Every day we are asked what it takes to be successful as a published author. To me, the answer is simple...
A successful author must be active.
Just like in life, no one is going to hand anything to you, and nothing is more rewarding or fruitful than hard work.
But for you and your book, how will you know what the recipe for success is unless you are active in trying a variety of approaches?
We believe every author and every book is unique. What works for one author may not work for another. There are no guarantees for success, no formula that promises sales.
Tate Marketing has a plan and a framework that allows us to team together to find the right formula for your book. For some authors, bookstores are the venue for success. For others, it is an active schedule of speaking engagements. For others, it may be blogging or joining book clubs. And for some, it may be none of the above.
But how will you know what works for your book if you do not try? Here are a few quotes (from some folks you may have heard of) about failure:
"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." - Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State
"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong." - Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray area twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the
Can marketing a book be discouraging? Absolutely! Is failure going to happen? Probably, but it's what you learn from failure and difficult times that makes you into a success.
If you try something that doesn't work, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn the lessons there, and move on to something else.
I want to start something out of this blog post - stories of failure and success in marketing your book. I want to hear from you. Sometimes your story and the lessons you've learned can be a great encouragement to others in selling their books.
So please share those with me, and I will post them here.
And remember, if you are a Tate Publishing author, you NEVER have to go it alone. You have a Marketing Representative at your right hand with a team that rep can mobilize to try something new. Our expertise (some of it formed through our own trial and error) should be a wealth of wisdom about what works and what doesn't, and we can help place you on the path to success as we work toward that end.
5 comments:
Hello, I am not a published author, though I hope to be soon. I found encouragement in your words. I have read the words no, and no thank you, more than I can count, and I must admit I have been extremely frustrated, and discouraged, to the point of actually hanging up my pen. In my struggle to push forward, this is what I have learned;prayer changes things and and my testimony is not so much in the outcome, but in the experience. Learning to have faith, trusting in the Lord, and believing that his mercy endures all things, (even rejection) I can not only write the words of my manuscript, but live, them. Thank you for your blog post, it made me think, and be thankful, for finding a testimony even in the midst of fustration, doubt and rejection.
I have always heard that opportunity never arrives...its already here!
In learning the crazy marketing business, I am discovering that the phone calls, the emails, the voice messages left, and the hours spent with websites and publicity all begin to pay off. It's always a nice surprise to get a call that says, "We heard about you from a friend of a friend and would love to have you speak at our event! And could you bring books to sign?"
Perseverance is the key. Never give up! Always keep networking, keep trying, and keep believing that your best success is just around the corner!
Mark, I am a Tate author, and your words in this post ring true for me! I began my trek as an author thinking God was just going to take hold of the process and do his thing while I did a few speaking engagements and book signings, but as I am sure you can expect, that approach produced very few sales. In fact, I believe my sales goal is 4,000 copies while I am lucky to have sold 400:( I have recently been convicted to do just as you suggested in this post to become more active in my efforts to market my book in hopes of it becoming a fruitful endeavor for God's kingdom! I have started a blog, established a facebook fan page, and am hoping to become more serious about keeping an ACTIVE schedule ogf book signings and speaking engagements( I even have business cards).
Cori,
I am so glad to hear of your desire to become more active again! We are always here to team with you to do more, even if you've stepped back for awhile and are now ready to pursue some new options!
Selling books doesn't come easy. It is hard work, but it can be (and should be) FUN!
I will have your Marketing Representative here at Tate contact you to discuss more and plan with you. Thanks for reading...and remember, success is out there!!
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