Comments on: Joshua Henkin: Some Thoughts on Book Groups, Book Sales, Book Review Sections, and the Publishing Industry – Part the Second

By: Ferida Wolff

Ferida Wolff — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:38:55 +0000

I am an author and I know the difficulty in getting the word out about books. Even on vacations I am promoting my work. I was recently down east in Maine and went into every library and every bookstore that I could find. They were all very receptive, the librarians particularly, to my books. Had I not poked my nose in, however, they would not have heard of them. A woman in a bookstore who heard me talking asked to look at one of the picture books, Is a Worry Worrying You? When she finished reading it, she said it was terrific and asked why it wasn’t flying off the shelves. I have to get it on the shelves first!

By: Alyce

Alyce — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:46:18 +0000

Not being an author myself, I can only imagine how hard it must be to do well. The amount of books that are published sometimes seems overwhelming to me. It must be hard for an author to stand out.

Also, I had never considered the value of a book review section in the paper for drawing inadvertent readers. It was a good point.

By: Leslie Carol Roberts

Leslie Carol Roberts — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:18:39 +0000

How timely! Last night, I was on a panel at the California College of the Arts where I teach in the MFA Writing Program. It was me, and my colleagues Matthew Iribarne and Cooley Windsor, discussing the road to publication. Matthew’s book, Astronauts and Other Stories, came out with Simon and Schuster; Cooley’s Visit Me in California, came out with Northwestern; Nebraska published my book, The Entire Earth and Sky: Views on Antarctica. Our stories varied but we all agreed on one point: how we had to make a “cottage industry” out of self promotion — and how really tough it is to get bookstores to stock your book. I don’t consider myself naive about publishing, but I had no idea I would find myself, after years of tough Antarctic research, talking to rather disinterested book store managers about why I thought people would read my book. It’s actually a surreal slice of the modern author’s life: Book goes from idea in head, to words on page, to revisions on pages, to object. I keep myself cheerful in the dreadful sales mode by recalled Glengarry, Glen Ross: First prize for sales? A Cadillac! Second? Steak knives! Third? You’re fired!
I am, by the way, talking to book groups. My first group is near my home in San Francisco. I wonder how we go about selling ourselves to book groups further afield? Drive somewhere and walk door to door, like the Fuller Brush folks? Thoughts?

By: Ron Hogan

Ron Hogan — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:09:03 +0000

Well, that’s how she got to be very wealthy, after all: by not caring about shorting the little people.

By: feener

feener — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:53:47 +0000

many folks in my bookclub use the library as well. that doesn’t bother me, what bothers me is the one VERY wealthy woman who buys used on amazon ? i explained to her how she is shorting the author and she could care less.