App-onomics: How to succeed in publishing as it faces its Napster—by Al Katkowsky
Editor’s Note: In May we published an article about Al Katkowsky and how he successfully promoted his self-published work, turned it into an Iphone app and ended up giving a presentation at one of the New York Apple Stores. Well, I asked Al to write us an article about how he achieved this success and he agreed! The article follows. Thanks, Al! Paul
Book Event at The Apple Store? Seriously, what’s going on here?
I tell everyone that my book, Question Of The Day, is an activity in book form. So when the idea was presented to me to put it into another form (iPhone App), it wasn’t much of a stretch for my imagination. Every book is an idea first. More and more, presenting the idea is about providing convenient access.
I normally don’t spend time explaining to people what I’m doing, or how I did it. By the time I’ve “succeeded”, I’ve switched goals. I mostly try to get on with my work. But I have done a few things right in publicizing my book and negotiating obstacles.
I know what you’re saying, because I’ve said it: “Why do I have to deal with all of this stuff? I’ve poured my creativity into writing a book, that’s plenty of work already. I’m an artist, damnit!” Save it, Shakespeare. Publicizing your book can be fun, and the irony is that what will set your book apart and send it on it’s way are the specific creative actions you take in presenting it to the world.
Self Publishing
You were seduced, weren’t you? Yeah, you were. Can the willing truly be seduced? Another discussion for another time, my friends. I just read an article that said something that bears repeating: self-publishing is harder than they tell you. Yeah, it is. Before you get involved with the hands on work of putting your finished book out, you discover a long line of people who would like to sell you their services, people who tell you what a hero you are (you are, but be wary when someone else tells you this). Frequently, these people present the juicy list of Famous Authors Who Self Published First. We love this list, don’t we? Yeah, we do. This list does not consist of an entirely stable group of folks, but we let that go. We are heroes, after all. Just like them.
So you’re in, and it’s not easy. Paying for the books and services was easy, but now what?
First, get organized right away. As a musician, I adapted to this world of self-promotion quickly. I recognized much of the upcoming work in advance, having spent years gigging, releasing and promoting my own music for years in New York and around the country.
For those of you who have no experience putting together press kits, cultivating contacts, approaching strangers and following up on leads, etc, I seriously recommend The Author’s Guide To Planning Book Events by Carol Hoenig. It is an extremely user friendly book, written by a novelist who has worked as a National Events specialist for Borders, so she has truly seen this aspect of the business from both sides.
If you don’t have distribution, go get it. Baker & Taylor will take on small publishers. They have a deal for $75 to just sign up, and another for $300 where they will stock your book in their warehouses. I took the cheaper deal. Big mistake. I had to jump through hoops to get my book stocked. It’s a great story how I managed it, but let’s skip it because this is a waste of time and effort for you. Don’t go that way. Pay the higher amount, it’s totally worth it. www.btol.com
Events
This is the most important part of my piece.
Let’s come back to what I’d said before: Question Of The Day is an activity in book form. If I take a step back and just look at it as an activity, who would participate and why? 1) Speed Daters put each other on the spot and are politely demanding. 2) Students are challenged to think beyond where they had thought was possible. 3) Cafes tend to bring out a more cerebral side of people once they have settled in, for those who are willing.
QotD events were successful in each of these settings because I could see that the book belonged there, and because I didn’t stop facilitating until people were holding the book and talking about it, and each other.
You have to choose a place where your work belongs, and bring it there. Where would the main character in your novel hang out? Who would agree with the point of your non-fiction book? Where are they?
Think of five places that are connected in some way with your work; five places one would never associate a book event with. Talk whoever is in charge of that place into having an event. Now you have something special.
And now, here’s the key: People who see a unique list of events that they’ve already missed will feel like they don’t want to miss the next one.
iPhone App
How do you get an App made? I got a recommendation through a friend. Daniel Williams has done a fantastic job as developer for QotD. Book apps shouldn’t be too expensive to produce. Several different interfaces get used, and we made up our own.
