Indie pub house wants a "promotional plan" from me. HALP.

In My Humble Opinion
1

After SFFPIt and PitMad on Twitter, I had several agents interested in my first novel. I sent all of them what they wanted.

One of them–a small indie e-book/print-on-demand house–now wants to see a full manuscript. They say that if they like it (meaning, the latter 75% of the book isn’t substantially shittier than the first 25%, I guess) they will want to get a “detailed promotional plan” from me before things move forward.

Please. What exactly do they want to hear? Does anyone know?

I am already on Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress under my nom-de-plume. Surely they want to hear that. Do they want me to join circle-jerk re-tweeting groups? To tell them how far I would drive for a book signing? For me to organize the book signings? For me to buy Google AdWords?

What do they want?

2

First of all, congratulations and good luck in getting picked up! To answer your question, a promotional plan is just that: What are your plans to promote (and marketing) your book for a successful launch should they decide to publish? You would think the publisher would take care of all this, but that’s usually for big name authors. You have a stake in this as well so they want to see that you’re fully vested with regards to time, effort and money.

Here’s a good article with specific examples of the kind of things you should consider and plan out. This particular author self-published, but most of it will apply to you, as well. Good luck!

3

Thank you. This is very helpful.

Am I the worst writer ever if I say that I think I’d rather hold out for an agent, than sell my soul to an e-book/POD house that expect me to do all my own promotion? Am I living in a fool’s paradise?

4

One of the things that keeps me from self-publishing (Amazon, or something similar) is that I would have to do all my own publicity and promotion…and I don’t have a clue in hell how to do that.

I don’t have anywhere near enough information to advise you in your case – but that won’t stop me from opining that a “real” publisher should handle publicity for you, at least to the modest degree of taking out ads in trade magazines, putting info up on their web site, and arranging a book-signing tour (even if it’s just to the Barnes & Noble in the shopping center nearest to you.)

If someone asked me to do all my own publicity…I’d very politely ask them to re-negotiate the contract and spare me that burden.

5

You’re right that doing your own promotion is an uphill slog. The wall of apathy is astounding. I have four titles self-pubbed on Amazon right now, and let me tell you, any day on which I sell one book is a good day. I Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Pinterest, and have a presence on Goodreads. Doesn’t seem to matter much.

They would list my book on their website… but who the hell shops for books on publishers’ websites?

Oh well. It doesn’t hurt to negotiate. I will send them a promotional plan that includes exactly what I would do (continue my social media presence, and happily let THEM arrange book signings and blog tours for me) and see what they think of it.

6

Or at the very least - they should be able to give you promo plan “template” that you can update and adapt to your own needs.

How much do they expect you to spend / how much budget will they contribute?

How can they help? - do they have access into promo sites, reviews, resources that they can help you with? Do they have a PR team that will help you to get interviews? Can they get you premium listings anywhere? Do they have any “group buy” rates for advertising? What about book club listings - or can they help you with presentations / talks to book clubs? If it’s an e-book - where can they get you listed? If it’s a printed book, can they get you onto the “just released” section of bookstores?

IMHO - it’s not fair to expect you to create a promo plan from scratch - they should be giving you some guidelines and letting you adapt from there

7

I agree. I have a feeling that this is a place that preys on writers who are desperate for validation–who just want to be able to say they are “published”. I can get my own book onto Amazon, BN, iBooks (or whatever it’s called), and print-on-demand services. Why do I need them, if they aren’t going to promote for me?

But then, all I know for sure is that they are reading the full manuscript and that they want me to have a promotional plan. Authors who are actually signed with them are understandably reluctant to divulge details of their contracts.

8

The purpose of a publisher isn’t to put a manuscript between two slices of cover, it’s to * sell* the book. If they expect you to do all the selling, what point is there to using them at all?

9

I hate to say “trust your feelings,” but if you get those kind of vibes from this place, you might want to cut and run. At very least, you have the right sense of skepticism and reluctance, so you won’t likely get rooked or ripped. This is definitely one of those “read the contract carefully” sort of arrangements.

Have you had any luck contacting other of their authors? If you can’t find any online community of people who’ve signed with them, that also signals serious alarm bells. The SDMB isn’t the worst place to ask, but you might have better luck with a community or forum that’s more dedicated to writing.

In any case, good luck! We all look forward to you bragging about your book’s availability! (If nothing else, PM a few of us!)

