Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Matthew Buckley => Topic started by: Firemeboy on May 25, 2005, 11:43:10 AM
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Well, I've just set up my first book signing, although it is clear down south. I'll be in St. George, June 11th at the Seagull Book and Tape. I assume around lunch time.
I have strong feelings about book signings, most of them bad. :) I posted my complete thoughts over on my blog, the article called, "I'm the Moron Sitting at the Table".
http://chickenarmpits.blogspot.com/
Anyway, I will be signing just about every Saturday after that for the next 6 weeks, so if anybody wants to get in their quota of heckling, I'll be available. I'll post when I'll be where as I hear...
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you got the book yet? or is it not till next month that it hits shelves?
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Will there be another author at the signing that you can talk to?
At the UVSC Conference on Children's Lit, I went to a class on marketing (for when I get published--it's good to start preparing early ;)). All the authors agreed that book signings are important, but boring, and at times embarrassing. The general consensus was that you should do it in pairs, so that even if no one comes up to your table, you have someone to talk to, and you don't look too pathetic.
Book signings sound like so much fun. I can't wait.
Well, good luck! ;D
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They said the book is coming any day now, and when it does they will ship it to stores. Supposedly by June 1 it will be on shelves.
Yeah. A second person could be nice at a signing, though HOM had a bad experience with that once. I've thought about hiring some 'roadies' to kind of browse the books, and then when somebody comes in, they all jump in line. That way I don't have to make eye contact with the new customers, and they can approach without feeling like I'm going to use high pressure sales techniques. :)
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Even better than roadies are screaming fan girls. I'd do it, except I'm in school and have class in the afternoon and I wouldn't want to make EUOL jealous. ;)
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and I wouldn't want to make EUOL jealous. ;)
Yeah, you want to save that for when he isn't paying enough attention to you
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Or when you just want new toys.
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Toys?! I like toys! What kind of toys?
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Oh you know the kind. Ones that he thinks are really rather cool or useful, and wherein you find them as just some odd sort of nicknacks. You know, like a pencil with a troll on the end.
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If the troll was alive that could be useful. If the troll could do math that would be very useful. If the troll could tell me how to make money in the stockmarket that would be unsurpassingly useful.
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Yes, but you see. All this troll does is sit at the end of your pencil, where an eraser should be, and stare at you. Happily I might add. So, now what is this troll to you?
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It all depends on the hair color of said troll, and if you can chew on his head while you are thinking, without the troll screaming out in pain.
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Uh...an odd sort of nicknack. ;D
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I have one of those.
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I remember those trolls. We used to spin the pencils in our hands as fast as we could so their hair would fly out and be stuck in wild disarray.
Then one of the guys on my team when we went to Iraq looked exactly like one of those troll dolls. It was uncanny. He hated it when we pointed it out to people, so much so that we could tell that we weren't the first to notice the resemblance. He was a loser anyway so we jibed him unmercifully.
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I feel like a new papa.
This morning, I held in my new book in my grubby little hands. It's still not out in stores, and I still haven't received my author's copy, but I managed to track one down.
I've been stopping by Seagull Book stores now for about a week. Asking different sales folks if they happened to have a book called Chickens in the Headlights. The answer has always been, “I think it's coming out soon, but we don't have it yet.”
Well, today I talked to somebody who said something different. I was at the Logan Seagull Book, and the answer came, “We don't have it yet, but I hope it comes soon, that book is hilarious!”
Wait. I didn't know this guy. Sure, my family and some friends have read the book, but if the book wasn't out, how did he know it was funny?
I inquired, and he informed me that they had gotten was is apparently called a 'demo copy'. I guess the stores get advanced copies, the clerks can read them, then suggest the books to whomever they think might like them.
Well, now I felt a little silly, but I couldn't leave the store without seeing 'my baby'. I stammered out something about feeling dumb, but I was the guy that wrote the book, and if he would let me just take a peek at it I would be forever grateful.
He was very kind. He let me hold it, flip through the pages, tuck it back into the shelf. He also told me to check back this afternoon, since they are getting a shipment today.
Little does he know I'm camped out in his parking lot, watching for a big brown truck.
I haven't acted this much like a kid on Christmas morning since... Well, since Dec. 25, 1980.
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heh. yeah, I looked for it on Monday at the LDS bookstore out here, but I didn't see it.
I was wondering, how you handleing signed copies for your budding fan base here on the forums?
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Whatever works best... I can probably just get a copy here, and mail it to you. You can e-mail me and let me know...
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I stopped by the Seagull in West Jordan yesterday, just to look for it. It wasn't there.
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Congratulations!
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I just bought a copy of my book, and I've been gushing like a new dad. I'm sure I'll feel silly about it tomorrow, but today it's fun.
I think Covenant did a nice job. The cover looks good, Kerry Blair wrote a very nice blurb on the jacket, and they quoted one of my favorite parts on the back of the book.
All in all, I'm pleased.
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You guys should start providing cover quotes for each other's books.
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You know, the marketing person told HOM that anything he could do to get his name out there was a good thing. I'm thinking that HOM and I should go stage a drunken brawl in a seedy bar. The newspapers would read something like;
"Robison Wells and Matthew Buckley were arrested in a local bar after a violent scuffle that left both of them slightly winded. They made no statements. Witness said they kept shouting the names of their respective books, over and over again."
Yeah, that would work.
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Is it time for a Matthew Buckley thread in the Local Authors' forum yet?
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well, a thread here until we start seeing several active threads for Matthew Buckley.
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Kerry Blair has a blurb? Is mine not there?
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No... I was kind of bummed about that. I guess they only 'had room' for one. :(
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That's crap... I read that book for nothing! ;)
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You actually read a book before giving it a quote?
Just state it's the most exciting book of X genre to come out in recent years, comment on a random aspect you liked then sign it.
No need to read, y'see. :P
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LOL...
Wait a minute, that is exactly what he wrote!
;)
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Anybody done any podcasting? I'm going to try and get permission from Covenant to post the first chapter of my book in text, as well as 'podcast' the first chapter of the audio book.
Podcasting doesn't look too tricky, but we will see. I'll post here when/if I get it on my site.
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You shouldn't have any trouble getting the text on your site. They let me do that with hardly a second thought. (Although, did you try to get your site listed in your book? That's another subject entirely.)
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Yes, I did. Twice. :)
I think it's silly they don't let you. The reason they gave me was that they thought I'd try to sell books from my site...
Hey, I just found out my schedule. I don't know if it's all final, so I'll just post the first couple of weeks.
18-Jun West Jordan Seagull 11a-12:30p
18-Jun Redwood Seagull 2p-3:30p
25-Jun Ogden Seagull 10a-11:30p
25-Jun Riverdale Seagull 12p-1:30p
25-Jun Layton Seagull 2:30p-4p
I'd love to meet anybody in person. You don't have to buy a book. In fact, I'll create a diversion if you just want to shoplift one.
;)
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Nothing south of Sandy? Bummer.
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The real reason for the website thing is that Chris Heimerdinger has a very popular website, and he bashes Covenant occasionally. I think they don't want it to look like the authors' opinions are Covenant's as well.
I love Covenant, but they don't have a lot of faith in their authors.
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I'll be down south in July. I think I hit three utah county stores in one day...
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You know, you'd think that Covenant would have a more active Amazon campaign to try and sell to those LDS people outside of Utah. I can barely find Rob on Amazon, let alone you.
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That would require an actual marketing plan, which I'm not convinced Covenant has.
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Hooray for Matthew getting his own forum!
With this kind of hype, your book had better be really good. ;)
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You know, you'd think that Covenant would have a more active Amazon campaign to try and sell to those LDS people outside of Utah.
I agree! I have asked about this several times, and I'm told that "Amazon will pick it up eventually", and "Just have them buy it from Seagull Book online."
Well, that is fine, but I have several people who I think would buy the book, but would balk when they saw the "Christian themed" website.
I don't know. There are a lot of service that Amazon has, and it's a whopping $65 a year to register all your products with them.
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I'm sure that their reluctance is due to their tight partnership with Seagull. Personally, if Seagull wants Covenant customers directed to their website, rather than Amazon, it's fine with me. Given the market, Seagull sells far far more than Amazon ever would.
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I'm not sure I agree with that. Amazon would help you pick up a lot of Mormons outside the western US, I think.
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Not to mention--the more forums you have to advertise your book in, the better sales will be, period. Of course with a niche market you have to target sales, but for a negligible cost, it's that much more likely to sell a few more copies. The easier people can find the book, the easier it gets sold--which means the more copies get sold.
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What I'm saying is: Seagull, because of the tight relationship, offers so much more than any regular bookstore would. Just by being a Covenant book in a Seagull store, you're practically guaranteed four or five thousand sales. If Seagull acted more like a regular store, not a Covenant outlet, that number would probably drop by half, if not more.
To trade those semi-guaranteed sales, due to the relationship, in exchange for getting listed in places like Amazon seems silly. For example, both of my books have been listed with Barnes and Noble since they came out, and at most I sell two or three books a month through them.
Granted, there are oodles of negatives that arise from the fact the Seagull pushes Covenant almost exclusively, and Deseret Book pushes DB almost exclusively, but in this particular instance, the benefit of wider marketing doesn't outweigh the loss.
(Really though, it does seem silly that Seagull would put such stipulations on Covenant's marketing. As few sales as my Barnes and Noble listing generate, or even my Amazon listing, it can't affect Seagullbook.com).
