I'm not dead yet...

This blog would seen for all intents and purposes, to have died.  Which clearly would be no great lost for the world of arts and letters.  Many people are doing it.  There is no shortage of commentary on the marketing of self-published books out there. Still I thought I would make some effort to bring the account up to date.

Author readings can be a plus.  I've done two.  At the first I had twelve people and sold eight books.  One of the people who bought a book wrote a beautiful five star review of the book, "Cutting Through the Knot (Second Edition)," on my Amazon page. At the second reading a local reporter showed up and interviewed me for a story on a local web site.  This story was tweeted by five people and recommended by fifteen, which certainly improved my web profile.  I have three more scheduled, including one at the New York University Bookstore. I hope to promote that one.

Blogs:  In addition to this rambling thing which has been on hiatus, I've started another blog which looks at one of the themes of the novel, the therapeutic value of laughing at yourself.  I'm going to continue posting from that blog in the hope of driving traffic to my Amazon page.

Kindles:  This appears to be where many books are being sold these days.  Kindles are cheaper. They are also easier to get a hold of, and more and more people are buying those readers.  The Internet is clearly the appropriate forum to troll for these kind of sales.  My sales rank as a Kindle book has gone up and down.  Amazon does a brilliant job with that sales ranking.  When your ranking improves you can't help but feel good.

Amazon discussion boards:  I started a discussion on the Amazon humor board entitled "Can Mental Illness be Funny."  To date there have been thirty two posts.  One person asked me about my book, so the listing of posts includes a description of the novel. Theoretically, people are reading this on a regular basis.

That's all I can think of right now.  There are an awful lot of books out there, and at times I tend to think that the mysteries, romances, and detective books have more immediate appeal.  But my resolve is firm.  I do believe their is an audience for my book and with the marvels of the Internet it may yet be possible to find it.

Author Readings II

A Short Post.

     I now have five author readings scheduled, in two days at a Barnes and Noble in Hell's Kitchen here in the city, on December 4th at the Syosett Borders, on January 8th at the Westbury Borders, also on The Island, in early February at New York University, and in May in Poughkeepsie.  I'll definitely move some books at these events, and I am hopeful that they may generate some enthusiasm.  I'm confident that the presentation will be interesting.

Author Readings

     Big happenings on the book marketing front, even if I am a bit delinquent in keeping up this blog, or running account, or what ever it is.The fact of the matter is that I have an author reading coming up two weeks from tomorrow at the Barnes and Noble store affiliated with John Jay College.  There is a lot of good news here.  For one thing, the location is in mid-town, Fifty-Fifth Street and Tenth Avenue, a little over to the west, but not bad.  The reading is at 5:30, a time when there will still be some student traffic and some of my friends and relatives will also me be free.  The manager of the store, a nice guy, is also pushing the event.  He is going to send out a "blast" to the entire student body by e-mail, and to the faculty as well.  But I am not leaving the marketing up to him.
     I printed up five hundred copies of a flyer with the date and time, my best quote and a description of the novel.  I gave half to the manager which he said he would use in the store and to "leaflet" nearby apartment buildings.  I've been giving my half away to everyone I can and have also been in the neighborhood, "Hell's Kitchen," putting them up on the walls of delis and laundromats. I can do more of this.  I've also been promoting the event on my Facebook page and with a invitation to Facebook friends.  I got the local paper around here, The Riverdale Press, to run a notice of the event in this weeks edition, and there is a chance they may go with an article about me and the way I am confronting mental illness head on.  More on that later, hopefully.  There are other websites, some affiliated with newspapers, that run listings of author readings in the New York City area where I think I can get listed.  I'm trying to spread the word.  Let's leave it at that.
     As for the reading itself, I've selected six passages from the novel that I think will make for a dramatic presentation.  I've done this twice before, so I have some idea what I am doing.  I'm going to keep the reading part short, no more than twenty-five minutes.  Then come questions, if there are any, and book signings if anybody buys the book.  I think I'll sell one or two at least, but I'm keeping expectations low.
     There is one other thing.  I know some authors are able to generate sales entirely on the Internet, but with my novel, that addresses the loaded topic of mental illness, I believe there is added value in seeing the author in person, seeing him smile and interact and act normal.  It just brings the whole thing home in a way an Internet posting, no matter how humorous can not.
     The N.Y.U. book store down by Washington Square Park has agreed to hold a reading in early February at seven in the evening, a better time for the after work crowd.  I plan on promoting the heck out of that one, especially with the John Jay reading under my belt.

