The sales are doing better than I expected, so that's a good thing. But the only thing I hadn't thought about was promo. How would I get the word out that I self-published a book that had been previously published with another publisher?
Well, I spoke to a few friends and they are willing to give me a hand and put me on their blogs and such. A few friends are doing shout out's for me too. I love my buddies! Thank you!
Now, lets talk about Sola. The meeting today was pretty interesting. We had a panel of speakers talk about the things they got out of RWA National. The highlights, their favorite class or workshop, or panel, and a lot of other things. The main thing I wanted to know was was it worth the money? Especially in NY. They all said yes. So, there you go. If you are thinking about going next year, our panel said it was worth it. Next year I think it's in California. I'm not sure if I'm going to go or not yet, but I am attending the first FFandP Conference (Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal) in March 2012 in New Orleans!
The FFandP conference will be amazing. Karen M. Moning will be there and also, Diana Rowland and many many many more authors. And this trip will be much cheaper than RWA. They will have editors and agents as well! It's going to be great!
That's about all. Oh, I'll be adding several blogs were I'll be dropping by, and I hope you'll come and say hello. I'll be giving away a free copy of NOT AN ANGEL on each blog.
Or if you'd rather purchase it, that's cool too. It's available at Amazon Kindle for only $2.99
Hugs,
Dawn
In the used book business it’s easy to get into a rut, especially in
buying. Like with a lot of things, if you stick with a system you’ve
developed, it often starts to seem like it’s being proved right.
For example: When we opened 6 or so years ago we tried just about every
fiction genre in the shop and online. Romance, thriller, literary,
classics, crime, etc. etc. I should add the caveat that both of us (my
brother and I run the store) have, as the Irish put it, “notions”, so we
were hardly married to the romance and thriller end of the spectrum.
After a few months the Tom Clancys, Danielle Steeles, John Grishams, and
Nora Roberts weren’t exactly running out the door, so we bagged ‘em and
concentrated on books that we knew something about.
Time passed and we were proven right! We didn’t sell any of that stuff
(though we kept a stash of a dozen or so hyper popular authors boxed in
the basement for emergencies). What’s nice about these broad decisions is
that they save a lot of time - you can stop looking at broad swathes of
categories and just put them out of your mind completely. This is
reassuring but not always any more useful than “company policy” is at a
more traditional business.
Last year we moved our shop across town (Boston is a small town so the
move amounted to a longish walk) and the new location had slightly
different tastes, so when people brought in piles of books, I was more
likely to take a longer look. So, in that mode, when a woman brought in a
few bags of vampire books - mostly what they are calling paranormal
romance - I was more inclined to look. Obviously we’ve paid some measure
of attention to Anne Rice (as she’s slowly become impossible to sell) and
the Twilight books have moved rapidly in and back out of the shop, but I
was completely unprepared for how this phenomenon still has legs. We
purchased maybe 50 of these and they have flown out the door.
Now, this phenomenon was ably profiled in this
very space, but I think it may have understated the breadth of this
category - more than just a spiking of vampire popularity, it’s staking
claim to wide swathes of romance territory. Hundreds of novels that were
once romance fiction, romance suspense, romance historical fiction, are
being absorbed under the (increasingly broad) paranormal romance category.
As near as I can tell, there are two types as represented by two general
cover designs.
The super sexualized Goth cover:
and the charmingly cartoonish:
Sometimes the publisher even has a change of heart (focus groups being
what they are) and one is swapped out for the other:
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The cartoon Lynsay Sands covers are generally out of print now. Perhaps
bound to become collector’s items (I’m kidding of course, there must be
100,000 of them out there)? There’s not a big difference in saleability
as far as I can tell, just two different targeted market segments. What’s
most remarkable about these is how they sell though - online, in the
store, and even though they are often 5 years old (which is usually ages
with this sort of thing). It just goes to show that even though you might
think you know what’s going on (I’m down with Twilight, watched the True
Blood mash-up of James Lee Burke and Vampires), you can still be missing
everything beneath the surface. Some of the series just go on and on -
the Laurel Hamilton one is approaching 20 in the series.
So I’ve vowed to be more vigilant, less opinionated, but also to peer more
intently at the horizon. For I’m sure some of you are on top of this
already and have shrugged at my revelatory tone. So you count yourself
ready for the continued love affair with vampires, but are you prepared
for the next wave? What will follow Vampires in a world where Jane Austen
and Zombies is a bestseller with a movie deal?
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Amorous were-wolves (it’s been done - here’s a
whole subsection of Werewolf and “Shifter” stories)? Naughty nymphs?
Lascivious Satyrs? I wouldn’t even want speculate on the narrative
possibilities of centaurs or harpies. Zombies are a tough sell,
romantically, but how about Mummies (you could just un-mummy the mummies
like the movie franchise did so famously. This worked in Twilight - what
if Vampires could go out in the daytime? What if they were unbothered by
crosses, garlic, running water, etc. What if they were exactly like
normal people only much more attractive and awesomer? Sold!). Demon
lovers are as old as the hills, and Patrick Swayze sort of put a stake (so
to speak) in ghosts, but how about lovable poltergeists or revenants.
The list could go on (goblins, golems, ginger-bread men) but whatever
happens, I’ll be ready the next time.
–
Pazzo Books
1898a Centre St.
West Roxbury, MA 02131
617-323-2919
web: pazzobooks.com
blog: pazzobooks.com/blog.htm
twitter: twitter.com/pazzobooks
Hey Dawn,
Have you thought about starting a street team for promo? You send Romance Trading Cards, postcards, etc to your team members to hand out when they are on the "street" (bookstores, libraries). If you want any help to start one, let me know.
Christy
[email protected]