SALES ERRORS IN PUBLISHING
At Ink Tree, we hear from independent publishers on a daily
basis. We detect a common thread: fear of selling books. Some of the fear might
be about the book being copied. Some of the fear might be of giving a large
discount. Some of the fear could stem from over-valuing the book. Some of the
fear is just simply a lack of understanding the basics of selling.
One of our partners had difficulty in convincing her
co-author to sell a large volume of books to a volume buyer. Yes, the discount
was huge but the order was also huge. The co-author felt that the book was
being “given away” even though the profit to the authors was substantial. When
there is a conflict of opinions, it is often advantageous to seek the advice of
a third party, so a call was made to the famous David Chilton, author of The Wealthy Barber (www.wealthybarber.com). David was
wonderfully generous and helpful, so thanks again, David. His response to the
question of whether the terms of the sale should be accepted was, “Do you
believe in your book?” They were powerful words. The reply was a resounding, “Yes”,
to which David replied, “Then accept the sale. I’ve done much worse deals than
you are accepting, and they were still positive. Sell your book anywhere and
anytime that you can. The benefits extend beyond the immediate profit. When you
sell large numbers of books, it is like being paid to do your own advertising.”
What does that mean? If you sell 1,000 copies or 10,000
copies, that’s 1,000 or 10,000 people who will now have a copy of your book and
what do people do about books? They talk about them to other people. There is
no better way of promoting an book than through word-of-mouth.
The sale of our Ink Tree partners’ books was the sale of the
rights, which also concerned the co-author. Her fear was that someone would
copy the book and reprint it under a different name. That is such a rare thing
that it was not even worth considering. The book was copyrighted. Very few corporate
buyers would be foolish enough to damage their reputation by copying someone’s
book. The same holds true for foreign publishers.
Once our partner’s co-author understood the small risks and
the huge benefits of selling the rights to the book, the sale went ahead with
great results. The authors’ lack of knowledge was a huge draw-back but tapping
into the wisdom and experience of another publisher was tremendously helpful.
Denise
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