I know that promotion is a huge, huge topic among, well, any author that isn't a best seller, and most of them as well. A lot of us newer writers and small press authors focus a lot of effort on the internet.
So of course when I saw this in Publisher's Lunch I wanted to make sure others out there saw it too. Last week Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse (YA, vampires) came out and sold 150,000 copies on it's first day. BN sales figures are around 500,000 in the first two days. Of course it's going for a second printing. But the big bit (to me) is that they say most of the promotion for this series has been on the internet and through MySpace.
Great news for savvy authors because those means are relatively inexpensive and easy to access. They also happen to be the most commonly used tools I see being used.
I wanted to start my Success series this week, but a good chunk of the people I know read my blog are on vacation this week and I don't want them to miss out because I know they'll have some good stuff to add.
I also want to draw your attention over to
Making Light where a discussion is going on about a major Australian bookstore blackmailing small publishers and trying to demand not just large sums of money (the “invoice” sent to the publisher who made the blackmail attempt public was for $20,000 AU) but deeper discounts and guaranteed sales. Truly deplorable stuff.
And last, for today, there's a generic sort of subscriber drive going on
over here. I'd like to take an opportunity to remind y'all that it's nice to support the publishers that publish us. I understand (believe me, I realllllly understand) about how many magazines and publishers there are and how little money a writer often has to put out on things like that. But even just one or two purchases helps.
Plus, there's that submitting with a blind eye thing. We all do it, because if you can afford to sample every place you submit then you could probably just put out your work through your own publishing company. But I've been trying to inform my readers of special sales and free online reading opportunities, which are a huge help to publisher and author. (And in the case of most of the samples I've gotten to read lately, to people who just love good fiction.)
Dying Light: 11,428/????
| WriYe: 83,142/100,000 | WC August: 718 |
| Subs: 73/50 | Accepts: 4 | Rejects: 56 |
