Buzz, Balls & Hype

Various & Sundry

Backstory

There are several new backstories up at my other blog, including David Hewson's, Laura Lippman's and Luanne Rice's. Please hop on over to Backstory.

The Oxford American

Oh the woes of the magazine business. The Oxford American has gone out of business twice for lack of funding. How can they find the readers who might love the magazine, but have never even heard of it?

Some great word of mouth might help. The new issue is about music and rocks.

Amazon Numbers

After my post last week about Amazon numbers I got several interesting comments - especially these two:

This from anonymous: I work in publishing on the sales and marketing side, and I pulled together these figures about a year ago. It appears little has changed since.

1. Last Thursday, one of our books zoomed from a sales rank of 32,154 to 872, peaking at 665 on Friday. How many copies did we sell in total last week? 17.

2. Another book hovered between the mid-6000s and 14,000s during the week. It ended up selling 37 copies in total.

3. Finally, a publishing colleague shared that one of their authors had appeared on NPR's Fresh Air program that same week. Before the interview, the book ranked 36,162. The day of the interview, it hit 300. The following day, it reached 80 and appeared on the Movers & Shakers list. And, after all that, how many did it sell at Amazon? 47 copies.

Another note was from Laura Lippman:

I gave up checking my numbers more than a year ago. I also stopped Googling myself and learned to give only cursory reads to all media about myself, even the good stuff. I don't know what I'm doing with the time, but I know I'm happier.

Here's what got me to go cold turkey. I had a book out and I was plugging my name and the title into a Google search when I realized I was undergoing physiological changes. My heart was beating a little faster, my stomach was flipping. It felt, in fact, like what I'm told gambling addicts feel. And that's when I said: "I'm through."

My motto is: Good news will out. Bad news, too. And it's ever so interesting to discover who brings you what.

But here's one thing I do recommend that writers read carefully: Royalty statements. I used to just shove them into a file. Then, several years ago, I decided I had to be more responsible about every aspect of my financial life, so I had to face those pages. I discovered that a very large reserve was being carried on my first novel and my agent went to bat for me, got it reduced -- and got me a very nice check.

I got also got a note from some readers telling me about a $2000 seminar that promises to make you an Amazon bestseller. The point of which is so that you can market your book as an Amazon besteller. Which I'm personally not sure is meaningful to anyone.

I don't believe in manipulating sales.

But for those who are, I would suggest that if there is some reason you are dying to buy your way onto the Amazon bestseller list, you can take that same amount of money and buy a whole lot of your own books all at once, in the middle of the night where there's not much book buying going on.

You'll get your low Amazon number and you'll get a lot of books for your money, which you can use for promotional purposes.

Zen and the Art of Ignoring the Numbers

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things…”

Like how we owe it to ourselves to stop obsessing about our Amazon rankings.

I herewith call for a moratorium on checking our numbers.

And I invite you all to send me email telling me what you were able to accomplish with the extra hour a day you will now have to do something fun or productive with.

While you’re at it, tell me how much better you feel about yourself without that constant reminder of how well you think the book is or isn’t doing.

Why now?

Cause things have changed.

First, the ranking does not take into account the third party sales (the pesky used books and the other bookstores that show up in the new and used right hand area) which account for the lion’s share of booksales according to many new articles in the press.

Second, the ranking are no longer cumulative in the way they used to be.

And third, they really are indicative of nothing if you’re not in the top 100.

Sarah Weinman ran a fascinating blog entry about one NYT bestselling author’s sales numbers over a three week period this summer:

B&N: 4,140
Waldenbooks: 4,888
Borders: 3,993
Anderson Merchandisers/Walmart: 47,671
Target: 16,341
Price/Costco: 17,291
Sam's: 14,108
Amazon: 320

In the comments section a few interesting authors/publishers weighed in and made some very salient points.

Tess Gerritsen pointed out that: “The Amazon rankings are more correlative to your overall hardcover sales than to your paperback sales. Because of the cost of shipping, it doesn't make sense for a reader to order a newly released paperback from Amazon; they could get it a lot cheaper by just going to their local Walmart.

