My Embarrassing Failure Stories Part 4: Publishing Media Edition

Hello everyone, this is Sosuke, your business consultant.
Today, I would like to share 'My Embarrassing Failure Stories Part 4: Publishing Media Edition.' This time, it's not about failing in the business itself, but about failing to handle a tool properly.

Actually... I have done quite a bit of commercial publishing. (;^_^A
Ta-da!!

The top four books and the one on the bottom left in this picture were all released as paper books and lined the shelves of bookstores. Including e-books and books exclusive to convenience stores, I have published about ten more.

As for other media, I was featured on a BS-TBS information program, and I even became the model for an NHK drama.

However... the business didn't go well!
Especially when I released my first book, I had delusions that 'once it's published, customers will come flocking!' but it really ended as a delusion. I didn't even get a single inquiry. (lol)

What I want to convey here is'A weapon becomes more powerful when held by a strong person!'Just because you publish a book doesn't mean it will sell! And just because you appear in the media doesn't mean you will sell! To be blunt, that is not the case.

Books sell because the people who are already selling are the ones publishing them.They sell because they are books released by famous people or famous CEOs.

It is rare, extremely rare, for a book by an unknown person to sell like crazy, no matter how much commercial publishing they do.

Furthermore, while commercial publishing is one thing, self-publishing or co-publishing rarely sells 99% of the time. Why? I will talk a little about that mechanism. Please note that this is strictly based on my own experience and from a time when e-books were not yet widely recognized or popular among the general public.

The act of publishing

In my case, I first connected with what is called a publishing agent. This is someone who connects authors with publishers. In the first place, publishers won't even look at a manuscript sent by an unknown person. So, you give a proposal to a publishing agent who has some influence with publishers and have them go pitch it for you. By the way, fees for agents vary widely. Some work on a commission basis, while others charge a fee upfront regardless of the outcome.

Then, if the publisher thinks it might sell, the publication is decided. I will omit the various minor details, but let's assume the book is completed after many meetings and revisions. After that, the publisher's sales team goes to bookstores to pitch the book.

Then the books are lined up in bookstores, and this is where the publisher's sales power comes into play. In other words, how much money are they willing to spend on sales? For example, placing newspaper ads or train hanging ads, adding celebrity endorsements to the book's obi, or having sales reps actively promoting it... that sort of thing.

Up to this point, I had only paid the publishing agent, and I hadn't paid the publisher a single yen. This is commercial publishing. By the way, in the case of paper books, you receive royalties based on the number of copies printed, not the number sold. For e-books, royalties are based only on what is sold.
Therefore,the publisher will try their best to sell it because they won't make a profit unless it sells.

However, with self-publishing or co-publishing, where you share the investment,the publisher's profit is already guaranteed at that point. So,the publisher has no need to spend money on sales or promotion. That is why 99% of them don't sell.

I will say it again! This is strictly a story from a time when the concept of e-books was still rare. I think it's probably a bit different now.

The beginning of the mistake

Now, what's important starts here. Being able to publish is not a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing. Here, as an unknown person, Iended up trying to sell the book! This was the mistake. I went around to bookstores to try to get them to place pop-up displays or move the books to more prominent locations so they would sell. But there is a limit to what I could do alone. (*By the way, it seems that authors visiting bookstores to introduce themselves is nothing but a nuisance to the bookstores.) ...(;^_^A

The essence of this mistake was thatthe purpose and the means became blurred.
My purpose was the success of my business. It was not to sell books. But at the time, I was thinking 'if only the book would sell...', so my purpose became selling the book.

This brings us back to what I said at the beginning:'A weapon becomes more powerful when held by a strong person!'.
No matter how powerful a golden club a weak and poor person like me holds, I can't even lift it. It meant that I had to first acquire the strength to swing the club.

So, what should I have done?

To that end, how should I have used this publication that I obtained by luck?
One way would have been to distribute it widely! I should have bought a large quantity and given the book to everyone I met as a business card.

At the time, I was only thinking about how to sell books without taking any risks. If I had taken the risk of buying a large quantity and handing them out, I could have made a much bigger impression than just handing out business cards.

...As you can see, having a thorough understanding of your current capabilities and position, along with the accompanying strategy and how to use the weapons you have acquired, is essential for management. I was a real fool for putting on a front from the start of my business and getting even more full of myself after publishing a book.

Media appearances are the same. Instead of being desperate to expose and show yourself off, it is important to build a strategy from the perspective of what the media and the viewers are looking for, and based on that, how you should behave to make the most of it as an advertisement.

Strategy

Now, finally, what are some ways to utilize publishing in the modern age? I will talk about this very, very, very briefly.

Nowadays, anyone can publish an e-book on Kindle.
However, just putting out a Kindle book won't make it sell.
To sell it, you should become an influencer to some extent on social media.
To become a social media influencer, it is important to have real-world achievements.

Yes... that is what it comes down to.
Novelists are a completely different story, but for business books, both now and in the past, it is a mistake to think that you can ignite success in your business through publishing media.
Of course, there are people who do, but as I have said many times, it is rare. It is the same as winning the lottery.

It might be a boring story, but in the end, it is more certain to steadily and surely grow your own business.

With that, thank you very much. If you found this article helpful, please follow and like. I am also on Twitter, so please follow me there if you would like. I am always accepting consultations via Twitter DM, so please do not hesitate to reach out. See you next time! This was Sosuke, the entrepreneurship consultant! See you next week!