Selling books keeps morphing. Before it was the bookstore and then it became the Internet. Authors were the man sitting behind the desk who magically sold books at signings. This was the golden age. The public wanted the book and the author was there to give it to them. We have seen lots of photos of the dapper author sitting behind a table with one arm up and a book under his pen. Then the Internet came along and knocked that author right on his duff. You now sold books on the net and hours logged on social media hopefully converted to book sales.
Then came the ebook. Game over or so everyone thought. Surely the Ipod was a cautionary tale and books would soon be devalued as a quaint artifact of the printing press era. Certainly Kindles would rule the day. But then a strange thing happened...readers rebelled. They quit plugging in their Kindles and what do you know a song is different from a book. Something about an intellectual exercise and readers prefer something tangible versus bits and bytes. The ebooks revolution fizzled down into the black screen of an ereader on a bright sunny day.
So people went back to buying books. But there is a different way to sell now. The author cannot sit behind his table any longer. He must get out there and "hand sell" his book. This was the way books were originally sold before conglomeration and mass culture. The bookseller would introduce the customer to a new book and the customer would buy. What a concept. So we are now in a new era. Authors... get out from behind your tables.
Madam, President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
Then came the ebook. Game over or so everyone thought. Surely the Ipod was a cautionary tale and books would soon be devalued as a quaint artifact of the printing press era. Certainly Kindles would rule the day. But then a strange thing happened...readers rebelled. They quit plugging in their Kindles and what do you know a song is different from a book. Something about an intellectual exercise and readers prefer something tangible versus bits and bytes. The ebooks revolution fizzled down into the black screen of an ereader on a bright sunny day.
So people went back to buying books. But there is a different way to sell now. The author cannot sit behind his table any longer. He must get out there and "hand sell" his book. This was the way books were originally sold before conglomeration and mass culture. The bookseller would introduce the customer to a new book and the customer would buy. What a concept. So we are now in a new era. Authors... get out from behind your tables.
Madam, President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
