ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Updating (2012) "Marketing My Book"

Updated on November 24, 2012

New Readers Start Here

In two earlier pieces. "Marketing My Book" and "Lessons From My Book" I discussed why I had decided to write a book, how the book turned out to become a four hundred page meaty volume, why I decided to self publish, and the practical problems I as a novice kept hitting.

How The First Edition Went - Preparation

I had a bad experience with createspace where they charged $40 to send me a proof copy of my book. The US Postage was less than $5.00. I complained to createspace who agreed to give me a credit note for the $35.00. Then when I had made a lot of corrections and was ready to upload again they played what I felt was a blackmail game with me where if I wanted the book quickly I had to pay ridiculously high freight charges. Or wait about two months!

I decided createspace were not wicked, but were more used to dealing with USA aiuthors where the freight charges structure would be different.

I contacted about six possible printers in England. Some offered a cheap headline price but then stuck "add-ons" everywhere to bump the price up. I finally went with "Author 19" who were very good. None of the printers held my hand. They expected me to provide perfect PDF material and cover/spine exactly perfect ready to load into their machines. My DTP friend was a real star in this process.

With all the delays at my end it was mid June 2011 before I had the books to sell.

How The First Edition Went - Marketing

The title was "Guide To Packaging and Labelling Law 2011". One of my friends told me it sounded like a book about marketing law firms, whereas it is about the law of packaging and labelling.

The reviews were really excellent, but I sold virtually no copies. I think the "2011" in the title put people off because the reviews came out in September, October and November by which time 2011 was nearly over.

I prepared a flyer and sent out a hundred of them in November. No sales. Overall the sales of the first edition were embarrassingly small. Fortunately I had only printed fifty. So overall I had lost money.

Preparing The Second Edition

I was heartened by the excellent reviews. I knew I had no competition in the market. There were quite a few important pieces of legislation during 2011 and the book was now out of date. My choices were whether to give up or to prepare a second edition.

I had of course saved the first edition. I saved again as "Second Edition" and made many changes. Roughly a quarter of the book changed. I dropped the UK food labelling regulations and put in the new EU food labelling regulations. There had been legislation about plastic materials and articles in contact with food which had just missed the first edition. And now there were three amending regulations which had come out, one as late as December 2011. In response to a reviewer I put in a chapter on "The Regulatory Environment". I also had a new chapter on Packaging Materials.

I dropped the "2011" and put in "2nd Edition". I also did a really really thorough proof read. On the fifth trawl I replaced "2.1(c )" with "2.1(c)".

And it is a really good book. I am proud of it.

Conference Call

I was contacted by a company who arrange conferences with a request I speak at an industry conference they were holding in Amsterdam in February 2012. I had no idea what "Global Release Liners" were, but I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It turned out not to be such a gift, because I had to pay all my own expenses - but in return I had a free stand from which to sell the book, and a 30 minute conference slot speaking to the entire conference.

When I got there I learned what the conference was about. Essentially the industry makes sticky labels. The printing takes place on paper which is stuck onto the roll of siliconised paper, printed on, pulled off the roll, and then stuck onto the product. The roll of siliconised paper is "the release liner". Almost everyone at the conference was selling raw materials - paper, silicon, ink, and the like. They were very happy when I explained that the new EU Regulations required manufacturers to supply more information but specified a minimum type size. So manufacturers would need bigger labels.

I gave four books to journalists and I sold one copy after the conference to a company in Slovenia. I had a couple of conversations that might have turned into consultancies but didn't. Overall I was pleased with the conference. I also learned about some new technologies.

Latest Developments

I had intended to make the "Guide" the industry standard book. I have had some success with this.

(1) The Packaging Institute is the umbrella organisation for packaging in the UK and is part of the prestigious Institute of Mining, Minerals and Materials "IM3". They run courses for people in the packaging industry for packaging industry qualifications. The next edition of the textbook they produce for all their students will carry a plug for the "Guide".

(2) The British Retail Consortium has an accreditation scheme run jointly with the Institute of Packaging. There are already 800 retailers accredited, and miore apply every year. The combination of book and updating web site http://contentpublications.com means that one of the requirements - access to ongoing legal information - can be had cheaply. The next edition of the auditors manual will refer to the Guide. So on every accreditation review or new application my book will be brought to the attention of the retailer with a strong steer to buy the Guide.

So watch this space! And you can purchase the book from content publications for a mere £40 plus £6 postage and packing.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)