Authors Can Save Barnes and Noble

Authors can save Barnes and Noble. All they have to do is sell their books. Imagine if Barnes and Nobles had an author in every day. Not to sit behind a table but to sell their books. Not an author signing but an author selling. The author sells their book and then signs it. They will never beat Amazon at their game nor Starbucks or small cafes. But what Barnes and Noble does have is a physical presence and they have books and they have real live authors.

I sold 24k of my last book at a single Barnes and Noble last year. An unknown book. I did it all by talking to people coming in the front door. Most people are looking to discover a new story and guess what there is an author there to tell them all about a new story. Their own. And they can sign the book. It is a resource a sleeping sales force that Barnes and Noble can unleash right away because authors have a vested interest in selling their own books.

Look not everyone wants to talk to author when they walk into a Barnes and Noble but one in four  do. I counted it out and I sell a book about every fourth person. People are interested in the story the author has to tell and then they are interested in the author. The biggest advantage Barnes and Noble has is there are real people in those stores and real authors selling their books would cost them nothing. I impacted the bottom line of many Barnes and Nobles after four hours of selling my book and the managers were grateful. My sales swung the total revenue for the day.

This is a no brainer. The resource is there waiting to be tapped. An army of authors who just want people to read their books. Somebody just has to invite them in. The customer gets to hear about a new book, have an interesting conversation, and then get a signed book. And the author sells their book and now has an active role in controlling their royalties. It is a win for the author and more importantly the passive art of selling books will be gone for good, replaced by a motivated sales force of people going to the customers...authors.

Finally, yes it is a cyber world, but we are human beings. And humans like to talk to humans. An author can demolish any online sales model with this simple model. Give the author cards with a cover of his book. The customer walks in. "Can I give you this card? It is actually a book I wrote... "

www.williamhazelgrove.com william hazelgrove

What Happened to the Kindle?

You remember that funny thing that lit up and then went dead really fast. Or how about that thing you tried to read in the sun and it was like a black piece of slate. Or that thing where you never knew what page you were on and couldn't tell when you would finish the book or if the pages were marked and you couldn't spill jelly or coffee on it or throw it in your backpack or get it wet or find that one book you know you downloaded but now it is just gone. You know the thing that was supposed to be the IPOD of books. What happened to it?

I know I know. There are a lot of people out there who are happy kindle users but it is weird when the hardcover of my book  outpaces the kindle by four to one. People seem willing to plunk down 29.00 for a hardcover instead of getting an electronic version of less than half the price. The bigger question is why didn't it blow away all those pulpy books especially hardcovers.
Could it be readers are different than people who listen to music and while spotify tore the music biz to pieces the kindle fizzled like a bottle rocket.

The rub on this is the kindle flat lined somewhere and the novelty wore off and people went back to buying books. I am a perfect example. My kindle is jammed with books. And for a while that was my thing. No more books. Just electronic. But I missed marking up my books, I missed bending the pages, knowing how far i had to go...I missed READING a book. It is different. When I asked my comp class  in college who had a kindle? Not one hand went up.

So maybe it will come back. But until then bring on the coffee and jelly and bend back those pages and throw that bad boy by the tub. And the great thing is you don't have to plug it  in. My own kindle sits on my dresser...covered in dust.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Shelf Space or why Books Fail

Books fail for the same reason they always have. NO ONE SEES THEM. Lets assume your book is good. Lets assume you have the reviews. Your book still fails. Now why is that? Once upon a time there were only the bookstores. The bookstores had shelf space. Limited shelf space. Your book came out and chances are it did not find space on these shelves. Or if your book ended up in the bookstore it was spine out in the stacks and only for a little while.

Bookselling then was based on the concept that someone walking by would see your book and buy it. But most people never saw your book. The book was buried under the Bestsellers and the publishers who paid for shelf space. Your book from the midsized or even large press never had a chance because they only pay for so many books to be there. Even the Independent bookstores have to be careful about their space and pick only the books that hit their radar.

So now lets fast forward to the cyber world. Your book is now in cyber space and the same problems apply. Book shelf space. Except now it is cyber shelves. And your book has to be seen. But now you have a chance. Now you can get it in front of people. You just have to promote it though the many promotion channels. And your book may not be seen by everyone but by working hard you can make sure it is seen by some. And this is better.

The author now has a choice. Work hard and get cyber space or let your book disappear. The choice is really now up to the writer.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

The State of the Book in 2014

You could argue it both ways. Go to the Kindle boards and you will see the new frontier of publishing. Writers taking their work and bypassing the publishing and putting it out there to sell on the kindle. The ebook certainly broke the dam of writers who would never see print. And there are writers who sell in the millions who have never signed a publishing contract and conversely they have become millionaires. They are the one percent of one percent.

For the rest of the self publishers it is a brutal slog and many sell few downloads of their book. But of course you could argue this beats obscurity. And for the traditionally published writers it is the year of reckoning. You have to compete on all fronts and with the advent of the ebook the free download has changed the field of play. People literally give way their book while traditional publishers sit on their prices like trolls at the gate. You cant blame them they actually have invested money in their books and they need to hold the line.

