How to utilize your books as merchandise
In the past, books built your audience for you. Now, you have to build an audience for your book. This article is about using this new reality to your advantage, taking control of your book's success.
In the past, books built your audience for you. Now, you have to build an audience for your book. This article is about using this new reality to your advantage, taking control of your book's success, and being more independent as an author.
I originally planned to publish a book this year, but after some research, I postponed the idea. My change of mind brought me to Substack, where I saw many people promoting their books, asking if they should publish a book, or reporting about being rejected again. There clearly is a misaligned focus on having a book published.
In the past, publishing a book was a sign of success. Our book was printed on a dead tree. The successful people invited us to their party! Now, after the first hit of dopamine, resignation seeps into our minds, as selling books is still hard. Expectations for a successful book are 200 to 2000 copies sold, which won't make you a full-time writer any time soon.
As many people overvalue publishing books, I want to share my thoughts about why seeing books as merchandise, focusing on creating a unique and marketable product, is better for authors and readers.
Books don't work
Books were the first point of contact with your potential audience for the longest time. That's why writers needed to publish books, ideally with big names in the publishing business, to build an audience.
Sadly, people no longer rely on bookstores to discover new authors; below 1% of published books even make it into a store. Even if people pick up your book and like it, you probably won't make a fan out of them. Moving people from a book to a digital platform is not simple.
On the other hand, publishing books is as easy as ever. Self-publishing 100% digitally is as close to free as possible, and Print-On-Demand enables physical copies for cheap, too.
The outcome is a glut of new books and low-quality releases.
Data about the book market
Based on [Berrett-Koehler Publishers](https://ideas.bkconnection.com/10-awful-truths-about-publishing) Data:
The average book can't sell more than 1000 copies overall.
65% of big publishers' books can't sell 1000 copies yearly.
Only 7% hit 10.000 sales in the first year.
Authors must market books themselves.
Most books only sell inside of the author's community.
These numbers look gloomy, considering you need to sell around 15,000 books per year to make a living. But—and it's a big but—books sell in communities, and authors must advertise their books.
The conclusion is simple: You build a community, and the community will buy the books after they know what they are getting into. You will know your community better and can write more satisfactory content for them -- creating a positive feedback loop.
This has many advantages for you as an author. You can create a constant monthly income via subscription, replacing the classic publisher advances. With recurring income, you can afford to create a high-quality digital and physical experience with your books.
If done right, you can make an honest living by providing people with an exceptional experience instead of resigning to a low-quality Amazon release or the graces of a publishing house that can't afford to care.
Let’s model vinyl in the music world
Consider this:
50% of people who purchase vinyl records don't even own a record player
core77.com
People discover artists song by song on Spotify, and the same people want to buy vinyl. Playing the record isn't that important; the music is on Spotify. Fans want to make their passion tangible and visible to others in the physical world, just like a hoodie or band shirt does.
You can do the same by delivering chapters digitally to sell the whole book when it's done and has readers who want it. This makes books optional to buy and gives you more options.
Deliver books tailor-made for your readers
The main advantage of seeing books like merch is that you can tailor them to the existing audience. You can do small editions because you know they will sell, which no publisher will do.
For example, you could sell an affordable softcover for your fans who cannot spend much money and a hardcover version for people who want that, too. But you can also unleash your creativity and go all out on a premium version with all the bells and whistles you might imagine. You have the freedom to do precisely what you want, tailoring your books to your audience.
(The same is true for a digital release. You can produce a high-quality PDF/ePub and sell it directly to readers instead of hoping Amazon will not mess up. (All this also keeps money out of Jeff Bezos's hands.))
You can take it even further and print your writing in new and unconventional formats, making the process of reading more physical:
I would love to read a story printed and folded like a map, which you must unfold as you read. Maybe it could do double duty as a poster?
Why not print a story or poems on postcards that people can send to each other over time? This would give them a lovely snail mail experience.
Sell your poetry as stickers, and people will put them everywhere they like. Maybe they will put them at a bus stop and find new friends and fans for you.
When considering physical releases as merch, you can have all sorts of cool and fun experiments. Consider the context of the physical world and how it's different from the digital world, and the ideas will come.
Conclusion
Platforms like Substack allow readers to discover writing quickly and access it for free or cheap. Instead of spending $50 on two or three monthly books, readers can subscribe to five or more authors.
Writers now have easier access to the people who like their writing and get more of the money their readers spend. For the first time in history, writers know who their customers are. We can now have a personal engagement with people who want to pay for our work, fostering a deeper connection between authors and readers and, in return, higher-quality writing.
We then can create the book our readers want in the quality and format they want to buy. Seeing books as merchandise forces us to say goodbye to our established reading culture, where books were the first point of contact in a cozy store—but we can get more out of them in other ways.
If done right, authors can make a living, become more independent, and avoid dumping too much money into Amazon's money pit.
I didn't mention how to build the audience in this article, but I really hope I could inspire you a bit. Feel free to steal my merch ideas. Think about a person unfolding your story on a map and hanging it up!