Bad News To Die For

Most authors would kill for the bad news Jed Rubenfeld has gotten for his debut thriller, The Interpretation of Murder.  Great reviews, over 12,000 copies of the hardcover in the first three weeks of sales, a 12 city tour, and 1.8 million dollars in advances.

So what’s the bad news?

In today’s WSJ, Jeffrey Trachtenberg has written one of the best articles on publishing a blockbuster I’ve read.  Registration is required  - but the WSJ has a free trial  - it’s worth filling out the form to read this piece.

It’s about so many things including buzz, balls, and hype and great expectations. (The author is quoted in the article as saying "It might have been a little unrealistic to imagine I could be No. 1 given the fact that there are so many big books this fall, but I remain hopeful.")

Of note in the article are  these facts:

The book got a $500,000 marketing campaign, including printing 10,000 advanced reader copies at a cost of $17,000.

That is more money in arcs than 85% of authors get in total for their marketing budgets.

The publisher spent $10,000 on a website.

I guess when you are spending a half a million dollars on campaign, its no biggie to blow 10k on a website. I’d give a lot to know how many people visited it. My own theory on websites is we all need one but for fiction, readers go after they’ve read the book to find out what else you’ve written or to contact you. They don’t go searching out websites beforehand.

And here’s the killer quote from John Sterling, who published the book:

“Mr. Sterling says he agrees that book publishing, for all its planning, remains a roll of the dice. "I still marvel that despite everything we do, we just don't know," he says. "It's the wonderful thing and the agonizing thing about the business."

Readers of this column know how I feel about quotes like this. The industry doesn’t know because it doesn’t spend the money to find out. Sure there will always be some dice throwing involved. But there are a lot of sophisticated methods of marketing that would help the powers who be make smarter, more educated decisions.

For one thing, did you see the ads for The Interpretation of Murder? They were fine. But fine doesn’t cut it. They need to be innovative. You don’t need to market test the book – but market test the ads. See if they will pull or not.

Guesswork as a marketing plan. There's got to be a better solution.

 

Comments

[spyscribbler]

They market test movie ads and commercials ... why not book ads? It just doesn't make sense, especially if a publisher is going to spend that much money. They really don't?

[Kate]

I can't seem to find the free trial. The registration process takes me to a point where I have to choose one of two payment options. Anyone have any hints about what I'm doing wrong?

[Kate]

Ah, found it, via Galleycat, who makes an interesting contrast with Setterfield's Thirteenth Tale.

[Bill Cameron]

Websites are a funny thing. We've reached a point, I think, where having one is probably value neutral at best, but NOT having one is a definite negative.

"You don't have a website? What, are you Fred Flintstone? Not that I'd visit it if you did..."

[Lewis Perdue]

I think that one significant issue is being missed in Trachtenberg's story: It's not so much the money, but how it is spent.

Publishers almost always waste their promotional money doing the same old things they have always done rather than looking for new, creative activities.

These activities only turn up the VOLUME of the noise level rather than RISING ABOVE IT.

No wonder that the process is such a crap shoot. Targeted promotion using a lot less money is far better than throwing a lot of money at the wall and hoping soke of it will stick.