The following tips come from a combination of my experiences with successful book release parties, miserable failures, horror stories I’ve heard from other publishers and authors, and general Event Planning 101 I’ve learned from an “Event Planning for Dummies” book as well as talking with real event planners.

THE TOP THREE LESSONS I’VE LEARNED:

1. Don’t just do a book signing or a release party. Do an event, or at least some semblance of an event.
2. Don’t Skimp or get Chintzy with an event. Don’t go overboard with it either. Figure out your entire budget for the location, the catering, added atmosphere (e.g. – possible entertainment, a professional photographer) and the other incidentals (e.g. – cash boxes, guest book, pens, promo souvenirs, etc). For a first-time author, I would recommend against spending over 15% of the book’s production budget OR $1500 dollars USD, whichever is higher. The reason is simple: that money could be better spent on long-term marketing and promotion. At the risk of disregarding how special the book release party is, one has to keep in mind that ultimately it is meant to serve as the kickoff for your book’s entire marketing and promotional campaign.
3. Ultimately, you want everyone that attends the event to feel important (read exclusive) for being there as well as enjoy themselves.

And now for some more tips, almost typed in at random as they come to me.

THE VENUE:

• There are many types of venues to choose for your release event — and rarely should they be your typical bookstore. I found that reserving a small sports-oriented restaurant with a bar (250-300 person occupancy) worked well. The farther out you reserve it in advance, the better the chances you get the date you want. Also, work it in so that the establishment is also catering the event (I know that seems obvious but I’ve already heard of a couple of situations where the writer tried to reserve a restaurant and bring in someone ELSE to cater). Expect to spend no less than $500 dollars on this aspect alone. In my opinion, it’s well worth it. Aside from putting your best foot forward and taking into account that there’s no telling what members of the local press or potential book buyers will be present, there is a tiny overlooked item that often plays a major factor — the cell phone. When people are at a good party with good food and good drink and they’re stimulated and it seems to be an open affair, they are prone to call their friends and invite them out. You want everyone that comes to this event to feel important as well as enjoy themselves, which will not only result in more book sales right there but the impression will carry on indefinitely.
• The reason I recommend a sports-oriented restaurant-bar is because they generally have plenty of televisions throughout the place. Maybe reserve one television at the bar to actually show sports (or whatever) but use all the other televisions to show any kind of video that will help enhance the ambiance that goes along with the theme of the author’s book. A multimedia slideshow works perfect for this, something that showcases photos of the author, scenes and subjects in the book, and maybe product shots of the book itself. Again, it all depends on the author’s book, prospective readers, etc. Be creative with it — as long as it FITS.
• There are several reasons I recommend against bookstores for your release event. The average independent bookstore isn’t attached to any kind of restaurant or cafe. This means that your food options will be limited, regardless of your catering budget — bookstore managers don’t want food or drink stains on their floors or their merchandise. Bookstores don’t have wait staff that are trained to constantly clean as they go along, meaning more work for the staff and your volunteers. The typical bookstores also aren’t equipped with any kind of decent audio/video systems. Most first-time authors that decide to release their books by doing a simple book signing in a bookstore quickly come to learn that it will be the longest, most desolate-feeling couple of hours of their lives. I’ve seen it happen and it was about as enjoyable as being stranded on the side of the highway in a broken down car.

PEOPLE (THE ONES ASSISTING THE AUTHOR):

• You’ll want to have at least 2-3 people on hand to help you. Preferably one person should have experience counting out money fast (e.g. – someone who has worked in a restaurant, accounting, etc). The other person should be ready to act as a runner to take money from the cash box when it gets full and move it in the back. If invitation-only policy is strictly enforced, the third person should be at the door (or with whoever is working the door).
• If available, secure 2-3 people to “take pictures and video”. If one of them is a seasoned (or professional) photographer, that’s great — you’ll primarily depend on this person to take all your best shots. The other person should be roaming around taking candid photos throughout the event. If a camcorder is available, a third person should be using it, both for candid shots and also to record the author’s speech when it is time to do an actual reading or just talk about the book and thank everyone for coming out. My preferences would be that both cameras and the camcorder *all* be digital. No offense to film lovers but in this case it will cost much more to capture alot less, not including the cost of getting the rolls developed. Based on the average storage card capacity of most cameras these days, going strictly digital with 2 cameras and 1 camcorder will give you anywhere between 500 and 1000+ photos and anywhere between 2 and 9+ hours of video footage. You want to document this event as much as possible and between the digital photos and footage, a promotional video can be edited together using any modern PC or Mac with rudimentary video editing software (the stuff used to put together home movies).

