The Black Irish team realized that it, too, was still depending on middlemen.įacebook and Twitter are two of the top traffic referrers to Steve’s and Black Irish’s sites. If you rely on middlemen, one of these days, you’ll get burned. And while it is a player today, so was MySpace. Authors and publishers have to rely on Facebook to connect with readers. While Facebook is a mover, it is a middleman. For example, instead of creating their own site, they create a Facebook page. The Internet has made it possible to ditch almost all of the middle men and establish a direct-connect with readers, yet authors and publishers continue putting their eggs in the middlemen baskets. And, if those middlemen buy the pitch and then share the books, then-and only then-will potential readers be reached. The web site reviewer, the newspaper editor, the magazine columnist, the radio host, the TV producer, the bookstore events coordinator, and the advertising departments for all of them, are all middlemen that need to be pitched. In order to sell the books, they rely on middlemen. What I don’t get is making the sell the number one focus. That’s how the businesses cutting their paychecks survive-through book sales.
And while they pay attention to the authors’ backgrounds, their focus is on the books, with a close-up on selling the books. They care about how they are going to sell it. No one cares why the author wrote the book. What excerpt placements will move the needle?Ĭan we get X blogger with Y following to say something? Walk into a PR and/or marketing meeting in the offices of many of today’s publishing houses and you’ll land in the middle of brain-storming sessions on how to sell books. How did it change when it was adapted for film?Ĭommunity-building-not Steve’s reasons for writing the book (or sales)-drove the launch. What’s up with the golf novel when your other novels are historical fiction, about warriors? Why did it work when your previous manuscripts failed? The Authentic Swing was written for readers who’ve continued to ask Steve about the “how and why” behind the publishing of his first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Two different goals existed for why Steve wrote The Authentic Swing and why it was launched. Just as his personal experiences proved valuable to us, our hope is that some of ours will be of value to you-whether you’re launching a new book or business. The Black Irish team) charted a new course after benefiting from the advice of a launch pro. The launch of Steve’s new book, The Authentic Swing, was unlike those preceding it.
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