Our 2007 "communication to our authors" newsletters - cont...

International Book Fair in Cape Town

The Cape Town Book Fair was a great event. Our booth was small, but very popular. The fair was apparently visited by more than 49 000 people and attracted International Trade Visitors. It definitely placed us firmly on the international literary map as a Body, Mind & 2Spirit publisher from South Africa... click to enlarge

At this fair we could sell books! That is not possible for us in Frankfurt, so we hoped to cover our stand expenses in Cape Town, but that was probably too much to ask. We both realised that amongst the millions of books that were for sale, we did rather well if we saw the Book Fair as one huge bookshop and we only occupied one shelf. In that case we did extremely well. Seeing it this way made us realise more and more how many people are starting to ask the same questions all our authors have been asking for years.

Visitors were drawn to our titles, especially to our pocket books on our small bookstand. This revealed to us that many readers can still only digest small and easy reading. Interesting observation!

People noticed our now considerable variety of titles considering the titles we distribute and those we publish ourselves.

As publishers we were so glad to have found out that the people of South Africa do read! The fair itself as the premier literary event in Cape Town with an emphasis on both business and public participation did indeed attract thousands of book-lovers. but the business side of the fair was not what we hoped for. We did not experience the event as an international book trade fair like the Frankfurt Book Fair. But we will participate again next year in order to support the intent that one day it will be.

We managed to finish our four new titles, with their posters, in order to display them at the Book fair.

They were:

  • Hunting with the Heart - Graham Saayman
  • The Role of Evil in Human Evolution - David Ash
  • The New Physics of Consciousness - David Ash
  • The Awakening Clan - Nadine May

Two of these titles were new. Hunting with the Heart - A Vision Quest to Spiritual Emergence by Graham Saayman and The New Physics of Consciousness by David Ash.

Welcome to a new author

Congratulations Graham, we welcome you to our publishers stable. We probably met some of your students at the show. When we told them that you would be in SA in August, they asked about visiting our website to read about the time and dates, so they could attend your lecture.

The New Physics of Consciousness - Reconciling Science & Spirituality by David Ash

 

 

Congratulations David, once again you have astounded us with your clear writing about a subject many non-academic readers tend to stay away from. Your book was well received by the public, men as well as women. We sold a few copies at the show, so that was a very good sign.

We both decided that David's previous title 'Is God God' needed to be relaunched under a new title. This way we move it in onto our front list so that the bookshops will see and order it as a new book. We only go to this length and expence if we know that it will pay off, and the topic needs to be re-written with a new cover in order to bring a fresh approach to a controversial subject.

click to enlargeWe can't do this for all our titles. It would be too costly. When I joined Robin as his partner he published my first novel under the title 'My Love We Are going Home' in 2001. In those days Robin did not have his own website nor the infrastructure to get into the bookshops that we have today. His distributor New Horizon did not represent Kima Global well.

Robin's first ventuyre into visionary fiction never got good exposure into the bookshops in 2001. My novel was his guinea pig. I have learned a lot since then. Fiction is difficult to sell! In 2002 we decided to do our own distribution and we started to look at a new logo and branding methods to make Kima Global more visible as a Body, Mind & Spirit publisher. Our bookstands were born at that time.

This year Robin wanted me to re-write my first ascension novel and re-position it as fantasy fiction under the title The Awakening Clan to get it onto the fantasy fiction shelves. Time will tell.

Which are our most popular titles so far?

Our A6 pocket books sold well at the fair and the turnover in bookshops is garanteed, especially when they use our bookstand. In the last three months we have received requests from our regular customers for about 10 small book stands. The branding idea from four years ago is starting to work at last!

The following titles are ordered repeatedly. This does not mean that our other titles have not, but most bookshops fax us their orders and so I have a look which titles are always included. The orders are still very small, meaning 1- 2 or maybe 3 copies of one title except for A Course in Miracles. This shows us the difference between a well known title and not so well known titles.

  • A Course in Miracles. (we can't keep up with the demand because of the shipping delays)
  • Osho Fragrance - (A very steady seller)
  • Heaven's Gift - stays a steady seller, including from our online book shop.
  • I Died Young - is often ordered together with Heaven's Gift.