“But with price discounts, ordering a brand new hardcover from Amazon doesn't cost you too much more than going to your local independent.”

Richard Nash, publisher of Soft Skull Books said: “ Amazon represents about 10% of Soft Skull's sales on average; however that masks wide swings: on some titles Amazon could represent as much as 60% of sales, on others as little as 0.25%”

I’d suggest Nash’s numbers have something to do Soft Skull’s edgy list. A lot of their books are the kind that get a lot of WOM on the net and would lead to fast Amazon clicking.

Plus when a book doesn’t have a huge bookstore presence but gets a lot of attention its Amazon rankings are higher.

So, I don't know about you, but today, I'm swearing off the numbers and will report back on how much calmer I am tomorrow.

Guest Blogger - Clea Simon

What I learned at Camp Manchuria

Here goes, I’m at it again -- the round of promotion and guerrilla marketing that probably will have little or no effect on sales and yet makes me feel less helpless about the fate of my newest book. I’ve already been turned down by the one NPR show that let me plug my last two ventures. And as a small author on a small press, I’m not expecting any major newspaper attention. So what (else) is a midlist author to do?

What I have been thinking about as I make my rounds of the local bookstores ("Are you stocking? May I sign?") is the relative utility -- or lack thereof -- of big-league media training. Because, yes, at one point, someone thought to send me for 48 hours of intensive schooling. Call it my time at Camp Manchuria.

The occasion was a pharmaceutical giant’s public relations campaign. The drugs the company were pushing did, in fact, relate to the illness that had affected my siblings and, thus, the memoir that I'd just published. But the campaign centered on the idea that this disease, schizophrenia, wasn’t all that bad. Or, at least, that good drugs-- if only folks knew about them-- could alleviate most of the problems.

Truth be told, the portrait of treatment contained in my book could be summed up in one word: failure. My sister was as resistant to treatment as people with thought disorders often are. But as someone who’d grown up getting the fisheye from folks who knew my family history ("she crazy too?"), I liked the idea of anything that fought stigma. So when they said they’d do a big media blitz and take me out to an American Psychiatric Association conference, well, I signed on.

When I arrived early the prearranged morning at the PR headquarters, I could’ve been walking onto TV soundstage. The lights, the desk, etc., all had that perfect and yet fake look -- even-toned walls that ended right beyond the spots’ reach -- and soon, if my handlers had their way, so would I. I’m a writer. I have frizzy red hair, not-great teeth, and a tendency to complicate sentences with dependent clauses. I figured we'd focus on the soundbites, but it quickly became apparent that their ambitions for me extended beyond the verbal plane. As I read over a folder of the campaign’s message points, the clothes I’d brought with me were examined and quickly rejected. As even I could see as we taped and reviewed training video after training interview, The white blouse produced glare and made my sallow skin look positively jaundiced. The patterned one went crazy on camera. My eyebrows, meanwhile, completely disappeared in the lights, giving me an even more startled look than usual. And they didn’t want startled. They didn’t want traumatized memoirist either, really. They wanted calm, reliable. The voice of the campaign.

Which led up to the way I answered questions. The problem, as I eventually understood it (and it did take awhile), was that I was answering questions. Often I’d pause, then I would try to respond to whatever my mock interviewer had said. Mistake. The would stop the video at that point. No matter what was asked,
I was told, respond with a message point. Not exactly relevant? Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t pertain? Viewers at home won’t remember the question. They’ll remember your answer and, if you’re lucky, your well lacquered and yet somehow reassuring smile.

"Tell me about your family." For a memoirist, this is probably a pretty standard query. But instead of launching into any particularly tantalizing anecdote, I learned to parrot back: "My brother and sister were two people who exhibited Signs of Schizophrenia." (That was the campaign’s name.) I’d go on about this treatable disease, naming the relevant drugs, and ignoring the fact that neither of my sibs was in fact treatable and one had since killed himself.

I tried to break the mold, to expand the 'conversation' to include some real details pertaining to my real family's experience. But by the middle of the second day, I’d given up. "S.O.S. -- watch out for the Signs of Schizophrenia," I’d say at the slightest provocation. If I didn't have readings coming up that forced me to go back to my own work, I don't know if I'd have remembered the truth of my own experience. Once home, even my husband took to muttering under his breath, "Schizophrenia is a treatable disease..."

