Get thee behind me recession and sell some books!
It’s holiday season. Every publisher hopes that their books get the lion’s share of sales.
Books are screaming on the shelves, “pick me! pick me!”
We’re at the sidelines saying pretty much the same thing.
The store promotions are bought. The books have long shipped. We make as much fanfare as we possibly can through publicity and then…we wait.
Maybe we’ll have more good fortune like we did today when I found out that they’re rerunning the October Dr. Phil Show that featured our author, Jane Velez-Mitchell. The second airing is on December 24. This was a holiday plum if ever there was one for we saw a nice bump in sales the first time she appeared. It may be Christmas eve, but lots of people will be home near their computers just itching to pull the trigger, click on the amazon or bn.com link to buy iWant.
How shamelessly I plug.
Plug away I must and plug away I will for the next few weeks before I get to stretch a little between Christmas and New Years entertaining family members making the great pilgrimage from northern frozen tundra to Florida. They come in droves to thaw out and bring back a little color on their faces that seeps through seemingly careful slatherings of SPF 50 creams, jellies and sprays.
We’re still waiting. Trying to book author appearances on national tv shows for January and February. It’s already too late for the magazines. They’re booked now at least until spring. Such a pas de deux we do trying to time the landing of early book copies to match media deadlines. In a shrinking media.
Tricky business.
Still we wait.
How will the Christmas sales be this month? Will books be the better gift choice for our tightened budgets?
I don’t care how many Kindles, Nooks and virtual reading gadgets come to market, books aren’t going anywhere (except, hopefully, off the shelves). As nice as hi-techy that they all these toys are, the high price tag of these reading machines makes gifting them an exclusive event for people with disposable dollars. Remember those?
That doesn’t include a whole lot of people I know at the moment.
I’m waiting for Vegan Yum Yum to get on a certain coveted food show on NPR (clue: it has the word “splendid” in it). I’m psyched that we put Going Rouge in bookstores so fast. I heard we sold hundreds of copies in two days at Borders.
Now, those is sum numbas!
Not to mention the thrill factor that accompanies the book. Between the imminent sales and the marketplace confusion.
I personally would be even more thrilled if an online book vendor who shall remain unnamed would make the book more obvious and accessible when you search for it. Do you see how frustrating this business can be? You’d think that if you entered a title verbatim in the search box that you’d see that title on your screen in at least the top 5 offerings.
Not on the second page at number #17.
They tell me it’s because of the complexity of the mechanized system that serves hundreds of thousands if not millions of books. So much for robots.
That’s not a good enough answer for me. Windows of opportunity for book sales don’t last forever. I’m a “one-click” person and if I don’t see what I want on my first try, forget it. I know that there are other consumers with buyer’s ADD like me. (If you’re reading this, click twice. It’ll be worth it. I promise)
I’m musing. I’m about to hear some live music on an avenue with lots of galleries and places to eat. Stroll the night away on this balmy Florida night.
There’s an awful void on the street that is so well trafficked especially on nights like tonight. With all the watering holes and tony shops there is nary a bookstore. Isn’t that a little sad? A funky newsstand, maybe, a Starbucks (or two), a Chico’s but no local bookstore.
There wasn’t even a chain store that came in and bumped a mom and pop shop.
Again, I say, sad.
So, off I go to face another day at the publishing factory where we still sacrifice trees to bring you the best that self-help has to offer. Still send the guts of the books around the bindery conveyor belt to meet their covers with shots of warm glue. We can still say our books are “hot off the press.”
Hot off a Kindle just doesn’t have the same ring.
I hope all your wishes come true this holiday season and that Santa or the Chanukah fairy or the Kwanza gods are not only generous but book literate.
Be good to your kids and your grandkids. Enough with the Wi and the Xbox (still not sure what that is).
Give ‘em some literary love.
Get thee behind me recession and sell me some books.
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