As a member of the Gulf Coast Chapters of Sisters in Crime I
attended a marketing day at the Sarasota Barnes & Noble. I have to admit,
initially I only did it because I thought I had to. Not for me, but for my
publisher. First of all, Sarasota is 100 miles away from my home—and that’s a
crow flies distance. Second, I had to be
there by 9:45 AM. Third, like most writers, I’d rather hunker down in my cave
and write. Fourth, the Florida rainy season has been hitting with a vengeance
most days this week and the thought of driving an hour and a half through gator
gushers... Why then, did a reasonably sane woman leave her house at 6:30 AM
with thunder lighting the western sky? Did I mention about my publisher? And,
oh yeah, bookstores are catnip to a writer.
This is the second part of a two-part blog, the first part
appeared on Motive
Means Opportunity on Monday, June 20, 2016.
Tricky, huh.
I previously mentioned the book signing table up front. I
have to admit; it was a pretty intimidating place to be. There I was, books on display,
sitting right smack dab at the front door. Behind me the Sisters in Crime
poster was in full display. My role was clear—I’m here to sell you some books.
I felt like the perfume lady at the mall. Nobody wants to get that squirt. The
poor woman must have face ache at the end of every shift. To say nothing of
self-esteem issues!
My second thought was far less personal. If someone had
asked me (and I base this on my sales and on the sale of other writers) I would
have said that book stores were in their death throes. The majority of my sales
are e-books. It’s rare to see someone with a paper book anymore. These days,
it’s far more common to see someone with an e-reader. The volume of folks
coming through the door, and the volume of folks walking out the door with
packages told a far different tale.
My third thought really warmed my heart. I loved the number
of kids running (not walking) into the store. Parents well and truly in their
wake while the kids bargained for more than one book. It was exciting to see
this new generation of readers. One family walked in and the older child ran to
the children’s table, grabbed up a book, thrust it at her younger brother and
said, “You have to read this, it was my favorite when I was your age.” It was
intoxicating to see the whole family in the checkout line – each with at least
one book in hand.
Following my abysmal performance at the solo signing table
it was time for lunch and then a panel discussion. I’d never participated in a
panel so I was very intrigued to see how they worked. Wendy Dingwall was the moderator
(she’s also President of the Gulf Coast Sister in Crime Chapter) and I shared
the podium with Susan Klaus and Shannon Esposito. Many of you may know
Susan from her Authors Connection radio show as well as her books She writes
both thrillers and fantasy. Shannon writes two cozy series, one featuring a pet
psychic, and the second featuring a yoga instructor who runs a doga (doggie
yoga) class. Two great co-panelists.
Wendy had some really fun and insightful questions for the
group and each of us had a turn to answer. What amazed me was the similarity among
the responses. All three of us felt that marketing was the hard part. What we
really wanted to do was spend our time writing. We’d each thought if we wrote
it, readers would come. That would be osmosis marketing. It didn’t work for any
of us. Our books were all character driven. Didn’t matter what we plotted. At
some point, the characters took over. We differed on our themes, the degree of
heat in our books and how we approached our writing. It was as much of a learning experience for me
as it was for the audience. And the audience questions were really, really,
insightful. They wanted to know where the characters come from. How much of us
were in our books. Did we really write for our own motives or to tell a great
story?
Kait loves to hear from fans, check out her website at www.kaitcarson.com; follow her on Facebook
at www.facebook.com/kaitcarsonauthor,
on twitter at @kaitcarson, or e-mail her at kait.carson@gmail.com.