Our steady distribution sellers are... -

  • Your Body can Talk (Hohm Press) kinesiology
  • Ginger - Common Spice, wonder Drug (Hohm Press)
  • Tantra (Wisdom Tree)
  • Soulmate Astrology (Wisdom Tree)
 
Our Marketing Plans for 2007-2008
click to enlargeWe are opening our own bookshop in Clovelly at the end of this year. We printed many flyers and handed them out at the book fair. We have already had two people banging on our door expecting us to be open.
We will place a six month running ad in our local magaziene 'full circle" from August onwards and in the Oddessy with book reviews, probably in November after we come back from Frankfurt. Next year we will continue to exhibit at trade fairs around the country.
Our extensive renovations

Our dream is to be acknowledged as a sophisticated Body Mind & Spirit Publisher by our readers as well as our fellow publishers around the world, but this takes a lot of dedication and above all Finance! In today's world of the written word, in order to stay in the publishing business readers have to remember us for something. We came up with the slogan, The Magic of Books. We are in the process of branding our publishing house with mystical elemental beings in the form of ornaments surrounded by water features. In our Wisdom Cave bookshop and library we intend to create a display that will inspire any visitor.

We have started to invest in this ornamental sideline that will have a book and fantasy theme attached to them. In our Wisdom Cave we will bring this out in a big way together with water features people can purchase for their own home. This will hopefully give us the cash flow we need for our publishing business to grow globally.

This idea came about because our property in Clovelly lends itself very well to the elemental fantasy theme. Together with our holiday cottage rental we intend to finance future marketing, which is so needed in order for our titles to have a chance to become a household name.

We had always hoped that assistance would come in form of the marketing investments our authors themselves would undertake, but only 3% of our authors have made the effort to keep their books on the bookshelves. For those Authors we will go an extra mile when it comes to financing an upgrade! We cannot put more money into titles that have not being supported by the authors themselves.
What we hope to avoid from now on

It is sad to have to acknowledge that we have taken on authors who do NOT actually have the discernment and honesty that they claimed to have, and of course we only find this out AFTER we have gone into a partnership with them.

Financing someone's work is always a gamble. In a recent case we found out that one of our authors had resold substantial portions of her title with us to an overseas publisher who then proceeded to market this competing book on the South African market. We have regretfully taken legal action to protect our interests and so cannot at this stage say much more about it. It is disappointing that the other publisher whom we see each year in Frankfurt and who is aware of our edition, saw fit to 'Published and be damned' without any consultation or offer to buy the rights to what is essentially the same book.
What we want to avoid in future is to be ensnared by a rather ambitious writer who will do anything to be in the limelight in order to make money. That kind of energy does NOT resonate well with our intent. We learned that when a partnership between us and an author has gone sour, often due to the unrealistic expectations, we need to stay in integrity, and keep our side of the partnership intact. We have done that with every author we have published so far. This does not mean that we will sit back and take unnecessary abuse. We will take action if we feel we are entitled to do so.

Its a draining experience for both of us when we deal with writers who calibrate in consiousness at a lower scale, but it was probably a karmic lesson for us both and to learn to recognise the signs beforehand.
No names were mentions since the lawsuit between us and the author and her other publisher has still not been settled
Your June /July royalty payments
Robin will print out a sales report for each of our own titles this coming month and he will personally mail this to you and include your royalty cheque. because of our major renovations and the preparation for our official opening in August, he might run into August doing so, so please our apologies for the delay. We will do our best to keep up with our obligations.

October 2007
Dear Authors

The time has come around once again for us to prepare for our European trip. This time we have seven new titles to present in Frankfurt. We also have managed to get a better stand position; a corner stand near other Body, Mind & Spirit publishers. You will see photos in the next newsletter.
Robin has already booked many appointments, so we always have high hopes that we might be selling more of our back list titles. Our Front List looks like this...

  • The Role of Evil in Human Evolution - by David Ash
  • The New Physics of Consciousness - by David Ash ( David will join us in Frankfurt and will promote his own title as best as he can. We already have sold The New Physics of Consciousness to an Indian publisher, so that is a promising start.)
  • Beautiful Schools Project – Supporting Schooling for the 21st Century - by Ralph Shepherd Our first educational title
  • Multi-dimensional Thinking - Mind Training to get the best out of life - by Jimmy Henderson
  • Stress Slaves - How stress imprisons you, How to break free by Pamina Mullins (Anyone who manages to give workshops on Stress whilst living in Zimbabwe must be good!)
  • Hunting with the Heart -A vision Quest to Spiritual Emergence by Graham S. Saayman ( this is a profound inner journey, we were very privileged to have published.)
  • The Awakening Clan - What we can imagine, we can make real - by Nadine May

This first novel by Nadine May was written between 1995 and 1999 and Robin published it in 2001 under the title My Love We Are Going Home. We both decided that it needed to be revamped since so much has happened in the intervening years. I rewrote it in the months after Frankfurt last year. It was once again an uplifting experience for me to actively do some creative writing for myself.
From Nadine May the author — a.k.a. Nadia, Robin's partner in the publishing business

While clearing out my inbox I came across newsletter emails from many other busy people. Its a real shame that we have so little time to read them all.
We both came to the conclusion that very few of our authors have the time to keep up to date with what Kima Global Publishers is all about. We assume that they are focused on their own mission in life, and we naturally hope that includes the book we have published, but so often something else sets in especially if the sales are not what they had hoped for; an energy that we recognise, or experience as being disappointed, unsure, insecure or in some cases very disheartened.

