Well, Nevermind: Publishing Contract Cancelled….

That sun is gonna come up over the horizon any minute now. Welcome, the most remarkable year yet!

This week has been hilariously weird. The kind of weird that comes from things going on that are clearly connected and clearly not coincidences, but I don’t have enough information to decipher the pattern. Add this to the list of weirdness: my publishing contract was cancelled ONE DAY after I signed it because the managing partners in the publishing company are getting a divorce.

Now, divorce is awful and I’m bummed for them. I know contracts are cancelled all the time, too, and I guess I’m just glad they’re letting me out of the contract rather than dragging this out. But this means I have to find another way around the roadblocks in my path to distribution and sales. This is not the part of publishing that gets me up in the morning, so I need to regroup here and make a plan before heading out to publish edition three of Ecofrugal Baby.

I have to say, though, that God has been pretty clear with me lately that big things and good things are coming soon, so I’m not as upset as I possibly should be about this. I have a sort of peace about it, and it wasn’t a total surprise–just a let-down. God has been faithful enough to me for me to know I can trust him to take care of this (maybe he just did?) and to give him a grownup response instead of rolling around in self-pity. Yeah, this is a bummer. But it’s still early days, and there was so much spiritual activity going on in my vicinity last night that it was like it was too noisy to sleep until 1 am (I told you that the more I tell you, the crazier you’ll think I am). Something is up lately, and I’m just a part of it. On we march into the dawn of 2011, a strange beginning to be sure.

 

Speaking Event Test #4: Whole Foods Class

Can you read this sign?.... Me either.

I was hoping to get an idea of which speaking event format would work best for promoting Ecofrugal Baby, and today’s experimental class format gave me some unambiguous results, to say the least. Not a single person showed up to my class at Whole Foods!

I attribute this to several things:

1) I didn’t have any local press for this event, which is one of the main reasons my first book signing was a success.

2) I did less promotional work myself, too, just repeating the promotional techniques that worked the first time for the book signing and blogging about the event and sending out a press release. I suspect this is more than most event hosts do to promote their events, but it felt inadequate.

3) The store did a terrible job of advertising the event. Their promotion consisted of posting the class on their hard-to-read board that is placed by the exit (eliminating any chance of walk-ins as people would only see the sign when leaving–and they refused to angle the board toward the entrance when I asked if that would be possible), listing the class in their newsletter (how many pregnant girls do you know of who are signed up for the Whole Foods email newsletter?), and there were no signs leading to the classroom. In fact, I had a hard time finding it myself, and I was teaching the class! I posted a flyer on the classroom door and in the elevator, to encourage people who made it that far that they were headed in the right direction. Thirty minutes after posting the flyer I got back into the elevator and found it had been taken down. For Pete’s sake. They only announced the event over the store loudspeaker because I asked them to, fifteen minutes before the class was supposed to start.

Visions of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you know what I mean?

“I finally had to go down to the basement. The plans were in a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door reading ‘Beware of the Leopard.’…”

“The lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs!”

4) The primary reason I suspect no one came is that I was charging $30 for this class, which included a copy of the book, or $20 for the class alone. I have noticed a sense of skepticism in the attendees of my talks which fades by the middle of each event, so I think charging up front for this information just doesn’t work because people don’t know ahead of time that the book delivers on its title and is well worth the cost of a class.

In April I will be trying out the final format for this talk: a mom and baby tea at my local Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tearoom, but so far it’s looking like these talks are only worth the time if they come with a speaking fee, which is something most easily arranged at libraries or other venues that host regular talks. I was going to try hosting a paid class out of another location, but given the results of tonight’s class I’m now thinking of skipping that, because I would have even less help promoting the class.

Hey, at least the results were clear, right?

Publishing Contract!

I briefly mentioned this in my last post, but now it’s official: my nonfiction book Ecofrugal Baby: How To Save 70% Off Baby’s First Year was just picked up by a traditional publishing company, Kenrose Media!

I have learned so much by publishing and promoting the book myself so far, but I’m super excited about where this new opportunity can take the book. It will remove some roadblocks for selling the book and give it the credibility and backing of a traditional publisher. I will still be doing a lot of promotional work myself, but now the path is clear and open. According to the publisher I was doing everything right to promote it myself (flattering and encouraging!), but I was discovering along the way that many doors were closed to me–even ones that in theory were open. My POD publisher was painfully slow to get my book into Baker & Taylor to make it available to libraries and bookstores, my options for cover design and layout were limited, and so on. Now we really get to see this book realize its potential!

