Your First Novel

  Catalog Placement

  The sales rep's main selling tool is the publisher's catalog. The rep generally sits down with the bookstore's manager or chief buyer, and together they pore over the catalog. Let me rephrase that: Together they speed-read and speed-talk through the catalog. The reality is that each title gets much less than a minute—sometimes mere seconds—of a book buyer's attention. The rep has to get his pitch ready well before ever setting foot in the bookstore. He will not want your help in preparing this pitch. From hearing about your book at the publisher's sales conferences to reviewing any marketing and publicity plans to, as often as possible, reading the manuscript or bound galley, the rep has been forming a sense of how to sell your book, and equally of how hard his sales manager wants him to push it—or not. With all this behind him, he enters the bookstore and tries to get the buyer's attention for each book in the catalogue. If the buyer isn't impressed with what he hears about your book, he'll express it in one word: "Pass." If the buyer of a small independent bookstore is interested in your book, he'll express it in three words: "I'll take two." Two copies of your book. That's it. And that's a perfectly normal sale.

  Given this reality, you probably don't need any more encouragement to insist on seeing the catalog copy before it goes to press.

  The best sales scenario for your little first novel is to find out that certain reps have read it and fallen for it. If they love your book, they'll go to their accounts—the bookstores—and use their relationships, their selling history with that store, and their passion to make sure they get as many copies of your book out there as they can. When this happens, it's thrilling, because generally those sales reps have arrived at this decision on their own. Yes, they've seen the house's level of enthusiasm. They've heard that early readers thought your book was great. But sales reps have been there, done that. They've heard books hyped every season and seen nothing come of it. They're pretty good at seeing through false hype and arriving at their own conclusions. So if you hear from your editor that a sales rep or two really loved your book, take it seriously. Light a candle. Think good thoughts. You'll be discouraged from contacting the sales rep yourself, but there's nothing to stop you from sending an appreciative note or e-mail to your editor and asking her to pass it on.

  Now that you have an idea of the different parts of a publishing house and how they work to get your book before the public, let's look at what happens on publication day—and what you can do to make the most of it.

  RECOMMENDED READING

  Bookmaking: Editing/Design/Production, by Marshall Lee. If you really want to know what goes into publishing a book, this is the bible.

  Thinking With Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, by Ellen Lupton. Although there is more in this book about fonts and how to design and use them than you ever could have imagined, it's appealing and accessible. Anyone interested in words on the page will find something of interest here.

  Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006. A gorgeous retrospective of the work of one of the most influential book jacket designers in American publishing.

  RECOMMENDED WEB SITES

  Publishers Weekly (http://www.publishersweekly.com/). The book industry trade publication has its own site with a lot of useful information, but you have to be a subscriber to see all of it. I don't recommend that aspiring novelists subscribe to the magazine because they'll easily be overwhelmed by the endless stream of' OPBs (Other People's Books). Look at the site when you need specific information you might find there.

  Book Sense (http://www.booksense.com/). The Book Sense program was developed to help independent booksellers compete with Amazon and the chains, giving the indies strength through numbers.

  Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/).

  The URL is too long to reproduce; go to B&N's site and scroll down the home page until you see "Exclusively from B&N." There you will find "Discover Great New Writers."

  BookAngst 101 (http://bookangst.blogspot.eom/2004/l1/mad-max-sur-vey-editors-on-marketing.html). Follow this link for a uniquely realistic and informative Q&A between BookAngst 101's originator, Mad Max, and three anonymous editors on the subject of publishing and promoting a "mid-list-ish" novel with a first printing in the seventy-five-hundred- to fifteen-thousand-copy range.

  U.S. Department of Labor (www.bls.gov/oco/ocos232.htm). There's a thorough article on the bookbinding industry at this site.

  Borders Original Voices (http://www.bordersstores.com/). The program, begun in the 1990s, highlights exceptional emerging writers in four book categories—fiction, nonfiction, picture books, and young adult—and one music category. These awards aren't reserved for first-timers the way B&N's Discover awards are, but at Borders, the winner in each category receives five thousand dollars. Visit the Web site and click on the red "Original Voices" box.

  CopyLaw.com (http://copylaw.com/forms/authors.html). The URL brings you to a blank authors' questionnaire. Print it out and use it for practice so you'll be ready when your publisher sends you one.

  Jim Fusilli (wwrw.jimfusilli.com). Visit Jim's Web site for an article about his eye-opening experience reviewing books for the Boston Globe—and to view an example of a terrific author Web site.

  CHAPTER TWENTY:

  publication day— and beyond

  For some of the nine months to two years you'll wait from signing the contract to seeing your book in bookstores, you'll be busy. You'll rewrite your book, address your editor's notes, respond to the copyeditor's comments, and proofread the galleys. There will be a long, quiet period after you sign off on the copyedited manuscript. That's a difficult period because you fear everyone has forgotten about you and your book. You can use that time to build a Web site and network to see if you can find published writers to blurb your book. Many writers advise that this is the perfect time to begin your next novel if you haven't already started. Even if you don't finish it before publication of your first one, it will be good to have it under way.

