Cracking the Books

Before You Invest in Advice, Look Closely at Who's Giving It

The advice rarely changes, but book publishers keep cranking it out.

And why not? There's always a new crop of people wanting to buy or sell homes, or fix up the ones they have, even when the housing market slows. As long as those folks exist, so will demand for real estate books that tell them what to do and when.

Because the target audience at any time is small, real estate titles make up less than 1 percent of total sales for adult nonfiction books. Nonetheless, there are plenty to choose from -- about 32,000 on Amazon.com alone. And there is money to be made on those rare occasions when a real estate book becomes a bestseller.

However, if "bestseller" evokes images of 1 million-plus books flying off the shelves in a matter of weeks, Harry Potter-style, think again. The top-selling real estate book so far this year -- "Find It, Fix It, Flip It! Make Millions in Real Estate One House at a Time" -- has sold 31,000 copies since January, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks publishing industry sales.

So what should you consider when looking for advice about what could be some very expensive decisions? Should you judge a book by its cover? By the star power of its author? By its high-profile placement in the store?

It's easier to make a smart decision if you know a bit about how publishing works.

In every genre, stores stock so-called backlist books -- those that are consistent sellers -- and frontlist books, those that are newly published and often heavily promoted .

But most real estate books fall in the midlist category, said Scott Mendel, a literary agent in Manhattan. They are generally how-to books that come out in paperback with little fanfare, and their authors typically do not command huge advances, all of which makes them relatively cheap for publishers to produce.

"We live in hope that a midlist book becomes a huge bestseller or category killer. When you publish enough books, that can happen, " said Mendel, managing partner of Mendel Media Group. But if the book flops, the financial loss for its publisher is usually minimal.

Many do flop, in part because retailers are an impatient bunch. They give up on books that don't sell quickly, taking them off the shelves a few weeks or months after they debut, said literary agent Alice Fried Martell of the Martell Agency in New York. Retailers usually send those books back to the publisher for a full refund.

"From the retailer's perspective, why take up shelf space with a book that moves slowly when you can replace it with a book that's new and fresh and could be a bestseller?" Martell said. "The window of opportunity to make an impression is very limited."

Making an impression on the consumer becomes easier if a publisher sinks a lot of money into promoting a book. A major publishing house is most likely to do that if the author has a platform: a television show, a popular Web site or a following that makes the person recognizable.