Years ago, when I still worked for a traditional publisher, I wrote a blog post about the No. 1 disappointment of all published authors: the lack of marketing support from their publisher. This was back when social media was still a fringe pastime, limited mostly to MySpace. So if your publisher wasn’t investing in marketing or publicity, you probably had few available tools to market and publicize your work outside your community—unless you had funds to hire a publicist or a national platform of some kind.

Today, some form of online marketing by both author and publisher is essential for all titles, and while traditional forms of marketing and publicity are still key—everyone wants a mix of online and offline exposure to maximize word of mouth—publishers’ launch efforts may be focused primarily or entirely on online channels. It tends to be more efficient, targeted, and cost effective.

Yet authors still have very traditional ideas of what their publisher ought to do to demonstrate support for their book, even though where and how books get sold has changed dramatically in the last decade. Here are three things that you may want or expect your publisher to do—but are very unlikely to happen.
1. Send you on a national book tour

This is probably the biggest author disappointment by far, judging from the message boards and discussion groups where I see new authors unleashing their anxieties and questions.

Here’s why publishers won’t send you on a tour: book events are among the least cost-effective ways to sell books. You may get very low turnout at multiple venues and sell not more than a handful of copies at each event.

The big reason to tour across many cities is usually to secure media coverage and reach the many more people who don’t attend the event—the more times and more places that people hear about your book, the better. Unfortunately, as most of us are too well aware, local media isn’t what it used to be and the opportunities for book coverage have diminished, which further deteriorates the value of touring.

That said, events help authors network and build relationships with booksellers that pay off over the long term. But the benefit is rarely tied to selling books in the short term unless you have a marquee name that can draw a crowd.

Read more: https://www.issacharprojects.com/3-things-your-traditional-publisher-is-unlikely-to-do/


How to Get Funding for Your Book

Being an author is not an easy task; because you need money for different aspects of the book aside from writing. You need money to hire a professional editor to edit the book and you also need money to get the book published, especially if you intend to do self-publishing as opposed to traditional publishing.

So, to that effect, here are some ways you can get funding for your book:

Through donations: You can ask for donations from your friends and family, by telling them about your book (the theme and some other interesting details) and the amount you would need to get it published.
Crowdsourcing: This seems to be one of the most effective ways to get funding for any project. It is basically a platform where you pitch your idea to the public and you get people to support you financially to launch your idea. There are several platforms you can join where you can set up a campaign to get such funds. They include: Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Unbound, Rockethub, and Patreon
Grants: Although it is quite rare for new authors to get grants for their books, you could still give it a try. So all you have to do is apply for grants online in your state.
Get a sponsor: Sponsors are not only meant for entertainment projects, you can also get a sponsor for your book, although you would need to be creative about the benefits the sponsor would get, such as speaking at the book launch, a page advert in the book amongst others.

Read more: https://www.issacharprojects.com/how-to-get-funding-for-your-book/