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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the book I wish I'd read before I self-published, January 9, 2003
This review is from: The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days (Paperback)
So okay, I would have had to put off publishing my latest novel for a year in order to take advantage of Fern Reiss's guide, which is still hot off the press. It would have been worth it. I'd bought the self-publishing "bibles" such as Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual before publishing my latest novel. But I still wish I'd had Reiss's book too.
One great advantage of The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days is that the focus is on how to actually sell your book once it's in print. For first or even second-time independent publishers, like myself, the process of getting a book into print, even with the aid of a professional editor, cover artist and book designer, is so fraught with tsuris (Yiddish for aggravation), that it's easy to lose sight of the fact that once the copies have actually been printed and shipped to you, it's up to you to sell them.
Reiss doesn't go into detail on how to publish in this book -- though she has an updated guide to the publishing process in the works, which doubtless will be equally worth reading. But the fact is, decisions about how to publish a book -- hardcover or paper, price, cover art, and so on -- are inextricably bound up with potential sales. A lot of important details that novice publishers may be completely unaware of -- such as submitting Advance Book Information to R.R. Bowker, in order to get the title into Books in Print -- need to be done before copies of the finished book are sitting in your garage. Reiss tells you what they are and when to do them.
This is the second advantage to this guide. Reiss spells out each step the novice publisher needs to take, in the order in which he or she needs to take it. It would have been a godsend to a disorganized person like myself, as I fretted endlessly over what to do next. And this relatively compact guide is filled with nitty-gritty practical details. For instance, Ingram, the country's largest book wholesaler, allows only 30 characters in its titles field (something Reiss suggests keeping in mind when choosing a title). Who knew? And how I wish I'd read her suggestion to reserve a domain name for a new book at the same time the title is chosen. Maybe that seems obvious, but when my novel, A Departure from the Script, was selected for the book group discussion guide, Reading Group Choices 2002, the only website I had was... a dead giveaway that the book was self-published.
This blunder not only made it obvious that I'd self-published, but made me look amateurish. Any good how-to book on self-publishing will offer tips to avoid such goofs and increase the appearance and actuality of professionalism. But Reiss goes a step beyond most of the others, as implied by her title: The Publishing Game. The emphasis here is on playing the game, on strategies that call for both cleverness and chutzpah. One example: The Library of Congress will only issue a "control number" to identify books put out by presses with less than three titles rather than the "Cataloging in Publication" data that makes it more likely libraries and book dealers will purchase the book. Reiss suggests simply making a list of "forthcoming titles" that may never come out, in order to get the more useful CIP data for the book's copyright page.
The schedule Reiss outlines in her book strikes me as impossibly fast. It took three weeks before I was reasonably satisfied with my web site, not the one day she says it will take to set one up. But having met Fern Reiss at a small publishers' conference, I was impressed enough by her energy and her focus that it seems perfectly likely she could keep to the schedule she proposes. At any rate, as other reader reviews have noted here, the 30 days she suggests do not necessarily have to be consecutive, but fitted around one's day job and other time demands.
Reiss herself offers some caveats to her claim that anyone can make their book a bestseller in 30 days. For one thing, she indicates, there are bestsellers and bestsellers. So a book may have no shot at the New York Times bestseller list, but be a top seller within its niche. And what works for a nonfiction author with valuable information to offer may not necessarily apply to a writer of fiction like myself, or to poets and authors of children's books.
