Put your money where your mouth is

[jenniferechols]

Yesterday I turned in the revision of Levitating Las Vegas, my New Adult paranormal romantic comedy coming out on May 7 with Pocket Star, an ebook-only line from Simon & Schuster. As you may know, that was my NaNoWriMo book from 2008. Selling it took a lot of revisions and a lot of time...but ultimately, it took the market finally waking up to New

Comments

[lilrongal]

What's really depressing is when an author works hard, gets published, and then his/her book doesn't even make it to the store shelves because the store decides to skip it. And the publisher doesn't fight to get that book out there. Nothing the author does is going to help at that point because what's the point of marketing a book that people can't buy?

I've seen it happen so many times--talented, midlist authors get thrown to the back burner in favor of authors who are already insanely successful, or people who have a reality show, or people who are famous in some other way. The "new" shelf is covered with classics from ten years ago that just have new covers. It doesn't make sense to me, and it's really discouraging. I know too much about the publishing industry now, I guess.

[jenniferechols]

Well, I have to say that this happened to me for both GOING TOO FAR and FORGET YOU, but I didn't give up and sent copies to any book blogger who would accept them. Eventually sales reached the point that the stores were stocking them retroactively. And I think presence in a bookstore makes less and less difference as the online economy grows.

You're right--in traditional publishing, there are a whole lot of people standing in the way of an author connecting directly with the reader. Bookstores stock what they THINK a reader will want. Editors buy what they THINK a bookstores will stock. Agents represent what they THINK an editor will buy. That's three steps removed. The way to get around this is to self-publish and talk directly to the reader, and some people have been very successful in this. But I think most people, given the choice, would still want the marketing and distribution juggernaut of the publishing industry behind them. It doesn't always work for every author, but it's sure nice when it does.

[lilrongal]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I've never had a problem finding your books, but then again, I do order most of my books online. I've lost count how many of yours I have floating around here

[jenniferechols]

I certainly agree that the business side of publishing can thwart your creative side. You have to keep the two things separate. Some really great writers are terrible marketers, but that makes perfect sense--the skill we are selling is writing, not marketing

[9t9]

Great analogy with the upcoming election. I know you have talked about the importance of supporting authors you like before by purchasing the book as soon as it comes out, it made an impression on me and I try to make sure I do that for my all of my favorite writers.

It is a real bummer wrt working in the arts, the people with the most talent and skill are not always the best known or most successful. But I do think word of mouth via social media/blogging can help with this a lot. I happened to come across Going Too Far at my local library (I bought a copy later, no worries, LOL!), but I discovered both Melina Marchetta (criminally underrecognized in North America) and Laini Taylor that way.

[jenniferechols]

That's wonderful! And also--I think borrowing a book from a library does help, because libraries have to buy those books, and they're big supporters of authors!

[janusfiles]

I thought I might share something I heard a writer say recently. If a store won't carry his book, He does what he referred to as "reverse shoplifting." He'll get a copy of his book (from Amazon, I guess), go to the bookstore that won't carry the book, and put that copy on the shelves. He also puts an unobtrusive pencil mark in the book somewhere so he knows this is the copy he planted.

From what this guy said, if someone buys the book, the store will reorder it, just as if they had ordered it in the first place. And whenever he visits a store where he planted one of his books, he'll check to see if it's on the shelves, and he'll check for the pencil mark. He knows they've reordered if he can't find the mark.

[jenniferechols]

Imho, this is a lot of thought and effort put into an activity with a very small return.

[janusfiles]

Perhaps a lot of initial thought and effort. From what he said, it has worked for him.