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.