AFTER YOUR BOOK SELLS

or How to Write a Bestseller

by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D

 

Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and freelance writer.Her Internet home is http://www.bunnyape.com, where you can find generous excerpts from her bestseller, WRITING IN FLOW, as well as a detailed Expert Q&A page, links for writers, and reviews of books on writing and creativity.

 

 

 

For those of you who are ruminating on how and when to begin a nonfiction book (or a novel for that matter), the following might be considered a tease. It's what I did to promote my own book, WRITING IN FLOW: Keys to
Enhanced Creativity, onto the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List, where it stayed for four weeks (with a two-month break after the first two weeks).

 

To be sure, I never expected to hit a bestseller list with this sort of serious book – serious in terms of not talking down to my readers. But since I found myself on such a list, numerous folks asked me how I did it. To the best of my knowledge, this is what it takes:

 

- For years, I've been collecting everything I could find on how to promote books, making notes and lists of things to do and try. One of the most recent and helpful books is Jump Start Your Book Sales, by Marilyn and Tom Ross, and I've also used 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, by John Kremer (who also has a newsletter you can sign up for at his site: www.bookmarket.com ).

 

- About four months prior to publication, I began contacting every single writers' organization in my area and asking to speak (my book is on writing, so it was a natural, but these groups are always looking for speakers who have authored books). They often plan their schedules many months ahead. Many.

 

- I followed up on everything my publisher's publicist did, to the extent that at times I feared they might be annoyed at me or afraid of me. Eventually, I learned how to bestow gratitude in greater proportion than my nitpicks.

 

- When the book was out, I didn't depend on anyone else to set up workshops for me at bookstores. I've had signings before and I knew that you have to offer more than a "signing" to get people to come, so I do free one-hour workshops. I'm getting better at them and learning how to answer questions
without giving everything away. Be prepared to sell very few books at some of these signings, but the bookstore will order a lot of books, put them out more prominently, advertise your appearance, and get to know you. Before you leave, you sign the rest of the unsold books which then are more likely to sell than if you hadn't.

 

- I put up a Web site which contains generous excerpts of the book and lots of other info about me and my career (www.bunnyape.com). It adds to my credibility as an expert in the area of the book. I am also spending a huge amount of time wandering the Internet, joining forums, and getting myself
out there, talking and getting reviewed. In my view, the Internet is forever, or nearly so, so that someone may come across a reference to me or my book ages from now.

 

- I think, to tell the truth, that WRITING IN FLOW made the bestseller list partly due to the fact that I spoke at so many places in a short space of time, thus getting mentioned in the newspaper's calendar section a lot. So I recommend a single big push (which you have to plan ahead!), followed up by a long long push that goes on for perhaps a year.

 

- Follow-up and persistence, in a word, is what it takes. And more energy than you think you have.

And that's it. For those of you who are now motivated to start your next big writing project, do check into the forthcoming online courses I'll be teaching through Writer's Digest's new online workshop division. I'm teaching Writing the Nonfiction Book Proposal, as well as Focus on the Nonfiction Magazine Article, both starting mid-February (and repeating twice more this year). Lots of info at their site:http://wdwow.com