Part of me feels like this is just a practice run, not the destination. That’s probably appropriate, because most authors have to write several books before really getting noticed. But who knows where this will lead? There certainly is a market out there for this book, and I’m having so much fun blogging and doing speaking engagements. So, now I ramp up to do the promotional work all over again, adding a few new to-dos to the marketing list and scaling up all promotional tools where possible. Wish me luck, and may you start checking big items off your bucket list early in the year, too.

 

Speaking Event Test #3: Library Hosted Talk

No professional photographer at this event, sadly.

On we march in the book marketing test environment otherwise known as my life. This week I hosted a free talk and book signing at a local library. I got a decent turnout of just over a half-dozen people. I consider this decent because:

1) I am no celebrity.

2) It was a Wednesday.

3) I didn’t have any coverage for the event in a local paper this time like I did for my first book signing.

4) The size of the little crowd was comfortable, and things seemed to go well.

The library paid me a small speaking fee for coming, which was nice because it made it worth my while regardless of the number of books I sold, which eased the pressure. I do still care more about sales numbers on this book than income (so she says now), because I have a traditional fiction publishing contract in my sights this year for a trilogy I’m working on, and a successful track record of even non-fiction would help make me look like a more attractive prospect. I sold three books at this event. Not many, I know, but that’s a 50% sales rate for the number of people attending. I can scale that up to more significant success with bigger crowds. I think it may mean I have an effective format for presenting good info but letting people know my book is cover-to-cover resources so it’s worth picking up for $20 in addition to the talk.

What did I learn? Well, I learned that if I listen, my audience can teach me as much as I can teach them! For one thing, I had a massage therapist show me how I could sign up for a program called Square Up that provides mobile credit card scanners to folks like me who would like to be able to accept credit card payments in the middle of a library or other non-retail environment. Duly noted! I might have been able to make more sales if I had worked that out ahead of time. I also learned some things about my audience and had a good time. I actually wish I had been less nervous so I could have taken a breath more often and listened more. Still working on that. My talk was a little less organized than my first book signing talk, but funnier, so I also learned that this will vary from event to event and that’s okay.

Verdict: Library talks are worth pursuing if they come with a speaking fee. Otherwise, they’re only good for publicity.

I just contracted with a publishing company to re-publish Ecofrugal Baby (yay!), so I may never get the chance to take all these marketing tests to the limit and see how far I can take this on my own–but that’s okay. I signed up with a publisher whom I’m confident can make this book more of a success than I can on my own–even if that just means they open up more opportunities for me to market it myself. I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to reach more parents with this book, which really does deliver on its title to save new parents 70% off the average cost of baby’s first year. Hooray for moving forward into the new year!

 

Changing Tacks, Or Learning How To Create a Bestseller

"Changing Tacks" comes from the sailing term for sailing upwind by charting a zigzagging course against the wind. Doesn't that sound just like what any good book marketing campaign needs to do to beat the odds?

I thought that libraries would be the slam dunk for selling Ecofrugal Baby and getting it out to all the budget-minded new parents who need to know how to save 70% off baby’s first year. But when I started emailing libraries and telling them about my book, I commonly was told that the library I had emailed only buys books recommended by Book List or the [fill in the blank] Library Association, which in turn only recommend books submitted to them 15 weeks before publication. This means I need to set up a third edition of the book to go out 15 weeks after I get some high-profile trade reviews, but the prospect of doing all that work just to get libraries to buy one or two copies each left me drained of energy. Maybe libraries will be a big part of this book’s success after all, but to keep my momentum going and meet my sales goals this month, I decided to change tacks.

I also just received a letter from Barnes & Noble saying that they never order copies of self-published books for their stores unless the books are already a sales success–unless I contract with their own print-on-demand publishing company. Blah. I may look into that option, too, but it just reinforced the idea that I need to invest in my own loyal blog fans and the people already supporting me to get this books out to new parents across the U.S. and Canada.

And so, I decided to start my own grass roots word of mouth marketing campaign, offering a free copy of the book to several dozen of my most loyal followers on 29Diapers.com and asking them to take part in this WOM campaign to help me get the word out. I know better than most that ordinary people, moms in particular, have tremendous power as brand ambassadors: otherwise, none of the companies who sponsor giveaways on my blog would want to give away free product for PR. And really, all I’m doing is trying to get information out to other parents like me who need it, so I think it is other parents who need to carry the message for me. Fingers crossed! This is new for me (like everything I’m doing lately!) so I just hope that if there is some tipping point of getting the book into the hands of a certain number of people in order to start a fire that won’t fizzle out, I have reached that invisible point. I’ll be back later with updates on how this works. Stay tuned!

