A Sneaky Book Marketing Experiment

I did something a little sneaky two weeks ago, as Borders announced it was going out of business for good and closing all its stores–including my hometown original Ann Arbor Borders. I went to the liquidation sale on the first day and took advantage of my last chance to see my book on my hometown bookstore chain’s shelves. Yup, I snuck three copies of my book EcoFrugal Baby onto the shelves of Borders to see if the copies would move, to see if anyone would notice, to see if something as small as having the book on display in one bookstore during a high-traffic week could impact the book’s sales. (Please note that I placed the book in an empty slot on the shelf, so it wouldn’t displace anyone else’s book. This sneaky marketing experiment wasn’t about competing with anyone else’s title.)

Today, I went back to Borders to see if my books were still there. If they sold, I knew I wouldn’t gain any profits, since the books weren’t in Borders’ system. I just wanted to see if they were there, how they had fared compared to books in the same location.

The result?

Nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the liquidation sale, the whole display was gone. I went in search of the books in other parts of the store, finally locating the pregnancy and childbirth section with the help of a staffer and still not seeing my book reshelved there. Were they sold? I hope so. Were they noticed? Someone I know called me and told me they saw my book on the display the first day I placed it on the shelf. I guess we’ll never know. But it was a fun little sneaky experiment, and I do hope those books found good homes.

How is Borders doing 2 weeks into their liquidation sale?

Not so hot. If my books did sell, I take it as a huge compliment as nearly every other book I would have purchased for the mere 10% off the chain offered the first week of its liquidation sale is now gone, with prices only slashed to 20% in most sections of the store. I picked up some lit and poetry that first day as well, more for the sake of nostalgia than any cost savings. After all, anyone can save 10% off a book by purchasing it on Amazon. But as I browsed through the store today, I could see the quality stuff was gone. And so was my book. I hope that’s a sign that it means something to someone.

As you can see above, the poetry section in particular was gutted. I think I may have some kindred spirits around this lit-loving town of Ann Arbor who had the same idea I did: pull the last quality literature and poetry out of the wreckage while there was still time. But did anyone else sneak a book in?

I wonder….

Well, Nevermind: Publishing Contract Cancelled….

That sun is gonna come up over the horizon any minute now. Welcome, the most remarkable year yet!

This week has been hilariously weird. The kind of weird that comes from things going on that are clearly connected and clearly not coincidences, but I don’t have enough information to decipher the pattern. Add this to the list of weirdness: my publishing contract was cancelled ONE DAY after I signed it because the managing partners in the publishing company are getting a divorce.

Now, divorce is awful and I’m bummed for them. I know contracts are cancelled all the time, too, and I guess I’m just glad they’re letting me out of the contract rather than dragging this out. But this means I have to find another way around the roadblocks in my path to distribution and sales. This is not the part of publishing that gets me up in the morning, so I need to regroup here and make a plan before heading out to publish edition three of Ecofrugal Baby.

I have to say, though, that God has been pretty clear with me lately that big things and good things are coming soon, so I’m not as upset as I possibly should be about this. I have a sort of peace about it, and it wasn’t a total surprise–just a let-down. God has been faithful enough to me for me to know I can trust him to take care of this (maybe he just did?) and to give him a grownup response instead of rolling around in self-pity. Yeah, this is a bummer. But it’s still early days, and there was so much spiritual activity going on in my vicinity last night that it was like it was too noisy to sleep until 1 am (I told you that the more I tell you, the crazier you’ll think I am). Something is up lately, and I’m just a part of it. On we march into the dawn of 2011, a strange beginning to be sure.

 

Self-Publishers Flourish

The New York Times just posted a piece about how self-publishers are doing well in the current economy, while traditional book publishers are struggling. I work for a couple of book publishers that are considered a hybrid of independent publishing and self-publishing, and this article lines up with my recent experience: one of my clients seems to have as many projects for me as I have time to complete, though the pay is lower than with bigger publishers.

What do you think about this trend? Obviously many self-published or co-published books have little to no audience, either because of poor quality or just because they appeal to such a niche audience, but we keep hearing stories of people who had to self-publish, only to be discovered after self-publishing by a traditional house and ending up on best-seller lists. Case in point: The Shack, a self-published book that sold over 4 million copies based largely on innovative word-of-mouth marketing.

Has book publishing become so saturated with content and so log-jammed by its traditional methods that even the agents and publishers can’t find the good content anymore? That certainly puts a new perspective on self-publishing, which used to be regarded as loser-ville for writers. This trend seems to parallel the move toward self-published videos on YouTube, self-published podcasts, and using Twitter to market a project or service, or even the difficulties that large companies in other industries (ahem, automotive) have with innovation when they pass critical mass and become too large to stay nimble. Where do you think this is going? If you publish a book in the future, what services would you like to have provided to you, and which would you be willing or able to do yourself?