I work in the DVD side of the publishing industry. I'm actually of the opinion it's hard to say that what works for music, or even film & tv would work for literature. Why? So much of our advertising is geared towards visual looks, and sound, and mixing them in such a way to grab one's attention. That's alot harder to encapsulate for a book. You can't give someone a trailer of a book and say "here's a teaser to wet your appetite" the best you can do is give them a snippet of the book, and a series synopsis.
I discovered your book on one of my random "let's see what I can find on the lark" whims. I was looking for something new to read, by an author I hadn't read before. It was a mixture of the cover, the title, the back copy, and reading the first few pages that convinced me to purchase Cast in Shadow. The book also stood out from other books that I was also considering.
But even going back to my experience in Marketing in the DVD Publishing world... we're in a niche market, so we simply don't have the sort of advertising spend that Big Hollywood, be it film or tv has. But in that way we're like Southwest Airlines. We may not have all the frills, but we have a sound business model, we're always quite in the black, and our customers enjoy the ride.
But honestly, you're an author, you shouldn't HAVE to promote your own book. A good publishing house should have someone do that for you, they have contacts and a network you most likely do not. They know the usual places, and they can also see from a business standpoint when it makes sense to go the extra mile or do something a bit more special. They have a grade scale, varying on how they think the book will sell into retail, they reverse engineer a cost of goods which covers the printing of the book and is the base on which other considerations are added to in order to get the SRP.
Honestly, if you look at music, sales have been dramatically dying off, and so it doesn't make sense to spend as much in promoting these days. You have to learn to change and adapt to a different consumer. Throwing money at a problem, doesn't fix it.
I know one of the most difficult things I have to do in my job, is at the very beginning when we have just finalized a new acquisition that I've been assigned. I write a creative brief, which influences & impacts ann future creative (from ads, trailers, packaging, etc.) Followed by coming up with comparative titles--which we always compare to mass, mainstream works--yet even then it doesn't capture the spirit of some of the properties we manage.
---
Now what I'd like to know, is there some way fans can acquire autographed books? Maybe if I sent a book with a SASE it could be mailed back in somewhere?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 12:06 am (UTC)I discovered your book on one of my random "let's see what I can find on the lark" whims. I was looking for something new to read, by an author I hadn't read before. It was a mixture of the cover, the title, the back copy, and reading the first few pages that convinced me to purchase Cast in Shadow. The book also stood out from other books that I was also considering.
But even going back to my experience in Marketing in the DVD Publishing world... we're in a niche market, so we simply don't have the sort of advertising spend that Big Hollywood, be it film or tv has. But in that way we're like Southwest Airlines. We may not have all the frills, but we have a sound business model, we're always quite in the black, and our customers enjoy the ride.
But honestly, you're an author, you shouldn't HAVE to promote your own book. A good publishing house should have someone do that for you, they have contacts and a network you most likely do not. They know the usual places, and they can also see from a business standpoint when it makes sense to go the extra mile or do something a bit more special. They have a grade scale, varying on how they think the book will sell into retail, they reverse engineer a cost of goods which covers the printing of the book and is the base on which other considerations are added to in order to get the SRP.
Honestly, if you look at music, sales have been dramatically dying off, and so it doesn't make sense to spend as much in promoting these days. You have to learn to change and adapt to a different consumer. Throwing money at a problem, doesn't fix it.
I know one of the most difficult things I have to do in my job, is at the very beginning when we have just finalized a new acquisition that I've been assigned. I write a creative brief, which influences & impacts ann future creative (from ads, trailers, packaging, etc.) Followed by coming up with comparative titles--which we always compare to mass, mainstream works--yet even then it doesn't capture the spirit of some of the properties we manage.
---
Now what I'd like to know, is there some way fans can acquire autographed books? Maybe if I sent a book with a SASE it could be mailed back in somewhere?