TOO MANY BOOKS; NOT ENOUGH TIME

Most writers are avid readers–or should be. As Stephen King says, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time or tools to write.”

But with all the books out there, how do you get people to choose your book?

Think about how you choose a book to buy, or borrow, and read. A recommendation from a friend? A book that’s already a bestseller? A book that a recognized reviewer said was a great read? To impress your friends? Price? You liked the cover? A book by your favorite author? To study how a great/popular writer does it? You need the information? You trust the publisher? None of the above?

Next week, we’ll blog about how readers (as opposed to libraries and bookstores) really do choose what books to buy. We've got ideas, but you can help us refine them by completing our poll in the right-hand column. In the meantime, remember that you are not alone–millions of readers/book buyers must decide what books to buy, just like you.

Your job–and ours if you’re one of our authors–is to help them choose your book.

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.

FEAR OF FLYING (a.k.a. MARKETING)

Welcome to Shelfstealers' very first post to its blog.

Today we’ll ramble on about the secret fear all debut writers share, but don’t often express publicly:

WHAT IF NO ONE BUYS MY BOOK?

You are not alone

You are not alone if you fear that no one will buy your book except your mother (even though you’ve given her a free copy), or you fear that all those friends who said they would buy it, don’t. And even if your mother buys a copy, or doesn’t (horrors!), and all your friends turn out to be real friends, and they really do buy a copy of your book, you’ve sold, maybe, 200 copies of the book you slaved over, often for years . . .

. . . like thirty years? For a humorous look about how long it takes to write a novel, read Richard Hine’s guest blog on The Divining Wand about his journey to the final publication of Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch, his debut novel, a satire about the newspaper business. If you’re interested in the newspaper business, the impact of digital on the media, and a damn fine read, we can recommend Richard’s novel. We only wish he’d waited for us to publish it, but, no, he had to go and get picked up by AmazonEncore as a result of the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Sigh.

You know you must take an active role in marketing your book, but you’ve always hated sales, or you’re a true introvert, or you don’t have much money, or you live in a remote area with no bookstores (or only one or two), or you hate the thought of having a website or blog, or you have no idea how to use Facebook . . . and Twittering? Whassat?

“Leave me alone,” you say. “I’d rather be writing.”

Well, you’re not alone in your fear, but too bad, how sad, you must overcome that fear.

There’s comfort when you’ve found a publisher because now you’re not really alone, especially if the publisher works with you to develop and implement a marketing plan for your book, but you’re still scared that despite all your combined marketing efforts, “no one” will buy your book . . . and yes, that can happen even if you’ve written a very good book, even a great one.

But if you don’t try?

You’ll never know what might have happened if you’d stepped out of your comfort zone.

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.