The role of an author has changed dramatically as the way books are sold has changed.
In the ‘good old days,’ which really was only a few years ago, the publisher helped do a lot of the work. Their sales and distribution team opened the doors for authors. They were able to encourage retailers to stock titles, and so the publisher carried a lot more weight in this area.
As most books are sold online, the role of the sales rep, and thus the publishing house, has changed dramatically. Companies like Amazon and so on have virtual inventory, where they are able to ‘stock’ millions of titles, yet many are not in their warehouses.
On-demand printing means that Amazon can place an order with a distributor for as little as one unit, so a customer can place an order, which triggers an order with the distributor, which then is shipped to Amazon. The same goes for other retailers and etailers too.
Where are going with this? Definitely somewhere…
So, what sells books in this new era is an author’s platform. Danielle Steele will outsell a small fiction writer because of her platform. By ‘platform’, this means her social media following. The best way to build a following is not to just post pictures, but to create a following. In fact, you need to do both.
Blogging is a great way of doing this. It’s not for every author, as you need to have both something to say and then the energy to write, but at the same time, when these posts are shared to social media, especially Facebook, it’s a great way for people to be linked back too your site to read the article.
From there they see your books, which can easily be purchased. Blogging is an ‘excuse’ to both connect regularly with people and also have them connect with you. it doesn’t happen overnight, but then this leads to book sales.
If you’re in this for the long haul, then blogging is basically not optional. But if you’re publishing your book as a one-off exercise, then you can save yourself the additional workload.
If you need help creating a blog, we are here to assist you.