I went to the conference. I sat through a series of satellite interviews with over a dozen television stations ("Good morning, Cleveland!"). And I have very little recollection of anything that I said. Immediately upon my return home, I tried to forget my training.

Some of this is because I’m also a journalist. I hate getting "message point" answers. I want a real response to my actual question. When I watch so-called pundits on TV as they resolutely stay on point and ignore their interviewers’ questions, I think they sound quite dorky, if not downright evil. But some things stay with you: When I’m doing a quick interview, say, for an AM station or a typical morning show, I’ll say the title of my book in full as often as possible (never simply "the book" or "it.") And I’ve learned to darken my eyebrows whenever I’ll be anywhere with bright lights.

But I’ll take the risk of sounding vague. Of rambling and even, yes, losing the occasional listener. Cause at heart I don’t think that an author should sound like a toothpaste spokesman. Sure, these days, with a new book out, I sometimes wish I looked like, I don’t know, Elizabeth Wurtzel in her prime or the female Sebastian Junger. But I don’t, and I like to think that my readers prefer someone who looks normal, like them. Maybe that’s why I’m a small author, with a small press. But that’s my message point, and I don’t know if it’s treatable.

Clea Simon's nonfiction includes MAD HOUSE: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings; FATHERLESS WOMEN: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads; and THE FELINE MYSTIQUE: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats. Her debut novel, MEW IS FOR MURDER, has just been published in hardcover by Poisoned Pen.

Paperback Writers & Readers

Over at , Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind Sarah has started a great conversation about the marketing behind mass market originals vs. hardcovers vs. trade paperback originals.

She refers to the "paperback ghetto" which does suggest the negative we all fear, but she goes on to make some great observations and in the reader's comments, interestingly few readers see them that way and quite a few authors agree.

Read it here.

Various & Sundry

It's summer and the blogging is lazy. Even moreso because I'm in the final throes of a second draft of a new book and it's taking up all my time.

But here are some items of interest.

Backstory
Lots of new backstories up at my other blog - Backstory. Including a new one from the amazing Charlie Huston. (If he's doing a reading anywhere near you, don't miss it. He's simply one of the funniest authors I've ever heard read - esp considering the dark noirness of his work).

And don't miss debut author Frederick Smith's backstory.

Coming soon are backstories from David Hewson and Sandra Browne.

First Self Pubbed Blog Serial to Book

David Wellington's Monster Island which was originally serialized as a blog, has sold to Thunder's Mouth Press for publication in 2006

There have been a number of high profile blogger book deals, but as far as we can tell this is the first serial blog novel from an unknown author that has made the jump to print.

"The great thing about publishing using the blog software was that Dave built a loyal audience of fans who helped spread the word about the book far more effectively than he could have himself. It's a nice example of how even unpublished authors can use the web to promote themselves and their work," said Alex Lencicki of Broken Type .

What Nerve?

Nerve.com is an online zine focused on culture and sex, with an emphasis on quality writing.

They recently started an award to honor the best literary sex scene published in the English language

So they wrote and asked me to link to it. No problem, esp since an excerpt from my friend Susie Bright's newest - Three Kinds of Asking For It is up for the award. (But someone out there, please, write to Nerve and tell them I'm not just a blogger - I write pretty good sex scenes, too.)

Give Good Guest

Many bloggers welcome guests. For one thing it gives us a vacation day or week. For another it gives our readers a fresh voice and a fresh perspective.

It also gives our guests exposure to an already existing audience. And for writers that's a good thing. Plus, for many of us being a guest blogger is ideal -- you get to be part of what's going on but you don't have the responsibility of keeping up an ongoing blog.

But how do you be a good guest and not go over the line and use the blog for the kind of self-promotion that backfires?

It's a tough question to answer. And one I've been thinking about for a while. Then today, I read the first installment of Roxana Robinson's guest blogging stint at the Natural Resources Defense Council site.

It's an excellent example of how to do the guest thing right.