We both feel that this is the most common human 'habit' on the planet; to be unsure of one's own uniqueness . But here comes the crunch; the books we publish are meant to make a difference to our readers, and to the author!What we write about is often the topic where we are most likely to find our own growth.

Being an author myself, I was very astounded to experience what other authors somehow expect us as publishers to deliver. It has, and always will be an honour to be in a position to shape a manuscript into a book. It’s a creative process and at all times both Robin and I hope to always involve the new author in every way possible, but there comes a time when the book must get onto the bookshelf. What happens after it has been on our front list for a year depends a lot on the author.
I would like to share an insight with you all, that will hopefully forever wipe away any misconceptions about what roles we as publishers perceive ourselves to play in your life.
OUR PUBLISHING HOUSE IS LIKE A UNIVERSITY.
The fact that we invested our time and money in your book, means we felt you the author had something to say that to us was worth seeing in print.
YOU QUALIFIED TO BE ENROLLED INTO OUR UNIVERSITY.
By the time your book is ready for its first official print run, you have already been through the proof reading stages of seeing your work shaping up into a book. This was your study period, but now graduations has arrived.
YOUR BOOK IS YOUR DIPLOMA, YOUR UNIVERSITY DEGREE Or your COLLEGE CERTIFICATE
You have now succeeded where many have not. Now you are free to walk your path, you now have to go out into the world and make sure that your diploma, degree or certificate helps you in your career.
You have earned a certain amount of credibility with your achievement but that is all, you now have to prove that you are the same person who wrote the book; an expert on your topic!
Students have to go out to find a job, or if they lucky and have the financial means, they study further to earn more degrees, but ultimately they have to earn their own financial independence. They have to find a job, or offer a service that earns them money.
THEY NEED TO SELL THEIR BOOK!
A university does not guarantee jobs; a university degree or college certificate does not pay the student any money after they have graduated. It's the student that has mostly paid money to a university or college.to have had the honour of studying with an institution that is globally recognised for producing good students.
KIMA GLOBAL PUBLISHERS is globally in contact with other publishing houses.
I hope you are all with me so far. The responsibility of succeeding in getting your book publicly known is YOURS!
Like any graduate, you now have to get back into the competitive world to make a stand. As publishers we always hope that you, the author, will become our best customer! We will always do our effort to sell your title, but the window of opportunity is very short.
Two well known case studies prove the point. The authors of the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul series started with a small independent publishing house similar to ours, but they soon realised that they were not going to achieve a lot unless they got seriously involved in promotion, so that's what they did. Robert Kiyasaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) was asked for advice by a wanabe successful writer. He replied “Go on a sales course.” The writer was affronted saying “I’m a writer and not a sales person!” to which Robert replied “Have you ever noticed that on book covers it states ‘best selling author, not best writing author?” Look how successful these authors are today.

There are so many ways to promote books; through personal workshops and contacts, radio or TV programs ( if you know the right person, or pay a publicist for getting you, the author, onto their shows) or if, you the author, are a great sales person yourself, and do your own selling and buy your own books on a regular basis from us. All those actions will help to keep your book on the bookshelves due to word of mouth marketing. In the end it will lead to good passive income for years.

You the graduate are gaining experience by working and interacting with others who might already have gone before you, or who can still teach you a thing or two. Also like all of us, we always must be open to learn more. We must keep studying in our free time.

Why not buy a KIMA GLOBAL TITLE besides your own from us? Or ...have you all reached a stage where you can truly say, “I don’t need to read anymore?” If you have, don’t expect any sales report from your own book!
THE AUTHOR THAT HAS STOPPED “SHIFTING” IS A MUTE AUTHOR, meaning, this person has gone silent, like a microphone. Nobody will hear them any more! The effort and money that we invested is also lost. It is simply not possible to sell a book that has no support from the author UNLESS: YOUR BOOK HAS MADE A DIFFERENCE!

After all it’s the contents of the book that will slowly pick up a momentum. It’s a slower marketing process compared to hard core selling, but word-of-mouth advertising has a longer life span. Word-of-mouth advertising cannot hold any momentum if the book is dull, boring, stiff, and worse: unoriginal. If your topic is a popular one, then it’s even more difficult to shine brighter. which we as publishers hope for it to happen in the end. That is why we are so picky as to what we publish.

