How to Get From Midlist to Best-Seller List!
by Katherine Sutcliffe

First, wipe the idea out of your brain about these authors you hear about who get a million dollar contract their first book. It rarely happens with a first book. And usually when you DO hear about it, it's is a multibook contract for a total of a million dollars. They like to put that hype out there because it causes buzz about "the book".

Now for the facts.

There are several levels to publishing:

~ Midlist
~ Lead Titles
~ 3rd lead
~ 2nd lead
~ 1st lead
~ Superlead

99.9 percent of new authors are put into midlist.

I don't care if you write romance or mystery or whatever, the money here IS going to be bad at first. Consider it starting in the postal room of a business and having to work your way up. Right. DON'T quit your day job. However, the money will get better with each book.

What do you get from the publishers in midlist? Nothing. Your book put out there with no promotion marketing budget. Midlist is a shelf stuffer to keep the publisher's name out there and to make money to pay the lead titles the big money. Yes, sad but true.

So how do you crawl your way out of midlist?

Most authors don't promote their work or themselves. The new authors don't realize they have to or don't have the money to do so.

How much are you willing to contribute to your advancement in the line up? Alas, if the publishers are going to pay you more for each book, they are going to have to see a decent sell through. Numbers of copies sold compared to how many they put out. For a new author that's 50%. They will do a happy dance if they get that kind of sell through on a "No Name." But you aren't going to get that unless you promote.

So, consider that any money you make as a new author is going to be invested in building your name recognition--luring readers to pick up your book when they might have picked up another.

The internet has made this much easier and cheaper for authors.

IF you place this sort of investment the publisher WILL take notice. When I was put in midlist 17 years ago I got a true education real fast. Let's say a shocking and sobering education real fast.

I was one of the first, if not THE first romance author to storm into the market with self promotion. Advertising in the genre magazine, bookmarks, etc with my second book. Did the publisher sit up and take notice? You bet. They thought I was a little crazy and didn't think it would pay off. But it did. By my fifth book I was hitting 70 percent sell throughs.

It wasn't simply the above mentioned ways that I did it. But the sweat of the brow stuff that made an impression on the local distributors. In the Dallas area I was the first author to actually go into the warehouses and autograph ALL copies of my book before they were distributed. They, too, thought I was a nut. Try sitting in a sweaty warehouse with fork lifts rumbling by you for 5 hours. What happened?

Instead of their usual 30 percent sell through on a midlist, they got a 80 or 90 percent sell through. The distributors were nailing the sales reps with the Sutcliffe name and reordering my backlist--which I also went in to sign.

By my sixth book I was moved into a 3rd lead position. More money. Yes. Did I bank it? No. I invested in more promotion because there still isn't a great deal of marketing money for a third lead.

Moving into a lead position is a very scary thing, not just for the publisher who is investing more money into more copies of your book, but for the author. Because if the sales don't justify that lead position you'll find yourself back into midlist with whiplash speed.

So instead of signing 600 books in a warehouse, I was signing 2000. But I had to reach readers on a much broader scale and a local warehouse or two wasn't going to cut it. So I autographed 50,000 labels and sent them, and gold foil Autographed Copy stickers, out through Romantic Times to the actual booksellers. Never been done.

The booksellers applied the autograph and sticker to the book. The book went back to press four times in a month.

So then the publisher moved me to second lead. More promo budget to send me on tours. Did I simply go shake hands with distributors and eat pizza with their route men? No. I went into the warehouse and autographed 6,000 books. Took me two days. We had an assembly line working, including the sales rep.

Because of that the distributors were seeing a 90% sell through. I was outselling their NYT bestsellers.

The publishers might have thought I was a nut but they were happy dancing all the way to the bank. And by that time, so was I.

Then I was moved to #1 lead title. Hitting #3 on Waldens list and #8 on the USA Today list. In 7 books I'd gone from 60,000 print runs to 600,000 print runs.

Would this have happened if I hadn't bulldozed my way into this industry starting with my second book? NO WAY.

Author, YOU are self employed. YOU are your own business. Just like anyone starting their own business, there is going to be some belt tightening and eating alot of peanut butter early on. Success rarely comes overnight.

Self promotion is a must if you aspire to reach lead title and make decent money. No, there is not going to be time to vaccum and do laundry and many times you're going to be too exhausted to make love to your spouse. Writing and promotion is the hardest work you will EVER do. So you better hope you've got an understanding spouse who supports your cause in those lean days. Eventually, they will be amply rewarded.

And let me say this. Promotion isn't simply necessary to make big money. It's survival if you wish to remain published. In midlist, if you don't sell enough books to pay back even a meager advance, you'll be dropped like a hot potato.

Please, this is not meant to depress you or frighten you. It's a reality check. If you're going to get into this business for the long haul, you must understand the business. If you fight long and hard to get published in the first place, it's worth fighting to keep it.

The money can be quite outstanding if you're willing to pay your dues to get it. If you're not, then satisfy yourself with midlist. It's not a bad place to be. You've succeeded with your dreams. You're a published author and achieved a goal that millions of others can only hope and dream about. You ARE a success whether you're on the NYT or not. Simply put, if you aspire to quit your day job, buy your kid a car or put him/her through a fine University and put money aside for your golden years, then you're going to have to work for it...just like any other business.

It CAN happen. I promise. :-)

© Copyright Katherine Sutcliffe. All Rights Reserved.

Katherine Sutcliffe is the author of the award-winning, best-selling Romantic Thrillers, "Darkling, I Listen" and "Fever", and coming soon - "Bad Moon Rising".
http://www.KatherineSutcliffe.net