Re: Our "publish then filter" future...

Placing an ad in a program book when an author is presenting at a  
convention or conference. Multiple placements of an ad for one or a  
selected group of titles in a specialty magazine. Placing or  
participating in an ad in a major magazine if doing so improves one's  
chances of being reviewed by same--Romantic Times, for example.

In other words: targeting. Which is the best use of reviews as well.

One thing all authors have to keep in mind--and any book publicist  
worth their pay will tell you--you promote the first book to sell the  
second, which in turn will almost always generate additional sales for  
the first. Bear in mind, we're talking fiction here. Depending on the  
subject matter, marketing nonfiction is a whole nother deal.

So, it needs to be kept in mind that the reviews one receives for book  
A have one main purpose: giving you promotional material for book B.  
There ARE readers who rely heavily on reviews, but they tend to also  
be readers who stick to one or two genres. So, they will have a few  
select review sources they rely on.

We also need to distinguish between pre-publication reviews, such as  
are done for Library Journal and Booklist and so on, and what most  
people think of, which are reviews done after the book is out. Even in  
the electronic publishing industry, there's a finite length of time  
for a new book to have good sales when it first comes out. Ironically,  
this can be even shorter than in the print world, what with ebook  
publishers releasing four new titles and up EVERY MONTH.

Where ebooks and digitally printed books have the advantage is in the  
long term. Whereas once a book in the standard industry has no sales  
it's usually dropped, the lower cost of keeping ebooks and POD books  
available allows the author time to find and build their audience. I  
have an alternate history thriller that pretty much did nothing up  
until last November, and now it's selling right along. The author has  
been doing yeoman marketing all that time. Suddenly, it's working.

This is what I see the new technologies doing for the publishing  
industry. Yes, more books will be printed, and the overall quality  
level is going to suffer. It always does in those circumstances, and  
not just in publishing. Ask breeders of purebred dogs what happens  
when a breed suddenly gets "sexy," as happened with Dalmatians thanks  
to Disney. However, when the publisher and/or the author are willing  
to keep plugging away, the truly good books--the new classics, if you  
will--are going to be discovered.

L

Elizabeth Burton, Executive Editor
Zumaya Publications LLC
Opening Doors to the Creative Mind
http://www.zumayapublications.com



On Mar 27, 2008, at 10:47 AM, Kent S. Larsen II wrote:
> And those conditions are??



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/