regardless of the quality of my writing, because the Mystery Writers of America don’t recognize me as a published author. Only books published by a short list of publishers qualify. My small press publisher, Echelon Press, has nearly 100 authors, pays an advance and works with several distributors, but it’s not on the MWA’s list.

You have a few marketing books on your own shelves. What are other tomes you recommend?

1,001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer is the place to start. Unfortunately 90% doesn’t apply to fiction but it’s all good to know. Then I like the books by Tom and Marilyn Ross. Guerrilla Marketing for Writers is full of good ideas to try. And don’t forget Dan Poynter, the dean of self publishers.

What’s next for you?

My agent has a new Hannibal Jones mystery and two new thrillers I haven’t published. She and I met with some publishers’ editors at Thrillerfest and got some positive feedback. So, there’s a chance I may break into mainstream status. Cross your fingers for me.

I’ll also be at the Baltimore Book Festival and Bouchercon (also in Baltimore) and at Magna Cum Murder in Mincie, IN this year.

Where can we find you on the web?

Everywhere! Seriously, go to my web site - www.hannibaljonesmysteries.com - and click the “Austin on the web” link to see the other 20 internet places I call home.

3. Article

Make the Commitment

I am a big supporter of self-publishers, small publishers and Print On Demand authors. After all, I am or have been all of the above. I always believed that having my book out there would be a plus, and that a track record of sales would make me more attractive to publishers. Besides, with a book published I can demonstrate how hard I’m willing to work to sell books.

The truth may be someone different. I’ve spoken with several agents lately and been told some things that, if true, I wish someone had told me a lot sooner. Some things that POD Publishers and small presses would NOT want you to know.

For example, I’ve been told that some agents automatically reject any manuscript from an author who wants to step up to a bigger house, or wants a chance at a wider readership once he or she is already published. They say that publishers prefer the unknown risk of debut authors to the known potential of established authors who have shown they’ll promote their work, unless those authors have sold more than 50,000 copies.

For years I’d heard that large publishers would pick up books that had been successful at a small house or POD, but until now no one every defined “successful” for me. (This particular agent, Janet Reid, was speaking in the Sisters-in-Crime newsletter.)

Agents also report that most publishers aren’t interested in taking on a series that is already started. They might look at a new series by an author with a series already published, but only if they see the new series as potentially a big breakout hit.

So the advice from these agents is, keep submitting everywhere because if you self-publish, publish POD or go with a small press it could spike your chances at a career as an author for one of the big houses. Ms Reid says that until you’ve queried 50 agents with three separate books, it’s too soon to consider the other options.

It’s hard to say to what extent this is just information that small presses and POD companies just don’t want you to hear, since their livelihood is based on getting writers to publish with them. There is also quite an industry that has sprung up around selling products and services to self-publishers and POD authors. They don’t want you to think it’s pointless, or worse, counter-productive to try.

But it’s also hard to say to what extent this information is self-serving for the agents, whose livelihood depends on selling manuscripts to companies that pay an advance big enough to make 15% worth having.

As there are no disinterested parties in this business, we must all still use our best judgment: publish now and risk never being considered by the big guys, or keep submitting, knowing that you may never be considered by the big guys.

4. Excerpt:

Camouflage: Now that you have a book that reads like popular science fiction or romance or whatever your genre is, make sure that’s obvious to the casual observer. Big publishers ensure this as a matter of course, and small presses usually do pretty well too. Their experienced book designers, artists and marketing teams create the standard look and feel. But if you’re self-published or a POD author, it’s up to you. Don’t expect your POD publisher to mention ANY of this.
Why must your book look, feel, and smell like everyone else’s? Because readers decide to buy based on a large number of subconscious signals a book sends them. They’ve been trained by publishers to expect certain things. They’ve also been conditioned by those same publishers to believe that any book worth reading will be published by them. We know that’s not true, of course, but a book that says “self-published” to the consumer also says “amateur.” The same applies to booksellers. Your focus should be to make your book look as professional as possible, from the layout of the words inside to the cover art you choose.
Of course, you’ll need to look, sound, and act like a professional writer too, but that should not be camouflage. That’s what you are!

5. THE CONTEST!

Send me your best tips on how to market full length fiction. I will feature the best three, and their submitters, in my newsletter and on my blog – Another Writer’s Life (http://ascamacho.blogspot.com.) They will each receive a copy of my book, and the one who sends the best tip will also receive a package of free business cards plus a $50 gift certificate for bookmarks, a book cover or any other products from Iconix (http://iconix.biz/bookmarks.htm) – the company that designed the cover of Successfully Marketing Your Novel in the 21st Century.

To enter, just go to http://www.ascamacho.com/sfmyn.htm hit the link to e-mail me your tips.