Unlike Dan Brown, most of us Indies won’t be printing a 5 million book first run. I know I won’t be. For one thing, I haven’t made up a cross-marketing pact with the Tourism Dept. of Washington DC. Now I don’t really think the author of The Lost Symbol really made a point to discuss his upcoming book with DC’s tourism folks, but …what an idea? Every single new tourist to visit the Washington monument would be bringing a copy of the book along. It wasn’t lost on CBS news who covered the expected tourism increase this past Sunday.
Indie authors need to keep wacky ideas like this in mind as they hone and finesse their work before publishing. Connections matter. So does recognition. Readers make reading decisions based upon flap and cover content as well as recognition and connection with things they already retain in memory. It’s a big part of creating hard-hitting advertising. As producers with a product to sell, it should be part of our marketing arsenals in any way we can implement this concept.
On a completely different note, I’ve been active on several writers and publishers sites. One, in particular has attracted my attention and has provided some really interesting discussion. While I will leave it un-named, for now, during a rather prolonged discussion of POD publishing, a comment was made that 99.995% (give or take a thousandth…) of all POD Published work is rubbish.
While, of course the actual figure was created by the writer of the post to underscore a point, it does resonate with me… in the way of a challenge. Those of us who are going to go the Indie publishing route, had better be aware of how our work is considered by many in the publishing business, BEFORE they’ve even read it. We need to be absolutely sure that every time we publish, we’re proving them wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
POD/Indie Publishing requires us to make sure our work is first rate — better than much of what is mainstream published. Otherwise, it will take even longer before POD/Indie work is recognized as simply another variety of published work, not the poor, sad joke that self-publishing has been for many, many years. We know better. Let’s make sure we teach them with the power of fine quality writing, plotting and production.