WHO IS SHELFSTEALERS' BIGGEST COMPETITOR?

Is it 

• Random House or any of the other traditional publishers? 

• is it CreateSpace or Lulu or Smashwords or the other self-publishing houses?

We think our biggest competitor is a trend: the trend toward self-publishing, the thousands or even millions of people out there who are considering and who are choosing to self-publish  their novels and non-fiction books.

To stay alive in business, you must

1. offer services or products that aren't necessarily better than the competition's products or services, but your public must perceive that your products or services are special in some way;
2. deliver your products or services consistently;
3. demonstrate results;
4. exceed your customers' expectations (and your customers in the publishing business include your authors); and
5. ensure that the world knows about you, your products, services, and satisfied customers.

(You also have to manage your business efficiently, but business management isn't the topic of this post.)

So how will Shelfstealers compete with the trend toward self-publishing?

We've got some ideas, and they include:

• proving that our authors will sell significantly more books on average than self-publishing authors sell on average;
• proving that our authors will make  significantly more money on average than do self-publishing authors on average; and
• providing service to our authors and our authors' fans that exceeds their expectations.

What does 'significantly' mean in this context? 

Well, it includes statistically significant results, and if you've studied Statistical Methods, you'll know what that means. But, really, statistically significant results could mean that Shelfstealers will show that its authors sell 10% more books and make 10% more money on average than do self-publishing authors.

Is that going to be good enough? We don't think so. We're aiming for at least twice as well as self-publishing authors generally.

It's easy to 'lie with statistics.' A lot depends upon the comparative statistics you choose to report, and it also depends upon the comparative statistics that are available. But whenever we make a comparison, we will disclose the sources of our comparisons and their limitations.

Now it's your turn. 

What do you think Shelfstealers must do to compete effectively with the trend toward self-publishing? 

What measurements or comparisons should we use to show that we're competing well?

Sheryl J. Dunn, Founder and CEO for Shelfstealers, wrote this post, and takes full responsibility for its content, typos, lack of clarity, tone, boredom-quotient, and lack of originality.