It Takes A Village
I’m somewhat stunned by the number of promo options out there for authors. Stunned as in overwhelmed and confused. We have book trailers, websites, MySpace, Bebo, advertisements, guest blogging, booksignings and a whole host of other possibilities. Some of these make little sense to me in the grand scheme of selling books. But, authors are using them and, it appears, doing so with great success.
The only thing I’m sure of is that I have absolutely no idea what motivates the reading public to buy the books it buys. Using one, all or a combination of the above promo ideas is not a guarantee an author the sales numbers she wants (needs). Likewise, not doing anything doesn’t not mean the death of a writing career as shown by some authors who do zero promo and have big sales numbers (ex. Shannon McKenna and Sally MacKenzie). The answer can’t just be that those zero-promo writers just write good books and that’s enough. Many authors write good books and don’t have a following. And, frankly, some authors write books that suck yet the books are in multiple printings and the authors enjoy big advances and big publishing house pushes.
I’m not trying to be nasty. I’m just saying that in terms of some authors, great writing is not the reason for big sales. It’s not hard to find silly plots and bad writing out there. And I’m not talking about preferences. People have different tastes. For example, some people don’t like my writing. I get that - makes me sad, but I get it. In terms of figuring out what sells. I’m wondering about something other than the “oh, that’s not my thing” reaction we all get from time to time. That’s normal. No, I’m really referring to the odd circumstance of bad writing selling well. Talk about making me sad…
If someone out there would just figure out the secret of bookselling success and package that, I’d be willing to shell out some serious cash for that information. That’s not asking to much, is it?
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:51 am
I’d be willing to shell out some serious cash, too … ah, crap. I guess I have to sell a lot of books first before have I serious cash. Any promo ideas for that?
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
As a reader, if I don’t know the author the cover of their book grabs me if I am browsing the book shelves. If I am surfing the web and checking out all of my favorite sites, good reviews from other authors that I like can sell a book to me. I have read books that were supposed to be wonderful and hated them. I have read book by unknown authors and loved them and have never been able to get another book by them. I guess what I am trying to say is that I don’t know, but if you have any ideas of how to sell a book to an editor I will take any advice you can give. More importantly, if you can me any suggestions in reference to how to handle your first pitch, I would really appreciate it.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:38 am
Heeeey, get off my wave-length, HelenKay.
If someone offers you that secret for bookselling success, let me know. I’ll go in halv-sees with you!
May 24th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Meljean & Beth - So, we agree to ban together, scrape up the cash and somehow buy this information? I’m in if you guys are. We just need to figure out who has the secret decoder ring.
Patty - All good questions. I’m mulling them over and will do a blog on this topic in the next few days. Just want to make sure I don’t say something stupid (very possible). Check back…