Now that you are all clear as to what role we play as your publishers, Robin and I would like to receive emails from all of you , requesting to buy books!

At a meeting with a more experienced publisher of a big Dutch publishing house in Frankfurt last year I asked a similar question, and her reply was,
. “It’s a business and most of the authors are in it for business. I’ve learned that for me as the publisher it is wise to never get personally involved with our authors, I have staff for that. At our weekly meetings I do hear their stories and I just shake my head. We have a special person in our company that deals with difficult authors. She has all my admiration for dealing with them.”

I realised then that being a two persons enterprise with only one agent in Johannesburg (Robin does the Cape Town bookshops) we have to deal with everything so it can sometimes be challenging to keep our interactions with authors on a business level.

That is very difficult for me to do when I do the typesetting. I engage with the mind of the author whom I start to admire and respect for their skill in having created the work I'm shaping into a book. I almost become like one of their readers.

Do others make us responsible for their success or lack of success?

If often feels to both of us that they do. Both Robin and I feel somewhat raw and tired of having to deal with the corporate side of the publishing world, especially when we work so hard to keep up with the demands that come with our enormous growth. We often wonder lately if we should carry on, especially me. I would much rather just write and practice my own skills, but then it is and still is Robin's dream for Kima Global to become a well known and respected publishing company.

Can we make others financially wealthy?

We have never promised that in any way when we take on manuscript, so why is it that some authors seem to think that their book should be as popular as Harry Potter?
We as investors into intellectual property feel very drained when a new title stops selling, unless….the authors themselves keep buying their books from us for their own campaign!

We need authors who become our biggest suppliers.

We are not like the Big Publishing Houses. Although we rub shoulders with them, we operate on a different scale and with a different model and it is a sometimes a challenge to deal with corporate morality from a spiritual viewpoint!. We are an independent publishing house that helps new authors chisel a career for themselves as an author. We are like a college or a university. We don't look for jobs for them, we don't guarantee that they will earn money by having a degree. That is up to them, but we do support their efforts, especially when they keep buying their books from us to sell on to interested parties!

So now I must come to the conclusion that: if you are an Kima Global author who has not purchased your own book for the last , lets say one year, then you can't expect us to keep promoting your book regardless.
We once again will advertise our new titles of this year in various magazines, and give out many review copies, but it sometimes takes up to 4 month for us to get back any reviews , if ever. Our website has been our most successful marketing tool so far, especially due our newsletters.

We display all our titles and what we distribute through at least three out lets in Cape Town, but the rest is up to the authors themselves. They must keep at it. They must find ways to promote their own book, and we will do our best to help out where we can.

Like the many authors that I now help to make their dream come true, never could I have imagined that one day I would be an editor, creative designer, typesetter and webmaster for the publishing company that took on my first novel. I was never trained to be an editor, or a cover designer, but I love the work.
My dreams were not that ambitious, but the outcome of my visions have so far outshone my wishes for myself. For that I will always be grateful.

From Nadine May, a fellow author.

Myself as the author of five titles do experience the same frustrations as some of you have. My books do not get ordered by the local book buyers, unless there is a request by a customer, which sometime happens, but not often enough. I do get sales through both websites, mine and Kima Global, but these orders are then not printed in SA. My novels seem to be more popular in the UK.

I write a regular monthly newsletter and have a well visited website, and I keep writing articles about my topic FOR FREE for anyone to read! I’m myself am quite happy with having at least a small following since I can't spent full time promoting my own work, because I need to earn a living, I'm quite content with what I have so far accomplished.

Its up the the author to invest in promotional expenses.

Many publishers today do NOT publish books for authors who do not already have a high profile. Big publishing houses have to have regular sales in order to survive. So they only invest in very active authors. Every publishing house is fighting for book shelf space. The big publishing houses do have a big influence. They have a big pull with the major book chains so we as a smaller Publishing House have to be grateful for every order we get (on sale or return)
Publishing a book costs money! Keeping a book on the bookshelves cost money!

Conclusion

A few of our authors might be better off with a bigger publishing house. ( That is if their profile is substantial enough) but they will discover that they will NOT get the attention from them, that they get from us. They lose full control over their book.

We have chosen your manuscript out from many others, because we believed in you!. A good teacher does not abandon their student, even under difficult circumstances, so why should you, the parents?

We hope that each year in Frankfurt we will sell our titles into German, Spanish or Dutch, since the readers in these 3 languages are interested in our genre So I hereby finish this in-house letter by saying, congratulations for being a Kima Global Published author. It means to us that we were prepared to put our money where our mouth is, are you?


Nadine May - Nadia
 
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