Self-Publishing For Smart Cookies ~ Available on Amazon
As most of you know, I attended the City of Edmonds ‘Write on the Sound’ conference this past weekend. I hugged, hung out, gossiped, and giggled. I can’t think of any annual event I enjoy more than ‘Write on the Sound’ (WOTS).
Carla Neggers was the keynote speaker for this year’s session – strike that! – Carla Neggers was the stand-up comic for this year’s session. Lordy, is she funny!! East Coast funny, there’s a difference.
For my supernatural predilections there was also Neil McNeill – and for my ‘How the heck do I sell my new paperback?’ questions there was Shari Storm, a Hometown Edmonds Gal, and author of “Motherhood is the new MBA”.
Oh. My. Goodness! The back row was in rare form for Shari’s presentation. I sat with Raymond Hutson, physician and writer from Spokane, and Janette Turner, feature writer for My Edmonds News. While Shari spoke we all sat up and took copious notes. What Shari had to say about closing-the-sale on one’s book grabbed my attention and spun me around.
Backstory: Shari’s first title, “Motherhood is the new MBA” both earned out, and sold out on its first run of 5,000 books. Knowing that she had many more miles to go with her Motherhood = MBA message Shari made a deal with St. Martins Press to self-purchase 2,000 copies of her title at $5.00 each in order to continue up the road to success. (Yes, you’ve done the math if you realize that she spent $10,000 to ‘invest’ in herself.)
With her self-purchase of Motherhood = MBA she became ‘near-Indie’, except, of course, that she had the experience gained from her publishing contract and ties with an agent.
Here’s where the clever part comes in. When Shari realized that she would be selling 2,000 books basically from the trunk of her car she was clever enough to make friends with the folks at https://squareup.com. Check it out! If you have an iPhone you’re an instant Visa (or other plastic) merchant! Cool, huh?
Would I do it? For $.03 (three cents) on my Ten Dollar ‘The Ghost Chaser’s Daughter’ paperback I can sell my newest scare tactic at conferences, book club meetings, ghost tours – Anywhere! And you can sell YOUR paperback book in the same manner. Why miss that ‘in-the-moment-magic’ when someone realizes they are talking to you – an author?! (I think my editor would frown on the question mark paired with the exclamation mark.)
Every month there is a new innovation being shared, a fresh platform that makes ease-of-publishing the standard. I think that I am going to grab one of those little ‘SquareUps’ and apply the A.V. Harrison Publishing motto, “Taking Traditional Publishing Into the Future” – with a little help from my (new) friends.
