As authors, creative freedom and administrative responsibilities can sometimes feel like they’re at odds with each other, and understanding the publishing industry can pose a challenge to even the most strategy-savvy authors. But there’s no need to figure it out alone. In his new quarterly column, Managing Director of Author Nation and business expert Joe Solari shares his observations and tips for mastering the administrative side of your author career. When you write like you mean business, your writing can become one—just consider what Solari says.
Your publishing business is like a collection of book launches. Making sure each launch is successful will have a positive impact on your overall business. However, there is a challenge you need to be aware of. I call it the launch trough. And if you are a new author, this will be more daunting, as you have no history to help you plan how to cross it.
The launch trough refers to the investment you must make when launching a book. This includes production and marketing costs to bring the book to market. It also involves considering the time value of money, such as when you need to invest it and when you expect to recover it. The depth of the launch trough refers to how much money you have to spend, and the duration is the time it takes to recover all the money spent. The depth and duration of the launch trough determine the financial challenge you will face. The key to success is to cross this trough quickly.
The best solution is to have savings to cover it. For example, if the launch trough lasts six weeks and requires $3,000, it is advisable to save that amount ahead of time to sustain you during the launch. If you have a multiple-release strategy, such as releasing the first two books in a series six weeks apart, the depth of the trough increases to $6,000, and the potential trough duration could extend to eighteen weeks.
How could it be so long? If this is a new series and releasing multiple books is required to demonstrate to your audience that you are committed to the series and it is worth their time, sales won’t ramp up until the other books are released.
It’s Not Always Up and To the Right
Publishing is a cyclical business. By the very nature of your product release being tied to your capacity to put books out and your existing audience's ability to consume those books, you will see ups and downs.
I have looked at thousands of book launches while helping authors with their businesses. My observation is that every book launch follows a steep decline as the existing audience is exhausted. The single biggest driver of sales will be your existing audience. But the bigger that audience, the bigger the highs and the steeper the drop.
In one example, an initial peak in month two—created by authors releasing books at the end of a month to capture preorder sales—is followed by a steep drop, where sales settle out to a level supported by organic discovery and purchases. An observable trend across authors, genres, and levels of popularity is that 80 percent of a title’s sales happen in the first ten months.
This buy-and-binge mentality is the strongest, most reliable driver of visibility. Sales recommendation engines determine the acute buying behavior and look to reproduce it by showing your new book to similar people. Some of those will be your invisible audience who buy just that book, and others will be introduced to you and buy the first book in the series.
To ensure the success of your book launches, it’s best to have a system to attract new readers and make the most of the visibility gained during the launch. The simplest system is to have the offer of bonus material, like an epilogue or cut-out scene offered in the back of your first book in exchange for an email. Those that go to your first book, read it, and like it will sign up, filling your mailing list with organic readers.
Here is an example from another author in a different genre. The Blue Line is the first book in a series. With this book, the author experienced a steep initial curve and several pops of sales with subsequent releases in the series. This author has a good retention system designed to get those new readers into the series and move through subsequent books. If you can design a series of bonus offers that gets readers to keep signing in, your readers will move through your backlist and stay intrigued about what’s coming next.
What Should You Do?
I’ve studied thousands of launch curves and done analyses of the monthly sales. This has led to some practices that can result in better results now and increase the success of future launches.
Don’t fight the curve. Trying to sustain a certain sales level through advertising can result in a less profitable business. Embrace the cyclicality, and design your launch plan and business around bringing in money in short periods and conserving funds to get you through to the next launch. Pay closer attention to where sales plateau after a launch. Give more credence to higher valleys than higher peaks. The speed of releases isn’t as important as the regularity of the release. If you write slower, just make it clear to your audience how often to expect a book.
Have a system to attract new readers. When your book gains attention during its launch, new readers who come across it may decide to make a purchase. If your book is part of a series, they might even go back to the first book and buy that. It's important to have ways to directly connect with your audience, such as through email, and to have systems in place to guide them through your other books at their own pace. These two factors play a significant role in the success of future book launches, even more so than any amount of advertising you may do.
Understand the numbers. By keeping track of the financial aspects of each book launch, you can better manage your overall business. The return from each release and each book’s performance in its first six to nine months will give you insights into how quickly you'll start making a profit in your author business.
If you're new to publishing or if your previous launches haven't resulted in a return on investment, it's important to consider how much you're willing to invest in this venture at the outset. It may require more than $10,000 and take up to five years to break even. If it takes longer than six to nine months to turn a profit, it's crucial to reassess your approach. It may be that readers aren’t that into your books. Never forget: it is the act of reading your book that sells the reader on your brand.
If you're new to this, here are some more simple steps to track your progress:
- Make a list of all the costs associated with the book launch, including production and marketing expenses.
- Add up these costs and multiply the total by 1.1 to account for a 10 percent return on investment.
- Divide this amount by the royalties you receive from book sales or page reads if you sell on Kindle Select. Consider the percentage of revenue that comes from page reads to determine the number of pages needed to reach 70 percent of your return on investment.
This will give you a target to aim for during the initial phase of your book launch, which typically lasts three to six months.
By understanding the costs involved in each launch and setting realistic goals for return on investment, you can effectively manage your finances and make your publishing business profitable. Remember to stay persistent, adapt to the market, and keep pursuing your passion for writing and publishing.
Joe Solari