Thought I'd Introduce Myself . . . · Non-Fiction Author Lab

Thought I'd Introduce Myself . . .

Hello to all my new non-fiction writer colleagues!

I'm Lauriann and I live in Philly. My first book was published in 1995 by a small publisher in Seattle. The subject was injury prevention for massage therapists, and it was the first book ever on that subject. He was inexperienced and gave me progressive royalty rates: I think it was 15% for the first 5000 books sold, then 20% for 5-10,000 books sold, and 25% after 10,000 books sold. In the first six months, we sold 15,000 books. He never imagined the book would sell so well and he'd have to pay me so much money! So he started cheating me on my royalties, which led to an arbitration, which led to me getting the rights to my book (and half the money he owed me). I tell this story as a cautionary tale!!

I started a publishing company, had the books reprinted, and started selling the book myself using a fulfillment company. I took other jobs, but I wrote articles for industry magazines, spoke at industry conferences, and sold my books at those conferences and also to many massage therapy schools worldwide who made it required reading (something to think about if you have the right book subject). In 2006, I met an ergonomist/massage therapist and together we worked with a professional association to create the first statistical study of injury prevalence among massage therapists. We then decided to write the second edition of the book together (see my bio for the name of the book), published in 2008. It started out well, then the financial crisis hit and I lost all my school and other customers. I sold the rights to someone else, and went into a different field. I worked in that field (wine and wine tours in Europe - I'm a French certified sommelier) until COVID hit, and that was the end of that. About 2 years ago, I realized that the person publishing my book had let it go out of print. After 6 months out of print, the rights reverted to me and I decided to write the third edition of the book, which I once again self-published last December. Except now, I'm doing POD - what a difference! It's on Amazon in all its countries, and I use Ingram and Bookvault for international distribution.

Sorry, this is way too long!!! To finish up, sales have been slow - I've been told that people don't read books as much anymore. I'm slowly getting it into schools and spas, but it's a slog. I'm hoping that Booklaunchers will be able to give me the information I need to get sales to pick up. Oh, I also self-published a 76 page eBook about my experience moving to France for a year in my 20's. It sells a little here and there. So I've gone the self-publishing route 4 times - still a lot to learn but if I can be of any help to anyone, don't hesitate to ask. Looking forward to getting to know you!!😀

4 comments

Thought I'd Introduce Myself . . .