PNBA, Thursday, March 16, Education Session on “Maximize Your Profits”

We had a terrific session on the Thursday "education" day of the PNBA Spring Trade Show—people liked it so much that they stayed past the end of our allotted hour. The speakers all addressed how publishers and authors can maximize their assets by spinning off additional products/services from their original books to increase revenue.

MaryAnn Kohl of Bright Ring spoke about how she turned her books (on how to create art projects with children) into a calling card for children’s television producers, creating a niche for herself as a content provider for TV, and other ways to turn any type of specialized knowledge into a revenue source for an author.

Linda Carlson of Parenting Press used the example of one book that was eventually published in various formats (hardcover, book club edition, board book) as a way to get the maximum exposure for a backlist title.

Ray Pfortner of Pfortner & Associates spoke about the use of magazine serialization as a way to increase profit on a title. Pfortner works with photographers and spoke primarily about how to sell the photographs into a secondary magazine market, adding that the same techniques could be applied to text or illustrations.

All three emphasized that they were not looking for publicity alone. Instead, they always try to negotiate the best deal possible—the one that pays cash as well as giving the author/book credit in the secondary market. As they suggested, even if cash payment isn’t possible, see if a real “value” can be added to the deal, such as an advertisement in a magazine as well as an article.