Some readers may have caveats of their own. Not everyone feels comfortable with what Reiss terms "maverick" advice such as the list of "forthcoming titles" mentioned above, or tearing the covers off finished books and replacing them with cheap cardboard bindings for reviewers who will only review from advance galleys. But publishing is a field that is full of "maverick" techniques -- like the tables of "staff picks" near the entrance of most bookstore chains that in actuality are paid promotions by conglomerate publishers with deep pockets and big advertising budgets. Following Reiss's advice still won't mean that the independent publisher is on a level playing field with the conglomerate giants. But it does show the motivated and hardworking novice how to at least get out on the field.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the Best - A rare find, July 1, 2003
This review is from: The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days (Paperback)
This is one of three books titled "The Publishing Game". Each of the books sets itself apart from the others by the subtitles "Bestseller in 30 Days", "Finding an Agent in 30 Days", and "Publish a Book in 30 Days". Taken together they are a comprehensive set of instructional resources for everything you might want to know to get your book published and marketed. If you purchase only one title on how to market your book, this is the one you want. Thorough, detailed, well organized, and a step-by-step procedure to marketing your book, it provides all the information that you could possibly need. Unlike similar books there is absolutely nothing left out. After providing a good review I am often asked how to get the book listed on Amazon, how to get it carried by major and minor bookstore chains, and similar advice. Now I know how to easily and quickly answer those questions - pick up a copy of "Bestseller in 30 Days". This is a thorough examination of the book marketing industry that includes many tips and tricks for getting publicity that I have not seen anywhere else. The areas covered in "Bestseller in 30 Days" include dealing with getting an ISBN, ABI, EAN Barcode, CIP information and a Copyright, creating a discount schedule and terms, planning future titles, getting reviews, generating quotations, selling to chain stores, getting listed in Online Bookstores, selling to Libraries, print media campaigns, broadcast media campaigns, speaking tours, catalog sales, foreign sales, and even syndicating yourself. An example of how this book differs from similar titles is the tremendous amount of detailed, step-by-step information. This is a cookbook approach on how to make your book into a bestseller. As a result, you can feel confident that if you follow the directions you will get the same results every time. Unlike most other similar books, the author not only instructs you on what to do but also provides all the necessary details to actually complete the task. For example, when Fern Reiss discusses a print media campaign she not only provides valuable instruction but actually provides detailed referral information for her favorite person to write a press release, people who provide fax services to get the review to media contacts, reputable public relations firms, etc. For each one of these she provides full contact information so you can easily move forward with your marketing campaign. The book is well worth the price just for this detailed contact information. "The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days" receives the highest recommendation I can give. It is clearly the best of the best.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good for nonfiction, not so good for fiction, October 14, 2004
This review is from: The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days (Paperback)
Randy Farnsworth
Author of "A Stand Yet Taken"
This book is pretty good. It has some ideas that I certainly never would have thought of. Even for the things that you are doing already, this book may give you a different perspective and help you change the way your doing them.
However, there are two big caveats that you should know before getting this.
1) The author states right up front that these ideas work great for nonfiction, but that your mileage may vary when it comes to fiction. This is quite true; much of what she presents just doesn't work for the fiction market, which is nearly impossible to break into. This is especially true for people who have published "traditionally" -- meaning a traditional publisher that pays for the cost of publishing and gives you a small 8-10% royalty.
2) Many, if not most, of the ideas will cost you some money to implement. If you planned on spending a few hundred dollars doing some marketing and publicity, then you can stop using this book after just a few days. If you implemented all the ideas, you'd easily be spending a few *thousand* dollars! For example, to get a BookSense endorsement, she suggests you send out 25 - 50 copies of your book (free of charge, of course). Well, if the books are costing you $10 - $15 to buy and ship, then this step alone could cost up to $750. And if you're only making about $0.80 on each book sold then you need to sell an awful lot to make up for that. Of course, if you self publish and your books are much cheaper - and you can sell them for much more - then it may work out.
All said, I'd recommend this book, even for fiction authors. Just keep in mind that it may not be as effective for a traditionally-published work of fiction. This is too bad, because the fiction market is the one that people need the most assistance to get into. If anyone has any ideas, please pass them on!!
Here's one that I'll pass along: because it's so hard to get the New York Times and others to review your book when they receive over 60,000 books/year (really!), try looking for magazines that have a readership that may be interested in your book. Then contact the editor and ask if they do book reviews. This is proving to be much more effective for me.
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