  PUBLICATION DAY_

  What exactly is a publication date? It is not the day the books arrive from the bindery or the day you get your own first copy. Originally the date meant the last day by which every bookseller who had ordered the book would have it in stock. That's why the publisher will typically receive books—have "books on hand"—six to eight weeks before the actual date of publication. Nowadays, in the U.S., publishers frequently drop the whole notion of a specific publication date and just assign the book to a month. Nevertheless, publicity and marketing efforts are geared to bear fruit—readings, reviews, interviews—right around the book's approximate date of publication.

  A book that the publisher expects to become a bestseller will be assigned a specific publication date because of the sales strategy known as the one-day laydown. While this is rarely done for first novels, you should know what it means—and if your editor tells you they're going to do a one-day laydown for your novel, you should shout "Hallelujah!" because it means they're pulling out all the stops. The publisher informs every bookseller who has ordered the book of the laydown date. The books are shipped ahead of time, but the boxes are marked with the date and the instruction that the cartons are not to be opened before that date.

  An intensive advertising and marketing campaign, including author appearances and radio and television appearances and advertising, heralds the laydown date in an effort to get everyone into the bookstores that day. The most obvious example of this is the publication of any Harry Potter novel. John Grisham and Stephen King receive this treatment, and recent years have seen first-time novelists like Elizabeth Kostova (The Historian), Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell), and Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones) receive it to excellent effect as well.

  Even though your book might not get this treatment, you shouldn't feel slighted: You've got plenty of company. Even without the one-day laydown or a media juggernaut, there's a lot you can do to make the publication of your first
novel as satisfying as possible. You don't need to go off on your own and try to arrange things without telling anyone. But you won't want to sit back and wait, either.

  THINK LOCALLY

  One of my first publishing bosses said to me, "A publisher can broadcast, but the author needs to narrowcast." Lisa Gallagher, senior vice president and publisher of William Morrow & Company, recommends that you, with your publisher's support and help, give extra emphasis to your local area booksellers. Make sure the publisher sends readers' editions to these booksellers with a note or—as Jim Fusilli recommended in the last chapter—a special release tailored for local interest. You can then make the rounds of the stores in your area, introducing yourself to the managers and asking for their support, whether it's in the form of a reading or simply of a placard announcing a new book by a local author. Follow up with thank-you notes to keep your name in front of them and to leave a good impression. Then follow up further with specific questions: Have they found a slot for you in their reading schedule? Have they seen the good review that appeared in Publishers Weekly? (These typically run one to three months before publication.) Make it clear that you want to help ensure that your reading will draw an audience to the store. That will make it easier for them to find time for you and may encourage them to talk your book up to their customers.

  READINGS

  If you know a good number of people in your hometown, or if you can guarantee an audience of thirty or more people at your local bookstore, you can usually persuade both the bookstore and your publicist that it would be worth their while to book you for an appearance, whether it be an author signing, a reading, a Q&A, or a magic act. Keep in mind one obvious fact: Bookstores want to sell books. If not enough people buy your book, you won't be able to publish the next and the one after that. So step up to the plate. Put a mailing list together. Go meet the manager of the bookstore personally. Offer to supply the wine and cheese if that's what it will take to get your friends into the store. As soon as you have this conversation, write or e-mail your agent and your publicist (write one and cc the other) to let them know you've made the contact, and give complete details of name, telephone number, job title, address of the store, and possible dates.

  After securing a date, get busy. If it's three months away, send a "Save the Date" e-mail or postcard to everyone on your mailing list. Having a signing lined up is another way you can extract a press release from the publicity department. Tell them the bookstore manager wants to borrow from it for her own publicizing efforts. Make an effort to attend other signings at the bookstore where yours will be held. You're supporting the place that's going to support you, and you're getting a feel for how they handle these author appearances. If there's anything you really don't want to see happen when you appear, ponder how to head it off at the pass. Does the person introducing the authors not seem to enjoy speaking in public, mumbling the author's name and the title of the book before shoving the microphone at him? Tell the manager your cousin has begged to be allowed to introduce you. Do there never seem to be enough cups or napkins? Bring your own. You get the picture. Don't assume anything.

  SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

  If you've written a book that will appeal to special groups, find out as much as you can about that constituency and how and where their books are sold. Many booksellers specialize in mysteries, and they hold annual conventions, like Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, to meet authors, publishers, and fellow booksellers. If you've written a mystery, you'd do well to send yourself to Bouchercon and network like crazy when you're there. There are conventions for romance writers, thriller writers, and science fiction authors as well. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) holds BookExpo America every year, a national convention where publishers display their future books and booksellers come from all over the country—not for the faint of heart. More approachable are the ABA's regional conventions, where, as the name implies, you'll be able to play on any regional appeal you or your book might have.