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I think the real question is: When will Mustard be back from Denver?
J/K ;)
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Mustard makes a good point. I would like to note a few things, however.
Amazon sells about six times as many books as bn.com. And, the way the Amazon (even more than bn.com) system works, it is a great equalizer. It promotes books based on customer preferences, which means that little-known and hard-to-get books can get offered as recommendations quite easily. Especially if a person has bought previous books from that publisher and in that genre.
In general, indy and small-press books go much higher on the Amazon sales rank than their real-world companions do in sales. It is the ultimate marketplace for smaller books, as it makes them just as easy to buy as the best sellers.
Amazon also sells at discounts off cover price at its own loss. The Seagull-Covenant relationship makes me think that when Seagull discounts, Covenant is taking part of the hit. (I can't remember--do you get paid royalties on cover price, or point-of-sale price?)
But, everything that Mustard says still holds. Covenant likes their little racket far too much to rock the boat. However, the way they work makes me feel a little apprehensive for their authors.
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I get the percentage off cover price.
The big problem with the Covenant-Seagull pairing and the Deseret Book-Deseret Book pairing is that books are promoted based on publisher preference, rather than quality. The biggest hits at Seagull -- bestsellers -- may not even come close to the top ten list at DB (and vice versa). They push their own stuff.
Granted, like I've said many times, it works out nicely for me. All my books do very decent sales. However, if you're with a smaller publisher, you're toast. Also, and more importantly, it's extremely hard for a book to "take off". If promotion of a book is based on contracted marketing plans, rather than market-wide sales numbers, it's very hard for a book to break out.
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Which situation puts their authors in a very good position, as far as Covenant is concerned. They can pay you around $7,500 a book, which is a big enough dump of money that nobody would sniff at it. However, it's not enough to make a living on, and certainly not enough to let you start getting grand ideas about your own value. If you do, for some reason, leave, you're easy to replace--because most of their books sell around the same numbers.
Makes me think of that scene at the beginning of Three Amigos where they try to stand up to the movie company.
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Mr. Flugelman: Do you know what "nada" means?
Ned: Isn't that a light chicken gravy?
Three Amigos
Oh wait--sorry. Wrong forum. ;)
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This is a very good discussion, I hadn't thought of many of these aspects before.
I have always felt that my book could have a larger audience (Though that may just be delusions of grandeur). In fact, when I sent it to Covenant, they originally turned me down because my book didn't have anything LDS in it. I added a 2 page introduction that mentioned Family Home Evening, and that was all they needed.
But, as MSID said, Seagull definitely pushes Covenant's books. I'm in four different spots in Seagull, probably 50-75 books total. But when I went to a Deseret Book in Las Vegas, there were only four books total.
However, I would still like to be on Amazon for the reasons EUOL mentioned. I wasn't on Seagull online until a few days ago. Most of my sales are going to come from in-store sales. I wager that few come from seagull online. I'd rather be on Amazon and be possibly reaching a nation wide audience, because there is probably no way that I can reach a wider audience than those Utahns who happen to shop at Seagull.
Is it possible for me to open up an account on Amazon? Eat the $65 and just sell my book for the price I can get them at Covenant?
There is a thought...
Oh, and by the way. Thank you to the powers that be for giving me a corner of this site. I will link to here from my web site (the link from here should be working now... :))
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I think the thing to do would be to have Covenant/Seagull agree to allow amazon.com too. I will probably never go to seagull.com or whatever. Never. At all. I'm amormon and read a few LDS fictions though. I would probably do more if I could get them from Amazon.
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You guys make it sound like the books aren't available on Amazon. I just hopped on and searched for a handful of new covenant authors. With the exception of anything that's come out in about the last six to eight weeks, every book I looked for was there. I'm sure that, soon enough, Chickens in the Headlights will be there too.
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If a Covenant author were to hit the big time, and by big time I mean national exposure, rather than just Utah exposure, the Seagull Book stores would sell more copies. I was reading an article by a Covenant author who was doing a booksigning right in front of a The Davinci Code display. He said more people came in to get that book than to get his. If a book made it big, Seagull would benefit from the national exposure.
It's a non-zero sum game...
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Wait,
Seagull sold the Da Vinci Code?
Also, Mustard: Amazon lists your books, but doesn't stock or sell them. What they're doing there is listing third-party vendors, often used bookstores, who have an agreement with Amazon.
People are more hesitant to buy books only listed that way. There is no cover art, you can't always depend on the vendor, and they ship a lot slower. It's like buying off of ebay more than it's like buying off of Amazon.
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Hmmm, maybe it wasn't Seagull. Here is the quote.
