On Discouragement and One Last ARC Contest
I’ve been moping around this box of ARCs for over a month now, some have gone out for contest prizes and stuff, but the bulk of them are intended for book bloggers, reviewers and booksellers. So, why haven’t I sent them? One, it costs a lot. Two, I’m not sure how effective it is to send the book out to booksellers I don’t know personally. Kind of feels like I’m spamming them, and even when I do make a connection, there’s no assurance that attempt leads to orders.
Here’s an example. I was lucky enough to get a list of independent booksellers from a friend, and I sent out 50 copies to these folks last year for Road Trip of the Living Dead’s release, but this year at a convention, when I approached one of these booksellers who I’d made a concerted effort to contact and get an ARC into their hands, I found they hadn’t even ordered a token copy to have on hand for the con. So I looked around at the other booksellers and found, or rather didn’t find, a single copy of either Happy Hour of the Damned or Road Trip of the Living Dead. Discouraging? Um yeah. So the third reason I haven’t sent them out is, I’m pretty discouraged.
What’s worse is, I love independent book stores. Whenever I see one, I make a point to go in and check out their stock. 99% of the time, I don’t find my book and every time it happens, I’m discouraged. Every. Time.
I don’t mean for this post to be all doom and gloom, but I could certainly use some help folks. A while back, I got my royalty statement for Happy Hour’s first year of sales (it takes 6 months before we authors get actual figures on sales, depending on the release date, longer). Before I even opened it, I knew it was not going to be good news. We’re all aware of slumping sales and such. Yes Romance and scifi/fantasy sales are favorable, but not for trade paperbacks priced at twice the cost of a mass market paperback. I’ve read tons of thoughts on the subject and the consensus is that the trade paperback format hobbles an urban fantasy novel. I believe it. Publishers don’t have a crystal ball, I know, and it takes a village to market a book and set a price and format and all that, but really, what I’m getting at is those numbers suuuuuuuuucked (yes, that’s an actual word).
It was about that time that my frequent blogging took a nose dive. I’d only started blogging as a suggestion from an editor I’d met at a conference, and yeah I enjoyed it, but the purpose was always supposed to be promotion. That’s, of course, rarely the case with me, since I seem to be much more interested in talking about zombie movies or mocking my neighbors, which in itself is promotion, I guess. But it all gets back to discouragement. Or rather, how I deal with it.
It seems I don’t. I back away. I look for distractions. I try to forget that if Happy Hour did so poorly and was released before the bottom fell out of publishing where does that put the numbers for Road Trip? I also coauthor a screenplay, change my name and work on YA projects, but that’s a whole other conversation. A more hopeful one, but one I’m not going into publicly yet.
I hate feeling this way, let alone spewing it out on you guys. I tend to be pretty upbeat and I’ve really enjoyed the opportunities, friends and experiences that have come from being published, for the most part. I wouldn’t change a thing about the decisions I’ve made. But, the power of positive thinking only goes so far.
So where does all that leave me? Well, Happy Hour of the Damned is being giving a “second chance,” so to speak, as a mass market paperback, which comes out on January 23rd. So Amanda gets a glossy version of the original cover and a welcome $6.99 cover price. A month later, Battle of the Network Zombies comes out with a revisioned cover that’s more “graphic” and comic, which is fitting considering the graphic sex and comic stuff inside. If, and I’m hoping that’s a generous “if,” Happy Hour does well in the new format, we might just see some more Amanda books. I’m hoping this is the case, I love my editor and I love Amanda, but the profit and loss statement overrides any lovefests.
What can you do? Save Amanda Feral!!!
Get the word out!
Here’s the deal. I’ll give up two ARCs of Battle of the Network Zombies, some swag and other such stuff, TBD (sometimes that means really cool stuff). And all you have to do is two of the following…
1. Post a brief review of Happy Hour of the Damned or Road Trip of the Living Dead on Amazon/B&N/Borders and then let me know in a comment to this thread (either here or on livejournal). To date, Road Trip only has 9 reviews on Amazon. NINE!!!
2. Pre-order the mmpb of Happy Hour of the Damned, or Battle of the Network Zombies, pick up a copy of Road Trip of the Living dead at the all new BARGAIN PRICE of $6.00 at Amazon, and email me a copy of the confirmation. Already have yours? They make great gifts for your snarky friends. If you don’t have snarky friends, then get some.
3. Blog about the upcoming releases with links to the pre-order pages and tell me all about it. Feel free to use the Save Amanda Feral banner to link back to this post.
4. Order a signed and personalized copy of any of the books from the University Bookstore in Seattle. On the payment page, simply input, “Please send me a personalized signed copy (or copies). Contact Duane Wilkins and author for arrangements.” In the comment box and I’ll come out and write something snarky in your book and get it back to you ASAP. Again, let me know that’s in the works in this thread and we’ll be good to go.
Contest is closed!
Winners Lisa Kersten and Velvet.
Goooooo!!!!
Originally published at Mark Henry. You can comment here or there.