Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Your problem is probably that books and publishing are not typically high profit products/industries, so you're asking someone to invest their time and talent for a relatively small payout.

Consider this: A book typically generates about $8-10 for the publisher when sold through distribution. Production and physical distribution eat up about half of that, leaving $4-5 for marketing and profit. If you spend, say $3.50-4.00 on marketing, then you have less than $1 for profit. (BTW, $4.00 is not very much to do a decent marketing/PR campaign. If you sell 2,000 copies, it's only $8,000 -- about enough for a decent website.)

Now if you split the profit with your marketing partner on a 50/50 basis, that's about $0.50 for each of you. On 5,000 copies, that means you each get $2,500. Not a lot for all the work involved.

A few more factoids: The average new book title sells fewer than 1,000 copies. There are 50,000+ new titles a year, and a dozen authors account for more than 75% of all the books sold. (Think JK Rowlings, Stephen King, John Grisham, etc.) The odds are not in favor of an unknown, first-time author -- even if the topic is a hot one and the book is well-written. 80% of adults in the United States haven't even been in a bookstore or library in the last 12 months!

Not exactly the conditions an enterprising marketer wants to pursue. That's probably why you're having trouble generating interest.

The way to do what you are trying to do is to take the risk out of it for the marketer. Pay him/her a fee and assume the risk yourself. Ultimately it's the author who must generate interest in the book. Nobody wants to interview the publicist or the marketing consultant. If you're not ready to invest a chunk of your time and money, why should the consultant/partner?

Dear Jani,

I think the answer that will help you the most will not be about helping you find a marketing partner, but rather on helping martketing partners find YOU.

There are a multitude of site owners who are looking for a product that converts. What you need is a way to get in touch with these people. Thats where affiliate directories like www.clickbank.com come in. Sites like clickbank basically help webmasters find products to promote on thier sites and product owners like you to find affiliates.

I got a good listing of such affiliate directory sites by searching for the term "find affiliates" on Google.

Hope this helps.

Clive Fernandes
Clive Fernandes Consulting