First she's deeply connected to the subject matter of the blog. Robinson is a world class gardener who has written both fiction and non fiction of the subject. She belongs there. It's not a forced fit.

Secondly, she's written the post with the same sensitivity, manner and tone she uses when she writes her own fiction, hooking the reader with the quality of her writing as opposed to writing about the quality of her work.

In other words: Robinson seduces us into falling in love with her words, so that we want to read more or her work. In the oldest adage about writing - she shows not tells.

So if any of you want to craft a post about buzz, balls or hype in the style, tone and manner of your latest novel, you know where to find me.

It's July. I'm just itching for a vacation.

Is Piracy the sincerest form of flattery?

Amazon is offering digital access to two books written by Ken Foster including one which he retains all rights and another for which he never granted electronic rights.

He's posted about it at his blog.

This Just In: Mad Max Retires

The blogshphere has lost one of its most interesting voices: Mad Max Perkins the anonymous editor who opened up a serious conversation about this thing we call publishing.

Glibly but brilliantly, he suggests that he got too caught up in the narcissistic rewards of blogging. (We all know about that.) But what is so clear to someone who blogs, is that the pressure to keep it going and keep it good and have a life and do good at work got to dear old Mad.

I wish we could all have one big blog, so that the pressure of the daily grind could be relieved.

What's sad about this, is that Mad Max asked great questions, explained things that needed explaining, was willing to take on the complicated issues and discuss the parts of the publishing process that are too cloaked in secrets.

A witty and wise writer in his own right, he will be missed by many of us. Lucky are the writers who know his real name and who he shepherds through the publishing process.

We hope that Mad Max changes his mind, or thinks of a way to stick around in some capacity. We need him. I'm sure I'm not alone in offering my blog and saying I'd be glad to host his posts whenever he feels like venting or riffing.

Good Cause/Good Effects

As promised. This is what’s happened so far in my Good Books/Good Cause campaign:

The campaign for The Halo Effect started officially four days after the book appeared in stores on Wednesday, July 5th.

My publicist Lauren Cerand (Lcerand at gmail.com) sent out approximately 300 emails to specific, hand picked bloggers who it appeared might be interested in the subject matter of the book or books in general or culture in general.

For every blogger who blogged about The Halo Effect by M.J. Rose and linked to the vidlit, $5, collected from my family, publisher and agent, would be given to Reading is Fundamental at the end of the campaign.

We hope the effort will spread virally and reach 500 blogs by July 19, (Based on the positive reaction, we’re extending that to July 26).

The Goal.

First to raise some money for Reading is Fundamental while at the same raising visibility for my latest novel, The Halo Effect.

With 300 novels coming out every week, the question always is how do you make one stand out?

Well a marketing budget of $500,000 - $1,000,000 does very nicely, thank you.

But what if you are not one of the 5-10 novels a year, if that, who get that kind of budget?

How do you market to an over-marketed to population? Everyone gets over 3000 marketing messages a day. For a new one to reach you and have any impact you have to hear or see it dozens and dozens of times. (Some say as many as 100, others weigh in at 60.)

The idea of this blog effort was to make the message positive and make it memorable so that when potential readers are walking through their local book store or airport or price club Halo will catch their eye and they’ll think: “Oh, I heard something about that book” – and they’ll buy it.

That’s it. That’s the goal.

Do we hope that by the end of this 20,000 people will click on the link, go look at the Vidlit and buy the book online on the spot?

Yes, that would be nice. But as readers of this blog know, I’m too realistic to expect miracles. We’re talking about a mass-market paperback that costs $6.99. Most people won’t buy it online and pay shipping for it. Some might put it in their cart and wait till they have a full order. But more likely it will be an impulse purchase in the store when they see it and have that – Oh I heard about that book – moment.

The stats as of Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Over 100 blogs have blogged and linked to the Vidlit! Way more than we guessed by this point in the campaign.

(We figure those blogs have a combined readership of well over 100,000 people. And possibly closer to 250,000. We won’t try to figure that out till the end but. But several very big blogs covered us, for instance, Conversations with Famous People gets over 25,000 readers a day)

Liz Dubelman, owner & creator of Vidlit, reported that 5 days after the campaign started, when she checked the stats on Monday more than 10,000 people had viewed the Vidlit and about 10% of them had clicked on one of the “buy this book” buttons.

