Sales of adult nonfiction titles – business, science, self-help, other genres of books we sell at Keller Media – were down so far this year. They fell 7.8% in Q1, and they recovered a wee bit in June, to 7.1%, according to AAP data. So far, the entire category is down 3.5%.
What does that MEAN to you as a nonfiction author? It means that your book is looked at by publishers (and therefore agents) with far more scrutiny. “Does this author have a platform?” That’s industry jargon for a large, growing group of fans. “Does this author have something distinctive to say?” That’s short for “NDBM” or “something the book buyers haven’t seen 2 trillion times already.” Without those two elements, your chances of a deal are not good.
Is the solution self-publishing? Think very carefully before you leap into that dark void! Without a team of professionals around you, from the developmental editor to the sales and marketing teams, chances are high that your book will be gobbled up and plummet into obivion. Sorry! These days, a lucky self-published nonfiction might be able to sell ~30 books to strangers over a year, plus whatever sales they can cajole out of parents, siblings, friends, direct reports, etc.
If you want your book to stand out as high quality, worthy of being read, you’re going to need to get readers. A percentage of them will write reviews. A percentage of those will be favorable. So step one: get many, many, mnay more potential readers. That’s what a platform does, and how it protects you from the Dark Void.
You likely won’t make even tens of thousands in profit from book sales directly. Few people do these days. But you DO get the chance to create something of quality, something that’s worthy of reading, something people will take seriously – including journalists. Give your book the best chance – put in the effort to attract a traditional publisher. It will be worth it in ways you can’t even think about – may not even know about – today.