| Writing Tips (continued) | | Date Created: Jan 31, 2006, 07:28 AM |
|
4. Short term, you don't get people to read your books by writing good books. You get people to read your books by letting people get to know you and trust you -- usually in person.
A publisher, even a publisher with goals resembling ministry, cannot aim to produce books that are great but won't sell. So most of them, understandably, aim to produce books that will sell, but look for the best ones or to build in as much goodness as they possibly can. Given a choice between writing a new book or going out on the road to promote an old one day after day, most authors will choose writing. Most publishers will choose the opposite. Think about it. If you promote your old book, they figure, sales will go up without them having to do anything. It's just good stewardship: the resource of your old book is there, maximise that before spending time, energy, paper and ink producing more underused resources.
On the other hand, most of us think "Sales is not what I do best" -- writing is what I do. Let me get on with creating and hire salespeople to do the selling. But buyers rightly feel that they don't get to know a book through dedicated salespeople. There are so many books out there, and they all promise new and fresh looks at things that will change the way you see their subject forever. When a sales rep tells you this about my book, you're understandably skeptical. But when I come to you and tell you some stories about Jesus, you begin to see that maybe my book can do what it claims. I'm lucky in that I'm fairly comfortable and confident at speaking to groups of people; I'm unfortunate in that I hate travelling and don't like taking time out from either my work or my family to sit on a train or in a car for 2 hours there and 2 hours back in order to speak to a group of people for 40 minutes. I don't need to be a best-selling author; sales figures, wealth and fame don't really motivate me, but I still need to do that kind of stuff if I expect any readers to get to know me and if I expect my publisher to go on risking their production and distribution and sales facilities on me. I wish it weren't so.
So it is that some of the best-selling Christian authors are great public speakers on the speaking circuit and either mediocre writers or people who have ghost-writers write their books. I've never been much tempted to hire a ghost-author, but everytime I find myself on a train to a venue I've never seen before I desparately wish for a ghost-speaker -- some actor I could hire to travel to places and pretend to be me while I stay home and read with my kids or write. Maybe something can be done with video or web-cam conferencing, but I doubt it. People want personal contact and they'll read your book on the back of that. Relationship is more important than information; books do more than provide information, they extend relationship possibilities. But it's useful to have at least a little face-to-face time for the book to build upon.
That's it for Tips from this B-grade author, I think. But tomorrow, a few of my favorite quotations about writing from real authors. |
|
|
|
