What Can Authors Expect After Releasing Their Book?
EPISODE SEVENTY EIGHT
Another frequent question I get from new authors leading up to their new book release is: “What should my expectations be?” Having a long-term marketing plan, paired with reasonable expectations, can keep us from getting discouraged and keep our sales rolling in well beyond the launch.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Jenn Hanson-dePaula: Hello, and welcome to the Book Marketing Simplified podcast. I'm Jenn Hanson-dePaula.
Marcus dePaula: I'm Marcus dePaula. Jenn, we have another question that you've been getting a lot. That is, what should my expectations be once my book is launched?
Jenn: Every author who's releasing a book has put so much time, money, and energy into actually writing the book. So much focus is put on the release. Of course, we want to have a successful release, but the expectation is, or the mindset that many authors have is that once the book is out, their hands are off of it. They've done what they need to do. They've gotten it out into the world. That's that.
What I really want to challenge authors to think about and to focus on is, yes, you do want to have a successful launch, but not just concentrating all of your energy on that one timeframe. We need to focus on at least one to two years in order to really see those sales continue to come in and to see that momentum continue on with the sales of our book.
Marcus: Then along with that, there is that expectation sometimes that the book sales will just continue flowing in. The reality is, because you put so much energy into that release, there's going to be a bunch of sales right at the beginning, so we need to expect it to trail off. That doesn't mean that we need to get discouraged.
Jenn: It is going to be a peak, then a valley, then a peak, then a valley. It goes up and down. You can definitely see when you have promotions and when you're letting things rest a little bit, going up and going down. That is definitely to be expected. It's something to, again, if we have the mindset of, okay, I am going to be really focusing in and creating plans on a couple of years of marketing, it is going to go up and down. It does not mean that all hope is lost if sales go down a bit.
Marcus: If you're in the middle of a launch, obviously it's really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel and see past that. We're not saying that you have to have all your ducks in a row for two years forward.
Jenn: No, no. That's something that can be very, very overwhelming. I even feel overwhelmed trying to plan out six months of promotions or even a year of promotions. What I always encourage authors to do is to take it in three-month chunks. Instead of looking at this as this two-year stretch, go look at three months and plan accordingly. It's not having to do 20 different things. Pick two or three things that you feel good about, that energize you, that you are excited to try marketing-wise, but don't feel like you have to do everything all in one timeframe. Spread it out.
This is one of the benefits of also thinking about, okay, I have a year or two years to plan out all of these things. If you are limited on time and you don't even have time to focus on three things, focus on one thing. Do that really well and then move on to the next thing.
Marcus: Obviously, with all this energy and excitement we put into the release of the book, our expectations are a ton of book sales. The reality is that for some authors, that just doesn't happen.
Jenn: There is a lot of excitement around the release and we have these expectations. If they fall short, it can be very disappointing. It's not to be Debbie Downer by any means, but sometimes that happens. Sometimes they sell way more than what we had expected. That's awesome. If you don't hit those initial sales goals, all is not lost by any means. I have a story about this.
This exact thing happened with a client of mine several years ago. He actually had a very extensive and very prominent audience that he was able to tap into. He had famous people that were endorsing his book and he had press and he had all of this stuff. He was completely convinced that he was going to end up on the New York Times bestseller list the first week out and there was not a doubt in his mind.
His book came out-- He was released through a traditional publishing house. The book released and it sold well under 1,000 copies. We're talking only a couple of hundred copies. He was so incredibly disappointed. What we focused on when he came to me after this release, he was like, "Okay, I need to revamp things. I need to look at my strategy a little different." It wasn't about looking at this as a failure. This was a learning experience and going, "Okay, this isn't just a limited short timeframe that I'm looking at. I need to look at this for the next year or the next two years."
After that, we got really focused on who his ideal reader was, where they were hanging out, and we just doubled down where we spent our time. Two years later when he released his next book, he was on the bestseller list for over eight weeks.
Marcus: Wow.
Jenn: That first book picked up momentum as well and it continued to sell. If this author had looked at this book as a failure, just because it didn't sell right out of the gate, he would have been missing out on those sales that came long-term for his next book and for his next books. He released five books after that. It's not about just looking at this limited timeframe. It's a marathon that we need to view our marketing as.
Marcus: Especially if you're just starting out and this is your first book, it is going to take time to build your audience and to see those sales for the vast majority of us.
Jenn: We need to remember too that books take a while to consume. It's not a movie. It's not a TV show. It's something where we are spending time concentrating on something. Sometimes it takes a while to read books. It takes a while to get to that book. It's not just looking at this as I only have a certain timeframe in order to actually see sales. You're going to be seeing sales many, many years into the future.
Marcus: If the idea of thinking beyond your impending release is overwhelming to you, like you mentioned, having that strategic plan outlined in advance is helpful. You have some resources that can help authors with this.
Jenn: Absolutely. It's thinking about, how can I plan this out in smaller chunks. How can I look at this in 2 or 3-month chunks as opposed to the next 24 months? We have many free resources. We have the Book Marketing Blueprint. We have What Can I Post Before I Publish? We have so many different free resources that we'll link in the show notes that help you make these plans and help you to outline things in these smaller chunks so that you can continue to promote your books and you can continue to grow and you can see the growth in a more long-term trajectory rather than just within a few months within the release.
Marcus: Like we've said before, we're all in different places and it's never too late to start. Wherever you're at, just look at the next thing in front of you. If that's your release, then focus on that and just think about this stuff, have this in the back of your mind for the long term.
Jenn: Remembering that you do not have to do all of your marketing strategies around the release, spread them out, even make a list of different ideas that you want to try. Then you can tap into that list as you move throughout the year or two that you can put those ideas to work.
Marcus: To get a list of those resources we mentioned, head on over to jenndepaula.com. Thanks for listening.
Jenn: Talk to you soon.