Selling Books is Hard Work!

An entire generation of authors have dreamed of one day sitting on Oprah's couch and talking about their book. Well forgetaboutit! Oprah's pulling up stakes, moving to LA and starting her OWN network. The couch will soon be gathering dust at the Smithsonian or in a warehouse somewhere.

Authors have long thought that bookstores are where their books will sell. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, certain books sell in bookstores (or in the book department of a megastore like Walmart or Target). But the books that sell in the conventional bookstore (or book department) are mostly bestsellers by well-known authors. These are not venues where lesser-known books sell.

Why?

Because for a book to sell people have to know about it. They are not going to find it in a bookstore if they are not looking for it. And the bookseller is not going to place a stack of your books on the front display unless your book is well-known.

So how ARE most books sold?

The most successful authors are themselves visible to the public in one way or another.

Successful authors appear at events, give talks, hold signings and are active on the Internet.

By doing so, an author begins to establish their public identity or platform. They also begin to attract a following.

What might an author's platform look like?

Let's say you have written a book about cycling in out of the way places (my obsession) and have titled your book, The Long and Winding Road (with apologies to The Beatles).

To establish your platform to support your book you might do the following:

• write a daily blog about your biking experiences
• talk to a local bike shop about giving a talk to riding clubs
• locate events where bike enthusiast's gather and contact the organizers about speaking opportunities
• submit articles to cycling publications
• make sure the content of your book is easily searchable on search engines
• contribute articles to cycling websites

Key to your success will be getting in front of people who are as excited about the topic of your book as you are. It makes sense when you think about it. 

What books do you buy? 

I'm sure you only purchase books that are of interest to you. If your book is about knitting find venues where those interested in knitting go. Since I have no interest in knitting, myself, any efforts spent on me are wasted. To sell a book on knitting one might better spend their time and energy on those who are feverishly excited about the topic. 

As your public profile grows in your topic area, so will your book sales. 

While it may seem like hard work, if it is time spent with people who are interested in the same things as you—then it is more joy than work.

Borders Books and Best Buy—do they matter anymore?

A quick glance of articles on business pages reveals that there are struggles for two large merchants: Borders Books and Best Buy. The former being having such dire issues with its cash flow that is in negotiations with its vendors to extend payments of its bills and the latter trying to reboot its business model.

While we certainly would not want to wish any ill will toward either of these fine companies, or toward their stockholders and employees, they represent the latest in the ebb and flow of big retailing. Remember Circuit City and Montgomery Wards? Both chains were once thought invincible yet, still, they have exited the scene.

The truth is that large retailers, like all organizations, have natural life cycles that eventually lead to their demise, extinction or being absorbed by someone else. Though it sounds ruthless, it is what happens in a free market society.

In the case of Borders their business model was rooted in the notion that people would continue buying books in brick n' mortar stores. They were slow at responding to opportunities to sell via the Internet having long since ceded that position to Amazon.com. Further, as mass merchants such as Walmart and Target heavily discounted the price of bestselling books, Borders could not compete without matching their price. Now as readers are beginning to switch to e-books, they are left without the capability of developing their own e-reader or tablet device. With their stock price tumbling they are left with the prospects of reducing their overhead along with closing a number of stores. But it may be a case of too little, too late.

As for Best Buy, their business model was all about generating weekly traffic for small items—such as Cd's and DVDs—in the hope of becoming the destination for all things electronic. That strategy worked well until demand for these high traffic producing products diminished. This was due to the customer having more convenient options such as downloading music to their mobile devices or having movies directly delivered to their door. Additionally, fierce competition from big box discounters such as Walmart for large ticket items like flat screen TVs and computers further reduced their profit margins. Looking forward, it is hard to see Best Buy continuing to hit the sales and profitability targets that made them a Wall Street darling.

While we hope both companies survive, in order to do so they will have to reboot their business models and redefine their niche. In the case of Borders Books, because they waited so long and are in a weakened position, this will be just that more difficult. However with Best Buy, since it is still a strong company, they have the luxury of time and resources on their side. Key for both companies will be to ramp up their customer service and product offerings to differentiate themselves from the competition.

The fact is that we live in a time when the convenience of purchasing products online has resulted in far too many stand-alone retail stores. Just take a drive around your own neighborhood or business district and see how many empty storefronts are littering the landscape. Do we actually need so many stores?

In the world of publishing we live with the same reality. In the past decade, due mostly to self publishing, the number of new book titles published each year has more than quadrupled. This as the same time as the overall demand for printed books has shrunk. Do we really need so many books? Or might some of the intellectual content being produced be better served through blogs, websites, iPad applications and e-books? Only time will tell as the best produced book content continues to be essential to readers while those books that are ill conceived—or poorly written, designed and edited—are left to the scrap pile of history.