SHOWCASING OTHER TALENT:

• If there is a fit (and the key word is IF), consider inviting another artist, photographer or musician to be present at the event. If it’s a visual artist/photographer/whatever, have that person bring in some of their work and set it up gallery-style. Aside from adding flavor to the event, the co-promotion has many possibilities, including splitting the cost of any promo printing. If this other person is selling copies of their own work, let them handle their own money and keep the cash completely separate.

HANDLING THE BOOKS AND THE MONEY:

• Have a couple of people present to help with selling the books (refer to “PEOPLE” section above).
• With the exception of the books set out on the table for immediate sale, all other copies should still be in boxes and several of the boxes should be stowed under the table(s) where the author and the person handling the cash drawer are sitting. Cover the table(s) with tablecloths. Someone should be at this table at all times while books are being sold.
• Get two (2) locking cash boxes, the simple Officemax variety should do well. Also, get a stack of some latenight deposit bags from your bank (if you’ve got a business account with them they’ll gladly give you a bunch of them to get started).
• Get the restaurant manager to start you off with some change. $100 in change is a nice round amount to start off with because it can easily be subtracted when it’s time to cash out.
• Have a big-button calculator on-hand along with pencils, pens and a notepad, mainly needed for the money counts. You also might consider buying one of those money detection markers to keep in the box. Officemax sells one for about $14 dollars. Granted, it may seem like overkill but if you anticipate the possibility of people paying with $50 or $100 dollar bills (which happens often if the book retails for over $20 dollars and they’re buying multiple copies), the cost of the marker spent would be a cheap in comparison to the hassle of getting beat by a fake bill AND the losing the books.
• Write up a cheat sheet that shows the cost of up to 10 or 15 copies of the book and stick it on the underside of the cashbox lid so the person handling the money can see it when accepting money. This way, although the calculator will be available, whoever is handling the drawer can easily calculate exact change at a glance, thus keeping the line moving.
• Every time your cash box begins to overflow and there’s the need to clear out some money, take one of the night deposit bags, count off all but $100 in change (and do so several times to be sure its accurate) and put the money in the deposit bag. Have whoever did the count to write the amount and their initials on a slip of paper (written in ink), put it inside the deposit bag (where it is visible through the plastic) then seal the deposit bag and let one of your helpers take it into the back and put it in the other cash box, preferably somewhere in the manager’s office.
• If your event is going to run late into the night and book sales have cleared at least a few thousand dollars, ask the restaurant’s manager about making arrangements to store your cash boxes in the safe overnight so you can pick them up the next day. Sometimes better safe than sorry, especially if the author and everyone involved with selling the books has started drinking to celebrate.

STUFF RELATED TO THE AUTHOR:

• What seems to work best is to position the author’s table(s) within eyesight of the entrance, somewhere in the middle between the front door and the other seating area closest to the bar. Consider positioning the catered food somewhere either across from the author or further into the establishment yet still visible from the front door. Do NOT position the food any closer to the front door than the author is. Since every place is different, it’s strictly a judgment call. From where the author is sitting, the person handling the cash drawer should be on his/her side closest to the entrance. The idea is for people to come in and see activity, get in line (if there is one) leading toward the author’s table, buy one or more copies of the book, then sit down at the end of the table with the author as s/he signs the copies and chats for a few minutes, get up, go fix themselves a plate, then sit down and eat. Sooner or later, people will also buy a few drinks from the bar. After a few plates and a few drinks, people begin to mingle which, believe it or not, will also help book sales during the course of the event.
• Have author and publisher business cards available on the part of the table where people are paying for their copies. Consider also having promo giveaways or bookmarks that match the books, too.
• Have a guest book available for people to sign.
• If this event is going to last at least 4-5 hours, have the author bring a complete change of clothes along with a small bag of basic toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc). Not only does this cover the author in case something gets spilled on him/her, s/he can also go and freshen up as needed. Always better to be prepared than for John-Doe-Author having to explain a hundred times how got a Merlot or meatball stain on his shirt or the garlic-and-Chardonnay on Jane-Doe-Author’s breath is kickin’ like Bruce Lee’s Chinese Connection.