Things Take Time

     I'm not selling a whole lot of books right now, so it is easy to think not much is happening.  At the same time there is progress.  I tried distributing fliers again, this time in my neighborhood of Riverdale, New York, and found it to be a rewarding experience.  I went out with a big sign, early afternoon on a week day and the people who came by were quite receptive.  I think the flyer's provide a good introduction to the book and the Riverdalians who took one read it as they were walking away.  I'm not sure that always happens on the Internet.  A few people came by a second time for a chat. Once it got personal.  An older woman told me her grand daughter had taken her own life. The woman took a fliers and asked me why I didn't have any copies on hand to sell.  Another young African-American woman came by twice and explained that she worked in the mental health field.  As she was walking away the second time she said,
     "I'm looking forward to reading it."
A young man took a card for the web site and said he wanted to read an excerpt.  That web site is http://www.cuttingthroughtheknot.com.  An old retired New York City Police Detective was looking for a ghost writer to write his biography.  He stopped to tell me some stories.  All of this happened in an hour and a half.
     It takes some hutzpa to position yourself alone on a street corner.  At the same time I left feeling that my book has a role to play.  These people seemed genuinely interested in a humorous and direct look at the subject of mental illness.  I also felt like going public with this story is actually a good deed that has the power to make others feel less ashamed.  It is possible to feel that the gesture is too small and insignificant to really matter.  How can an hour and a half on a street corner really measure up in the mighty world of book publishing?  But, I suppose, you have to start somewhere, and in my case putting a friendly human face along with the book seems to be a plus.
     On other fronts, I left a couple of phone messages for the managing editor at the Cornell Daily Sun, and e-mailed him copies of my two reviews.  Here I must be patient.  Managing editors and newspapers have their own schedules and priorities.  One nice thing is that the second edition of the novel, Cutting Through the Knot, is now available as a Kindle edition on Amazon.com.  I publicized this fact on Facebook.  There may be additional marketing possible around the advent of a Kindle edition.  The price on Kindle is a mere five dollars.  This may actually be a bit high, by Kindle standards, but that is where I set it.
     The bottom line is that there an awful lot of self-published books out there.  It is not at all easy to get noticed.  I'd like to reach the people who have concerns about mental illness and tell them there is a positive story here.  How to do that remains a challenge.

Distributing Flyers

     Tried an approach yesterday I haven't seen written up any where else.  I took a couple of hundred yellow fliers with a description of the novel, that would be Cutting Through the Knot (Second Edition), boarded the 1 train and rode it down to Battery Park in lower Manhattan.  I proceeded to a strategically chosen spot on a plaza with a full view of the Statue of Liberty, a suitable emblem for the book, which is in part about freedom, and prepared to go to work.  I was standing with my back against a low wall right next to the line that leads into the loading area for the ferry ride over to Lady Liberty.  Every one pretty much had to walk by me, if they wanted to get on the boat.  A surprisingly high percentage took the flyer.
     There were advantages to this position.  For one thing the tourists would be standing still at least for a couple of minutes after they picked up the publicity, with nothing else to do.  For another thing these individuals were out of their normal routine.  They had already decided to go some place different and to see something new, so they might be open to new ideas as well.  The disadvantage was that some of them may not read English in the first place.  There was one other advantage, I got to look out at the water in the harbor as I was handing out the fliers.  I didn't try and make a big impression.  I just stood there and kind of nonchalantly handed out the pieces of paper, with an occasional,
     "Thank you," or "Have a good day."
The flyer itself said the rest, a quote from my one real review, a picture of the cover and a few paragraphs of description. At the bottom of the page it said the novel was for sale on Amazon.com. I could see the tourists reading it in line.  None of them wound up on the ground.
     I guess I can see why this approach isn't written up in the literature.  It did feel a bit arbitrary, handing out a couple of hundred of fliers to this seemingly arbitrarily chosen group of prospects, but when you consider that at the moment I'm dead in the water, I feel good about it.  I have to start somewhere.  Sure on line reviews might be better, but at this point even a couple of new sales would be satisfying, because a couple can lead to a couple more.  I think I feel good about it for another reason. The flyer speaks about laughing at mental illness, about looking at it head on. Putting that message in two hundred people's hands, however arbitrarily chosen, felt to me like a good deed.  Later yesterday afternoon I went into my local Staples and ordered a two foot by three foot backed laminated sign, so that next time I can do it better.

