Had a wonderful day yesterday, going around some of the Canberra bookstores with the local HarperCollins rep. Met the store owners/managers, chatted to some of the staff, signed some of the stock.
It was fascinating to see the various approaches that retail chains take in regards how much say people have about the stock they carry. Was yet again a reminder of how little control I have over what happens to the book now and how I’m relying on other people to sell it for me.
At most places, I signed a lot of books (two hadn’t got any stock in yet – that was another surprise, that this month’s books don’t automatically make it into stores at that point in time). Borders was the biggest – in fact, I’ve got a whole end shelf to myself (go the fantasy/sci fi section, facing non-fiction and there it is) with a great review from one of the staff. I had a fabulous chat with her – the first real ‘so, tell me what’s going to happen, no no don’t I don’t want to know, I want to wait and enjoy reading it’ fan chat, which was lovely.
There was lots of chatter about author promotion and bookselling because fellow Voyager author Duncan Lay had been through just over a week earlier. Duncan is extremely proactive and hands-on when he’s in a bookstore and selling his books – as evidenced by the fact that he’s hand-sold more than 800 books on his tour this month (and it’s not over yet). He’s got a real knack for it, something I’m quite sure I couldn’t do.
The rep and I started chatting about promotion, and we both agreed that it’s important that authors not do things just because it’s expected. If you aren’t into what you’re doing, the potential-reader will see that and your efforts will probably hurt rather than help you.
Certainly, I think you should push the boundaries so you’ll grow. Going out and talking to complete strangers (even people I don’t know that well) like I did yesterday is something that I’m not all that comfortable with, but it’s worth doing. The more I do it, the better I’ll get.
Networking at Worldcon will also be something that tests me – a reason I’m going to the smaller New Zealand Natcon first. I’ve never gone to a con knowing I have to sell myself, so I thought I should try it out first.
There again, blogging is something I’m reasonable comfortable with. Twitter - I’m definitely there. Facebook I’m slowly getting into. Don’t have an issue on convention panels, and am working on becoming a good workshop giver. Don’t mind being interviewed.
If I was more artistic, I’d probably get into other ways of sharing the message, such as book trailers, or artist cards, or bookmarks, or book plates.
So I’m working out the things I’m good at, the ways in which I can connect with people that are honest and will allow me to really show my joy over the books and sell me and them. I won’t stress over the things that I’ll never feel comfortable doing, because there’s no point in doing them. Hopefully all up, I’ll come to a place where I’m being authentic and readers will appreciate that and thus think better of me and my books.
And biggest hope of all – all that will translate into book sales.