Learning something new every day,

Laura

 

Speaking Event Test #2: Mom’s Night Out

Pictured: Laura K. Cowan. Not pictured: my fabulous shoes.

As part of my local test of various formats for giving a talk about Ecofrugal Baby and selling books, I agreed to participate in Children’s Orchard’s Mom’s Night Out last night (gosh that’s a lot of apostrophes in a row–sorry!). The event was hosted at Children’s Orchard, a used children’s clothing store in Ann Arbor that has an email subscriber list of customers who receive special offers for invite-only sales and such. They had been invited to this closed-door shopping and pampering event that involved prize drawings, snacks, and shopping. I was joined by several other entrepreneurs with products that would appeal to moms, but for some reason–I suppose because of the appeal of having an author at the event–I was given the table front and center. That’s a good start, right?

In participating in this event, I wanted to achieve the following goals:

1) Further develop my ability to talk with people at an event without overselling my book

2) See if this format for an event sold more books than my book signing

3) Gain more local publicity and word of mouth for my book.

Here is what I learned:

1) Women who shop in used clothing stores are often very interested in the topics covered in Ecofrugal Baby, but they weren’t really prepared to purchase the book at this event, either because they weren’t physically prepared to pay for the book or because they weren’t mentally prepared to buy a book when they arrived. Both these problems could have been solved with more advanced planning and marketing.

2) Some women love to talk forever and ever about saving money or green parenting or being a mom, but others clearly feel like they’re being sold something even when you’re just trying to engage them in basic conversation. I understand that defensiveness and I want to respect it. I feel like I’m getting better at identifying these women very quickly so I don’t come on too strong.

3) The first woman who visited my table said she had seen the book in the local paper. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! There is a tipping point somewhere, after which people will start to buy my book because they’ve seen it enough places and heard it recommended enough times that they want to check it out. I’m still working toward that point, because that woman walked away.

4) I didn’t sell a single book at this event, but I did have four women say they would likely pick it up from my 29Diapers.com blog later. I know the key to sales is to close the deal before the prospect walks away, but I just don’t like to be pushy about these things and I hadn’t qualified these leads before they walked in the door, so what could I expect? Once I realized the low potential for sales for the event, I focused on meeting people, whether they were customers or employees or my fellow entrepreneurs manning tables at the event. We had a great time, I met a woman who has a similar mission as me that I may be working with for some cross-promotion of each other’s writing, and I got the store manager’s permission to leave brochures at the counter for employees to stuff in customer’s bags on an ongoing basis. Given the situation, I think this will be a much better way to get the word out to even more people, without having to spend any more time in 4-inch heels (though the shoes got as many compliments as the book, lol).

So, the conclusion is that I will likely skip any similar events I was planning at other local used clothing stores, unless those stores heavily promote the event and my attendance in particular. I could do it just for the extra publicity and heavily promote it myself, but it doesn’t seem worth the effort of making my husband watch my daughter for two hours and keeping her up past her bedtime. In a few years that won’t be a big deal at all, but she’s still nursing so I’m constantly aware of not being with her, and I think she feels the same way. Baby girl and husband come first! And you know what? I told my husband I was hoping that this event would either be a great success or a total flop sales-wise, because I need a clear winner for sales that I can then focus my efforts on and scale up nationally. As a one-woman show I definitely have to work smart and not spread myself too thin.

I hope this was interesting and helpful to any of you planning similar events. Please let me know your best tips for book sales, publicity, or any questions in comments. Blessings!

Bucket List: Book Signing–Check!

Signing a copy of Ecofrugal Baby for a fan.

I hosted my first talk and book signing last night at the Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble as part of their National Authors Day, and it was a resounding success! I had 2-3 dozen attendees to my talk while the five other authors on the floor had maybe one person to talk to at a time. This was no accident. I’m glad I read up on how to host a good book signing before the event, because several key tips made all the difference, and I wanted to share those, plus what I learned from doing the signing, with you:

1) Arrange to speak as well as sign books. I billed my event as a free talk as well as a book signing. Not only did this attract dozens of people who wanted to hear what I had to say before buying a book, but it meant that the bookstore prepared for the event by giving me a table 3 times the size of the other tables on the floor, brought balloons to identify the table as the location of the talk, and agreed to set up chairs for my event. Now, they didn’t actually set up the chairs, but this ended up being a great thing because so many people showed up (right after the event planner apologetically told me that traffic was nearly dead that day and she didn’t expect anyone to come) that they moved my table to the other side of the floor where there was enough space for everyone. How cool to be able to say in my post-book signing press release, “Local author Laura K. Cowan’s book signing such a draw for Barnes & Noble’s National Authors Day that event had to be moved to location with more space”!

