The Civilian's Guide to Book Publishing (i.e. how you can help your writer friends)

 (Book covers of newly released books by some of my friends.)

This post is not for all you artsy types who already know the ins and outs of the business of publishing.  You don't need to read this.  Go do something artistic.  (And if you have a book coming out, tell your civilian friends to come read this post.  Seriously--send them here, and then they'll know what to do.)

This is for normal folks who just happen to have a close friend or relative who after years of toil and struggling (and perhaps a little whining) has landed a book contract.  Now that book is about to be released, and you want to know how to help.

Unless you've got a spare million bucks, you're probably not going to help make this book a bestseller.  But the good news is: you actually can help, even if you're not a blogger or book reviewer.  Some of those ways cost some money (but not a lot) and most won't cost a cent (and not even much of your time).

Let's start with the kind of help that takes a little cash:

• Buy the book.  Simple enough.  But when and where you buy that book can increase the helpfulness of that purchase.   

1.  Buy it as close to the release date as possible (pre-order if you can).  The first few weeks in the life of a book have a big effect on the book's future.  Everyone is watching those numbers, especially the publisher and booksellers.  Strong early numbers might lead to additional marketing support, extra orders, or even an additional print run.  Books that don't get sold in the first few weeks have a good chance of being remaindered (returned to the publisher).  New books, it turns out, are highly perishable.  If they don't sell, you won't see them on the shelf again.  Ever.
2. Buy it from a bookstore.  Sure Amazon is easier and cheaper.  But that's because they demand huge, unsustainable discounts.  Which screws the writer.  Your friend will get more money from a book sold at a bookstore.  You also help that store stay in business (Amazon doesn't need your help).  And, if the bookstore sees that the book is selling, they will order more, and might display it more prominently.  Many cities have local bestseller lists.  You can look in your newspaper to figure out which stores report sales to create those lists (unless your paper is the New York Times).  Buy from a bookstore whose sales factor into those lists.
3. But it from a bookstore at a reading.  This makes the bookstore happy and makes your friend happy.  (More about readings below.)
4. If you can't buy it from a bookstore, it's okay to buy it from Amazon.  But do buy it.

(Total Cost:  about $25 for a hardcover, $15 for paperback.)

• Buy more copies.  Duh.  "But," you say, "I can only read it once."  Ah, but you have other friends and family, and they need gifts.  Birthdays, Christmas, Hanukkah, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Arbor Day.  My friend, Laura Harrington, wrote a terrific novel, Alice Bliss, that came out last year.  Guess what the book lovers on my list got for Christmas?  The thing is, when they know that it's written by a friend of yours, they'll appreciate the book even more.  It has meaning. And they might help spread the word.  Some people are shy about giving a book by a writer that no one has ever heard of.  But do it for your friend.  Your other friends and family will thank you for sharing a terrific new book with them, and you don't have to spend hours and hours tramping around the mall or trolling the internet figuring out what to get them.
• (Total cost:  $25 and up.  The more the merrier.)

• Throw a book party. This one takes a little more cash and effort on your part.  But your friend has been running herself ragged, trying to promote her book.  You can help by inviting over a dozen friends, going to Trader Joes and buying some wine and cookies, and throwing a little party.  It can be very low key.  No pressure to buy, you just want to celebrate her accomplishment (but make sure some books are on hand and a bunch of book marks).
• (Total cost:  $30-$75, plus a couple hours of your time.)

That's really it.  I mean, you can buy an ad in the New York Times Sunday Book Section (please do), if you really want to.  But these basics make a huge difference.

There are a LOT of things you can do to help your friend's book that don't cost a cent, and will make a huge difference.  Here are a few:

1. Post about the book on Facebook and Twitter, with a link to the Amazon page for the book or to your friend's web site.  If a writer has ten friends who each post an enthusiastic recommendation for the book, and those people each have 200 Facebook friends, we're taking 2,000 people who have now heard about the book.  Don't say things you don't mean (if it's not the best book you've ever read, don't claim it as such), but this isn't the time for critical comments either (i.e. "my friend Pat just published a highly flawed novel--it's a slog, but please help him stay off food stamps").  Do post about it a few times--there's a rule of thumb in marketing that it takes three exposures to a new product for a customer to actually notice it.  (Time required:  3-5 minutes.  You can spare that for your pal, can't you?)
2. "Like" and "share" your friend's Facebook posts about the book, and retweet her tweets about it.  Especially posts about positive reviews or events. This is super easy and takes almost no time, but it boosts the effectiveness of all of your friend's marketing efforts.  Again, if an author has ten friends actively doing this on social media, those posts suddenly become much more visible to the rest of the world.  (Time required:  2-10 minutes, over the course of a few weeks.  At most.)
3. Write a review on Amazon or GoodReads (or elsewhere).  This only applies if you liked the book.  (If you don't like the book, do your friend a favor and keep that news to yourself.)  It doesn't need to be a huge review, and it doesn't need to have a plot summary.  Just mention a few things that you liked about it and rate the book.  This is a BIG help, because many people are reluctant to buy a product online that hasn't gotten many reviews.  (Time required:  5-10 minutes.  Of course, you have to read the book first, but you were going to do that anyway.)
4. Request a copy of the book from your public library.  If they don't have it, you can request it.  In most cases, you can do this very quickly online.  (Time required:  2 minutes.  Maybe an extra 3-5 minutes to figure out how to request it.)
5. Suggest it to your book club.  This can mean a whole bunch of sales.  And maybe your friend can be a special guest, either in person or via Skype.  (Time required:  2 minutes.)
6. Comment on blog posts about the book.  You won't have to work too hard to find them, because your friend will post links on Facebook or Twitter.  Your job is to follow the link, read the guest blog post or interview, and post a comment.  It doesn't have to be a long comment, but comments on posts helps capture additional attention.   And it lets your friend know that you care, and that's worth something too.  (Time required:  3-5 minutes per comment, max.)
7. Show up at a reading.  If your friend gives a reading in your area, but sure to show up.  And don't come alone.  Bring a neighbor or co-worker.  These events can be tough to promote for the author, and they're demoralizing for the writer and bookstore if no one shows up.  (Time required:  2 hours.)
8. Carry the book around.  That's right, for one week, try walking around with the book in hand, when you're going from place to place.  And talk to people about it.  (This one's hard for introverts, I know.)  If you can't do it for a week, try doing it for just one day, and try to commit to talking to one person person about the book.  Your friend has poured her soul into that book, and all you need to do is have a thirty second conversation about it.  (Time required:  depends on how you look at it.  30 seconds per conversation.  Carrying the book around, well, that's just a little extra exercise for you.)

These simple tasks won't take much of your time, but they could help boost sales for the book.  The key thing is to do them as soon as you can after the release date, to start building positive buzz.  And try to get your other friends to do the same.  If your author friend has five or ten people each taking the steps, it will definitely have an impact.

You can make a difference.  On behalf of your writer friends:  Thanks!


(Writer types, if you're still here, feel free to chime with comments on other suggestions for simple ways your friends can help.)

Jasper Fforde (and yeah, maybe I'm a little full of crap)

Went to Brookline Booksmith (actually it was at the Coolidge Corner Cinema) for a reading by author Jasper Fforde, who has a new book, Thursday Next: First Among Sequels is just out. There were probably 150-200 people who paid $5 each to hear his one-hour talk, and then they all waited in line 45 minutes or so to get him to sign books. And he was great. Very funny, as you'd expect (demand) if you're Fforde fan. When you hear him talk (very fast), you can begin to understand how he's able to create his two series on such a consistent basis, and why people like them so much.

He had a great list of ten principles that he uses when writing (though I don't remember them well enough to quote them). He said a lot of useful things, but one that I really liked was that first he wrote his books (feeling completely unqualified to do so). Later, after they were published and he did book tours and answered people's various literary questions, he figured out what he'd actually done.

(This points to a potential problem with the way that new plays are developed, in that quite often full-length plays have readings, where there are talkback sessions with the audience, which are all fine and good. But the expectation is often that somehow the playwright will use these to "fix" problems with the play. But maybe (I'm not the first to mention this), theatres should work together with the playwright to produce the play in whatever way seems to make the most sense. And then, after the play is actually produced, the playwright can engage in pleasant Q&As and everyone can think about answers to the questions about what is happening and why.)

In my recent post about fame and fortune, I, of course, said that they don't really matter that much to me anymore. Which is mostly true. But I'm also a little full of crap. I tell you, I'd sure like to have people lined up around the block to hear me talk and buy my books. And I'd like to have them name city streets after characters in my books (like they've done in Swindon, the setting for the Thursday Next series), or host an annual Gabridge festival (there is apparently an annual Fforde FFestival in Swindon).

And I'd like to have it all happen and still come across as funny and witty and unspoiled as Jasper Fforde. He's clearly having a ball writing his books, and he seems tickled that so many of us enjoy them as much as he does.

While, as I pointed out in my previous post, it takes a lot of luck to have a successful book published, Jasper Fforde's success also shows how hard work and ingenuity can turn a few strokes of good luck (and a very clever book) into something far more.

Jasper's made a tremendous effort to connect with his fans. Just take a look at his web site--he clearly enjoys the interaction with the folks who read his books, and he gives them a lot of material to look at between releases. He sends out e-mails to his e-mail list about when he's going to make appearances on tour. And in person, he's so entertaining. He definitely gave me a valuable lesson about how to make a book reading into an event worth remembering. I've done a few (mostly for very small audiences) and I know I have a lot to learn. He's given me something to shoot for.