Marketing Strategy

     My marketing strategy is based on a model employed by my father in starting what became a thriving Internet business.  He began with one client, The Washington Post, and not a whole lot more, but it turned out that was all he needed.  He went to his other prospective clients and said,
     "Hey, I've got The Washington Post."
     And they all said,
     "The Washington Post, they're pretty important.  This must be a good business.  Maybe we should get in on this too."
     From this he began.  As he took on other influential clients he displayed them to companies in similar fields.  The same thing continued to happen.  Some fifteen years later, the business is going strong and bringing in a steady income.  I'm sure this says something fundamental about human nature.  I couldn't say what it is.  I just know it worked.
     So that is what I would like to do.  I'm compiling a long list of the arts editors at an assorted collection of universities and colleges.  I'm taking down the managing editors as well, all with their e-mail addresses.  If I get that review in the Cornell Daily Sun, I plan on writing to them all and doing just what my father did.  I'll say, though not in these exact words,
     "Look, The Cornell Daily Sun reviewed my novel.  They know a thing or two.  Don't you think you should do the same thing."
    I also plan on sending it to the community newspaper in Ithaca, the Ithaca Times, and to the Cornell radio station, WVBR.  If I can land either of those two, I'll proceed to other radio station and community papers in small cities with universities in them.
     All of this depends on my getting that review in the Cornell paper.  This is true.  But I think I am going to get it.  Also, I can't think of any other way to proceed.  There are so many thousands of self-published books out there, and so many thousands of authors trying to publicize them, it is enough to drive a man to despair.  But I do not despair.  I'm building my list of papers and editors, and if I get the review I'll be ready to roll.  If I didn't truly believe in my product, as my father did in his, all of this would be a waste of time.  Here again I can say positively that I do believe in it.  Cutting Through the Knot (Second Edition) has something to say.  Learning to laugh at yourself lies at the root of recovery from many forms of mental illness.  This to me is worth blogging over and worth making the effort necessary to publicize a self-published novel over.  Humor cuts through the knot, of obsessive rumination, anger, despised self-image, inordinate amounts of fear, and the whole complex of distorted emotions associated with severe obsessive compulsive disorder.  That is a lot of what the book is about.  And I think it says it well.

University Market II

     I am aware that up until this point, this blog may be of marginal value.  My book, "Cutting Through the Knot (Second Edition)," does not have a commercial publisher and of all the manifold ways there are to market a book I am pursuing precious few.  Still, there may be some reason for keeping a record of this kind.  It shows, if nothing else, how one author is making the attempt to market his own novel.  I don't seem to me making much progress on the next one, so this also keeps me writing.
     I've been in touch with the managing editor of the Cornell Daily Sun and there is some reason for optimism here.  He received the book, and he is looking for someone to review it.  In fact he said,
     "I'll shoot you an e-mail when I get someone."
     He didn't have to say that.  I actually think there is a pretty good chance I'll get reviewed.  Will the review be positive?  Here again, I think it will. I believe the novel is well written and funny, and that it deals head on with mental illness with an honesty that may well be unique.  It is also a suitable book for the Cornell market. Like it or not, mental health is a big deal up there.  I don't want to say it in a flip way, but last Sunday the university was faced with the task of removing the body of a sophomore from the Fall Creek Gorge.  He jumped off a bridge.  The protagonist in my novel, never considers this, but he does have an emotional breakdown while on leave from that university and living in Ithaca.  It would seem to me that the community is ripe for some additional discussion along these lines.  But hey, that's just me.
     If I do get the review I think I may be able to use it to approach university papers on other campuses.  They may be more likely to join in once The Cornell Daily Sun has gotten the ball rolling.  With e-mail and the Internet getting in touch with the editors at other papers would not be at all difficult.  So that's it.  That is all I'm really doing on the marketing front.  I've been in touch with the Sun advertising department and if I do get a review I'm planning on running a small ad in the on-line edition.  They are not expensive.  I know, it's a big "if."  I just have to wait and see.
     Maybe this is a good time to say something more about the novel's value as a mental health document.  It's a good read, I've been told. I'd like to think it is Literature, with a capital "L," but it is also a painstaking honest look at the process of recovery from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, a condition closely related to other forms of mental illness including addiction.  The central character is brought along by a highly skilled and brilliant psychiatrist, until he gets upset, flushes his medication down the toilet and winds up in a mental hospital, until he runs away from the hospital flies to California has breakfast and comes back.  Right, I'm giving some of it away.  The point is, the doctor really knows his stuff, and says all kinds of interesting things about O.C.D. and how, at the root, it can be treated.  And it's funny.  Really at times it is.  Read it.  Tell your friends.

