by Jay Hartman
Happy September, and welcome to that time of year kids hate and parents love—Back to School! We send the little urchins off to…err…urchin… in the classroom while we head back to work or find time to take care of a lot of those projects we couldn’t do with little ones underfoot. Mind you, my kid is a guinea pig named Gizmo, so any education happening is actually him teaching me what he wants to eat and how best to clean up after him.
Also this time of year book sales tend to dip. The beach vacations are over, being trapped inside during thunderstorms is less common, and in general, free time comes as a bit of a premium as we go back to sort-of post-summer normalcy. For those of you who follow my column, you’ll know in the past I mentioned two times a year that are best for re-evaluating what you’re currently doing with your writing and publishing. The first usually happens in January and the other typically happens in the September/October timeframe as we gear up for the 4th quarter holiday season ahead.
As we head into gift-giving season, take a close look at how things are going and what you need to improve before the chaos of the holiday season. Some key items you should look at right now:
NEW RELEASES:
This message might come to you a little late, but any new releases you’re planning on putting out should be in place at your retailer no later than October 31 in order to ensure processing time and give you enough time to prepare marketing around them. Don’t have a new work? Might be a good time freshen up an old one, create a short story that fits into your other book’s timeline, new study guides for your nonfiction work, etc.. Try to have something new to draw attention to you and your backlist. I also highly recommend only offering one new release so you focus tightly on that and your backlist. Too many choices and readers will choose “none of the above.” We have several new releases in both fiction and nonfiction happening in the 4th quarter, and that’s where we plan to put a lot of focus.
TIMING:
Halloween titles are typically purchased by libraries, teachers, and other seasonal purchasers in July and August, but you’ll get some bleed-through in September. Thanksgiving titles sell in August and September. Winter holidays such as Christmas or Hanukkah sell in September and October. This allows retailers and libraries to plan their themed displays and promotion. This isn’t to say you won’t sell your holiday titles closer to the actual holidays, but cast as wide a purchasing net as possible, including these seasonal purchasers. We will publish the last of our holiday season lineup around the beginning of November. Although that’s a little later than usual, the books come from two heavy-hitter romance authors, so not offering them earlier isn’t an issue. For our newer authors, we will release all their books by mid-October.
PROMOTIONAL PLANNING:
Set up your promotional plans for the last three months of the year NOW. Which title or titles do you want to focus on? Which retailers will be your key ones? How much of a budget do you plan to spend and what kind of return do you expect? Remember a lot of promotional avenues have firm deadlines for submission and limited space for the holiday season. Prepping now will keep you from missing out on the lucrative fourth quarter. In our case we jumped on the Overdrive Holiday Promotion, which will run for a month and a half. Great way to get our titles in front of libraries for purchasing. Keep in mind that if you distribute to Overdrive via either Draft2Digital or Smashwords you will not be able to participate in this promo, so be sure to find a campaign that works for you.
SALES ANALYSIS:
Time to look at your sales reports and see how things performed the first part of the year. This may very likely change where you planned to focus for the holidays. Maybe that one title you thought was a big performer actually underperformed one of your backlist when you look at six months’ worth of sales rather than just when the book was released. Maybe there’s one sales channel outperforming another and needs your attention. We discovered Google Books sales are climbing for us, as are sales through Tolino and Barnes & Noble due to our increased emphasis on new international markets. We’ll fan those sales flames over the next few months to increase traffic, especially since our margins are great through those retailers.
Have any great hints for your fellow authors for this time of year? Please share them in the comments below.
Looking to get The Publisher Perspective? Send your questions to jhartman@untreedreads.com with TPP in your subject line. If your question is used, we’ll send you a free ebook from Untreed Reads.
Jay A. Hartman, editor-in-chief at Untreed Reads Publishing, founded Untreed Reads to promote ebooks with an emphasis on independent authors and publishers. He’s written about the ebook industry for fifteen years and previously served as content editor for KnowBetter.com, one of the internet’s oldest sites reporting on ebooks and epublishing.
