So much of PR is hogwash. The ultimate “fake it ’til you make it.” Because I’ve always had a knack for PR, I understand how to work the system…….to a point. I don’t have enough disposable income to work it like, say, Taylor Swift or JLo. (And make no mistake. Those women are everywhere because they spend a shit-ton of cash on PR.)
People want to associate with success.
A person with a product to promote (say, a book) can read online tips for success until she’s blind. Everyone says to blog. A lot. And spend swaths of the day on social media. And give books away to garner reviews and increase visibility. And make books discounted or free whenever and wherever possible. And crowdsource as much as one can.
Writing is, first and foremost, a business. Strip away the insecurities, the mortification over bad reviews, the horror at self-exposure and the hurt feelings over how many of one’s “friends” just don’t give a shit, and one is left with this formula:
Revenues – Expenses = Profit or (Loss)
I’m still a Certified Public Accountant. I understand the inner workings of the formula better than most. I read my numbers and compute my projections, and I don’t have to wonder what they mean.
Everyone wants a magic formula for business success. I spent more than a decade doling out that formula to small business owners, and I often wondered why they paid me to share something obvious. Maybe it’s because when they paid me, they could blame me for not following the formula.
I’m here to tell you the only way to succeed in any business. Use the following formula:
(Hard Work + Innovation + Obstinance)Luck = Success
Let’s break this formula into parts, shall we? Since I know you all came here for some serious math.
Hard Work
I once had a client whose business plan – a thing she was actually presenting to bankers – read something like this: “Send product to Oprah weekly. Be discovered by Oprah. Sell business to multi-million dollar company. Retire.”
We laugh, but how many times do we as writers act out a twisted version of that scenario? Because one big celebrity endorsement can sell thousands of books in one day, right?
And unless you 1. have enough money to hire an A-list PR firm; or 2. know someone who knows Oprah or her people; or 3. jump straight to the Luck part of the formula, it generally takes hard work to be discovered BY ANYONE. In fact, Oprah is very selective about the products she endorses. She only chooses products and people with significant followings they’ve built themselves, because let’s be frank: Oprah’s endorsement of a product is about Oprah. She’s doing it for the added PR boost the endorsement gives her brand. Period.
The same can be written of many other celebrities…….which means it takes hard work to garner the kind of following that will attract most of them. That effort extends far beyond excellent writing. Caring about others. Being responsive and supportive. Giving your third group of the day the same energy you gave the first. Smiling even when a person insults you to your face.
All. Hard. Work.
Oprah had to do it, and she expects you to do it, too.
Innovation
No business success happens by buying a book and following a checklist. For this reason, I struggle with writing conferences, where talking heads recommend the best practices for selling books.
Because here’s a fundamental rule of marketing: If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you’re diluting the impact for everyone. Your most likely outcome is the same one everyone else has. You sell a few books, and your project dies.
Innovation is key. Every day, I wake up and ask myself how can I sell books differently? How can I make my books stand out from the billions on offer? What can I try that’s unique?
Please don’t misunderstand. I still invest in recommended practices. But I’m always exploring the new. The uncharted. The thing that will take my books further because I did it first.
Obstinance
My book business has a motto. Or, to use strategic planning terminology, a Mission Statement. It’s Hard Work on steroids, because, to me, it’s really the hardest part of this business.
No never means No.
Follow up five times with a bookstore owner to get them to say yes to my event? No problem. Send multiple packets to convince a high-visibility outlet to carry my titles? I’m game. Burrow into an organization for the right person to contact, even if that means making fifteen other calls? Watch me.
I sold twenty books at a talk last week and got a request for a paid speaking engagement. They LOVED me………and I knew they would. I queried that group six times to get to YES.
To go anywhere, you’ve got to develop your inner bulldog. No never means No.
Luck
I know a local writer whose book was endorsed by someone online, and 15,000 people downloaded it in one day. Amazon offered her a representation deal, and she now makes a decent living from writing.
I cannot fathom that kind of luck. Or that level of sales.
Stories like hers show me luck is possible. If it happened to her, why can’t it happen to me?
Luck usually strikes because a writer (or other business-type) never stopped working hard and kept innovating with a bulldog attitude.
Today, I still push the snowball uphill. I celebrate every download. I can’t fathom losing track because I have too many. I walk into every new group and start over, because no one there knows me or cares about my writing. Between my publicist and me, we have a mound of rejections that would blanket a small country.
In spite of that, lots of people are starting to consider me a success. They’re hearing about my projects everywhere. They ask MTM how it feels to be a second wheel. I attend large events, and people pick up my book and say, “I’ve heard of this book. Where have I heard of this book?”
Every day, I show up and chip away at the roadblocks. I continue to work my formula. And one day, I know it will yield the desired outcome:
Success
Andra Watkins’ latest book, Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace, has been the number one excursion guide on Amazon and a top-ten adventure travel tome. The Huffington Post called it “one literary ride you don’t want to miss,” and an eight-year-old told his mom he wanted to read it because it contained the words “fart” and “naked.” Pick up a copy for yourself or a friend here:
Click to read a sample of Not Without My Father
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49 Comments
I firmly believe that luck is a product of the other inputs, not a random byproduct. And I also therefor believe that you will achieve it.
I know I was lucky enough to meet MTM because I was doing all the other things. I firmly believe luck happens when one is working everything else.
Happy to report that I’m doing my small part, over in my little corner of the interwebs, with a contest giveaway – up to 3 books – for great ideas on how my friend and I should spend our one free day in London. 🙂
How did I miss that post, Nancy? Headed your way as soon as I respond to the rest of these comments. I even have an idea.
