Cities and suburbs, real and imaginary.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Going back over a few quarters of royalty statements...

I was digging through old reporting statements from ye ol' publisher...

The moment Hasbro shut down the Discoveries imprint, my book sales tanked. I could pretty much point to my own efforts to sell the book as the only things that seemed to be selling the book, which is miniscule.

This leads me to believe that a dedicated sales force committed to an imprint is really the only promotional tool that actually makes a difference, and the only way to achieve the sort of exponential growth that means you are actually getting anywhere as an author.

I'm not sure if I really want to do any bookstore signings again, or other promotional things, for a while. I'm not convinced they're as effective as spending my Saturdays working on new books to hand off to a dedicated sales force.

If you want me to come to your town to sign stuff, you'll have to bribe me. I accept payment in form of whiskey, pizza, and even - in a pinch - groovy 80s action figures.

(There's nothing like those old school GI Joes with their rubbar-band legs! Yoga *is* for burly testosterone-soaked plasticine male totem objects. Barbie can't do yoga like Sergeant Slaughter, let me tell you.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you selling a book or a career? if just a book, you're right. If a career, you should still be doing things now. Or at least not doing things for the *right* reasons...

Jeff VanderBooklife.

J m mcdermott said...

As I am working full-time in video game design right now, and going to grad school, while trying to write more books, I have to say, my time is just not there.

They're fun. Sure, they are.

But, without much more realistic reasons, I'll have to say no.

If I had another book coming out soon, I might think differently about it.