Ever since
mystery publishing had a major upheaval just a few months ago in which many
writers of mystery series were dropped by their publishers and many long-time editors
in the field were laid off, I’ve been thinking seriously about book sales. I’ve
written and spoken a number of times about what an avid reader can do to
support the authors s/he loves, and so I thought I’d compile all of those
actions into a blog post for today.
As a
reader of novels, I was often disappointed and horrified when authors that I
loved disappeared or stopped writing series I loved and started writing another
that I might not be as fond of. After I
became a published novelist and got to know many other published novelists, I
discovered how these things happen and what I as a reader can do about them. A
couple of examples—one writer’s books always get rave reviews in the big
journals, usually starred reviews, she always earns out her advances, and every
single book has been a finalist for some of the biggest awards, but her
publisher, one of the Big Five, has dropped her. Why? Her books aren’t
increasing in sales enough from book to book, even though they are increasing
and are profitable to the publisher. She is looking at writing novels in a
different genre now. Another writer had an award-winning series of witty,
well-written private-eye novels. He was dropped because it was determined that
private-eye novels wouldn’t be selling well soon (a prediction that turned out
wrong). He couldn’t get a publisher then. So he had to take a woman’s name and
start writing very successful cozies under that.
Often even famous
writers are just a breath or two away from tumbling down the slopes in the
fickle game of publishing, and success is even more volatile for midlist
authors. There are dozens of other stories like these that I could tell. This
is what’s happening to the authors you love who vanish and what may well happen
to the authors you love now. Even selling enough to earn out their advances is
not enough, if they are not increasing their sales drastically with each book.
How can we help the authors we love to do that so we can keep reading the books
we’re addicted to? Here’s a little list. (And incidentally, most of these tips
will help your favorite authors who are indie published or hybrid authors, as
well.)
Pre-orders— pre-orders
have become more and more important to writers. Publishers often decide how big
a print run and how much, if any, promotion they will give a book based on
pre-orders. Bookstores base orders on that, too. So pre-orders can determine
whether your book will be on the shelves in bookstores around the country or
have to be special-ordered. This can be
critical for indie published authors since bookstores tend not to carry their
books—and Amazon is making it more possible for them to set up pre-orders, as
well.
Other things you can do to help are
clicking "likes" and "tags" on Amazon. Reviews on Amazon
and Goodreads count more toward sales than those longer ones on my blog or
elsewhere, and don’t
forget Barnes & Noble and Library Thing. Post your author’s book in your
WantToRead file on Goodreads when you know the book is coming. Publishers tell
us that is important, that other readers look at those and often decide whether
to buy the book based on how many other people have listed it as something they
want. But reviews on your blog or other
review sites do help, as well as in-person book recommendations. I know I’m doing
a lot more book recommendations now and not just waiting for folks to ask me.
As soon as I know a book is coming
out by one of my favorite writers, I request my library system order that
book—and my own pre-orders for those books are through local bookstores because
that helps them decide whether or not to order in that book to have on the
shelves. Ask
your library to order the book, and then check it out. Library sales are
important to most authors, and we love libraries. If you check out our books,
the libraries will keep buying them and won’t sell us off for pennies at the
Friends of the Library book sale. (Many libraries get rid of books that haven’t
been checked out in more than a year, so even if you own a book, checking out
from your local library helps keep your author alive there.)
When we order books from our local
bookstore, we need to tell them what we like about that author and why s/he
might be a good fit for the store. That not only can convince them to order the
book, but also gives them something to tell people when they ask about it.
Talk up
your author and book on Facebook and Twitter. I know for a fact that people
have bought my books because of wonderful things some of my fans have posted on
those two platforms about them. Word of mouth is still the best advertising.
If
you’re in a book club or book discussion group or anything like that, suggest
your author’s book for the group to read and discuss.
If you
take one or more of these actions for your author, you have given great support
and taken steps to make sure that s/he will be able to continue writing and
publishing the books you love. Anything we can do to help others learn about
the authors and books we love helps to keep them available to us, too.
Publishing
is particularly volatile right now. Many of our favorite authors have lost not
only their publishers, but even their agents. Check their websites and author
pages to see if their series will be continued by another publisher or through
their own efforts. If not and they’re having to start a new series, please give
it a chance, even if you’re mad that their other series you loved is now gone.
They loved it, too, but had no say about it being dropped. Don’t get angry with
the author. If you liked their other series, you may well love this new one. At
least, give it a chance.
The
rocky state of publishing is causing authors to make serious adjustments and
will require the same from dedicated readers, I’m afraid.
