If you're self-publishing, are you using a company that uses a printing press or are you publishing through Print on Demand (POD). If you're purchasing thousands of copies of your book up front, you're probably using a printing press. Advertising income helps to defray those initial printing costs. With POD, unless you're using one of those companies that charges inflated setup fees (more than $500), you probably won't need advertising income to pay the setup fees. But, it's okay to try to earn extra money by selling ads anyway!

How Much To Charge?

If you're selling just enough space to cover the initial costs, figure the amount you'll be spending on editing, design, and printing. That'll be the dollar amount of advertising space you'll need to sell to cover your fees on that run. How many ads can you put in the book (without diluting the quality of the material you're offering)? Divide your costs by the number of ads you think you can sell and that's how much each ad should cost. You can, of course, sell the ads for more money. If you want to try to earn more than your costs, go for it!

You should not accept any payment, or accept only a token down-payment, until your manuscript is finished and ready to publish. The advertiser will trust you and be more willing to work with you if you don't demand money before you need it for production.

What Can You Guarantee The Advertiser?

The potential advertiser is going to want a guarantee for their dollars. How many eyeballs will see that book? You will probably need to promise that a certain number of books will be printed and distributed/sold. If you collect enough advertising income up front, you may be able to give away enough free copies to satisfy the advertiser's demand for distribution. That's how controlled-circulation periodicals work. They sell enough advertising to enable them to distribute their publications for free to a specific type of readership. But, if you are skilled (and lucky!) enough to sell enough ads to give away your book, your advertisers are going to want specific guarantees about how, when and where your book is being distributed to a targeted list of people that will be interested in the types of products and services advertised in your book.

If you can't guarantee distribution or sales, you may want to offer to also promote their company on your website and/or in your ezine, or other promotional materials, such as press releases. If you're publishing through POD, you may want to offer the advertiser space in your book for the first ___ number of books sold/distributed. You can then approach them for additional money if they want to keep advertising in the book after the initial limit is reached.

The advertiser is also going to want distribution information for your book. Where will your book be for sale? What online bookstores will have it listed? What local bookstores or other retailers have agreed to carry your book? How many unique website visitors do you have each month? How many people really subscribe to your ezine? Make sure your list is clean and only contains live email addresses!

Do you sell advertisements on your website and in your ezine? How much do companies pay for those and do you have repeat advertisers (which indicates the ads are working)? Your book advertisers will probably want a list of testimonials or references from any current advertisers. And, if you do have paying advertisers, those should be the first people you approach to advertise in your book!

Are you getting married?

Whatever you do, don't offer to run their ad in your book for an unlimited amount of time or in an unlimited number of books. You never know what can happen! You could be offered more money from one of their competitors. The company could get some really bad press, making your relationship with them undesirable in the future. You may want to simply stop publishing the book (while they demand you keep it on the market and keep selling copies). Your book may be picked up by a traditional publisher who may insist on changing the name of the sponsorship companies, or may want to drop all ads. The problems that can arise from marrying yourself to an advertiser like that are endless.

What about competing ads?

Will you allow competing companies to run ads alongside each other or does each type of company get the exclusive right to advertise in your book? The latter makes the deal much more appealing to the advertisers, but you should charge them more for that exclusivity to make up for lost sales from other potential advertisers.

Ad Or Advertorial?

Let's face it. Ads are boring. Advertorials (advertisements that appear to be articles) are much more interesting! Offering more space in an advertorial format for advertisers will be very tempting for them. In fact, their ad may appear to be just another chapter in your book! But, you should label the ad as such. (I'm sure you've seen advertorials in your newspaper with that microscopic font at the top that says "advertisement.") Don't ever do anything to try to fool your readers or your reputation could be ruined. For sponsorships, you should be honest and acknowledge in the beginning of your book that ABC Corporation is a valued, paying sponsor of your work.

How To Sell?

1. Your manuscript should be finished or you should have enough of your manuscript completed to offer as a sample for potential advertisers. Your manuscript should be edited and formatted and should resemble a book. The advertiser should get a true feel for what the final product will look like. They're much more likely to buy an ad if they can picture what the final product will look like in their minds. If you're approaching specific businesses for sponsorships in your novel, you can use a generic name in the book text until any sponsorship deals are complete. You can then insert the name of the sponsoring company throughout the book. (Word processing software makes this a breeze!)

2. You should create a tempting pitch letter for potential advertisers that lists the different sections of your book that will feature ads, information on the cost of sponsoring each section, and a note about any exclusivity offered (will you allow competing ads in the book or not?).

3. The reader above had planned to create mock ads for each company she was approaching...before she approached them. While this could obviously be an incredible waste of time for her, it may also offend potential advertisers. They may think she's being too forward or that she's assuming a relationship already exists. It's a better idea to create a generic ad as an example. You could design a generic ad for each "section" of the book (targeting a different type of advertiser for each section). The potential advertiser can then see what an ad for a company like theirs might look like in that section of the book.

If you're trying to solicit a sponsor, you can provide text from your book for a specific chapter that says Acme Cola or ABC Lingerie or some other obviously generic name. The potential sponsor can then imagine their company's name appearing wherever one of those generic names appears.

4. Unless you already have a relationship with these companies, emailing your pitch to them would be considered spam. A better idea is to mail a pitch letter to each company (using your own letterhead that features your book's cover, of course) with one of two links. You can either provide them with a link to a private area of your website where they can download your manuscript (that includes sample advertisements). Or, create a private section on your website just for potential advertisers and publish your advertising pitch there, using nice graphics and including sample chapters for their perusal. Having a preliminary book cover graphic to feature on your site would also go a long way toward making the book look "real" to potential advertisers. You could name this part of your website something like "Non-fiction author Jane Doe is now soliciting advertisers for her new book."

You can, of course, print your materials and send them by mail to potential advertisers who you feel may not be online or who may be more receptive to print materials.

When a potential advertiser bites, you should have a contract prepared for their review that spells out the entire relationship between you and your advertisers/sponsors, and details every aspect of the deal. Have an attorney review your contract and make any necessary changes before distributing it to any potential clients.

And, finally, for non-fiction authors, never allow the purchase of advertising space in your book to sway your writing. One way to ensure non-biased writing in your book is to finish the manuscript before soliciting any advertisers.

Once your book is complete and the deals are done, collect all (or the final balance of) fees from your advertisers before printing the books or before submitting your final manuscript to your POD publisher. You don't want to print a bunch of copies of your book only to learn your advertiser is a deadbeat.

Oh, and one nice thing about POD publishing is that you can usually make changes to your manuscript at anytime (meaning you can submit a new book text with advertisements therein) for a nominal fee without calling it a new edition and without changing your ISBN. So, current POD publishers can still solicit and sell advertisements/sponsorships if they want. To avoid surprises later, be sure to check with your current POD publisher about their fees for changes before heading down this road!

With more newspapers and magazines folding each year, advertisers are looking for other creative avenues to reach their target audience. Why shouldn't one of those creative avenues be your book?

I'd be very interested in hearing from readers who have sold or purchased advertising space in books and how those relationships developed and ultimately worked out. I'd like to publish a follow-up article with examples and suggestions sent in by readers. Write to me at angela (at) writersweekly.com and I'll get right back to you.

Angela Hoy is the co-owner of WritersWeekly.com and Booklocker. WritersWeekly.com is the free marketing emag for writers that features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday. Booklocker.com, is rated the top POD Publisher by attorney Mark Levine. Mark's book, The Fine Print, analyzes the contracts and services of 73 top POD and ebook publishers. Booklocker.com can publish your paperback or hardcover book in 4-6 weeks for only $217.

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