Profit has become a word only for the big sellers for these publishers. Print on Demand books have allowed them to compete with the price to sell market of ebooks but these also bring a stigma that keeps most POD books out of the bookstores so essential to selling now. It will be the year of the Independent this we know. Barnes and Noble is taking water so fast we might just see her slip beneath the waves in the first quarter. The Nook truly was the anchor thrown over the side with no real plan to compete with the Amazon behemoth.

And Amazon will rule its domain yet she was stymied when the independents didn't take her books. So we have gone full circle. Books are still stubbornly selling and independent bookstores are the future of book selling and are gaining strength while the ebook morphs into the interactive beast it is destined to be. Community will make or break the art of book selling for the independents. And what of the author in all of this?

Writers have greater opportunities to fail or thrive than ever before. If there is one consistent mantra it is this for the modern author; If you don't do it no one will. This is the unassailable truth of publishing. Never before have authors had to have thicker ankles than right now. It is a peasants work this selling of our wares but the truth is you have only one responsibility in the end and that is to your talent. And that has never changed and never will.

Full speed ahead.

www.williamhazelgrove.com

A Good Book Signing

In the age of the Internet book signings have taken it on the chin. Everybody pretty much hangs online and the book signing of old might go away eventually. But right now they are the  independent booksellers best friend and for good reason; they still bring readers and authors together. I had a signing last night in a great store in Oak Park called Magic Tree bookstore. The chairs were set up with a table in front and the books were stacked. Then you wait.

To have a good signing you need people. Ten is a nice number. You settle for five or even four. And if you hit twelve or thirteen you are doing really well. People are busy and going to a bookstore on a Thursday night is not a priority. But there they were.  Fifteen braves souls sitting in the wooden chairs and an author up front. And then it begins and you have all those great questions about writing and how the book came about.

And that magic dynamic happens beyond the Internet and chat rooms and every other disembodied experience that comes from interacting with a screen. It is actually very American to sit in a small town in a small bookstore and have a literary event. It speaks to a healthy culture. And you even sell a few books.

And then it is over and you are left with a great feeling. It's not just the book signing or the selling of books. It is the fact you just bumped up against your readers and had a great time. And that is priceless for any author.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
 

Getting out from behind the computer screen

As a modern author you think that the whole battle will be fought behind the laptop. That the world of book buyers has come to the sites and it is spurious to go out there into the land of brick and mortar and schlep around books. But this is exactly what you should do. After a point the online world gets saturated and you have little new information. Reviews calm down and those epiphanies coming in the form of interviews or news items or blogs don't seem so brilliant anymore. It is time to get out from behind the laptop and hit the road.

That's what I've been doing on my mini tour of Independents around Chicago. And every time I go  into a bookstore I  make a friend. I introduce myself and my book and then we just talk. Nothing like letting a bookseller know what your book is about. This helps them position the book to their customers and it is critical. I think one casualty of the online world is we tend to think that world has more impact than the physical world. It just aint true.

And you never know who you will bump into. I went into a bookstore on the North Shore and bumped into an old friend who was working at the bookstore. Talk about good timing and then he talked me into hanging around for a signing.

Well...I better go. I have a lot of driving to do.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

The POD Shimmy

Got the POD shimmy yesterday at a chain bookstore. You know the look. I am sorry we are not carrying your book...it is a POD book. Usually some low level manager who stares at all authors as if they just self published after reading the book yesterday. My book is not POD. It is traditional as bread. POD is an order driven system where books are produced by demand. Traditional is you print the books before hand. To make it more confusing many publishers back up their print runs with POD tech. So back to my man at the store.

Well my book is not POD could you check again. The man with the name tag stared at his computer. No. This is a POD book. By now he wants to be done with the pesky author. Look. My books were with Random House. This book is with a different press. Surely you can see that there are books in the warehouse. Noooo. I am sorry sir. But there is nothing I can do. And so we continued our POD shimmy. He behind a desk. Me in that sea of books.

Now look. I know you can do this. I am local. I have an interview coming up. I want to do a signing. And we shimmied on. Because the deal is POD books have no chance in bookstores. This is something most publishers wont tell their authors but the brutal truth is most books die because they never see the light of day. They never get seen by the consumer. Unless those books are sitting in a warehouse and a buyer makes the call and stocks them...then the author has no chance.

No. I am sorry sir. This is definitely a POD book. I could see our dance was at a standstill. We shook hands in mutual hate and I left the floor. I called up another store of the same chain in Chicago from the car. Of course we have your book! Would you like us to hold it for you? I thanked the girl and hung up. Sometimes you just want to know you still have it.

The Pitcher....sometimes a dream is all you have



 

Bookstores Floated by us

The latest is independents are now being saved by donations. Who would have thought people would do this but they chip in by the thousands. The question is where does it lead. The rapaciousness of ecommerce and conglomeration  will only continue. The niche of selling books will be harder and harder to sustain as economics dictate buying patterns. Ebooks seem to have waned a bit but no one knows if this is hardware driven or a real lull in the ipodification of books.

When you think about it authors have been sustained by grants and universities for hundreds of years. Literary writers would surely perish if not for other sources of income and I suppose the bookstore could be attached to that vein of intellectual bookselling. A person who knows and talks books versus a salesman who could just as easily be selling televisions.

But of course not all bookstores can be saved this way. They will have to find their unique corner to stay viable against the last remaining giants of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I have no problem donating to save my favorite bookstore. It's just they keep closing so fast I have to find a new one every few months.

The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have