"I was doing a signing at an LDS bookstore", says Nelson. Beside me was a rack of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. I'd only sold three of my books that day. Dan Brown, who wasn't even there, not only outsold me, he outsold Gerald Lund and Dean Hughes as well. I thought to myself, the LDS market needs a Dan Brown, someone who writes well and has a strong story to tell. When that happens the market is going to break wide
And I got that from here:
http://www.latterdayauthors.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?t=756&start=30
Mustard, it looked like it was $65 to open an official account on e-bay. Maybe we, and a few other covenant authors should either push Covenant a bit harder, or band together and split the cost/headache, to have our books listed.
Here is some more info... You have to have distribution rights, and maybe we don't have those.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/partners/direct/direct-application.html/ref=gw1_mm_3/002-0554067-7056827
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That seems like a silly comparison to me.
Da Vinci Code is a mainstream thriller backed by a major publisher. That's very different from anything Covenant could put out.
If it were that easy to create a phenomenon like the Da Vinci code, then publishers would like to know what they're doing wrong. Spotting the book that will become the strange mega-bestseller in fiction is ridiculously difficult.
I believe that good writing rises to the top. However, books like Da Vinci Code or even Harry Potter can't be treated in the same way as regular books. Once they reach the point that they have, they don't sell books because of good writing or story, they sell books because they've become a fad. I wonder if half those LDS people who were buying the Da Vinci Code had any idea what its content was. (I didn't.)
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Very, true. However, I think if a book were to make it nationally, even if it didn't make it to the extent that Harry Potter or The Da Vinci Code did, the local bookstores would benefit from it. If Wake Me When It's Over had a national audience, people would hear it's from a local author, and about LDS culture, and many would probably go to a DB or a Seagull to buy it. But we don't know if WMWIO would have a national audience, because it's only pushed to a Utah audience.
I guess I'm saying that Seagull doesn't have to fear competition from Amazon, and Covenant should welcome the opportunity to market outside Utah. Both would benefit. A good example of this might be The Chosen, a Jewish book about the Jewish culture, but a book that was excepted by many, many people outside the Jewish faith.
We're just starting to see movies about LDS folks start to have a market outside Utah, and I think books could do the same thing.
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We're just starting to see movies about LDS folks start to have a market outside Utah, and I think books could do the same thing.
So maybe we should have someone write about a gay Mormon greenie missionary's love affair he had in World War II while trying to solve a murder mystery in a small French town. We could call it Latter-days Soldiers in Brigham City's Army. It'll sell . . . tens of copies.
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You may be on to something... Do you have a working screenplay? :)
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Why bother with that? No Mormon movie so far has had a screenplay that worked.
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I won't go THAT far. Worked "really well" I'll go with. None of hte scripts have been spectacular, but several have worked.
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We just watched Saints and Soldiers. I thought it was pretty good.
And I felt The Best Two Years did a good job of accurately portraying mission life--both the good and the bad. I haven't seen God's Army, so I can't compare and contrast, but I liked The Best Two Years. So I don't think all LDS movies have been abysmal.
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Fell is quick to make fun of LDS art, but how many LDS movies has he actually seen, or how many LDS books has he read? It's a lot like me making fun of anime because I don't like Pokemon.
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Which is what HoM does, so it's all cool.
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I've seen a handful. I saw Pride and Prejudice, for example, which everyone said was "the good one," and it was wretched.
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Which is what HoM does, so it's all cool.
Of course it's what I do, but you don't let me get away with it.
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First off, Pride and Prejudice is fun, but it's not the 'good one.' Ducher makes the good ones. Pride and Prejudice was fluff (But certainly not wretched. It was a fairly good adaptation with decent acting. What was there to be wretched unless you just didn't like the story in the first place, which can hardly be blamed on this production.)
God's Army and Brigham City were well-crafted, thoughtful pieces of cinema that actually said something about our culture.
Second off, what's wrong with Pokemon? (j/k)
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House of Mustard, I choose you!
My kids watch it all the time, and I just shake my head. I'm sure my parents did the same thing when I watched Battle of the Planets and Robotech.
But those shows were cool.
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I didn't really dig God's Army, which is probably why I didn't bother seeing Brigham City. I've driven through Brigham City several times, though, if that counts.
And just because a movie is "fluff" doesn't exempt it from sucking. You can have wretched fluff.
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for example, Fell is wretched fluff.
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So I just shelved your novel the other day.
Yeah, I work for the Provo City Library now. But not for long. . .
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You can't say, "but not for long" without a clarification... There are too many people around here with vivid imaginations.
"Yeah, I work for the Provo City Library now. But not for long once they find out that I drink caffine drinks."
"Yeah, I work for the Provo City Library now. But not for long because I like to start large fires."
"Yeah, I work for the Provo City Library now. But not for long, bwa ha ha ha ha..."
So is the library just getting around to buy it, or was it just checked out and you wre reshelving it?