Literary Service

November 18 2019

Thoughts From Francesca’s Desk

Can we talk?

There are days I want to plead with first-time authors to please learn as much as they can about successfully launching their book. I always get the call from the excited first-time-author on the other end of the phone that is telling me about how great their book is and how they believe they will sell millions of copies. Usually, because the content is unique and they have a great title. This is awesome! I get excited with them and I want to see them sell a million books. Even though I do not take one penny in royalties nor does the publisher, I still desire for them to have great success. After all, that is what I do, I am an Author Representative, much like a Literary Agent

Then, next, I ask a few questions; Do they have a fan base? How many followers do they have on Social Media? Do they have a marketing plan and a budget to advertise? Have they had the book edited? Have they copyrighted the manuscript? Have they sent the manuscript out for reviews by a professional review company?

The answer I get 9 times out of 10 is, “I don’t do much on social media, I think I have a Facebook account that my kids made for me, but I have a lot of friends and family that are waiting to buy my book though” and then they ask the question, “Won’t my book be on Amazon?” It is almost as if they think that they will automatically sell millions of books simply by having it on Amazon.

I don’t care how great your book is, I don’t care how great your title is, I don’t care how awesome your cover is – IF YOU DO NOT MARKET YOUR BOOK YOU WILL NOT SELL BOOKS. Amazon is not the answer, it is nothing more than an “opportunity” for authors.

This is definitely a sore spot for so many Authors. Marketing is expensive if you go through the big marketing and advertising agencies. The Royalty that an author makes on a book is basically pretty small. (Approximately only 30% or less of the retail price). So if you do the numbers, 100 books sold at the retail price of $11.99 the author makes about $400.00. Any professional marketing plan is going to start around $3000.00, which means that the author’s first 750 books sold are just causing them to break even with the cost of advertising. See the frustration?

Recent studies revealed that most self-published books sell 100 copies or less in their entire lifetime. (Science Fiction and Fantasy tend to sell a few more, the average sale for Science Fiction and Fantasy is about 200 books, for the life of the book). That’s not what we at Empire Publishing, want for you and your book. It is possible to sell a lot more books, That doesn’t mean I think you need to spend months or years planning your book. You just need to get clear on a few key things before you start putting words to paper.

Let’s start with a broad view. Whether your publisher is Penguin, Random House, Empire or yourself, your book will go through the same steps. Here’s a brief overview of those steps:

Planning
Writing
Editing
Proofreading
Choosing a title
Designing the cover
Selecting formats (hardcover, paperback, Kindle, ePub, audio)
Formatting the book
Producing the book (in print and/or electronic form)
Pricing the book
Releasing the book for sale – Distribution
Promoting the book

Setting your book up for success—before you write it

Many new authors start to work on a book by sitting down in front of a keyboard to write. Here’s why I don’t recommend that. If you start to write without a game plan, chances are it will take longer, the writing will be more diﬃcult, and the book will be less eﬀective when you release it. Instead, I recommend that you do a little planning. That way: When you go to write the book, you’ll already know what you want to say, so you won’t have to deal with overwhelm or writer’s block, and when you release the book, it will actually sell.

What if you have already written your book and self-published it, sold 35 copies and now are wondering what happened or what went wrong? Well, it is not too late to actually do a redo and start from scratch with your original first book. A simple change like adding a sub-title or updating the cover with an added review to the back cover will qualify as a “Second Edition” and then you can do all the recommended steps and actually launch your book with a bang!

One of the best ways to plan a great book launch is to pre-prepare (my own word), for your launch, long before you even finish writing it. Or at least before you publish it.

The failure of most authors is due to not having a well thought out plan. For an author to generate book sales, a platform must be developed. However, many authors get lost in trying to learn how to do that, or they don’t have the personal time to dedicate to building that platform for marketing or they simply just don’t know where and how to build a solid platform. There is no secret formula or a plan that works for every author. Most occasions it takes extensive research to locate your target market to reach the optimal area of marketing for potential book sales.

