A Successful Author is an Active Author

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 United States

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.

Why Are Author Events So Crucial?

This month our Marketing Department scheduled more events for our authors than ever before - 535 total events. We are already on pace to break that record heading into April, with the number currently approaching 550 and growing.

But why? Why are we so concerned with scheduling these events?

The answer is simple - visibility. In today's fragmented book market, visibility is crucial to success. It is no longer enough to say, "My book will sell because it is good."

All publishers and all authors believe that their books are the best, and bookstores and buyers are constantly bombarded with requests and calls from publishers and authors explaining why they should carry the latest titles.

Events give authors an opportunity to showcase their books. Events are a great opportunity for media publicity. And most importantly, events provide a platform for authors to engage their audience of potential readers.

This kind of visibility, both in bookstores and in non-traditional book-selling venues, enables authors to speak about why they wrote their books, which is often as crucial as the content of the books themselves. Every author - especially those that are non-celebrities - will need to pique the interest of potential readers and engage their audience.

Today more than ever, even if you have written the great American novel, it is extremely easy to get lost in the sea of newly releasing books, not to mention the classics and bestsellers that already dominate the market.

But events provide authors with the visibility needed to connect with an audience that will appreciate their writing. This is why our marketing staff works diligently with all Tate Publishing authors to target and tap into the specific niche audience for each and every book. Events afford the author the chance to interact, network, and grow their audience.

Of course, authors must step forward and actually speak to people at these events. Nothing kills a book signing event like an author that is too reticent to engage possible readers. And by that same token, authors must be forthright and outgoing while being careful not to step over the line of becoming abrasive or obnoxious to customers.

But when an author strikes that balance, it can be a magical moment. When an author connects with a person that truly needs their book or will benefit from the message contained within its pages, that may be the most rewarding moment of all for a writer.

Author events can create these kinds of moments on a regular basis, which is why our marketing staff works hand-in-hand with our authors to find the right fit. Every book and every author is unique, so we must create opportunities for authors to find their audience, find their niche, and have the kind of visibility it takes within that fit to discover success.

That kind of success is why we continue to serve our authors by creating more opportunities through author events than any publisher in the world.