Bookstores

There is a chance I may see my book, Cutting Through the Knot (Second Edition), on the shelves of the Kinokuniya Bookstore, the one on Forty-First Street and Sixth Avenue here in New York City.  If I do, however, it will be because the book buyer knows me.  It is in the nature of print-on-demand publishing, that the process is not generally suited for bookstores.

The problem, as I understand it, is that the bookstores can't return unsold copies of these books.  They have to lay out the money up front, and they don't know if they will get it back.  This is a risk the stores don't have to take with conventionally published books, and it is a function of the fact that conventional publishers produce larger numbers of books at one time.  When a main stream publisher delivers books to a bookstore they come with the agreement that the publisher will take back the unsold copies. 

Bookstores will order a copy of a print-on-demand book, if the customer has put up the money in advance.  There may be other exceptions.  I did a reading of the first edition of my novel at a Borders Books in Ithaca and as I was leaving, the manager purchased two additional copies from the supply I had bought.  With the reading and the book on display she was confident she could move that number, that she wouldn't be taking a risk.  The Cornell Campus Store, where I also did a reading, had a number of copies on hand that I did not provide. I can only assume that me being an alumnus and the reading taking place, they decided to spring for it, and take the loss if necessary.  When I approached a Barnes and Noble here in New York City, they made if very clear they could only order a print-on-demand book if it was prepaid.

My book is being produced by an operation called Lulu.  One of their principle attractions is that they do all the set up for free and receive payment only when a book is sold.  It is possible that there are other self-publishing companies that charge more at the initial stages, and do have bookstore distribution.  As I look optimistically ahead, this will come for me when I get taken on by a main stream publisher.

In there mean time, there is the world wide web, just waiting for the writer who has the right key to unlock its untold wealth, the right combination of words, the right Internet postings and hopefully a pretty good book to back them up.  A review copy of my novel will be delivered to the offices of the Cornell Daily Sun in Ithaca today.

The University Market

The protagonist in the novel, Jordan Fineman, has completed his junior year at Cornell University, and is encountering serious emotional problems, a phenomenon, rightly or wrongly, Cornell has become associated with.  Early in the story, Jordan's father and sister drive up to Ithaca on a spring night, to cart Jordan down to New York City for his first meeting with his psychiatrist and there are references through out about his desire to return to Cornell and to complete his degree.  In more general terms, the novel deals with that stage in life, "the college years," pursued in an unconventional manner.

For all of these reasons, it seems logical that if there is a market for this novel, it might be among younger, college age people.  In particular it seems logical to approach the Cornell market.  They read a lot of books.  Most of them are assigned, but you never know.  I'm attracted to this idea additionally because it is finite and, in fact, approachable market.  The country is so vast, there are so many public radio stations, so many newspapers, so many web sites, that attempting to place one paperback book before them is daunting, no matter how filled with hope and love you may be.

So I've made a start at Cornell.  I called the paper and asked about the price of running a series of small ads.  In the context of that discussion, the managing editor suggested that the paper might be interested in including some editorial coverage of the novel, either as news, or as a review in the arts section.  I gave him my best pitch, and we agreed that I would send him a copy to review.  He sounded interested.  In the category of "hope and optimism," if I got a review in the Cornell paper, it might be possible to use it to approach other university papers around the country.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com has played a big part in this process.  There are other on-line book stores, BarnesandNoble.com, for one, and many smaller sites, but Amazon.com is the big gorilla. I don't know how the sales break down in terms of percentages, but Amazon definitely seems to be the place most people have heard of.  I have found that they shoulder that responsibility admirably.