Apps should do “tricks” a little bit, if possible. This isn’t Kindle; you’re competing with Tetris and Sim 3 for attention. Our App has 25 videos, partially from the period where I shot footage for the purpose of creating book trailers. Soon, QotD will incorporate the “shake” function to go to a new Question.
One aspect of dealing with corporate Apple is that communication is often anonymous, and leaves you guessing. Before acceptance of one of our updates, the QotD App was rejected for the now notorious Objectionable Content, a badge of honor made famous by David Carnoy. I received the news in an email, sent by the “iPhone Developer Program”. No face, no name, no number (kudos to Traffic). One of the videos was too “adult”. I figured this out by checking my website stats and seeing which files had been accessed the previous day. We made adjustments and successfully resubmitted.
There is a myth that has developed among people who follow the progress of iPhone Apps in a casual way. Much has been made of the “overnight success story” app that sells a huge amount of units, and enables the developer to quit the day job. Rightfully so. But you can’t look at it as if you either hit Lotto or you are a Loser. There is a great deal to be said for nurturing. QotD is not “huge”, but it is almost always in the Top 25 Books in iTunes, a category that now has over 6,000 Apps. There are no current books anywhere near it. The rest are book reader apps, classics, compendiums and comics.
How did I get ahead?
If you decide to take your book into the App Store, there is one thing you must do to give it a push. Get as many people as you can to download it the first day. This way, it has a shot at spiking on iTunes; Top 100, Top New Apps, whatever. This was the push that made all the difference for me.
Constant nurturing, tweeting (yes, there’s that word) and filling my App description with Keywords, just as you would with a website, has made all the difference. QotD has been sometimes “free” and sometimes “pay”, but it has been downloaded 30,000 times since April, and the videos within the App have been viewed over 100,000 times since the App update six weeks ago.
Apple Store
How did I get an event at The Apple Store? I asked. Really, that’s what it came down to.
There were twists and turns along the way, but the good news is that Apple people will listen to you. In musician’s terms, they are as big as Sony, but they are approachable. They love ideas.
The first thing that happened is that I got a contact email at a store, wrote the person and got rejected. Fortunately, over time, I have taught myself that “no” doesn’t mean “no”. No means “not now”, “find something better”, “you’re better off without it”, etc.
I walked into a random Apple Store near me and they told me to go to the website. Now, this drives me crazy, when I can’t even get a name out of a person. But I went to apple.com, browsed a bit, and wrote to the person I thought was the best person to handle the request. I hate dealing with anonymity, but I taught myself to roll with it.
It took a few weeks, but my request was forwarded to the right person, who contacted me. He was more than willing to help. Our first Apple Store Event was at West 14th St on May 8.
Once I got one, I got another one, owing partially to the fact that I had one already.
One other interesting tidbit: you cannot do a press release for an Apple Store event. Holy publicity nightmare, yeah! This time, a non-anonymous person called me and explained what some anonymous person decided, and we had a nice chat, hypothesizing about why this had been decided. Apple has serious control issues, we finally agreed.
The workaround for this is that you can do a press release within which your event can be mentioned, but the press release cannot center on the event.
There’s always a way, isn’t there?
Summary
Get organized
Cheat. A little. It’s for the best cause in the world: you.
Be patient. If you hang in, you win.
Rejection is immediate feedback that leads you to come up with your best plan.
Book Events are the live stage for your work. A large variety of venue types and event settings will increase your audience and audience type exponentially.
Tell everyone who will listen what you’re doing. Then tell the media.
Then, maybe even tell the publishing biz. I’m sure they’d love to find out what they’ve been missing out on.
Al Katkowsky is a singer, songwriter, musician and voiceover artist. He has recorded and performed his music all over the US and in London, UK. His experiences in promoting Question Of The Day have ranged from Speed Dating in Santa Monica, to an 8th Grade classroom in Brooklyn, to Apple Store events in New York and Los Angeles. www.questionofthedaybook.com
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