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.