If you don’t have time or you don’t know how then that means you either need to take the time and learn how or you must pay someone who already knows how. Well, there is a solution! Pay as you go, only $299.00 down and $200.00 a month for 6 months, and you will have a one on one personal book marketing agent that you can team up with and you will see success and not break the bank! Click here to contact a professional! There is a form you can fill out at the bottom of the page after you click on the link. Book Marketing Assistant

Next, launching your book at the correct price can make a HUGE difference in your overall sales numbers.

More often than not, people make the mistake of pricing their book either too high or too low. It seems that the people who are a bit nervous about if their book is good enough, tend to price their book too cheap. While others, who think they have written the “THE BOOK OF THE CENTURY” tend to price their book too high.

The thought of some people, is “I need to recoup the investment I made in getting this book published” so they think that if they have a higher price then when all their friends and family go to purchase their book they will make a lot more money out of the gate. The problem with that thinking is actually nothing more than ignorance when it comes to selling books. Your 35 friends and family sales are not going to recoup your investment unless you are selling the book for $100.00, and if you did, how many of your friends and family would pay $100.00 for the book? Do you see how the mentality behind pricing the book too high is actually not so great?

It can be easy to assign a peremptory price to your magnum opus, but if you do, you’re setting yourself up for failure. There are actually certain guidelines that should be followed by self-published authors as well as professional publishing houses. I will explain it to you and explain why having the right price point will help you in overall sales ranking down the road, which will result in more revenue in the bookselling venture.

if you price your book too high, you will alienate your audience. You will most definitely miss out on potential sales because you have overpriced your book. If you price your book too low, then you can lose potential sales and also manage to alienate your audience. So much goes into the pricing of your book— from your experience to your subject matter to genre and page count, you have to take into account every element that you’ve invested in your book.

Now, do you and me both a favor for a minute and push your ego aside. Reach down deep for that humility, because in all fairness, you are not yet a master writer, if you were, you would not be reading this post.

Let’s slip into the wonderful mystical world of book pricing. Shall we?

PRICING MATTERS!

This question is the cause of more anxious (or panicked) messages and phone calls from clients than any other. They see that the publisher has their book at a price they were not expecting, little do they realize the publisher knows more than them about how to price a book. I hate to sound cliche, but book pricing is both an art and a science. Luckily there are ways to help you determine what is best for your book. Albeit, there is no set formula for pricing your book. In the end, it boils down to positioning, but also other contributing factors, that I am getting ready to delve into.

Typically, people have both print and digital books. They will both need to have the correct price in order to achieve better success. I will address the print book pricing first then address the digital pricing issues.

Let’s discuss positioning. If you are scheduled to be on the Oprah show or some other famous talk show, you can sell your book for whatever you want! At least while it is hot. You must have content or a calling card that plays on the emotional side of people to create an emotional purchase of your over-priced book. That is not impossible, however, let’s face it – it is not likely for the average self-published author.

Check out the competition. No matter what the category is or the genre, everything has already been written about, you have competitors vying for the sales from the same audience. Unless, of course, you are writing an autobiography and you are someone people want to know. It’s important that you know what your audience is already paying for similar books. When you know how much readers are willing to pay, you’ll be able to set your own book price at a comparable rate. be careful not to be tempted to undercut your competitors by charging a much lower price for your self-published book, because it has the deleterious effect of making your book look less desirable than the competition. Prospective readers will reason that you’re charging such a low price because your book is actually inferior to your competitors.

How many pages? Is it color or Black and White? This will determine the wholesale cost of your book. The “industry standard” is to take the wholesale number and times it by three and add it up the nearest .99 because ending in 99 is always the best. The second best is ending in .95. Harvard studies have been done to show that people respond to making purchases when the product ends in 99 or 95. So here is an example of how to price your book based on the wholesale price. If the book costs you $3.57 to print that would be your wholesale cost. and if you times $3.57 by 3 you get $10.71, however, you would do better to sell the book at $10.99