My novel, that would be Cutting Through the Knot, in case it slipped your mind, is in its second edition, the second version being similar to the first but re-edited and with the minor mistakes cleaned up.  Amazon has handled the shift from the first to the second editions well.  They kept the first one up and moved the comments seamlessly to the second edition's page.  I have also found that they have handled all sales cleanly and without foul up.  My page lists new as well as used copies of the novel, the used copies at a lower price.  I have no idea where the used copies have come from as it is not very likely that any one who has purchased the book has already sold it back. I also give them credit for keeping books like mine, which to date have not shown many sales, on public display right in there with every one else.

This brings us to one of the key features of the Amazon.com listing, the sales ranking number.  The sales ranking number has been the subject of some popular discussion.  There are a number of web sites devoted to its proper interpretation.  One key feature of this number is that it can fluctuate widely.  I've been under 100,000 and over 3,000,000, depending on how aggressively I've been marketing my novel.  The number may reach a more constant level if the book is receiving a consistent level of exposure.  Still, it is a number, a series of digits quantifying your books place in the world, and it is easy to become enthralled by it.

I entered the world of Amazon.com, through my self-publishing site, Lulu.com.  For one hundred dollars, they got me an ISBN number and a listing on Amazon and other on-line book sellers around the world.  I find this to be a remarkable thing.  I was just listening to Don McLean sing, "I knew if I had the chance, I could make those people dance," in his classic song "American Pie."  Well here it is.  The chance is here.  If you have something to show off, you can go right ahead and do it.  I concede that the ease of publication can be problematic.  The first edition of my book was in some ways not professional, and I paid a price for that in the blog notice already mentioned.  At the same time, that first edition got me an agent and an editor and made the second edition possible.  The positive feedback I received also encouraged me to push ahead.

The world of publishing is changing very quickly.  It is easier than ever to get a book in the public market place.  The tricky part is getting any one to notice it. 

Facebook

All of the columns on the subject speak about using social networking sites to promote your book.  For me, at this point, that means Facebook.  One column speaks about working your way up from 5,000 contacts on Myspace. Let's just say we are not quite talking about those kind of numbers right now. I can say, however, that the process of reaching out on Facebook has been rewarding in unexpected ways.

I'm finding that by contacting old friends I am able to let many of them know that the storm is past.  I think these people knew there were some dark days, and maybe they are relieved to know I'm trying to crack jokes about them.  They are also a group of people who might actually buy the book or even tell other people about it.  The experts talk about putting together a "list," a mailing list, a list of past customers, people to keep informed of your progress.  These are all good people to have on board.

Hope is definitely good at this point.  It is helpful to remember that most creative endeavors start out slow.  The Marx Brothers brought their act from one back water Southern town to another, sometimes without enough money for train fare, for years, before they ever worked for R.K.O.

At the very least, so far, the marketing has been a social process, a process of reaching out, and that is all to the good.

Negative Blog Comment

I got some bad press.  It ran absolutely contrary to the other reviews I had received, and it was about the first edition of the novel, which has since been supplanted by the more carefully edited second edition.  Still, the way the blog entry was written, it had a way of showing up in most Goggle searches.  I have to concede this troubled me at first.  I was able to add my own comments after her remarks, but it was still out there.

Well so be it.  That is what free speech is all about.  I think it was Thomas Jefferson who expressed the idea that the way to confront speech you might find objectionable is not to try and control it, but rather to overwhelm it with speech you do not find objectionable.  That was Thomas Jefferson, and he knew a thing or two. So as filled with hope and love as I can possibly make myself, I push ahead.

I wrote a good book.  The second edition is better than the first.  It's high time I put it out there.

First Post

This blog is intended to be an on-going running account of one person's possibly futile attempt to publicize a self-published novel.  That novel, as you've probably figured out by now, is called Cutting Through the Knot.  Still, I think an account of this kind may have relevance beyond this particular book. 

Self-publishing is in.  During the steep economic down turn, the self-publishing companies were the one arm of the publishing industry and continued to make money.  Just in the last couple of weeks in has been reported that Amazon.com is selling more Kindle editions than hard covers.  The Kindle editions are expected to surpass the paperbacks on Amazon in the near future.  It seems that there will be more and more opportunities for writers to put their work before the public.  The question remains, however, how are these writers, to make their work known.  How can one writer make his book, however worthy, stand out, get noticed, draw enough attention to make the cyberspace cash register ring?

Well I'm going to try and if you check back in here, you'll find out how well I do.  I don't claim to have all the answers at this point.  But I've got some idea how I might get started.  I do believe in my book. I think it is worth reading.  Now I just have to let other people know about it.