From Ship Breaker to the Lightning Thief
I spent a few hours yesterday writing follow-up emails to all the store owners and booksellers I met on the road trip. There were about a dozen from that many indi bookstores. So here’s what I’ve figured out about this whole marketing thing. If I’m going to sell my books I have to reach four different groups.
The first group is readers. I have to let potential readers know about my book, that it exists. The internet is a wonderful tool for this as are bookstores. You would think reaching all the people who are potential readers would be easy but… it’s not. You have to get their attention and give them a reason to look at and buy your book as opposed to the hundreds of others staring at them in the bookstore or on the online page. Which brings us to group number two.
The second group is booksellers. They can be in bookstores or they can be on the internet. But the internet acts as a bookseller all by itself only it’s harder to figure out. On Amazon there are sections like, “People who bought this book also bought the following…” This is cool because I can see that people who bought my book also bought Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, and once but only once, Rick Riordan’s Lightning Thief. But how does this play out for new people finding my book? Hopefully I’m showing up on other book’s lists. Still, it’s not like you’re in a store and ask a bookseller what they read lately and like or if they can recommend a book for boys, or a new historical novel, or a book with sword fights and suspense with a touch, just a touch of family drama. Which is why as cool and helpful as the internet is, reaching bricks and mortar stores and developing relationships with bookstore owners and sellers is so important. It’s slower, but it builds over time. So far I’ve been to 23 stores (seventeen of which are independent bookstores), in nine states, and I’m just getting to my hometown, NYC this month.
As they say, people can’t buy your book if they can’t find it. It’s available over the internet, yes. But in bookstores… I’m working on that one store at a time.
Discussion of the third group, the business (agents, publishers, film, audio, and all the possible buyers of subsidiary rights) people, and fourth group, reviewers, tomorrow.
Day 11: Dueling Dragons and Frida Khalo Treasure Hunt
My wife’s family is safely ensconced in our apartment – having to evacuate Rockaway Beach where they live before Irene hits. They have found the inflatable mattresses and as of this moment know how to work the cable remote and therefore the TV. We’ve been watching the weather report here. The sky is dark here also and the threat of thunderstorms – a constant in August anyway in Florida – has shut down the pool. We’re all reading, gaming, blogging in the giant lobby sitting in comfy chairs. Soon I will be drinking tea.
Earlier we made our last visit to Harry Potter-land. We will miss it. Tomorrow we leave. I left my stomach on the dueling dragon ride. Karen and Max watched me disappear into the gated line after viewing all the dozen or so warnings about quick turns, sudden drops, 360’s, and backward somersaults. Unless you are in perfect health and above 5’4″ you are not allowed to pass and ride the beast.
I rode the blue dragon.
It did indeed flip me over, twirl me around, make me go upside down and inside out all at an incredible pace and with centrifugal force keeping me plastered to my suspended seat. Yes, it is a suspended car roller coaster. I love these things. The whole ride lasted less than a minute and I felt mildly ill afterwards, even had some trouble walking straight for a few minutes after landing. But it was cool. Once was enough though, until next time.
Back to the treasure hunt I promised yesterday. So here it is. Frida Khalo is in my book, somewhere. Aldo Nadi is too but he is named and easy to find. Frida had a slightly larger part in an earlier version of the book but was scaled back in the finished version of Open Wounds. Find her. Tell me what page she’s on and what made you think it’s her. Here’s a hint. You can find her with four letter words. Now start the hunt.
Day 7: Harry Potter and E-books
Okay. Harry Potter was cool for what we did but the lines were crazy. It’s 90 degrees and wall to wall people at each of the stores (oh what a merchandising heaven) and a 90 minute wait to get into Hogwartz, the ride – which wasn’t that bad – we were told. We made it 30 minutes and hit the stretch of line that was in the sun and gave up. We’ll do it another day. The butter beer was indeed excellent as was the breakfast at the 3 Broomsticks. We’ll be back again tomorrow.
Wingardium leviosa! Sorry. I just had to say that.
Now onto the discussion of indi’s, B&N, Borders, and survival of the fittest.
So Jeff of Bound to Read Books in Atlanta gave me some insight into the real plight of indi bookstores in this age of ebooks. Now the age of ebooks seems like it’s an age that’s been here forever but it’s really only a couple of serious years old. But a lot has happened in two years. The Kindle took out the Sony Reader, and the Nook took on the Kindle and has established itself on the shelf next to it and the iPad is right behind trying to throw its apple muscle around to create some space for it. The Kobo – backed by Borders and we all know what happened to them – is far behind as are the Sony Readers and a few others.
What do the indi’s have? Nothing.
I mean bookstores are traditionally selling points for books. But that doesn’t mean they have to be hard copy books only, though, does it? Will bookstores change the way they look? How can they compete with electronic sales over the internet? Do they want to or even need to?
Amazon owns the Kindle and indi’s could sell the Kindle but what about the books that people read on the Kindle? Everybody goes to Amazon. Barnes & Noble has their own platform so they sell both the Nook and their own books, because they can too. But what about the indi’s? How do they get into the e-book market? Can they? I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of this before.
Now I’m not saying ebooks are going to take over the book reading market. But they are and will take up market share and It’s a market share that’s growing and that indi’s can’t touch.
Jeff just shook his head when I asked him what he was going to do.