Now let’s discuss the eBook (Kindle, Nook, iBooks, etc.) This is something of a paradox in comparison to what I just said in regards to the print book price. I am going to use Amazon Kindle eBook pricing/royalty as my example. If you sell your ebook (Kindle) on Amazon.com, you’ll receive 35% royalty for ebooks priced between 99 cents and $2.98. And for ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99, you’ll receive 70%. But, ebooks priced between $10 to $200, Amazon will drop your royalty percentage back down to 35%. Amazon KDP has a USD List Price Requirements for Amazon.com You can click on this link to view: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634560

I know this is all so confusing to the new first-time author. So let me just cut straight to the chase here. There has been enough research data to confidently say that there is a “sweet spot” in regards to higher sales rankings on Amazon for ebooks. And that is $3.99. An ebook priced at $3.99 will outsell a book in the same category that is selling for $2.99 or for ebooks priced between $4.99 and $9.99. (Stats can be found on this through many sources – here is one to verify that $3.99 is the magic number – especially for new self-published authors. (If you are James Patterson or Anne Rice, then we would not be discussing this now, would we?) Read it and weep…

eBook Pricing Strategies to Sell More Books and Maximize Author Earnings

A $3.99 ebook sold on Amazon will earn you $2.79, but a print book at a brick and mortar bookstore, you’ll get between $1.59 and $2.19, and then you have to subtract the printing costs from that. So there is a better profit margin on ebooks.

I hope this information helps!

If you would like to ask more questions about launching your book please contact us!

www.EmpireBookPublishing.com

The best self publishing company

Visit Francesca’s Blog here:

Successfully Launching Your Book

September 18 2019

If You Want To Be a Better Writer, Read More Books

In my line of work, I have the privilege of learning and being educated and entertained while I work. Why? Because I am in the book business and love it! I have had the pleasure of meeting and assisting Authors to publish their work for several years now and it is always exciting. The best writers that have come through my publishing door are also avid readers. I have made a direct connection with readers and good writers. The more a person reads the better they write. I recently came across a blog post by another publisher that was interesting to me. It seems that my assessment was accurate and publishers agree, reading is important. I will copy part of the blog post here:

The Successful People I Know Are Voracious Readers

By Steven Spatz May 15, 2019

“All successful people I know have one thing in common: they never stop learning.

That’s why so many CEOs, thought leaders, and politicians read so frequently. There’s a limit to how much time, money, and effort people are able to dedicate to formal education, which is why reading voraciously, as part of a dedicated personal routine, is one keystone of lifelong personal development.

I call it personal development because a big part of what you learn from reading is about yourself. I’m a student of writing and of words — reading helps me understand who I am, how I should approach my writing, and what I want to focus my attention on outside of my literary ambitions.

But that, of course, is not the only benefit of reading.

Reading keeps your mind balanced and sharp

The most successful people are both scientists and artists — they utilize both the left and right brain. As such, they consciously nurture both sides of the coin, often through reading.

One approach is to actively read both fiction and nonfiction. This is advice I give regularly: immerse yourself in the worlds and adventures of books like James Clavell’s Shogun: The Epic Novel of Japan, and educate yourself with biographies and intelligent opinions — such as Dwight Eisenhower’s account of World War II, Crusade in Europe, which I’m reading now.

Reading instills discipline

Reading doesn’t just strengthen or nurture both parts of our brain — it strengthens more intangible skills, too. For one, reading can make you more disciplined and foster an appreciation for learning and growth.

How, exactly? Well, people who make the decision to read everyday are actively deciding to engage, improve, and challenge their brains instead of doing more passive activities, like surfing YouTube videos or binge-watching Netflix…

Reading benefits your business

There’s one last benefit that most people don’t associate with reading, and that’s the manner in which it can actively benefit your professional life.

For one thing, reading encourages curiosity. And people who are curious are, more often than not, high achievers. Understanding this, you yourself can use reading to feed your curiosity and acquire more knowledge.

But you can also apply this awareness to elements of your business life, like honing your hiring practices. At BookBaby, when we’re hiring a potential candidate, I always ask, “What are you reading right now?” or “What have you read in the last six months?” I know reading behavior can be a barometer in measuring a person’s level of curiosity, discipline, and zeal for learning — and curious, disciplined people who are hungry to learn are the sort I want in my company.”

