The Truth About Book Marketing by Jonathan Fields - HTML preview

Tribal Authors Take Charge Online

Tribal Author Platforms are turning the publishing power model on its head…

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who’s also a Top-100 blogger. He’s literally been stalked by big NY publishers for the last two years to put out a book with them. We spent a half hour trying to figure out if there  was any way for him to justify giving a book to a big publisher.

We ran the numbers every way we could and, in the end, realized that unless he got a hefty six-figure advance  and a commitment to put out the book within 6 months, he simply couldn’t justify giving it to a publisher. Because he could do it faster and make twice as much if not more by leveraging his own digital platform, relationships and marketing strategies.

When you can walk away from a deal because you’ll make more publishing a book yourself…that’s power

The power to pre-sell enough books online to make the big-box book stores take notice and begin stocking their shelves…even if you’re self-published. To go from relative obscurity to walking into your local Barnes & Noble with your mom, dad, sister, brother, lover or spouse and seeing your work turned out on the table.

Imagine being able to harness a big enough community of die-hard fans to make real money as an author and keep doing it over and over again. To have the ability to choose whether to do it yourself 3 times faster and make 3-5 times more per book or give it to a publisher…if they can come up with enough of an advance to make it worth your while.

That’s the power of the next generation Tribal Author.

Because it’s not just about your ability to draw coverage any more. Nor is it even about the quality of your writing. There are a lot of seriously kick ass books released every year that vie for the same ink, the same lists, the same shot at capturing the heart, souls and minds of thousands of readers, and for many first time authors  being able to hold out a business card that says “author.”

What it is about…is your ability to cultivate, lead, then tap, on a number of levels, a personal tribe. Can it be done offline or in some wacky hybrid mode? Sure. That’s part of the what’s happening with live next-gen book tours, if  you set that as your prime directive.

But, when you understand how to transfer your platform and tribe-building effort online, your world as an author opens up like never before. Because you eliminate the boundaries created by geography and the time and money needed to be all over the world…all the time. In fact, we’ve seen online author tribes play a mission critical role in a series of book launches over the last 2 years…mine included. And, that’s leading publishers to scramble to sign people who “get it.”

But, what’s also becoming pretty apparent is that…

The Tribal Author revolution cannot be outsourced.

At, least from a book marketing and promotion standpoint.

Two reasons.

• One, the single source of greatest power in any tribe is the connections members form not only with each other, but with that person who forms and leads the tribe. The author. And, the moment you swap in a  marketer, manager, assistant, publicist, service, organizer or any other “entity,” you dumb down that visceral connection to a level that profoundly limits what you’ll be capable of. You literally cut the tribal cord. But, that’s not all…
• Two, there’s a second major barrier to outsourcing your online tribe-building. The most powerful Tribal Authors now operate largely in social media. There are a lot of unspoken rules that guide conversation  across this massive web. And, it takes a while of lurking to learn them. One critical ethic is, “social media is innately personal and social.” At least in the context we’re talking about.For the most part, people want to converse with other people, not other entities who represent other people. And, when you “retain” someone to access social media “in your name,” people will often be far less receptive. In fact, some become downright incensed.

Plus, sadly, it’s been my experience that more than a few people masquerading as social media book marketing experts or blog tour experts are actually anything but. I remember once getting a form e-mail from a blog tour “expert” that had been retained by an author friend’s publisher. The Dear Blogger email asked if I’d consider reviewing my friend’s book. Beyond the fact that form emails are considered spam by bloggers and either get deleted or publicly flamed, I’d already reviewed the book on my blog a few days before. She didn’t know,  because she’d never read my blog.

And, when I asked my friend to get a list of the blogs the “expert” had landed, basic tools quickly revealed a collective readership of about 500 people. Not exactly the exposure you’re looking for from a hired blog-tour gun.

Does that betoken a lot more work for authors who want to be able to tap the book selling power of the tribe?

Damn straight it does.

You don’t have to like it. It just is. But, there’s a major saving grace, something that may drive you to do the work needed to learn how to build an Author Tribe.

First, if you’re really engaged by the topic, building a tribe of passionate likeminded people is just plain fun. But, that’s not the real awakening. Fact is, ninety-five percent of all other authors and aspiring authors  reading this will also loathe the idea of putting in the level of work that’s necessary to pull this off. Which makes the 5% that do the work exponentially more capable of rising above the crowd and creating bookselling magic.

So, let’s take a look at how a handful of people have become Tribal Authors and leveraged the power of conversations, connections and numbers to sell books.

“Imagine being able to harness a big enough community of die-hard fans to make real money as an author and keep doing it over and over again.”