Professional Authors’ Groups

I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member
– Groucho Marx

 
Anybody know if there’s a 12-Step meeting for researchers? I need to get to one. “Hello, my name is Joseph. I’m a researcher.” “Hello, Joseph.”

A few weeks back I polled five-hundred authors with:

I’m looking into authors’ groups and organizations. Do you belong to any? If yes, your thoughts and opinions of it/them? And could you provide a link if you think them worthy?

Two-hundred-eighteen responded (just under half. I can provide percentages/numbers for other Researchers Anonymous members).

    General

  • Most people aren’t part of any author groups. The reasons varied from 1) cost to 2) unclear usefulness to 3) Covid followed by various scatterings. The “cost v usefulness” quadrant was most heavily populated. Most professional groups had upfront costs and that’s where “usefulness” dominated, a “what do I get for my money?” mood. I suspect (no substantial evidence, more based on conversations and email exchanges) as the industry matures (ie, as the gulf between serious authors and “Hey! I got a book published!” writers widens) a similar gulf between “Let’s get work done” and “Let’s have a party!” authors groups will occur.
  • Online groups dominated the responses and most people prefer online groups because nothing is required to participate. Also, few find online groups helpful with Goodreads groups standing out as least helpful (one person offered the discussions were painful). Most people offered they directed messages from these groups are directed to spammish buckets and rarely read them. I asked “What do you use the group for?” The answer usually came down to “To promote my books.” When asked, “Why don’t you do more with the groups?” the answers often came down to “It’s just people promoting their own books.” Budda-boom!
  • The following responses are based on 1) clustered responses (a significant number of responses clustered around a definable (binary) result and/or 2) the results were interesting although not statistically significant. My tendency to go for a binary (YES/NO) is because I can measure neither expectations nor satisfaction level while I can codify positive/negative response regardless of where they are on the positive/negative scale.

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My First Book Fair/Authors’ Expo – Part 4

Do you practice writing? Practice Marketing, too.

This thread is based on my experiences, conversations with authors and several years helping companies develop and execute marketing strategies. Part 1 introduced setting reasonable goals for attending book fairs and authors’ expos, Part 2 discussed doing research to make sure a given con/fair/expo will reasonably meet your goals, and Part 3 dealt with determining what you need to achieve your goals.

This post is about practicing your goal before you get there.


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My First Book Fair/Authors’ Expo – Part 3

What do you need to help you achieve your goal?

This thread is based on my experiences, conversations with authors and several years helping companies develop and execute marketing strategies. Part 1 introduced setting reasonable goals for attending book fairs and authors’ expos, Part 2 discussed doing research to make sure a given con/fair/expo will reasonably meet your goals.

This post is about figuring out what you need to help you achieve your book fair/author expo goal.


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My First Book Fair/Authors’ Expo – Part 2

You want to sell books? First make sure there’ll be people to buy them.

This thread is based on my experiences, conversations with authors and several years helping companies develop and execute marketing strategies. Part 1 introduced setting reasonable goals for attending book fairs and authors’ expos.

Review

What is your reason for going to the event?

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My First Book Fair/Authors’ Expo – Part 1

I A/B tested my poster and sold more books with version B…

<CAVEAT LECTOR>
This thread will be four to five posts long and will focus on marketing with occasional forays into related topics. Know now that I don’t think I’m qualified to write on such. Read my LinkedIn profile and you’ll see that lots of others consider me extremely qualified; I’ve written peer reviewed articles on marketing, published books on marketing, created marketing technologies, developed marketing strategies for recognizable brands, …
But I know my limits. I’m not qualified.
Then again, nobody who claims they are is.
</CAVEAT LECTOR>

Last week I attended my first “authors’ expo”.


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Members and Subscribers can LogIn. Non members can join. Non-protected posts (there are several) are available to everyone.
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