Talking about the competition that involves publishers and books these days, really brings home the importance of marketing and/or promotion. There are hundreds of publishers nowadays. Maybe thousands. And there are literally millions of books. The strange thing is, and I've heard this talked about, and joked about, and it seems to be true that there are more writers than there are readers!
From my experience, I think that all these writers do not read. At least, they are not interested in reading anyone else's book. I'm guilty of that, so I'm not complaining. But the point is that the majority of people who are writers are competing with each other for the minority of people who are readers. That is to say that the writers are in a competition to have their books read by the fewer people out there who actually buy and read the books.
And that is why promotion or marketing your book is a number one priority. You might think that just writing the book is the priority. Writing a good book. A great book. And it's arguable, at least, that it is, but what good is a book, even a great book, that no one reads? And how can anyone read it if they don't know about it.
The best way to promote your book is to have it in bookstores. That's what the people at Absolute Write will say. And I don't doubt that it's true. But POD publishers can't do that, for the reasons I've already posted in earlier posts on this blog. Word of mouth is a way for it to happen, but if no one knows about your book, then no mouths will be spreading any words.
Some self published authors, those people who didn't even get a small POD publisher to publish their books, have found success through word of mouth. But from what I've read, they didn't just sit back and wait for that to happen. They got out there and made it happen. Kudos to them. I'm trying to do that. It's not easy. Just have to keep trying. You don't sit back and wait. That's what I'm sure of. Nothing will happen if that's your plan.
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