2) Never sit down. This is one of the tips I picked up from Jump Start Your Book Sales, and I’m so glad I read it because I always imagined authors at book signings sitting behind the table signing books. The table is really a barrier between the host and the attendees, so I didn’t even put a chair behind the table to tempt myself. I stood in front of my table and greeted people, offered them a brochure, asked them if they had any questions, told them about the giveaway I was doing for a cloth diaper and invited them to put their name in the box, and so on. The other reason this was a great move is that I’m a little shy and it would be hard for me to approach people and stay in the groove of being sociable if I were sitting behind a table looking authorly (no, that’s not a real word, but it should be).

They did make a sign with my mug on it for my own table, at least. I saved it and will frame it over my desk as a memento.

3) Promote your own event. I’ve been told before that neither bookstores nor publishers put much effort into promoting book signings sometimes, so it’s important for the author to be involved in promoting their own event. Well, in my case my print-on-demand publisher won’t be doing any promotional work for me, and I could tell from my interaction with the event planner that the bookstore wouldn’t be doing much of anything either. She encouraged us authors to email our contact lists and invite them to the event, so we would have a good start to some traffic for the event. Yikes. When I got to the event, there was one sign in the atrium that said “National Authors Day” with the covers of five books, none of them mine, below the text. Double yikes. If I hadn’t promoted my own event, no one would have come at all. So what did I do? I posted or distributed 150 flyers; I got a local natural childbirth education center to email their customer list about the event; I sent out press releases to the local media (I ended up with one article in my local “paper,” AnnArbor.com, which was reprinted on the front page of their Sunday print edition) and obstetricians at the local hospitals and called the TV and radio stations; I blogged about the event on my cloth diapering blog 29Diapers.com and posted about the event on Facebook and Twitter using both my personal accounts and my 29 Diapers fan accounts; I told EVERYONE who seemed remotely interested about the event; and I cross-promoted the event with my Christmas giveaway event on 29Diapers.com via press release and blog posts, billing the book signing as a virtual book signing as well as a talk, so my more remote readers could “attend” as well if they were interested. It takes a lot of work to gather 3 dozen people to a no-name new author’s book signing.

4) Rinse and repeat. I have learned from planning other events that most people who say they’ll come will not, for one reason or another, so I didn’t stop promoting my event until the day before, when I took a short break to rest before I had to be on-stage. Sure enough, dozens of people who promised to come had surprise funerals, worked late, didn’t feel well, forgot–my book signing was not on the top of everyone’s priority list.

5) Book signings are not for selling books. No, really. Book signings are famously bad for selling any real quantity of books. My sales goals are modest since I’m just starting out, so I was happy with my small returns, but I actually did the event to help me get my foot in the door for other speaking engagements and signings. Being able to say I had a successful book signing with Barnes & Noble when talking to someone who has the power to let me use their facility for a class or book signing is a gold key that opens doors to more opportunities. I also did it because I wanted a local debut for the book with some visibility that I could use to not only build a loyal local fan base (who doesn’t love to be part of a “local author makes good” story?) but also as material to send out more press releases after the event and keep myself in contact with the media, who will mostly ignore me until I have half a dozen worthwhile news stories I’ve sent them.

Do you have more tips for me to use for my next event? I’d love to hear your feedback on these tips in comments. Thanks for reading!

Check Out AnnArbor.com’s Column on My Book, Ecofrugal Baby

Hey everyone,

If you have a minute, check out Heidi Hess Saxton’s parenting column from AnnArbor.com, which yesterday featured my book Ecofrugal Baby! (Some of you may remember the news last year about the demise of The Ann Arbor News: AnnArbor.com is its online replacement–the closest thing I now have to a hometown newspaper.) Details are included in the article on how to attend my book signing either in Ann Arbor or online next Sunday, November 7 at 4 pm. I hope to see you there!

 

–Laura

Would You Attend a VIRTUAL Book Signing?

Click on this image to go to the webstore on 29Diapers.com, where you can order custom autographed copies of Ecofrugal Baby in advance of the November 7 book signing in Ann Arbor.

Now that I have started promoting my new book, Ecofrugal Baby: How To Save 70% Off Baby’s First Year, things are really starting to happen. Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tearoom in Ann Arbor just picked up the title and we’re planning a mom and baby tea for the spring, during which I’ll talk about the main points in the book. And in just 2 weeks, I’m going to be doing a book signing and free talk and VIRTUAL book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Ann Arbor (3235 Washtenaw Ave.) on Sunday November 7, at 4 pm, as part of BN’s National Authors Day.

