The lists continue. Time provides it’s list of books of the year. I’ve read…well, okay, none of them. I own two. That must count for something. To be honest, though, a few don’t sound even vaguely familiar. That kind of sucks. For the author much more than for me.

USA Today goes the extra step and has a bunch of lists, including the “Most overhyped debuts of the year” which it names as The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist, and The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld Interesting. You’d think if these books were so overhyped (which I think should be spelled “over-hyped” but who am I to question USA Today), I’d at least have heard of them. My favorite category on the USA Today list is this (there’s even a photo of this author in the article):

Author whose ‘hotness’ got more mentions than her talent (and her talent got plenty): Marisha Pessl, author of the heralded debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

I’m sure there are even more lists out there. But, since chances are you’ve only heard of a few of the books on whatever list, we’ll move on. Here’s my list of the day - Five General Thoughts on Book Marketing:

1. For publishers: end the feast-or-famine covers. By this I mean, cartoon covers are in for a bunch of months, so everyone does them. Then someone in sales decides those are out and everyone switches to photo covers…and so on. Variety is good, right?

2. For publishers and authors and anyone else who will listen to me: not every book needs to be erotic just as not every book needs a paranormal hook. Seems to me the best way to destroy a good thing is to flood the market.

3. Back to covers for publishers: it’s bad enough for an author to see a similar cover by another author from another publishing house. These things happen. But - and this is a big “but” - it’s another thing for one publishing house to put out titles by different authors where the covers are interchangeable. Ack!

4. To authors: on promotional goodies, I’m thinking we need to try something new. Honestly, I’m thinking liquor. See, I’ve seen everything else. We need something out of the box (to borrow a stupid business phrase). Think about it…

5. To authors: please update your websites. I’m begging here. Jeepers, people, I’m not talking daily. While I prefer monthly book updates plus a blog that sees at least a weekly visit from you, I’m willing to accept less. Like, how about information on your most recent release or the book that is coming out within the next month, hmmm? Is it that hard to have the cover of your newest release up on your site? Hello?

6. To everyone and for always: you should buy my books. Lots and lots of copies of my books. My blog. I can beg if I want to, so…go buy them. They’re the perfect stocking stuffers. Go on. Grab your wallet. Get in the car…

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 5:23 am and is filed under About Authors, About Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.