What does the Battle of Normandy and a successfully self-published book have in common?

by Ron Pramschufer ~ May 11th, 2005. Filed under: General Questions About Self-publishing & Planning, Publishing Basics.

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What does the Battle of Normandy and a successfully self-published book have in common? No I haven’t lost on this one. I think you’ll find the answer interesting.

Believe it or not, fighting a battle and publishing a book have a lot in common. In order to be successful at either, you need to follow certain general rules. In battle they are called the Principals of War. In publishing we’ll call them the Principals of Self-Publishing. Let’s take a look at the similarities of the two.

The Objective“Direct all efforts toward a decisive, obtainable goal.” This is probably the most important rule that you absolutely have to follow if you have any vision at all of being successful. The goal of the Normandy invasion was certainly decisive… take the beach and establish a foothold in Western Europe. Vietnam on the other hand had only the vague goal of helping the Vietnamese help themselves. The results of the two are history. See the difference? How does this pertain to the self-publisher? One of the first things I ask a new author who is contemplating self publishing is “What is the target audience of your book? Who is going to read it”? If the answer is “everyone”, a giant white flag goes up. Most self-publishers can not afford to market to “everyone”. On the other hand if the person answers, “My book is targeted to overweight men who play golf left-handed”, my reply is “Perfect”. The smaller and more defined the target audience, the easier it is going to be to reach them on a limited budget and sell books. Keep this in mind as you are planning the marketing strategy for your book. It’s part of being realistic, the subject of last month’s article. (Click here to read Article).
Simplicity “Prepare uncomplicated plans and concise orders to insurethorough understanding and execution.” – KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid. Heard that one before? A simple book signing arranged with a local bookstore will result in sales. Trying to arrange an elaborate 25 state book signing tour will usually only result in frustration. Remember, be realistic.
Unity of Command “For every task there should be unity of effort under one responsible commander.” – The buck stops here. It’s nice to think of having a network of people to help you every step of the way but you are kidding yourself if you think you are going to be successful unless you and you alone take charge. It’s OK to delegate parts of the publishing process but you are ultimately responsible for every aspect of your book’s success of failure. An important ingredient to successful command is education. As commander of your self publishing project you need to educate yourself to all aspects of the process. You won’t regret it.
The Offensive. “Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative.” -The old saying goes “a rolling stone gathers no moss”. You need to do something to help you sell books every day. John Kremmer, the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, says authors need only to do five things per day to promote their book to become successful. Send a post card, an email, make a phone call, each and every day. You’d be surprised how many books you sell.
Maneuver. “Position your military resources to favor the accomplishment of your mission.” If your target market is left handers who play golf you can probably skip trying to market to tennis shops or lacrosse stores. Doing a mass mailing to general book buyers list is probably also a waste of money. On the other hand, marketing to a list of golf pro-shops who sell books is right on target.
Surprise - “Accomplish your purpose before the enemy can effectively react.” – When Pope John Paul II passed away, every publisher and their brother had a “Pope Book” prepared and ready to go to press. Whether any of them made any money because there are so many books out on the same subject is left to be told. On the other hand, the few publishers who were smart enough to guess who the new Pope would be and released the first books on Pope Benedict XVI are sure to be winners.

Just for the record, I left out Mass, Economy of Force and Security. I’m sure if I thought about it long enough I could come up with a comparison for them too but I think you get the point. The most important principal/rule above is number one, have a decisive obtainable goal. Combine that with last month’s message of being realistic and you have a winner.

Remember, the self-publisher who reprinted her title 15 times was extremely successful by pretty much any standard. It didn’t matter that this publisher never printed more than 100 copies of her book at a time. Had she bought 5000 books on the first printing, she would have 3500 books left in the closet and would have thought her publishing venture a failure. As it stands, she sold 1500 books and made money on each and every one of them. All of you should follow her lead. See you next month.

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If you have a question pertaining to the publishing production process, please feel free to contact me at ron@rjcom.com.