  THE WORLD WIDE WEB

  Although no one really knows how successful they are, there are endless opportunities to promote your book on the Internet. Adam Fawer, author of Improbable, contacted a dozen or more bloggers who he felt might respond to his thriller—which was based on probability theory and quantum physics—and suggested they interview him. He got an excellent response, and more than one took the opportunity to conduct their first-ever author interviews with Adam.

  It's pretty obvious that you should have a Web site, but what should be on it? Should it be a regular site or a blog? Before you put up a site, think about whether you'll realistically update it often enough to make it interesting. (If you won't be able to, consider forming a group blog or site with a few other like-minded writers who will share the workload.) Make the site simple and attractive and make it easy for visitors to buy your book with a "Click here to buy the book" button that will send them to Amazon.com, Powell's, Barnes & Noble, or your publisher. Have a section devoted to your schedule of appearances, and another for visitors' comments. If you post comments on the site, keep them focused and interesting, and avoid horror stories about your publisher and other negative posts. More effective would be positive comments about other published books, readers you've met or corresponded with, or the dedicated booksellers you've encountered. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

  If you don't build a site of your own, there are add-on opportunities growing on the Web. Google has introduced the Google Books Partner Program where, with your publisher's participation, you can promote your book online. Searchers can view a small portion of its content, and Google will show them where it can be bought. Amazon.com offers a variety of ways to help you promote your book in its online store, such as through Amazon Shorts, where established authors can publish a short downloadable piece on a page that promotes all their other tides.

  THE BASICS

  An inexpensive promotional tool is a postcard mailing. Get postcards designed and printed with your book jacket and mail them to as many people as you can think of. Use them to invite people to readings or just to alert them of your book's availability. You can also easily have bookmarks made—offer them to your local bookstores to put near the cash register, and bring them with you when you travel. Some people make stickers; others make buttons, magnets, T-shirts, or matchbooks. Every little bit helps.

  BACK TO REAL LIFE_

  When you dreamed of publishing your first novel, what did you hope would happen? Probably the same thing F. Scott Fitzgerald hoped for: overnight success. You might also have hoped for a great review in the New York Times. Make that plural—great reviews in both the daily Times and the New York Times Book Review. Another hope you may have harbored was for Oprah to single out you and your book and tell everyone in the country to read it. It happens—Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated, and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian were all first novels that received excellent reviews and climbed the best-seller lists. Unfortunately, however, it doesn't happen as often as we would like.

  No matter how well your book is received, books and the way they're made are mysterious to a great many people, and you can't expect everyone to understand what went into the moment when your book appeared in the window of a bookstore. That's why many writers get calls like this from friends, mothers-in-law, co-workers, or neighborhood busybodies: "Did your book come out yet? Because I went to the bookstore and couldn't find it. The manager had never heard of it. It doesn't look like your publisher is doing anything for it." It's upsetting to get a call like this, and I've never known a first novelist who could shrug it off with ease.

  Most people who make this call to the first-time author did something wrong. They didn't look in the right place. They didn't ask the right person. They didn't spend any time at all in the bookstore. They got the title wrong. They got your name wrong. They asked two months before your book came out but didn't tell you until after it w
as out. They neglected to mention that the bookstore manager informed them they could get the book any time

  if the customer wanted to order it—and that they refused to order it. They didn't tell you they were making the story up because they hoped you would send them a free copy. Or they didn't know that the bookstore hadn't paid its bills to your publisher for two years running and was therefore on credit hold, not receiving any books from your publisher until they paid their bills. Best of all, they couldn't remember which bookstore it was, where it was, the name of it, or the name of the person they talked to.

  There's only one way to respond to a call like this: Get the name and address of the bookstore and, if possible, the manager or head buyer's name and number, and send or e-mail this information to your editor. Then drop it.

  When things start to slow down, make a new writing schedule for yourself. Try to savor each tiny bit of good news—an independent bookseller e-mailed to say he loved your book; the Knitting Book Club is offering it to its members; you've been asked to give a reading at the Barnes & Noble in your mother's hometown—but put your energy into your new book. Look ahead. If you look back, do so for only two reasons: to see if you can learn from your experience, and to savor the good things that happened.

  HOW TO AVOID

  THE SOPHOMORE SLUMP_

  The publishing industry regards second novels with a mixture of hope, wariness, and resignation. If the first one didn't get buzz that led to good sales, publishers know the second outing will be a little harder. It's easier to promote a first novel, because readers and booksellers are intrigued by new voices. In addition, second novels often aren't as good as first novels. Why is that? Several reasons: