A good web site is absolutely essential in the modern world. Use if to put up material you’ve dug up but had no room for in your book. (BTW Eric, the above link to your site seems to be broken).

One other thing prospective authors overlook is to write articles in various CW and military-related publications. I excerpted several chapters that way. Don’t overlook other venues — the Washington Times has a regular Civil War feature that’s one of the most popular parts of the paper. Use them to drive traffic to your web site.

Use the web to get the word out. Drew Wagenhoffer reviews CW books on his site, and so do a lot of other blogs. A good review is well worth sending out some copies (and it gets them out of your basement).

Just from my experience from my first year as VP of Programs for the CW RT of NY, it’s kind of sad in terms of selling books on the night of the program. Don’t get me wrong, as most speakers I have had here who have had books to sell have done OK, but after watching how sales go, when an author who wishes to sell books at the meetings asks me how many should he ship, I respond now about 10 to 15 copies.

Guess the point I am trying to make is that these books are being offered to a group one would think most would add them to their libraries, and yet that is not the case for the most part. And that bothers me.

Regards from the Garden State,

Steve

Thanks for the kind words. I write in haste, so apologize in advance for typos.

In the business world, it is ‘Marketing, Marketing, Marketing,” yet many of my compatriots in this line of work can’t effectively reach beyond their core audience–if they can even reach their core audience. It take a lot of time and creative thinking to do this. Mine arrives on the treadmill each day with Iron Maiden in the headphones. I keep a notebook on the control panel, and scribble as I brainstorm.

I wrote once that the the worse place to sell a book is in a bookstore, and I meant it. And the pay for everyone–from publisher to author–is abysmal in today’s world through normal distribution channels. So the best way to sell books is to make your core happy–and then reach into other markets–clubs, foreign rights, corporations, etc. Authors play a very key role in this success. Eric and most of our authors understand this. Some do not.

We just hired two administrative assistants to help us market: a backlist manager and a marketing project manager (Tammy and Veronica, respectively). Please feel free to welcome them to the Savas Beatie team. They may be working on your book soon!

tammy@savasbeatie.com and veronica@savasbeatie.com

If I can free up time soon, I am going to add to my blog about this (www.savasbeatie.blogspot.com).

Thanks again, E.

–tps

It’s on the schedule for spring 2009.

Eric

When does your Dahlgren book come out? Brian

My Civil War book on Patrick County Virginia sold over 1,000 for a county with a population of 19K is pretty good I thought. My photo book sold 1,000 so far, but these books are to a local targeted audience. My books on Stuart do not sell well locally, but do regionally and nationally via the webpage.

You really do have to beat the bushes.