Kindle and eBook Formatting Services Now Offered by Cadence

The Cadence Group is thrilled to announce that we have hired an eBook designer to format book files and manuscripts into the “big three” eBook formats.

We here at The Cadence Group are reading all the same things you are about eBooks.  We know that they are important. We know that eBook sales are growing at an amazing rate.  We know that new authors are faring better on Kindle than on bookshelves.  We also know that books will almost assuredly follow music into the digital age and those who get on board early will reap early rewards.

We know that if we do not have our books on Kindle (Amazon), Nook (B&N), and the other eBook reader sites, we will be missing out.

So, with that in mind, we can now turn any pdf or word document into the Kindle, Nook, and ePub formats.  At that point, we can either help you set up your own eBook accounts or you can use accounts you may already have to distribute your new eBooks.

We are offering to format your book files into all three of the major formats and deliver them to you in upload-ready files.

Contact us today at 518.391.2300 or services@thecadencegrp.com to learn more.

A look inside TCG

Many of you know Amy and I as business partners, colleagues and the women behind The Cadence Group (and this blog!). What you may or may not know is that Amy and I are also friends.

Last week, a friend of mine wrote and asked for my advice on starting a business partnership.  Most importantly, she wanted to know about a business partnership between friends.

The Cadence Group is a joint ownership between Amy and I and she wanted to know how it was going. A 50/50% joint partnership is not easy, but after I wrote the letter below, I thought it might be an interesting look inside TCG and how we work:

***

Hi!

The NUMBER ONE thing that can help you and your partner is open and honest communication. The good, the bad and the ugly. Also, open access to all accounting (this helps!). You really have to have the same long-term goals in mind for your business or it will never work.

For example, Amy and I got together recently to work out our partnership papers and our Business Plan. The partnership papers were actually the easy part. We spent three straight days at her dining room table putting together our business plan. Trust me, it wasn't easy. But the ground rules for our friendship also apply in our partnership - don't pull any punches, be honest, and talk it out. We push back on each other all the time regarding all manner of things. But because we started out with a business plan, it's also "easier" for us because we can also remind the other person to go back to our business plan and see if something makes sense.

Our goals from day one have been aligned in how we want to build our business, how long we want to own our business and our core commitments to customer service, free advice and helping people figure out what makes the most sense for their publishing program - even if it means they don't hire us. If our goals were different, I could get pissed that we "give away" 5-6 hours of consulting time a week. But I'm not because that's part of who we are and who WE want to be.

My suggestion would be to sit down separately and outline the following (this worked for us last year when we started down this path).

Personal 5 year plan (top 5 goals)
Professional 5 year plan (top 5 goals)
The business itself - where do you want it to be in 5 years (top 5 goals)
How do you want to extricate yourself from the business (sell, close, etc.) when you're ready to retire
5 Strengths and weaknesses I bring to the business and the duties related to those
5 Strengths and weaknesses my partner brings to the business and the duties related to those

This is something you should spend some time working on individually and then plan to spend several hours going through together. They won't match up perfectly, but if they're completely different, it might not make sense for you to be in business together.

Business can ruin a relationship but Amy and I have always had an open and honest friendship and been willing to have the difficult conversations with each other which makes us work well together. To be honest, we spent the first 6 months kind of walking on eggshells together but our business - and our friendship - has been better for us getting over the honeymoon stage and being ourselves and working together.

If the plan is solid and if both parties are committed to the same vision, it can work.

Basic Rules for a Successful Author Event

One of the best ways for an author to get their message out to their community and region is to do author signings. Booking a signing does take a bit of finesse. To start, know that bookstores need ninety days advance notice to properly book and promote a signing. Do yourself a favor and do not call your local bookstore asking to do a signing in three weeks. They have calendars and newsletters printed each month, and you need to respect their deadlines.

Next, most bookstores will not be able to book you for an event unless your books are available to order from a wholesaler such as Ingram or Baker & Taylor.  The book must show up in the bookstore's computer as available for order and returnable or you will have trouble getting a booking. So, don’t call to ask to do an event until you know that your books are available to order from a wholesaler or you are prepared to bring the books yourself and sell on consignment.

Finally, to better increase your chance of selling books, don’t just do a signing; plan an event. Sitting at a table for two hours can be a tad disheartening. Draw a crowd by reading, speaking, or giving a workshop. Invite everyone you know.  Get listed in all your local community calendars.  Reach out and advertise your event.

You might also want to plan a launch party on the publication month at a local store. Most bookstores would be thrilled to host an event for a local author because they often invite a large group of friends and family to attend. For a launch party to be successful, you need to send out invitations three weeks in advance, plan the evening around a reading or talk, and make sure you have someone there to take pictures!

Good pictures of happy people milling around a signing are an invaluable tool for your next event booking. Store managers want to know that you can draw an audience, work a room and, in general, make your event “worth their time.” Make sure you have a few pictures as proof that your events are fun, crowded, and profitable.

What if it doesn't work?

I make a living at being helpful.  I am incredibly lucky...  my day to day duties center around showing authors and publishers how they can achieve their goals.  Talking to authors and publishers is not actually part of my job description, but it takes up most of my day.  I love helping people figure out how to best focus their efforts and balance their expectations with the realities of the book world. 

Being of service to clients and non-clients alike is actually written into our mission statement.  Most of these conversations do not result in new business for The Cadence Group, but it does result in the feeling that we are helping others, steering authors away from being taken advantage of and doing some good for our industry.  And during those early conversations, I look like a real hero.  People LOVE me...

But sometimes I spend my day having to tell people that their book is not selling. They did everything right, but it is not working. That all the expense and time invested so far is not resulting in actual sales.  I look less like a hero then.

Once a book is launched, the stores notified of it's existence, the reviews written and the marketing done... what happens if the book does not sell?

The hard truth is most books do not sell well.  It takes a mixture of time, money, marketing savvy, good word of mouth and, most of all, luck to start a book on an upward trajectory that results in sales. 

What can we do to maximize a book's chances:

1. Start with a tried and true, modern, marketing campaign (reviews, online, bookstores, libraries, media)
2. But not rely on a marketing plan if the plan is clearly not working
3. Pull back the scope and focus on regional and author-based sales
4. Send out copies of the books to those who can make a difference (booksellers, freelance writers, bloggers)
5. But above all else, keep pushing.  Don't give up.  Keep participating in discussion groups, keep calling book clubs and volunteering to speak to the group, keep contacting local stores and libraries, keep pushing.

Very often authors get discouraged at the first round of disappointing sales.  They see all the money and time spent as wasted and give up or lash out at the bookstores/media.  It is easy to blame a short-sighted media or stubborn book buyer when a book does not get the exposure we feel it deserves, but often we are just being impatient.  Small presses cannot launch in the same explosive way a large book does.  Small presses can't spend that kind of money and can't rely on years of good-will from book buyers and the media.

But what can a small do that a big publisher can't?  Be patient, grow a book organically, give a book a long time to find it's market... give a book the time to succeed slowly.

Time + Dedication + Luck = Success. 

It is our job to supply the first two... let's not be short sighted.  But let's start from the expectation that every book will need a different set of activities to find it's prime market.  It is with time and dedication that we have the best shot of hitting upon those successful activities.  Authors at small presses have it harder.  It is tougher to launch a book from a small press, but giving things time and constantly trying new things gives a small press book advantages that big house authors only dream of.