Why you plow every cent into promotion

Say your first book, sold a decent amount of copies in the first three months after publication. Decent, meaning, about 15,000 copies.

Time to prop the Adirondack chair next to the mailbox and wait for the royalty check, right?

Nope. In many regards, now is when you really plow into the bank account and pony up for time off from work for a publicity tour that includes media, venue bookings and online promotion. Here's why: selling half of a typical print run is cool, but selling OUT the print run is like diamond ice.

Why? Because you do want decent royalty checks, but more importantly because you want to build your career as an actual author. After former Arizona Republic reporter Tom Zoellner published his first book, The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit and Desire (St. Martins Press), his publisher procured a few bookstores dates. Zoellner wanted to make sure his first was not his last, and on his own did a few more dozen bookstore dates, sleeping in his truck, across the U.S. See www.slushpile.net/index.php/2007/03/15/interview-tom-zoellner-author/ He ended up investing about $22,000 -- nearly the whole sum of his first royalty payments.

His first book was a hit. For his second book, Zoellner negotiated a much more generous advance and royalty rates. (His next book is Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World).

Take it from Mr. Obie Joe who speaks from painful and wonderful personal experience: do not expect to get rich from your first book. Instead, think of the experience as an investment in your career. Put that money and time into publicity; it will reap what you sow.