MUSIC:

• This really depends on the type of crowd expected to show. Sometimes it’s best to hire a general-purpose deejay or a deejay specializing in music that fits the environment in the book (e.g. – if the novel is set Harlem in the early 70s, a deejay that specialized in old pre-Disco Soul & R&B music would be great). Other times it might be best to go with a live group, like a jazz trio playing lightly in the background. And still, other times you might be able to get away with having someone put together a mix-CD of several hours of music.
• If I had to handle the music and wanted to save money, I would install Winamp (http://www.winamp.com) on a laptop and load up about 10 hours of music that fits the crowd (average music CD holds about 1 hour of music). I’d then have it play songs at random using the cross fade feature so the next song starts to slowly fade in as the current song fades out. I’d make arrangements with the venue manager to go in a few days prior to the event to plug it into their sound system and test it out.

There are probably a ton of tips that I’ve completely overlooked with this list but hopefully this will help give you perspective on the kinds of things to think about.

Hope those help… good luck with the event.

– Max Nomad

Ask a 3-year old boy to recite the alphabet and he may miss a letter here and there — but ask him to pick out Spongebob Squarepants or Dora the Explorer and he’ll get it right every time. Ask a 26-year old man to name four people he voted for in the last election and he probably can’t tell you; ask him to name a social website he uses these days and he’ll probably say Facebook, Twitter or Myspace without a second thought. Ask a 52-year old Business Owner to give you the name of an off-the-shelf Accounting program and s/he will probably say Quickbooks or Peachtree. Whether a consumer is 4 or 84-years old, everyone living in modern civilization is conditioned to live in a branded world. One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is believing that somehow branding doesn’t apply to them or their products and services. This plays a huge part in why many of them fail.

Throughout my Graphic Design career I’ve worked with many types of businesses ranging in size from a startup Ostrich farm to car dealership chains to Fortune 1000 companies. Along the way I’ve seen how giants can be taken down by mosquitoes, misfits can become moguls, and smart design — along with strategic marketing — can turn water to wine, even on a shoestring budget.

A brand, by definition, is an identifiable entity that makes specific promises of value.

• Identifiable — can be easily picked out from similar things. Typically this is done with something visual like a symbol (a logo).
• Entity — something with a separate, distinct existence.
• Specific Promises — the claims that a product or service makes, such as FedEx with their on-time delivery, Altoids “œcuriously strong” breath mints, etc. These claims are promises to the consumer.

At the start of every client logo design project I stare at a blank sheet — whether it is a piece of paper or a blank drawing board on my screen — then visualize myself in the Arena Scenario: I imagine that I’m one of my client’s typical customers standing in the middle of an arena packed with thousands of people. They’re all from companies that provide the same products and services that my client does. All of them are reaching out to me and calling my name. Who do I go to — and why?

As strange as it may seem, I consider it a sort of 21st century Zen Koan, a question or riddle intended to open mental perceptions to new truths behind the everyday images of reality. It may take years to arrive at a single possible answer because koans don’t have right or wrong answers. With the Arena Scenario, each creative project always determines how I visualize it. For example, if I’m creating a logo design, color scheme, and motif for a client’s company image, I picture myself as standing in the middle of that arena completely deaf and illiterate, solely relying on what images and symbols I see. If I am writing copy for a corporate profile or a website, I am blindfolded and mute, relying on the power of the words I hear. I use this method because it helps me abstract my thinking enough to connect with many of those things that help the client connect with their customer base.

Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Israeli pottery artisans used it. Feudal Japanese swordsmiths used it. Blacksmiths throughout Europe and Colonial America used it. Cattle breeders throughout the Wild West right on up to Henry Ford and the early car manufacturers used it. Why? Because branding creates an emotional bond between products and services to those who sell them. It also creates a feeling of involvement with a sense of higher intangible qualities that surround the brand name and logo. To put it into beter perspective, think of it as that same feeling we usually get when we see familiar (but unknown) faces in our favorite spot and finally get an opportunity to introduce ourselves to each other. Suddenly what was just an overlooked part of the scenery has become a real person, someone worth getting to know better. In this context, the rest is up to us to keep making great impressions each time we meet. That, my friends, is the point most small businesses overlook — familiar, trustworthy relationships — the simple secret behind why branding has worked for thousands of years.

