Are You an LDS Author Writing to the National Market?

Part of the mission of WindRiver Publishing is cultivating national markets for LDS authors. Located in northern Idaho, outside of traditional LDS enclaves and employing publishing professionals trained in the publishing business on a national level, WindRiver is ideally suited to help LDS authors expand their work to the national audience.

There are a number of differences between publishing in the LDS market and publishing in the national market. We will explain some of those differences here. In reading this, keep in mind that since its founding, WindRiver has focused on both the LDS and national markets.

Competing for shelf Space

Getting a book placed on LDS bookstore shelves is fairly easy. The market is small, we all know each other, distribution is simple, and the risk is usually minimal. None of this is true on the national level. One measure of these differences is the quantity of books publsihed. LDS publishers publish about 500 new titles annually. On the other hand, national publisher publish more than 500 new titles daily. Perhaps a better example is to examine the shelf space of a large Barnes & Noble bookstore, which can stock 12,000–15,000 titles at any given moment.

Trade publsihers publish more than 200,000 new titles every year (self-published authors add to this number considerably, but have much more trouble finding shelf space). Some of that shelf space will be given over to long-term titles, like Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers.. The rest will see 4–8 newly published titles throughout the year. Said another way, if a title is good enough to make it to a B&N shelf, it has 2–3 months to prove its worth or the space is given to another title. The result is that about 30,000 new titles will see B&N shelves throughout a year.

This means your book must be better than at least seven other books: six that won't see a B&N shelf under any circumstances, and one that is already on the shelf.

This heavy competition on the national book scene highlights several other areas of difference.

Reviews

Bookstores rarely pitch books. Most bookstores stock their shelves and expect consumers to bring what they want to the register without help. Publishers are expected to inform consumers about new books so they will pick up one book rather than another. Publishers can do this with direct advertising, but that is very expensive and rarely cost effective. Publishers, and the national market, rely on reviews.

A good review in a national journal such as Publishers Weekly or The Library Journal will generate thousands of sales. Reviews in regional newspapers or on radio stations will generate hundreds of sales. Reviews that find their way to a single website (like individuals reviewing for Amazon.com or their own personal blog) will sometimes generate tens of sales, sometimes none. Publishers are competing for the attention of the most lucrative reviewers. Consequently, competiton for Publsihers Weekly is very high while competition for Joe's Book Blog is generally non-existent. Reviewers generally want only a few things: a fresh point of view, descriptive writing, a hint of mystery, and charm. This invovles your writing, and the cover, synopsis, marketing collateral, and the buzz publishers can create. These things capture a reviewer's attention.

From an author's point of view, this means you need to be a good writer, but also an observant critic. Did you write a great tale of love? Is there a great love story already on the best seller list? If so, reviwers will be less interested (not a fresh idea). Did your villain, a burley man who stands with a twist to his hip like a dancer, draw a reputable Beretta 9-millimeter pistol, and calmly squeeze off a single round, severing his target's axis vertebre? Or did his just pull a gun and shot someone? If the latter, reviewers will think your writing dull. When your heroine enters a room, do you stop the flow of the story to describe every object (whether she can actually see them or not)? Learning everything too quickly takes the spice out of living! But, worst of all, is there not a single character worth loving, a place worth visiting, or a prop worth buying for Christmas in your entire book? The lack of charm will turn off many reviewers.

Publishers will send hundreds of copies of your book to reviewres, and be glad to receive 20–30 reviews. A great book will receive 40–50. A bad book will recevie less than ten.

Endorsments

Few LDS books have cover endorsements. They almost never need them. Most LDS books cover topics that don't depend heavily on the credentials of the author, and therefore don't need to bolster those credentials. However, the national market depends on them. Endorsements are rarely nothing more than miniature reviews by people with recognizable names (e.g., celebrities), recognizable professions (e.g., doctors), or recognizable organizations (e.g., advocacy groups). National retailers often look for endorsements as a sign of a book's potential, both in terms of acceptability and in terms of the potential reach of the book. After all, either the author or the publisher had to develop a network of consumers to endorse the book. If it can be done with them, it can be repeated with others. While WindRiver will search for endorsers for a book, the author can provide such a list much more readily. Authors should already be familiar with their market, including recognizable people who can be approached for an endorsement. WindRiver will need to spend time researching this information.