When I talked to Andy at the B&N in Gainesville store I asked him how B&N was doing now that Borders has kicked the bucket. He said they were good, then added. “We invested in the Nook. And it’s paid off.”
Indeed it has. Consumers Report rated it higher than the Kindle recently which was rated pretty high all by itself. Each product is different in it’s platform but gives a segment of the population something that it wants – a way to read books electronically.
But what about the indi’s? Does anybody know?
Road Trip: Day 6 – Gainesville to Universal
We made it to Universal. We did nothing but check out the grounds, hit the pool and game room, eat and go to sleep. We all agreed we were very happy to be out of the car.
Some interesting things we saw on the way down were a giant confederate flag a little north of Valdosta – and I mean giant, definitely a statement being made with that – and an incredible number of billboards for right-to-lifers and medieval times. You can take that for what it’s worth.
I 75 is long and straight and endless.
We stopped in Gainesville, Florida, to hit a Barnes & Noble there. Now don’t go all indi on me – there were no indi’s in the area and B&N was the closest to the interstate and we needed to find a book that two indi’s prior did not have. So we went and I pitched my book to the merchandise manager while I was there – a nice guy named Andy who indeed had heard of Captain Blood and Errol Flynn – always a good sign – who took Open Wounds and said I could follow-up with him to see if he read it in a couple of weeks. It’s something new I’m doing – asking if they mind if I follow-up. Anything that might make a difference is worth trying. Remember, it’s all about the relationships (yeah, yeah, I heard that before – okay… I’m just saying…).
The B&N in Gainesville has been there 18 years and seems pretty entrenched in the community. Andy said it’s one of only three small B&Ns left in the country. It doesn’t have a Starbucks café. It’s only books and although it’s a pretty good size – still bigger than any indi I’ve been too so far, it was smaller than the super stores. I had an interesting conversation with him about how B&N is doing compared to Borders – who clearly has lost the race to survive. More on that tomorrow because it links well to the conversation I had with Jeff from Bound to Read Books in Atlanta.
Road Trip: Day 4 – Engine Light
Fountain Bookstore Richmond
Autozone said there were five different problems with the engine. We checked the oil, the transmission fluid, the gas cap, and the water. All four were good. Our mechanic in Queens, Steve, who takes phone calls from South Carolina, said get back on the road and don’t worry about it. Just keep driving. He’ll check it out when we get back but he’s not worried. Okay.
Doc and me at Fountain Books
Green iced tea from Starbucks.
Karen’s driving. We’re off to Atlanta. I’ve got plans for three stores to visit. Karen and Max are going to hit the pool. I’m going to try and meet Amy from Lady Reader and Matt from the QQQE – two bloggers I”ve corresponded with and whose blogs I follow. It’ll be cool putting faces to words. It’s all about the relationships.
***
But before I forget here’s my report from yesterday on the two bookstores I hit in North Carolina.
Fly Leaf Books
Fly Leaf Books
Fly Leaf Bookstore
Fly Leaf bookstore in Chapel Hill is the absolute most beautiful bookstore I’ve seen in a while. Some independent stores are quirky, some small, some big and overfilled, some sparse on the shelves and heavy on the muffins, but Fly Leaf, oh this is a beautifully laid out store. There’s a great kids space. The shelves have staff picks marked and easily read all over the place – very colorful and eye appealing. The color of the store just says come in, sit down, gaze at books, read, read, read, ahhhhhh. Seriously this is a good-looking store. The owner Jamie was very nice considering I had no appointment and she was on her own while the others were on break. Still I threw Kelly Justice’s name in the mix (thanks again Kelly) and yes, Jamie took a moment from the register to bring my book back to her store partner and kid’s buyer for review. Max bought two books there and I wanted to buy one also but I’m banned from hardcovers for a while as we’re out of space back home. Behemoth is calling to me though.
Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh was also a great looking bookstore, filled with books and music. They were busy but Sally, a very helpful and busy bookseller, did see if the kids buyer was in to speak to me. She was in the middle of an order. I asked Sally if she’d listen to my pitch. She looked at me and then at the register. I could see the “no” without it even being said.
“You’ve got a lot to do right now, don’t you?” I said.
She nodded.
“And you get a lot of people coming in pitching books and products?”
She nodded again and glanced a second time at the register where her colleague was busy.
“But I bet you don’t get many people coming all the way from New York City, do you?” I gave her my biggest shit-eating grin.
This made her smile and she nodded at me. “You have three minutes,” she said. After doing the pitch under three minutes a dozen times at ALA last month I could do this in my sleep.
“Get back to us in two weeks,” she said when I was done. “I’d like to read it myself.” Then she gave me the buyer’s name and email, her email, ideas for where to go in Atlanta, and another smile to take me out the front door.
Charlotte’s was harder to hit yesterday. Bookmark is downtown and parking is terrible. Karen dropped me off. I rolled out of the car and went to the back of the mall where they were situated, pitched one of the owners while a customer came in and ordered other books. I waited oh so patiently. Karen called me on the phone. “There’s no parking.”
The owner said, ‘You got to go?”
I nodded. “I’ll make this quick.”
He took the book and said he’d take a look. Kelly Justice’s name got some attention again. (Thanks’ Kelly.)
***
It’s 2pm on day four and the engine light went off. Steve, the mechanic, was right again. The stress level has eased out of the car in one big exhale.
Atlanta here we come.
Lunievicz 