(more to come on this later)

– Max Nomad

Starting your own publishing company these days isn’t a costly endeavor. It’s publishing and marketing the books that will hurt your bank account.

If you’re looking for investors, my advice is not to waste your time. Venture Capital companies have no interest in funding startup publishers, the typical Angel Investor (a private individual with money) usually expects rate of return on their investment (15-20% ownership equity in the company PLUS 15-20% interest on their investment), and trying to raise the funds from Friends/Family/Fools is often a bad way to go because it may take you YEARS and quite a few costly mistakes before you even begin to see any real profit from your publishing startup.

If you’re looking for grants to apply for, a couple of great places to start are http://www.grants.gov/ and http://www.federalgrantswire.com/. The thing to keep in mind is that none of these sources will just give you a grant. It’s more than just filling out a form, too. In most cases you’ll basically need to have a business plan (complete with financials) and a rudimentary marketing plan. On top of that you’ll need to write up documents specific to the submission requirements of each grant source. It’s a good idea to have your plans done anyway because if you want any kind of assistance from your local branch of the Small Business Administration they won’t even take you seriously until they’ve reviewed and approved your Business Plan and financials. On top of that, the other issue you’ll be faced with is that it is possible to spend weeks doing research and getting your plans tight only to find that some of those magical sources of state/federal funding have either long since dried up or put on hold indefinitely.

Case in point: During summer of 2008 I attempted to go down the yellow-brick road with the SBA to get some funding for a separate business venture I became involved with. All paths lead to a very nice woman whose Yoda-like knowledge of business funding programs enabled her to finish my sentences in regards to any programs I was interested in applying for. She would tell me that the source had become defunct or put on hold due to the war in Iraq. Judging by the gravel in her voice that alluded to a daily diet of Scotch and cigarettes, I knew better than to sit around waiting for those sources to change status anytime soon.

I’ll gladly share more about my experiences starting up my publishing company (including some really big success news I’ve been keeping under wraps) but it almost sounds like you need to put the concept of publishing aside for a minute. The question you really have to ask yourself is “Am I really ready to start and manage a business?”

What I’m about to say may sound pessimistic but it’s coming from a combination of personal experience, observation, and input from some very pragmatic veterans of the industry. Back in 2001, as my first book production project I self-published “Midnight Sketches”, a collection of poems and short stories. I don’t consider myself a poet so it was more a combination of a labor of love and a perfect way to see if I could master the technical/design aspects of book production. Since then, here are a few things I learned:

• These days, poetry tends to be something alot of people like to write but not alot of people like to buy. As a result, outside of the academic presses that usually only publish the works of Literature professors and Poets Laureate there aren’t too many publishers that will take on poetry as book projects.
• If I were you, I would seriously consider starting off by self-publishing your collection — only if you’re willing to dedicate the time (months, sometimes over a year) to learning how to properly produce the book, invest the money into it as a labor of love, AND you are willing to constantly do poetry readings where you’ll sell copies in the back of the room. Might even want to consider putting together an audio CD version of the book, too. If you decide to self-publish, there are plenty of articles in this Guerrilla Publishing section here that can help you get started — take the time to read them all.
• Unless you’re a Maya Angelou, a Diane DiPrima or a Jim Carrol, without the constant poetry readings to sell your books (and maybe even some touring), there’s a good chance your sales won’t go reach beyond friends and family and the occasional Christmas influx. The return of investment is often slow at best, hence the reason many publishers outside of those rare Lawrence Ferlinghetti types won’t take that chance on publishing unknown poets, if any poetry at all.
• There’s a huge difference between “regular” poets (sometimes called “Book Poets”) and Spoken Word poets. Spoken Word poets are basically the revival of Beat Poetry mixed with a strong Hip Hop influence and often lyrical in nature. For some reason these two art forms often don’t mix well to say the least. Spoken Word poets often don’t study classical poets (or disregard it entirely) and Book Poets (especially those in academia) often don’t respect Spoken Word works as having much literary merit. I mention this because you really need to know your market and which way your poetry tends to lean so you’ll know how and where to promote it. A lack of understanding the difference between the two WILL make for some awkward appearances and poetry readings — and it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN. If your style is more like Yeats and the crowd is expecting Sonja Sanchez, don’t expect a standing ovation…
• If your sales pass the 5000 units mark, then you might consider shopping around for either an agent that represents poets (rare) or begin that quest for a publisher again. If you pass the 10,000 units mark, some of those few poetry publishers will probably reach out to you before you contact them. Either way, that’s ALOTTA READINGS…