In some ways, the playwrights in the theatre blogosphere provide our fans (what few we have) with ways to hear from us on a regular basis. But much of what's written tends to be for other playwrights. I know theatre is different from novel writing--i.e. locally produced, rather than broadly sold--but it is important for us to keep thinking about ways to communicate with our audiences between shows. How can we use the web to provide additional info/material/value to those folks who see our plays and are interested? Some writers are making progress on this, but I know I have so much room to improve (...it all takes time, we're all short of time, I know, I know).

Anyway, here's hoping for a long line at my next reading (or production). And yours, too.

marketing efforts: book clubs (and my meagre resources)

Getting ready for the BEA helped reinvigorate me for marketing Tornado Siren. Just before the conference, I sent in $40 to ReadersCircle.org to get on their preferred titles list for a month, which puts an image of my cover the front page of their site. They get more than 35,000 page views a month, but we'll have to see how many of those visitors click through to my page. My traffic is up, but it's definitely still slow. It's tricky trying to figure out where to stick my very finite resources (I'll have to find a way to barter with fellow playwright blogger Malachy Walsh for some marketing tips...).

I also used the ReadersCircle site to approach book clubs. Last week I sent e-mails to almost 40 clubs, half in my area, and half in Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas/Colorado, to let them know about the book, and offer to talk to their groups either on-line or in person (f0r the New England ones). The response had been mostly deafening silence until today, when I heard from the Boston University Barnes & Noble. She said that the book isn't right for their book club, but she was interested in the book and ordered copies to shelve in her store. So that's a success. Now I just need that to happen about five hundred more times.

I know this is extremely unlikely, but if any of you who are reading this are in New England and don't have a copy of Tornado Siren (surely not possible), be sure to head down to 660 Beacon Street next week and make them happy they ordered the book. (It'd make me happy, too. And make you happy, because it's a fun book.)

Trying to figure out how to sell novels has been an interesting puzzle, and I'm still trying to figure it out. In some ways, marketing a play production is easier, because it runs for a few weeks, you market the hell out of it (with scant resources), and either you sell tickets or you don't, and then it's over. And you've got a cast and crew plugging the show to their friends and family. With a book, there's no cast and crew. Just me--and my friends and family have all done their duty. Getting the word out there to the rest of the besieged world is the tricky part. As soon as I stop marketing it, that's it, people aren't going to buy it and read it. Which would suck.

How To Make a Besteller: NY Times article

Check out this story in the New York Times about the book business.

I like this quote from an editor:

“People think publishing is a business, but it’s a casino.”

I'm continually puzzled as to why no one has come along and found a way to make the book business work better for everyone. It's a complicated business, with a distribution and retail chain that's insane (booksellers can return books to the publishers for the full price, which takes too much of the risk off the retailers).

Part of the problem is that it would lose the lottery feeling, and the people who earn the big bucks would have to give some of them up. It doesn't make any sense (as you'll see in the article) for publishers to lavish huge advances on big name authors, on whose books they will lose money. But, as I read somewhere (I can't remember where)--bookselling is a business that doesn't really make sense in a corporate environment. If a publisher is privately owned, the owners can make a good living. But there is a fairly constant number of eyeballs out there, so the corporate desire of steady double digit growth in revenue and profit, isn't sustainable, long-term.

Anyway check out the article.

New York daydreams

When I was in New York this weekend, I got a call at lunch from my director saying that we needed some paint in order to finish off the pumpkins in Pumpkin Patch. So all of a sudden I'm down in the West Village, scrambling to find a hardware store. The Chinese woman at the restaurant tried to give me directions, but I didn't really understand what she said. So in my wandering, I stopped into a cool little bookstore on Bleecker Street.

The guy behind the desk helped me out, and of course I happened to remember that I had a copy of Tornado Siren in my bag. So I said, "I'm a novelist down from Boston for the weekend. I have a book that just came out. How can I get you some info on it?"

He asked me what it was about. I told him and he seemed genuinely interested, so I offered him a copy, which he took, saying that he was heading out on vacation next week and would take it with him. Then he asked, "So, who would play the main characters in the movie?"

I imagine most first time novelists have speculated about this very question, with spouses, siblings, friends. I know my wife and I have passed more than a few minutes in the car brainstorming answers.

So, I had a ready response: "Halle Berry and Viggo Mortensen."

"Oh," says the book seller, "Viggo comes in here all the time. I'll have to mention it to him."

So that's it, right there. The start of a whole series of events, that will include the book seller reading and loving the book, passing it along to Viggo, and him loving it, the book being made into a really cool movie, turning the book into a best seller. You read about it here first.

(You gotta have fantasies, right?)

Wish I Was This Clever

Miss Snark pointed out this fun web site. I want to be this clever in my marketing. Something to shoot for, I guess. The timing is impeccable. Definitely check it out.