I am one who takes in a lot of information on a daily basis. There are times it seems that my brain is like a sponge absorbing everything that is fed to it. Yes, it can be tiring to the mind and body to continually read. I think that is why Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes: “My child, there is something else to watch out for. There is no end to the writing of books, and too much study will wear you out.” (Ecc. 12:12)

My suggestion to anyone who would like to improve their writing skills and not have to spend several hours a day reading a lot of books is to just focus on quality rather than quantity. Opt for reading books that are the old classics, rather than the modern-day novels. Gather a few great books such as Don Quixote, Hamlet or Moby Dick and read for 25 to 45 minutes a day. When you are finished reading for the day spend a few minutes contemplating the material you read. Within a short period of time, you will feel inspired to write and you will notice that your writing improves with each book you read. Also, it is good to read books that are in a similar genre as what you write about, but it is not necessary to only read those genres. For instance, Children’s Book Writers read all sorts of genres to help give them the inspiration to create new stories.

I hope this little tip is helpful.

Happy reading and happy writing my fellow writers.

May 19 2019

Children’s books are always a big selling product. Children are entering into schools and libraries with big eyes and imaginations into the world of reading every year. So the need to stock up on new children’s books every year is always growing.

If you are wondering about the actual over-all facts and numbers on how much you can earn by publishing a children’s book Please go to Hannah Holt’s Website, where she did the research and published it on her page which will include graphs and tables, as she broke down the various types of publishing. In her research, she also included data for self-published Authors and the level of marketing they did for their book. The bottom line of her report shows that publishing children’s books are profitable, no matter how you decide to publish (either self-publishing or traditional publishing), and oddly enough, in the end, the Authors of both categories ended up making the same amount of money. This is good news for those trying to decide which is the better way to go. Because the only thing that may make a difference, in the long run, is “time” because for every day you are not selling books, you are not making a profit. In this case, the option to self publish is a plus, because you can be self-published in a few weeks if you already have a manuscript and your illustrations all ready to go. Where waiting on a traditional publisher to accept your manuscript can sometimes take years. Then, once they accept your manuscript, it could be another 6 months before you ever see your book on the market. In my calculations, using the data provided by Hannah Holt, that would earn the average self-published author, approximately $25,000.00 more in profits from their book.

Now, let’s talk about the steps to get you started if you are a first time Author.

Obviously, writing the story has to be the very first thing you do. Creating a lovable character, that children can relate to. And hopefully, even a lesson in the Golden Rule is somewhere in the story. (Books that have a good moral message for children tend to sell more).

The next step is finding a good illustrator that can bring your characters to life. This is not as easy as it sounds. There are thousands of illustrators you can choose from. They all charge different prices and they all work at a different pace. Some will want 2% of the Royalties and others to just be paid for their work. Whichever you choose, it is always a good idea to offer to put the Illustrators name on the cover, (either front or back) because they will sometimes be so grateful for the gesture they will go an extra mile for you,

When doing Self-Publishing, it is recommended to pay an illustrator rather than to offer Royalties. Because doing the monthly break down, or even if you do a quarterly breakdown, can be time-consuming. And you will always have them breathing down your neck for spreadsheets of book sales data.

If you are in the process of looking for an illustrator, you can search Facebook by typing in the search bar “Children’s Books Illustrator” a long list of options will come up and you will be able to review their portfolios that they have posted on their page. This is helpful because you will be able to tell by the illustrator’s style if it “fits” with your story, and has the look of what desire. Another way is to contact your local Children’s book publisher and ask if they have a list of illustrators.

*PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Many illustrators have a preference to draw either vertical or horizontal. You want to make sure and be clear to the illustrator the trim size of your book and if your book is vertical, horizontal or square. Because of how this will have to be formatted in the book may cause the picture to be cropped, and that is not always desirable.

After you have your completed manuscript with illustrations and a cover illustration, make sure you have written your Bio. It needs to be very short and sweet. This can be included in the very back of the book or even on the back cover under the synopsis. Oh! And yes, you must have the synopsis for the back cover ready to go as well.

