Mousetrapped: The Story of A Successful Self-Published Book

I keep on saying that one of the greatest things about the internet age is the fact that no one needs a publisher--or at least a big publisher that is impossible to get to notice you, anymore. If one has a good idea--the boundaries to putting out there have been stripped down and replaced with opportunities. The bad part about this--is literally everyone thinks they have a good idea and everyone who has a good idea thinks they know how to market it. This has led to an oversaturation of new self-published books and most of them sell an average of 2--you heard right, 2-10 copies.

Of course, the dream is still possible and even probable when certain measures are taken. Take a look at the story of mousetrapped--a successful self published travel book.

http://mousetrappedbook.com/

And in her own words:

http://selfpublishingteam.com/guest-post-why-i-self-published-my-novel-after-saying-i-never-would/

The success of Mousetrapped is a typical rags to riches story thanks to the success of the popularity of her topic. She also made her writing available in multiple online outlets and had a physical book tour to accompany it--the combination cannot be beat. Too many authors focus on one or the other but not enough of the other. Her online base made it easy for people to locate and to buy.

Since the success of her first book, the author has gone on to have several more succesful titles--even offering some packaged deals. And the funny part is--if she had gone with a traditional publisher, she wouldn't have made nearly as much profit as she did.

How The Publishing World Has Changed (For The Better?)

It certainly can't be denied that the publishing world has changed in the last 15 years. The internet brought with it instant communication on a level we never could have dreamed of just a few years earlier. As with all new technologies, traditions that existed before them changed. The publishing world is no different—everywhere you look you see reports of failing book store chains, struggling authors, and even the largest publishing companies are feeling the financial squeeze. Does this mean the publishing world is in trouble? Of course not.

Popular belief would love to say that the world of books and the world of writing is in trouble thanks to the major changes—but since when is popular belief right? Mark Twain once famously said “Any time I find myself agreeing with the public, it is time for me to reevaluate my position.” And he had a very good point. People love doomsday theories, and people have been predicting the end of many forms of popular entertainment and technology for a long, long time. The radio was supposed to go out when television came about, television was supposed to go out when the internet came around. Theater, poetry, radio, television, the internet and even (to a lesser extent) old fashioned records are all still out there. Some of these things aren't as popular as they used to be—but there is still a place for them. And writing? Writing is something that is never going to go away so long as people keep on reading. And studies show that people read far MORE today than they did 15 years ago. The difference is only in the mediums.

Not to mention, the doomsday publishing theorists overlook the fact that any time a traditional system is in upheaval it's only because the playing field had changed. As a result—they don't look at the major changes that have occurred right before our eyes and they blind themselves to the numerous new opportunities that have presented themselves. Despite what some will say, this revolution is actually a good thing for writers—in fact it's a GREAT thing.

Are publishers going through a rough time? Sure they are—at least the ones who aren't being smart and savvy about the changes in the field. But for individual authors—the time to be born couldn't be better—for one major reason. Authors are no longer dependent on anyone to put their writing out there. The options they now have are literally unlimited. They can still choose to go with a traditional publisher if they are more comfortable—but for the overly ambitious poet/fiction writer/essayist, the world is theirs for the taking. Self publishing, or small press work has never been easier. And more importantly, marketing for the individual author or small press has never been easier either. It is true that more than a few of the great books were originally self published. (Leaves of Grass and Ulysses to name a couple.) But for a long time, especially with the development of giant publishing companies, the way to success for authors was almost monopolized. They required permission from editors or owners before they could get their work to the general public. It was harder for the average person to have access to printers, artists, promotion, radio interviews, and do all the things that authors took quite a big fat royalty out of the author's pay for many years for. Now, all those barriers haven't only been lowered—they have been OBLITERATED.

Authors are freer than ever to put their work in books and have them printed ON DEMMAND with no extra copies stored and no major financial hole they have to go into to take a risk on it. Blogs can promote poetry to thousands of people around the world—and the poets can take a nice chunk of advertising money from adsense and other programs in the process. These authors can put up their own websites—hand out business cards with the web address to attract people and use videos on Youtube to show interviews and back story extras. And the best part about it? They don't have to share their profits with anyone.

On top of that, a new wave of small presses have come about who share most of the burdens of production with the author while taking much less of a chunk of the royalties from them. Some traditional publishing houses would give the author royalties as little as 8% of the profits from a book. These new small presses go somewhere closer to 70/30, 60/40 and sometimes (although rarer) even 50/50. More importantly, there is no limit of the mainstream markets as thanks to the internet there is now a niche market for literally ANYTHING one can think of. Mixed media outlets allow authors to reach more people than ever before. Books on tape? A simple as the audio recording program on their computer. The options are literally endless for those who are willing to go out there and take them. So stop listening to the gloom and doom theories—start to believe the (true) fact that in the world of new and thriving technologies comes new and thriving ways for authors to make a living. And that's what we are going to explore together.

The Writer's Cardinal Rule

The Writer’s Cardinal Rule

 

This is something that so many authors do backwards in the beginning. I have seen countless blogs out there and countless twitter accounts by writers, artists, poets, novelists and more. Some these blogs look good (and some don’t.) They have quite a lot of content, and they update them consistently. But there is a major problem that too many writers make, and it’s one that can keep a career from ever getting started. This because they do not follow the cardinal rule all writers of the 21^st century need to follow if they are going to build a fan base.

Lead with the content first.

Apple Jack’s Poetry Vlog!

Big Mamma’s Novel Corner

Joe Nobodies Twitter Account.

 

See the problem with all of these? (Other than the obvious.) That’s right—you don’t know who the heck they are. More importantly you don’t have any idea what it is they are writing about. Now on the one hand you can’t blame people for being confused about how this works. After all, everyone has seen pop stars crammed down their throats, books on the shelves of stores with the author name in bold and the title in small font on the bottom, radios chanting the same name after name after name. The difference is—these advertising companies have all the time in the world and all the means in the world to repeat the names day after day week after week and play their songs on the radio, put their books in your face and generally get them familiar enough in your mindset where they feel like old friends by the time they render your credit card 40 bucks lighter. The problem with us smaller time folk is that we don’t have that luxury.

“But then how are rags to riches stories made?”

They are made by a different formula. And usually by following the cardinal rule of writing in the 21^st century: lead with your content, not your name.

Apple Jack’s Poetry Vlog as a title probably won’t pick up many new listeners on the fly—but “Sweet Love Poems” might. “My Job Sucks Poetry Corner” might. “Funny Quotes” twitter feed could.

No matter what genre you write in—fiction, non fiction, poetry, plays, movie scripts, the material is about SOMETHING. How specific the something is determines where your fans come from—finding the niche community that would find what you are writing about appealing is a major, major factor.

For example, a book of poetry from a first time poet with no overall theme would have a hard time getting picked up by a publisher—if a poet chose to put it out themselves odds are a few friends and family members might buy it, but that’s it. Take this same poet, organize the first book around a specific theme, and then market the book to those people who are interested in the theme and odds are the sales will do MUCH better. That same poet’s first book that could have been a flop could turn into a regional best seller when coupled with a theme like “poetry of breakup.” Not to mention that when you get to the online component of search engines—no one will be searching for an author’s name unless they already know the author. Subject matter on the other hand is a different story.

So when thinking about what to put out next—poetry, fiction, non-fiction or whatever—figure out what the themes are—and push those themes. If done well enough—eventually people will start to associate a name with the theme—and that’s when the fans start to trickle in rapidly.