Off to Market

More Book Selling

Time to start fulfilling wishes from your gift list! Do you have a reader on the list, who is also a fan of the paranormal, or loves spine-tingly thrillers? Or a lover of paranormal who loves to read jump-scary thrillers? Or a… Never mind. Please consider any or all of my books – the reader on your list will love them.

You can get to each book from my Amazon page or from the links on my website

If you’d like a signed copy, my email is sneirish@gmail.com.

Thank you in advance and Happy Holidays!

The marketing and sales part of a writer’s job is never done, as you can well see above. In 2018 when Uncovering Norman was first published, I knew very little about book marketing. I knew you needed an appealing front cover and an intriguing back cover blurb. In the “old days,” the publisher often took on the major portion of marketing duties. Their revenue and livelihood depended on it.

Although that hasn’t changed, their methods have, particularly along the lines of selectivity. Generally, the big publishers only choose books that they feel will sell big, and often, as with movies, a repeat of a good seller tops the rest. Whether a story/series like Harry Potter, or an author, like Sarah J. Maas.

Small independent presses have very limited resources, and little of their budget goes to marketing. The most you can likely expect is a few social media posts.

If you’re a little guy, a debut author who has chosen to self-publish one way or another, you’re on your own.

That’s today. Back in 2018, there was no Ingram-Spark, Amazon wasn’t such a monopoly for sales, and local bookstores still thrived.

Balboa press offered a minimal amount of marketing assistance as part of their publishing package. Your book would appear on their website, in their catalog, and that was about it.

They also offered additional add-on marketing packages. Frankly, I was such a novice in the publishing world that I had no idea what was involved. So, I decided to buy a basic publishing package, which cost me over $1500. They provided a press kit, which consisted of a newspaper article and a list of all newspaper and magazine outlets within a fifty mile radius of three cities that I selected. They sent the press release directly to three major cities. It was my job to send the press kit article, a sample chapter, and a list of reviews from their website to the news outlets on the list they provided. Clearly, Balboa Press didn’t lose any money offering the initial publishing package at a discount. And I wasn’t happy that I didn’t get more out of that marketing package for the price.

More expensive tiered marketing and sales packages could be purchased, at tiered pricing, of course. For example, I could have my book featured at the Balboa Press table at the Miami Book Fair, for a price of $3000+. Or, I could actually go, have my book featured, and be seated at their table to do signings and talk to patrons for a mere $6000 – travel and accommodations not included. I couldn’t afford, nor would I choose, to do any of those things.

So I did what I could closer to home:

I sent out the press kit to several news outlets. As far as I know, the vast majority never got printed.

I arranged a launch party at a local restaurant, sent out invitations, and published/posted notices all over the local area. That was probably my best event. I sold a lot of books, met a lot of people (not just family and friends), and had a fun time.

I contacted the local libraries and donated a copy of Uncovering Norman. I also inquired about giving a talk and doing a book signing. I got one scheduled author talk from that, but it was a great one, with a wonderful response. I got more press coverage from this event than I did from the press kit.

I offered copies of my book to a few local book stores to sell on consignment. This never makes much money, but potentially gets the store and their customers interested in future books, and works to develop a fan base.

I participated in events in small local business, especially New Age stores and holiday fairs. Some of those also sold my books on consignment.

Overall, marketing kept me pretty busy and I had to use my imagination and resourcefulness to come up with ideas to sell Uncovering Norman. I still do most, if not all of these to sell my books. Obviously, since I have more books published, it takes up even more of my time. It’s worth it though. Uncovering Norman is still selling. On Goodreads, there are usually a number of readers at any given time who have the book listed as “currently reading” or “want to read.” I’m always grateful for that. And these days, I use social media as a marketing tool as well – it’s a necessary part of life for an author.

There is one other issue to be aware of. When I first published with Balboa Press, the package included one year of a returns buy-back program. This is when a book seller is allowed to return unsold copies of a book to the publisher. My publishing consultant at Balboa explained to me that this was an industry standard, and that often sellers would refuse to take books if there wasn’t a returns option. After the first year, I was offered the “opportunity” to continue the returns program, for a fee, of course. The whole thing made me nervous. What if a store said no to carrying my book just because they couldn’t sell it back?  I decided to go ahead and the cost of this program for two years was $360.

That was the last of my package purchases from Balboa Press. My book is still listed in their catalog and they still send me royalties from sales of Uncovering Norman. I order my author copies from them to have on hand for sales and signings. The price never went up until this year (2025), but I have to say that the other companies I buy author copies from have increased their prices this year, too.

I have been considering making some revisions and additions, and publishing a second edition. If I do, I will do it myself, most likely with Draft2Digital. But, that’s not at the top of my priority list, and I’m fine with leaving Uncovering Norman as it is for now. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy, the link for the book in Balboa’s bookstore is here.

Overall, I was satisfied with Balboa Press and have no regrets that I published Uncovering Norman with them. Would I use them again to publish a book? Probably not, because there are so many other self-publishing options available now. But I wouldn’t encourage or discourage any author from investigating a hybrid press as a potential publisher for their work.

Identify your goals. Know what you want. Stick with your plan. Do your research. Be smart.

What’s Next?

End of the year accounting