All Answers To Questions

That someone out there would be willing to read your book. That can be accomplished by readng your own work and can honestly say you would read a book like this and let a writing circle of people like you read it and critique it. If you try to catch a wave of book style, it's too late to get on board. What some say is not going to sell now could be part of the next wave later.

That depends upon who is marketing the book. If it is a self published book, the author needs to know a great deal about successfully marketing it. If the book is published by a major house, the author doesn't need to know a lot -- but should still keep an eye on how his/her book is being handled. If it's a smaller publishing house, the author should be fairly involved, to help promote the book. Most publishing houses do general marketing -- placing books in bookstores, obviously, but authors, who are more familiar with their work, can often suggest niche marketing that can be very effective. For example, if you wrote a book about kids soccer, you might be able to get a connection with a sporting goods store to carry the book. In the field of fiction, you might be able to tie in the location, or the hobby or interest of the main character, etc. Or you could suggest special hookups in the author's hometown (complete with book signings), appearances on local radio stations, classroom appearances in local high schools or colleges, etc. It's something you have to work on closely with your publisher. good luck to you!

It's possible for an author to know nothing about it and be successful, but it's certainly helpful if you know a little bit about marketing. And chances are, you know more than you think. . . . For instance, who is your audience? That answer (combined with who you think will actually be purchasing the book) establishes your target market. What other books are out there that are like yours? That's one of the questions to ask in doing a comparative analysis (and one of the first questions a publisher will ask). The point is, it helps to know some marketing, but don't be intimidated by it. Gain a good foundation of knowledge and build on that with a market-saavy agent or publisher, and you'll hit the market you're reaching for!

Nothing! Unless, of course, he wants other people to read his works.

There are two types of authors. There are the one-hit wonders who manage a good or decent book but need a good deal of help selling it. In that case, some people will need a lot of marketing help, especially those who pay someone to have it printed because the publishers won't accept it. But then there are those who put out a phenomenal work. I heard Peter Benchley talk about Jaws, his only real hit, though he did write others. The publishers saw the potential and they arranged the marketing and publishing aspects for him. There are writers, then who need every advantage to squeeze out every possible penny. There are writers whose works get people to fall all over themselves to see just how many truckloads of dollars they can get that book to make. My mother knew a writer, an elderly lady who had written a couple-dozen books. One of them sold something like about 15,000 copies. She knew that she had a quality product and that whenever she finished a manuscript it would sell, as in the publishers would buy it. She never cared about the marketing, she simply enjoyed writing--her hobby. Meanwhile, I have a friend who wrote a book, and it stinks so badly that he is going to have to pay people to take his copies away. These days, you need an agent to market the book to the publisher, or tell you the bad news, "Ain't nobody gonna buy that turkey." Good luck.

You don't have to know too much, but you have to be willing to promote yourself. Most of what you need to learn you can get from books available in any bookstore. However, my friends who have successfully marketed their books do the work that these books recommend - they call the bookstores, look for speaking engagements, constantly promote the book (and themselves). Many authors want to learn some secret that will open the magic kingdom (to an Oprah appearance?), but, like most things, it involves a lot of hard work.

Depends on the market niche you're trying to break into. If you're aiming for HP books, then you better find out what makes that book sell and (if) why it doesn't. You'll be needing to spend a lot of man hours researching and studying this angle, if this is where you want to go. If you're only going small press, independent, or (*shudder!*) vanity-press, then you're entirely on your own, and free to create your own niche. The pressure isn't as great, and you're more free to do some research at the local level--seeing that your books won't reach bookstore shelves anytime soon--and target those who enjoy reading your kind of genre. (And this isn't to say that this is a bad thing. This just means that you haven't attracted enough attention to your book(s) yet.) So there's no serious competition here.