Hope that helps shed a little light on what to expect. Good luck on the quest…
]]> http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/a-word-about-poetry-observations-on-publishing-poetry-books/feed/ 0 http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/can-publishing-through-pod-publishers-be-profitable-for-self-published-authors/ http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/can-publishing-through-pod-publishers-be-profitable-for-self-published-authors/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:42:26 +0000 Max Nomad http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/?p=238 On some other websites I’ve encountered a great deal of static about my comments on POD Publishing Services like Lulu, PublishAmerica and so forth. Simply put, the debate is whether or not it is possible to profitably grow a title through their services instead of the regular self-publishing method.

The short answer is “No”. The math doesn’t add up.

Here’s some math to uphold the regular self-publishing side. To backup the profitability claims of an author’s title produced by Lulu, Xlibris, PublisherAmerica, or any similar Author Mill or modified Vanity press I welcome and encourage anyone else with spreadsheets to post their numbers.

To start, let’s say we’ve got a basic Title P&L for a 5.5″x8.5″ 144-page, 4-color on 10pt C1S (color cover w/ bleeds), 50# paper (b&w, no bleeds), perfect bound trade paperback that will retail for $12.95. Going through a POD printer like Lightning Source or Bookmobile, we’re going to say that for a print run of 500 units they’ll cost $3.00 per unit (which is high for a book of this type). With $2900 invested ($1300 in book production (which is low), $1500 in printing, and $100 for freight), selling all 500 copies would bring in $6,475 dollars — $3,575 after the COGS is taken out.

Granted, after some provisions and G&A is taken out, there’s only $1,198 left (about 19% to contribute to profit). This means you’ve already got the money to flip for the next print run of 500. The $1,198 you can either pocket or turn around and flip right back into some aspect of the next print run. Since we’re going to assume that there’s no need to recreate anything for the next 500 unit print run I didn’t bother to make up another chart. If you subtract the cost of production and do the rest of the math you’ll see that at the end of selling the next 500 copies you’ll net a 39% profit of $2,498.

Short of any major changes to the book materials, the printer, and other expenses (marketing/advertising, G&A, etc), this is a rough approximate of what a self-publisher could expect to earn on the title with each 500 unit print run.

NOTE: It is in the COGS (production) expenses that can be amortized over time to allow for growth without affecting how much can be invested in the next print run. For the sake of this example, I’m figuring that the production cost will be completely covered with this print run.

*** Both charts focus solely on direct to consumer sales and do not include other sources of income from Trade and Commercial Accounts. For the self-publisher, there are also line items that could have easily been removed but I left them in, mostly to show how these numbers can handle all sorts of expenses and still come out profitable.

Now, the following numbers are on the premise that things have grown to a point where it’s time to jump from POD to offset printing press. Same book, higher print run (10,000 units), lower cost per unit. I’m using $1.50 as a rough average; the only way I could include a set price would be to get quotes from several offset book printers.

Admittedly for this illustration I didn’t bother to recalculate some things like marketing expenses, freight, warehousing and one-time offset setup costs, but there’s still enough data here to more than present the case for self-publishing versus using one of the vanities.

About $16,400 invested into production to roughly yield a 74% profit of $95,960.

NOTE: It is in the COGS (production) expenses that can be amortized over time to allow for growth without affecting how much can be invested in the next print run. For the sake of this example, I left in the production cost (figuring that the layout would have to undergo some modifications for offset printing). I also left it in so the production cost will be completely covered with this print run and unnecessary in following print runs…

Figuring in freight and/or warehousing costs (which weren’t accurately reflected in the spreadsheet), we’re still looking at somewhere between 60-75% profit for a self-publisher / small-publisher, huh?

Like I said from jump regarding my comments about Lulu and the Vanities — it wasn’t my opinion. The Math speaks for itself.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Class is dismissed.