July 14, 2009
ROLAND'S RULES OF FOUR - A WINNER'S GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL SELF-PUBLISHING
II
* You must have a story of interest
* You must tell that story well
* You must package that story well
* You must believe in yourself
Last week's Campfire Culture began a series outlining how, faced with rejection after rejection from New York's Mount Olympus, my wife and I succeeded in successfully producing and marketing 12 of my own books, despite a lip-curling disdain for all self-published works from conventional publishing's Gutenberg mafia. Without Publisher's Weekly or Kirkus reviews, without automatic system distribution, without favored shelf space--or anything more than intermittant stocking--my books found "legs" by word of mouth testimonials from satisfied readers, and via small town newspaper and local magazine recognition for those books' excellence and quality messaging despite their lack of "Mount Olympus" imprints.
Excellence and quality messaging can be directly traced to an insistence on following the Rules of Four formula. But first let's consider an especially repugnant truth about self-publishing that's not always shared in many how-to works on the subject. The dirty truth about self-publishing is that, for a variety of reasons, most self-published works fail to return the cost of printing.
One could ask my credentials for suggesting that I might provide critical tools for small publishing success and I'll simply point to twelve books. Admittedly, anyone can self-publish one book and digest a loss. Even two books. And I've known one or two individuals who actually published three books on their own while losing money on each. But twelve?
Yes, there are a few other successful self-publishers with expanding lists, but not many. Besides they're there and I'm here, and you're here. So keep reading. . . .
Jane and I are often told by college professors, librarians, book wholesalers, and book retailers that we are anomalies, that as self-publishers we're succeeding in an increasingly complicated world that's stacked against small publishers. We're not amazed. We went into the business planning to succeed. We were naive, however, and we succeeded only because we adapted and kept adapting until we found the single-most important element for success in any entrepreneurial venture: marketing!
But I get ahead of myself. Marketing is one of the primary tenets covered under my Rules of Four formula for self-publishing under the heading:
* You must believe in yourself
However, the best salesperson in the world cannot successfully sell a trashy product over any length of time. So let's return to what was mentioned above: product "excellence and quality messaging." In order to do so we'll revisit my Rules of Four:
* You must have a story of interest
* You must tell that story well
* You must package that story well
* You must believe in yourself
Let's start at the beginning--your story:
It's a hard truth, but if you do not have a story that interests others it'll make no difference how well you write the tale, how well you package it, or how passionately you think it's a great read, you'll fail.
On the other hand, if you do have a great story but tell it poorly--that is, write it or edit it poorly--you'll fail; makes no difference if it's packaged superbly and you believe in it zealously, you'll still fail.
If you have the greatest story in the world, believe in it with all your heart, tell it with fantastic prose, but package it shabbily you'll fail.
Or if you have a terrific story, tell it beautifully, and package it with taste and appeal, but lack the chutzpah to believe in yourself (market it aggressively), you'll fail.
First, what do I mean by having a story to tell?
A classic example might be the book Bridges of Madison County. If you want to view a literary bomb, try selling a book focused on the architectural differences or structural challenges or geographic locations of a bunch of rural bridges in central Iowa and see how many folks stampede your direction in order to shell out hard-earned shekels for your book.
On the other hand, write about a lonely farm wife from middle-America who seems somehow unfulfilled, who feels life is passing her by. Enter a handsome photographer on assignment to photograph a handful of rustic covered bridges in a remote farm state county. Have him lose his way and stop for directions. Have something click within the two strangers and have them fall in love. Have them spend time sorting it out, complete with all the plot tensions you can muster. Then see how enormous your pool of interested readers becomes.
How large is the market for a book on double-nutted widgets? How many people are dying to know about Figian coffeeshops in Katmandu? Take pickles. Do you really think The Persian Pickle Club--a bestseller--was written about pickles? From Persia?
In short, you must have an intriguing story to tell--one of interest to a lot of people. Or you must have important information to share with a lot of people. Or (and here's where an ace might flutter from our sleeve) you must have information or a story about a subject that has limited interest, BUT folks who are interested are passionate about the subject. And not only are they passionately interested, but you know who they are and where they are, AND have the means to reach them.
Aww, shucks, I'm getting ahead of myself with a marketing plan again!
Next week I'll use one of my own books as an example: The Phantom Ghost of Harriet Lou, about elk. While doing so, I'll explain what I did right, but most of all I'll point out the many things I did wrong. I'll do so using the old writer's technique to explain "What?" "Why?" "Where?" "Who?" "When?" and "How?" I went wrong.
Until then . . .
Find the first installment in this series in Roland's weblog archives: http://www.rolandcheek.com/weblog archives/rules-jul7
Review
If Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals isn't my idea of the greatest book I've read, it'll rank high on the list. And when it comes to a life changing role, the story of how Abraham Lincoln chose his bitterest rivals for the Presidency as his team of Cabinet advisors is the clearcut winner!
The old adage about having your friends close and your enemies closer comes to life throughout Team of Rivals. But the real value to me--what I hope is the life changing role in my own life--lies in understanding that our 16th President did not have a single vindictive bone in his body; and how that lack of vindictiveness actually contributed to the man's inherent greatness.
It was through reading Team of Rivals that I at last understood that George Burns was wrong when he said: "Revenge is still the best way to get even." I learned through Team of Rivals what I should've learned from birth on--that the best way to get even is to let it go when someone imposes upon you; that anger management is the best defense against someone's offensiveness. Lincoln understood that. Lincoln practiced that. Lincoln was smarter than most Presidents.
And most everybody else.