Once you have all the above finished and ready to go, you are ready to be published!

You can contact your Author Representative for more questions.

If you do not have a personal Author Representative please contact AuthorRep on Facebook or call 702-292-4638

January 30 2019

It goes without saying that unless you are Dr.Oz or a well-known doctor or speaker on the topic of health and natural healing, that if you write a book about this topic, it is a hard sell. However, there are ways to get your book the attention it deserves. And increase the sales of your book, and gain notoriety in the book selling world.

Man Authors have done extensive research on certain topics in regards to health and body, natural cures for disease or holistic health, and their books have a wealth of information that would be or could be life-saving information for thousands of people. But, how do you know which book to buy? How does an Author get in front of the right people at the right time?

I wrote a book called “A Mother’s Wisdom, Natural Healing Remedies, Faith, and Wellness” and I quickly learned that just having my book on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble was not enough. I did some Social Media posts and it helped a little tiny bit. I published a couple of chapters on my personal blog, and that helped a little tiny bit, and then I started looking into how to sell books of this genre. I learned from experience, that it takes some fine tuning, using the right keywords and doing the promotions in the right places.

There are some steps that an Author needs to take after they publish their book, depending on how many books they want to sell will depend on which strategies to use.

If you contact the book marketing people with Empire Publishing, you can get the ball rolling pretty fast. Expert advice and top notch customer service with the combination of seeing your book sales rise each month is a winning combo!

If you have a book in the Health and Body genre and want to know how to increase books sales, please do not hesitate to make the call. It will be the best choice you can make for your book.

Go here now: MARKETING ASSISTANT

The price is awesome, only $299.00 and you get so much more than you could imagine. Because you not only get the help you need but you get one on one personal training that you will be able to use every month.

Happy Book Selling!

For more tips on book publishing or bookselling visit https://empirepublishingblog.wordpress.com/

December 13 2018

A SMART CHOICE

There is a hurdle that Authors come upon when it comes to making royalties and doing promotions for book sales. The profit an Author makes off of one book sold on AMAZON can be on average, between $1.00 and $8.00 per book depending on what the selling price of the book is and the wholesale cost of printing it.

There are many ways to market a book, some cost more money and some marketing strategies do well for one book while another Author using the same strategy for their book of a different genre will not work as well for their book. There is no perfect formula for selling a million books. But there are some sure-fire ways you can increase your sales. While I am not going to address all of those options in this post, you can hop over to a page I wrote before and gain a lot of information there. Click on this Book Marketing Link and it will take you there. But first, keep reading for the best thing you can do if you want to publish a book, but are overwhelmed with the options and the prices of using a professional Self-Publishing Company.

A New Strategy – Guaranteed – Better For Publishing and Making Money!

The initial cost of publishing can range dramatically, depending on your word count, the level of editing, and if you choose a package that includes marketing. The range is from $299.00 to $10,000.00 which means the money going out for publishing can directly affect how much you have to put towards marketing. But the Author is in a catch of 22 because in order to sell more books you need to market the heck out it, especially as a new release.

Empire Publishing has teamed up with PayPal Credit, which will allow an Author to publish their book and not have to pay off the publishing package for 6 months. It takes on Average 6 to 8 weeks from the time of submission of your manuscript to the time of the book going live on Amazon. Then, Amazon does not pay Royalties for another 60 to 90 days after going live. So the Author is out a lot of money before they ever make one penny.

Allowing this payment plan option to pay off in 6 months, gives the Author the benefit of having a book published and Royalty payments already being deposited to their bank account before they ever have to pay off the publishing package means that they can do better promotions and sell a lot more books.

You can purchase Publishing packages, Marketing Packages, Services or anything you want or need all with our Finance Option directly from the Empire Publishing Website. Simply click on the Payment Plan Credit Link on the product or service you want or need for your book and we start the process as soon as you send over the manuscript.

Now that is the deal of the century!

Start your fingers to typing! You have a book to publish!

Other Good information about Book Publishing can be found here “The Book that Never Lived”