What it takes to sell your book

Oh, the horror!

Few people write books just for the money. Good thing, since few books make much money. (It took two years for my best-selling book to earn as much per hour as an assistant manager at Appleby’s.)

You write because you love to or have to, or you harbor a Mommy Dearest-level passion for vengeance. But then what? After you write your book, how do you get it in the hands of delighted readers?

If you want, you can skip the traditional publishing route and self-publish. Amazon’s Kindle Publishing System (KPN) charges no upfront cost to produce a high-quality paperback book, an e-book, and even an audiobook. You’re responsible for design as well as the ISBN and PCN. I published a novel this way, and Jeff Bezos took a chunk of the revenues, garnering tens and tens of dollars.

The KPN is an ideal way to publish a volume of poetry.

“Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.” – Don Marquis

On the other hand, you can go the traditional route: draft an entire novel or a 40-page nonfiction proposal, snag an agent, hope a publisher agrees to buy the book, do all the necessary rewriting and answer all the fact checkers’ questions…

Either way, you still need to market the book.

When I first published Thank You for Arguing back in 2007, marketing was mostly reserved for professionals. My publisher booked me on a radio tour, got me on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and booked excerpts in magazines. For How to Argue with a Cat, I did a tour in London with speeches, book signings, and six BBC radio and television gigs.

Times have changed. For this latest book, Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion, I’m doing embarassing Tik Tok videos.

@jayheinrichs0Flossing your teeth, could get you into the best shape of your life. Where the fuck is it? I wanna go back.#crownpublishing #fitnessmotivation #persuasion

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Should you find yourself plugging your own book, this will be your life as well

Not that my publishers have abandoned me to the social-media wilderness. Crown Books and Penguin Random House UK each assigned a publicist and a marketer. The publicists have booked me on numerous podcasts, and the guy in the UK got me on the BBC and other broadcast places. The marketers have provided lots of materials for me to post online. and I meet with them frequently by Zoom for comfort and instructions on how the hell to do a Reddit AMA and the like.¹

My U.S. marketer arranged for e-cards like this, without my even having to know what an e-card is.

But mostly, instead of researching my beloved rhetoric and reading Aristotle, I’m in full distract-people-on-their-smartphones mode, shoving content into Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, Tik Tok, Reddit, Quora, jayheinrichs.com, ArgueLab.com…not to mention Substack.

And I’m sorry. I apologize.

It’s so annoying to see so many authors desperately hawking their books. But put yourself in my shoes. In fact if you ever publish a book, you WILL be in my shoes.

Actually I’m barefoot. It’s early in the morning.

Meanwhile, please show some empathy for the hardworking, deeply embarrassed writer, meaning me. As a non-celebrity, non-bigshot author, I’m not going on some prestigious multi-city tour.² Instead I’m bothering you. But if enough people actually buy the book, I can stop being so annoying and get back to what I’ve always loved most: writing.

Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion publishes today.

1. If you’re publishing alone, you may have to seek advice and comfort from Chat GPT. Sigh.

2. Though at my own expense I’ll fly to Austin at the end of the month to tape an interview with Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic podcast.