99% of my online readership is not in the Ann Arbor area, so I set up an online shop on my website 29Diapers.com, through which you can order copies of Ecofrugal Baby with a specific recipient and custom autographed message. If you order the book through the website and don’t specify an autographed message of course I’ll just be creative. I will be signing these books during the actual book signing in Ann Arbor on November 7th, and then shipping them to the buyers directly. Cool, huh? I’m excited about it.

So if you have a pregnant friend or know some new parents who are a little overwhelmed at the cost of having a baby, pick up a copy of this book for them and give them an autographed copy! You could save them up to $7000 off baby’s first year, and you will surely save them a ton of stress. I really wish I’d had a book like this when I was 3 months pregnant.

Blessings! And I hope to see you in Ann Arbor on November 7!

–Laura

How To Get Your Manuscript Reviewed by Publishers

… just send them a proposal based on Writer’s Market’s sample queries and proposals, apparently, because I just got my first request from a publisher to send the full manuscript of Ecofrugal Baby for their review. Woot! I know this doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily pick up the title, but it’s an encouraging step. My proposal must not have been THAT bad, anyway. Want to know how I put a proposal together? I know I would have liked to have this info before I started, so I’ll give you a sample.

If you’re thinking of querying publishers directly, here are the pieces of info to include in your proposal, with a sample of my opening text from my Ecofrugal Baby proposal at the beginning to get you started (please note this is a proposal: if the publisher wants a query letter, you only need to include the sections on The Hook, The Book, and The Author in your letter. Only send sample chapters and outlines/synopses if the publisher’s submission guidelines specify it, and send a self-addressed stamped envelope if you would like a reply.):

attn: Submissions Editor                                                                                 September 12, 2010

Fancy Pants Plaza, Broadway, 11th floor (why are so many publishers on the 11th floor of NYC office buildings?)

New York, NY 10014

Proposal: Title, genre

Dear Submissions Editor,

(The Hook–but leave the label off this section, for obvious reasons. If your proposal is long, feel free to label the other sections to make it easier to read.)

In this economy, many new parents are more dismayed than ever to discover that baby’s first year can cost an average of $10,000. I know I was. But when I started searching for ways to save money on baby gear for my new baby girl in 2008, I discovered a whole host of money-saving techniques I had never heard about anywhere else—including in the few baby bargain books on the market. The money-saving techniques I discovered saved me 70% off my baby’s first year gear, feeding, and clothing—without sacrificing quality or safety. That’s $7000 I could put into savings and a college fund instead of spending on stuff. I thought other parents could use that kind of relief in their budgets, too.

I started a baby blog called 29Diapers.com, all about cloth diapers (which save me $1000 per year over disposables) and about how to do what I did to save big bucks on baby. The money-saving tips were so popular on the blog that I decided to compile my Ecofrugal Fridays blog posts into a book.

The Book

Note the structure of the book, how it is laid out or what the important highlights of the contents are.

The Competition

What other books compete with this title? Why is your book better?

The Platform

Who is your target audience, and do you have a platform already in place to reach them? This is the place to mention blogs, speaking engagements, or anything else you’re already doing to connect with the potential audience for your book.

The Author

List any previous publishing credits, especially, plus a brief bio and resume/CV that communicates who you are, what you bring to the table, and especially why readers would want to buy a book from you. If you’re a celebrity, best mention it here.

Learn More

I used this section to refer publishers to my blogs, so they could get a sense for my writing style, which is important. They can also see that I am a disciplined blogger that interacts with readers, both bonus points that may help them decide to give me a chance. I also offer in this section to send them sample chapters and a synopsis, or the complete manuscript, for their review–upon their request. Don’t send full, unsolicited manuscripts unless a publisher specifically requests it in their submission guidelines (very rare these days since most publishers are up to their eyeballs in unsolicited mail). I also mention that I have included a SASE for their convenience, letting them know that I know how the process works and that I don’t expect them to pay for postage to send me a reply. If you don’t want to receive a reply unless they’re interested in seeing more of your work, you can skip this step and save postage, but it does show that you understand the proposal process.

Sincerely,

Name

Title

Phone Number

Email Address

Mailing Address

–

There. I hope that was helpful, or at least interesting, to you. I know I’m an odd kind of language nerd, but I would have eaten up an article like this before I started the proposal process, so I’m just writing it in the hopes that some of you can use the info. Good luck with your proposals!