Brava Andra! You are the dictionary illustration of hard work and perseverance!
You’re correct. My picture should be there. Ha.
Got your book plate postcard in the mail yesterday. What a great (innovative) idea.
Thanks for breaking this down. I was nodding my head and smiling with each point.
While simple, it isn’t easy.
Perseverance. It’s all about perseverance. I would also add that visualization is extremely important. Thanks for sharing the “formula.”
I cannot turn loose of my accounting brain. Ha.
I adore you and I wish I had the contacts. Truly, not just because I adore you, but because I think you are so talented and I absolutely love your books. I’m going to send both of your books to a High School History teacher (I think I may have an “in” there) and maybe something will cone of it. Of course, I’m going to do this AFTER spring break because that’s all those teachers have on their mind right now. Hang in there Andra. I know if we can just get the book in front of them, have them open to the first page – YOU’VE got them then. 🙂
Ugh! “come” not “cone” Good lord! Proof read Lori! Proof read.
That’s the struggle. Getting people to pick my book. If the history teacher has any interest in it, please connect us. I’d love to have an excuse to come your way in April (when I’m in Seattle/Portland.)
I will do that. My sister-in-law has promised to put in a good word and she’s going to give me their email addresses…I’m starting there.
Andra, I am continually amazed at your persevering power in this hard-to-be-seen field! Success will follow; of that I am sure. On another note, your book finally came in (delayed because of massive snowstorms). Can’t wait to crack it open 🙂
With all the snow days, you have perfect reading weather, right? 🙂 How are you holding up?
You rock at publicity!
I make it look that way, Pamela, but I struggle in every new group and with every new thing I try. I’ll share some of that, too, in the coming weeks. It might help others avoid the same mistakes.
The secret, as Cheryl is so fond of saying, is “Show up and do the work”.
Yep.
Congratulations, both for walking your talk and for talking your walk.
Thank you!!
You’re doing your best and that’s all you can ask of yourself. Regardless of how many books you sell, you’ve done great just by writing a book and getting it published. Big sales, while cool, are the cherry on top of the sundae. I think that you’re quite a success as you are. FWIW.
It’s true that authoring two books is ‘success.’ But I want my Revenues – Expenses at the end of 2015 to equal Profit. It can be $5 of profit, but I want that number to be positive. That’s what I’ll consider success. And it’s freaking HARD to get there.
Ditto what Carnell said.
Don’t humor him!!
That’s so awesome Andra.!!! I know you will succeed 🙂
One download at a time. Ha.
Great piece. I agree with all of it. So often you read these advice posts or how-to pieces, and they are basically nonsense. This was straightforward and honest. And also good advice.
Thanks, Stacey. I’m looking forward to getting to know you in the FB group. I’m so in awe of the ladies there.
ONe more download 🙂
You have something to read for your upcoming trip! 🙂
This is precisely why I am in awe of you and have mucho respect for who you are as a person. I have no doubt that you will continue to succeed and that it will all pay off. So glad you are my friend. xoxoxo
I hope you’re on a plane to PR, with a lovely gin and tonic in your hand.
I’m so lucky to have found you and others like you in this space. I can’t wait to be in Amherst again (though I don’t want to wish away your time in PR.) Please give your mom and big hug from me. I feel like I know her.
Great advice, Andra. I think one of the disadvantages I have (and this is NOT an excuse) is that I have a full time job, and do alot on the weekends with my family. I know it comes down to choices — and how we make the most of our free time. I’m much more organized than I was years ago, but I’ve always taken my writing seriously. FUN seriously. And getting published is no different than working a full-time job. You can never slow down. Not really.
Claudia, you gave me the perfect idea for a follow up post next week. Hang tight. 🙂
I never doubted you would be a success and this formula is the reason.
Ah, but the luck part is the outlier. Some people have no luck. I hope I won’t be one of them.
So proud of you, Andra! Keep it up — you’re a TALENT!
I’m a bulldog. That’s what I am. Ha. And I even look like one, thanks to DAD. Great to see you, Robin.
Every time I start to read about marketing, and book sales – I feel like I am falling down into the rabbit hole.
I really loved this post because it does take innovation and hard-work to get the job done. In my eyes you are a success! And you are just going to keep on climbing!
People don’t say these things, because they want us to buy their “get rich by following these things” book or whatever. I’m freaking sick of it. This is the formula. Period. Do this. Don’t give up. And you will find readers. It may not happen tomorrow. It may take a year or several. But it WILL happen.
Thank you for including luck in the formula. (You must have been in the theater at one time!) I cannot tell you how many actors I know, really talented people, who got to the agent the day after the breakout part was cast, etc.
Hell my darling wife is the huge success she is because her resume landed on an Executive Chefs’s desk ten minutes after he had fired his garde manger. Had she been killing herself getting ready to do the job? Hell yes. But if she had sent the resume one day earlier…?
So much of success is timing. Katherine’s first cookbook was a different lesson in timing, something that was totally beyond her control. We can’t strategize timing. Or plan timing. I just keep flinging things out there and hoping something is perfectly timed.
great advice, spoken by the voice of experience, andra –
You work harder than anyone I know of on this writing business, dear Andra.
This is the best post I’ve read of the REALITY of book promotion and sales in the blogosphere! Thanks, Andra. I should print this off and keep near my computer so I never lose sight of the hard road ahead.
You’re my masters degree in how be a better author.
Great post. Honest and inspiring.
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