10

A lot of small press/university press/indie publishers do ask for some kind of marketing plan. I have some friends published with a small ebook and POD press (Astor + Blue) where they asked about marketing plans, but they also have web links and information for authors on how to maximize social media marketing.

If they are asking you to do all this on your own, I would wonder.

The good thing about having an agent & traditional publishing is, you can ask the publisher how many copies they intend to ship, which will give you a good idea how many signings you need to do. If they set up the signings–which most of them don’t for mid-list authors–that’s a bonus. But they will do what they can to sell exactly enough books to make their profit.

Obviously that won’t work with ebook/POD, and they don’t have as much at stake anyway.

The best promotional plan is to write a really good book.

ETA: Authors who have signed with them are reluctant to divulge details of their contract? This sounds odd. Really. Have you ever heard of any of these authors?

11

Well, if you’re going to get radical… :wink:

12

No. Having written a really good book is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for a successful promotional campaign.

What I mean when I say their authors don’t divulge contract details is that they won’t cut and paste phrases from the contract onto message boards. The company has also dropped several authors who were openly critical of the contract. I guess that is expected corporate behavior.

All these questions are things I will ask them if they want to pick up the manuscript, after reading the full thing. As Trinopus says, something I have going for me is that I am not so desperate for validation that just being able to say “I am a published author!” is enough. I get all the internal validation of my authorial prowess that I need.

I did some soul-searching last night, and decided that I am after two things, if I sign with a publisher:

  1. A readership, to discuss the books with, and
  2. A reasonable expectation of making at least a couple thousand on each major title

I definitely need the publisher’s help with promotion, if I’m going to do either of these.

13

Will this “Publisher” provide names of current authors?

Is there FB/??/??/?? social media group of people who have dealt with the company?

If I google its name, what does the company look like?

This sounds like a “Let’s Pretend” version of a Publishing Company - the author writes (and edits?) the manuscript, the author promotes the book and produces orders, whereupon it charges some outrageous percentage for doing exactly what?

Sounds real close to the old vanity press - the author pays the “publisher”, which is simply a small-run print and bind shop.

14

That’s exactly what my husband said. It’s for authors who want the validation of being “published,” and nothing more.

They provide an editor of some kind (a 22-year-old brand new English major, perhaps), cover art, and they go through the bother of formatting your MS for publishing on the major online stores as well as a POD service. They also put your book on their company’s website, which is 100% a sales point; no community or author resources. As far as I can tell, that’s the end of their involvement.

I won’t sign with them, I think. Having said that it will be interesting to see what feedback I can get on the full manuscript.

15

If the “publisher” is CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, here is a sample (yes, I met the father and the son in the story):

Grave Wall

16

Notice the F/B - probably the extent of the publisher’s promotion

17

I’m assuming this publisher doesn’t want money from you - either upfront or in the form of an expectation that you’ll buy copies of your own book. If it does, run away. Vanity publishing can be what some people want, but I don’t get the sense it’s what you’re after.

If they don’t expect you to send them money - ever, for any reason - then check out what they’ve done for their current authors. Check their Amazon rankings; if you have contact with any of them, ask how their sales are - ranges rather than figures, if they’re not comfortable discussing figures. You say you want a readership and a couple of thousand bucks per book (and the two usually go together): has this press achieved that for their current authors? If not, what makes you think they’re capable of achieving it for you?

Also, what exactly are they contributing? Do you have solid reasons to believe it’s worth their share of the take? Like, I assume they do the editing: have you read some of their books, and was the editing good? They do cover art: how’s the cover art on their other books?

What on earth could be wrong with this? If you want to make a career out of writing, then an agent is an excellent idea. If your current book isn’t good enough to snag one, write another one that is. Writing is like any other skill: it takes work and practice - if your first or second or third effort doesn’t take the world by storm, there’s nothing surprising about that, and it doesn’t mean your fourth or fifth can’t be the world-stormer. (And again, never EVER give an agent money. Never. No matter what.)

Depends on the publisher. Some niche ebook publishers (I think it’s mainly romance and erotica, but e-publishing isn’t an area I know a lot about, so don’t take my word for it) have a strong following of people who do buy from their websites. Again, check with their existing authors about sales.

Hell no, it’s not. Professional publishing companies don’t know or care what their authors think of the contract. They’re busy publishing and marketing books, not getting into internet bitch-fights. A publisher dropping authors who dare to criticise the contract is not a good sign.

I’d check out the publishing house at www.absolutewrite.com. They have a good background-check board.