To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fat Hog...Holy Crap! Hogzilla!

So, we've eyeballed how much money a New York Times Best Selling author with 46 published books across five genres makes in posts from S.L.Viehl here and here.

Next question heard from many of my writing friends: how much time and effort does it take to really market your work these days?

From what I have read, seen and heard, the answer is the same answer I give and get to all the writerly questions ever posed: It depends.

Some authors do less, some do more. And what does "more" entail? Look at these cool efforts from a debut author on this post from Publishers Weekly. Go read it, I'll be right here.

So, it will be interesting to see what this author does- there are some intriguing marketing ideas in her campaign, yes? Like picking a pet, and deciding you want a cool trendy pot-bellied pig.

Part of me loves the biggest of the ideas that this author is trying -directly responding to fans as one of her characters on Facebook and having a professional actor filmed and put on YouTube in prequel material leading up to where the book starts. She gets to write more about and from her characters and stay in the creative process as a part of her marketing campaign. What writer wouldn't love that?

But part of me thinks to the future. What happens to that little piglet? Does she have to continue feeding it as she continues to write other books? At least if future books are in the same series they'll be related, and it would make sense to maintain the initial materials and marketing strategies. But if not, how long do you keep it up? Does it just fall away like so many other things these days- plenty of interaction and expectation while the product is new, then expectations slowly disappear as fans move on to other things? If you build a fan base this way, how loyal are they? Are they always going to be demanding interaction?

And what about new fans? Obviously, you want to keep selling a book, so you have to keep some material out there because (hopefully) new fans will keep coming. But to keep them interested, it means more of this great interaction. When do you write new material and projects? And when do you sleep?

I hope this totally works out in the long run- it seems like such a great thing. But I am curious to see how it plays out. What do you think will happen? Oink.

More New York Times Realities

So, I forgot to follow-up on the realities of a New York Times bestseller by L Viehl (aka S.L. Viehl, and a number of other pen names, and author of 46 novels across five genres). Here it is:

http://www.genreality.net/more-on-the-reality-of-a-times-bestseller

Sadly, there will be no more posts as the writer retired from the genreality.net blog November of 2009. But she does have a blog of her own, which I happen to like: http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/

NY Times bestselling author nets a whopping...$26,000 on book- don't quit your day job, but there IS a silver lining to that dark little cloud

Ah, the luscious fantasy that having a New York Times bestseller under our belts will afford us fame, fortune and a true full-time writing career...

OK, pull your heads out. Of, er, fantasy land.

Read the reality in a post on genreality.net, a website generated by a group of authors of fiction, where one of "those" NYT bestsellers list authors, S. Lynn Viehl, lights a candle in the dark corners of our knowledge of the publishing payment process, and reveals exactly how much of the fantasy is real. Seriously, go read it - I'll wait.

A published author with forty-five novels in five genres, she received a $50,000 advance. Although the word advance implies in advance, and most of us think up front, more and more publishers are holding back a portion of advances even on a high midlist author such as Lynn, until the actual physical books are on the shelf. In this particular case, over 30% was held until then. After expenses, paying her agent, etc., she netted around $26,000. Oh yeah, she's living the high life!

Is reading her post depressing? No, actually, it's liberating, because she also explains that she did minimal marketing, and received little from the publisher, and yet she made it on the NY Times bestseller list. Why?

She attributes the placement to her fans. It may have taken her a few books to get there, but I find it heartening that even with minimal marketing, and a known, but not super famous body of work, she has the kind of fan base that was built the old-fashioned way- with solid, consistent, regular writing. And that is the kind of fan base that sticks with you over a writing career.

I can only imagine what someone with those qualities coupled with the resources and ability to market themselves and their work can accomplish.

Oh, and on the subject of marketing, do not pause, do not wait - RUN to the newsstand/bookstore and pick-up the May/June 2009 issue of Writer's Digest magazine. It is stuffed full of handy info. on getting visible, known, and marketing yourself to stand out to agents and editors that is quite apropos to the self-promotion issue.

Because you need to get something published, and preferably something great, to start that fan base.