Credentials

Author credentials are more importnat for non-fiction books in the national market than in the LDS market. Obviously, a General Authority has a ready-made audience, but it is possible in the LDS market for a Sunday School teacher to write a good doctrinal commentary and it will sell reasonably well. A similar book in the national market would be hard pressed to succeed due solely on the lack of author credentials.

Publicity

In many ways both the LDS market and the national market experience the same publicity challenges. For example, due primarily to the Church's no-commercial-use rule, there are very few ways to publicize new titles to the Saints. Deseret Book's catalog is currently the one and only means of doing so, through WindRiver's development of Zions Catalog & Merchandise is slowly raising a challenge. Another problem is the lack of reviewers. Most LDS reviewers are more interested in building a personal following than they are promoting growth in the market, minimizing both the number and effectiveness of reviewers. However, the LDS market is so small that word-of-mouth has a greater effect, so a title released to the LDS market can sell reasonably well without significant promotion so long as publishers regularly contact bookstores to keep titles in stock.

The national market has many more reviwers and many more ways to reach out to a large audience. However, the audience is gigantic, and the competition for audience attention is significant.

The primary difference between the LDS and national markets in terms of publicity is this: In the LDS market publishers must put most of their effort into bookstore contacts because bookstores is where most members of the Faith learn of new products. In the national market, publishers must put most of their effort into securing reviews and interviews, thereby keeping buzz about the title going. In both cases, the effort must continue until enough people know of the title to develop word-of-mouth advertising, or time runs out.

The two great limitations to promotion are money and time. Publishers operate on thin profit margins, and so every dollar spent on promotion is jealously guarded. Marketing budgets are small compared to the quantity of books printed. When the money runs out, at title is almost always on its own. Time is also limited. The book industry expects a continuous flow of fresh products. As a result, publishers can rarely spend more than 1–3 man-weeks publicizing a new title. As many reviews, interviews, signings, and other promotional events are secured as quickly as possible. Once that time has run out, the book must stand on its own.

Book Signings and Author Tours

Generally, signings for new authors rarely succeed. Signings depend heavily on the fame of the author or the title, which LDS authors usually don't have in the natonal market. They almost never succeed in the LDS market. WindRiver once scheduled a signing at the St. George, Utah Deseret Book bookstore. A thousand flyers were handed out. Advertising was published in the local newspaper. It was announced over the radio. Two books were sold.

Signings in the national market are more successful, so long as "successful" is understood correctly. Chain stores like Barnes & Noble have substantially larger customer lists, which they use to promote the signing. Newspapers and radio are more willing to promote events at large chain stores than they are independent bookstores. Large chains often can supply a basic budget for promotion, including posters and flyers. However, expectations need to be kept realistic. Sarah Palin sold hundreds and occasionally thousands of copies of her book Going Rouge through signings, but most authors will sell 25–50 books maximum. Non-fiction books tend to do better than fiction because interest-generating newspaper stories can be writen about the subject (where there is simply nothing to say about fiction).

Author tours are simply a string of book signings. They are expensive, and therefore a great risk for publishers with limited marketing budgets. Authors should expect author tours after the become famous.

Editing and Covers

The national market requires substantially better editing than the LDS market, which is often a concern for LDS authors trying to shift to the national arena. Rather than a couple of passes through a book, often ceding to the author's desires even when it doesn't editorially make sense, the national market requires 3–4 editorial passes through a book, plus reader reviews and proofing, with the author's consultation.

Similarly, the national market expects original and professionally designed covers. Remember, your title must win out over seven books to displace a book on Barnes & Noble's bookshelf. The cover's ability to make the book stand out from others on the shelf is not an insignificant part of this competition.

Agents

While there are agents in the LDS market (you can find them listed on the LDS Writer's Market Guide webiste), it is rare that an agent is needed in the LDS market. Most LDS publishers are actually wanting for a good book to publish. Even in the national market an agent isn't required, unless an author desires publication through one of the large national houses (e.g. Random House or Simon & Schuster). Agents serve many purposes. Representing the author for contract purposes is one. Helping publishers vet manuscripts is another. Agents can help new authors become published, but it is often as difficult to secure a good agent as it is to find a good publisher.

Time

Finally, publishing a book to the national market takes time. A book can be quickly published in 12&ndash-14 months. This is due to the extra editing required, the time needed to secure endorsements, the time needed to receive pre-publication reviews, and the time demanded by bookstores to properly insert a new title into their distribution. You can read more about the time needed to publish a book nationally by reviewing our sample development schedule.