Of the blogs, less than 3% of the comments or main posts were negative. (Thank you everyone, your enthusiasm has been incredible.)

As far as comments about the Vidlit itself. It’s about split as to whether something like this would make you pick up the book.

Some amazing things happened too.

A lot of great conversation was generated.

A lot of authors wrote and said they’d like to be the next GoodBook/Good Cause.

Some bloggers went all out and made me get all faklempt

As for sales.

In just the last three days I’ve gotten about 20 emails from strangers who said they saw something about the book online and bought it already –in one case – the airport - and really liked it and will read all my books from now on.

For the first week – which only included the first three days of the blogging effort – sales for the book were approximately 5000 copies. (This is based on my publisher’s estimates because such a huge number of non reporting stores are selling the book. It’s in Walmart, Sam’s clubs, etc.) We’re also doing a radio campaign for the book that started yesterday so there will be more to report in the next few weeks.

Thanks so much to everyone for your help and interest.

Good Cause/61 Good Authors

This is a really good example of how to tie promotion up with a heartfelt and extraordinary ribbon.

Since the publication of her first Elm Creek Quilt novel, bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini recreates the quilts her characters make in her stories.

In her new novel, THE SUGAR CAMP QUILT, Dorothea Granger sews a quilt using the Album block, a traditional "friendship quilt" pattern. Instead of the customary signatures of her friends, Dorothea obtains scraps of muslin autographed by authors and "other personages of note." and raffles off the finished quilt to raise money to build a public library.

In real life, Dorothea's project inspired Jennifer to create an Authors' Album quilt for an organization close to her heart: Capital Candlelighters, the Madison, Wisconsin branch of the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation.

And she's gotten 61 authors to generously autograph patches for the Authors' Album patchwork quilt which will be raffled at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo on September 17, 2005.

Participating authors include Dave Barry, Elizabeth Berg, Judy
Blume, Ray Bradbury, Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary, Sue Grafton, Sophie Kinsella, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Tom Perrotta, Anna Quindlen, Nicholas Sparks, Jennifer Weiner, and Rosemary Wells. A complete list of authors and more images of all their patchwork blocks, please visit click here.

And for more information about about how to purchase tickets for the Authors' Album quilt online, please visit their website

Whining about Whining

It seems like there's been a lot more whining than usual going on in the blogshpere in the last few weeks. It's not only some posts that are whiny, but it's very noticeable in the blog's comment sections, too.

Is it just me or have you noticed it?

(It may be just me. You know what it's like the week your book is released. Even when it's a re-release you're anxious and just about everything annoys you)

But still, I thought about this a long time before I posted it.

Suddenly there is a preponderance of:

Complaints about publishers doing less marketing and editing than ever along with more lying than ever.

Complaints about agents not doing enough.

Complaints about who is getting reviews and who is not. (Specifically when it comes to certain genres and sexes.)

Complaints about the writing style of blog posts.

Complaints about the publisher who recently told his or her authors that they should try to keep their day jobs because most writers will never make a living at their books.

And now here. I'm complaining about complaining.

You'll notice I haven't linked to any of the whining. If you want to find it, you will.

I have nothing but respect for argument.

But I don't think whining is argument.

And a lot of blogs have great arguments.

Many.

There is a huge difference between arguing and whining no?
There is a huge difference between arguing about what's wrong with publishing and reviews etc - and yes there is a ton that's wrong with publishing and reviews - and using that as an excuse for why your own books aren't getting more attention.

There are a few new sites cropping up where I predict both good converstatiion and good arguments and yes, complaints will be showing up any minute and will be rife with complaints in a few short weeks.

Agent 007, an agent who's entered the fray.

Miss Snark, another agent who recently entered the fray.

Mad Max - An editor who's been on sabbatical but seems to be - thank god - back at Bookagnst 101

I think my favorite complaint of the week was written by a writer who suggested that all the other writers complaining should spend more time writing their books and less time blogging about why their books aren't selling