by SB Sarah • Monday, June 02, 2008 at 04:12 AM
I have to say, I’m kind of a fangirl of Hillel Italie, the AP reporter who covers publishing, books, and all things literary. His article covering the BEA over the weekend gave me a massive pile of things to ponder, from the amount of money in publishing, and how it might be redirected, to the future of local booksellers, and whether the “Literary Liberation” stickers that will be sent to booksellers will be cool.
The CEO of Penguin Group USA, David Shanks, is quoted as saying, “I think when this is over, we’re going to do some soul searching.... There are people in this hall who have spent way more than a million dollars at a time when we all should be pinching pennies.” Citing “harsh numbers” and declining book purchases, the tone of the BEA was rather grim, according to Italie.
The two parts that caught my eye: Jeff Bezos hawking the Kindle, which is to be expected. Folks at his speech were apparently hoping he’d unveil new gadgetry like Jobs at the Apple Unveilings Of Pomp and Circumstance (t-minus 5 days until 7 June, yo!) and Bezos mostly barked the evangelist script of Kindle yay, Kindle revolutionary, drink the Kindle-aid, it’s good for you.
As someone who has had a gulping bucket of the Kindle aid, lemme just say: I’ve noticed a very very odd prejudice on my part when it comes to book prices, and ebook prices. Let me start by saying I am well aware that I am utterly barmy for thinking this way, and yes, I do want authors to get paid and get paid well, but at the same time, I also suspect that I am not the only one who thinks this way, even for the moment before clicking “Buy Now.”
In the realm of books, I think matter matters. Actual three dimensional matter affects people’s perceptions of price and value - it does for me anyway. Say there’s a new book out. The hardback could be $25, or $29. I rarely, for that reason, buy hardbacks. I think of all the other things I could buy with that money and I wait out the paperback or trek down to the library to borrow it. With the added weight of a hardback in my bag, and the fact that I read while commuting, paying more for something that adds to the overall heft of my purse is not, in my mind, value. I harbor a general dislike of hardbacks. Books are all about portability. I definitely hurt the local booksellers who stock mostly hardbacks, because I rarely if ever buy them. I think the last time I bought a hardback, it was a gift, probably for my dad. Unless it weighs eight pounds and comes with a free box of Doan’s Pills, my dad doesn’t consider it a real book.
So it would make sense that I’d be eager for eBooks. They are, of all things, portable. They weigh as much as the device itself: whether the device holds 100 or 2, it’s the same amount of heft.
So why do I dislike ebook buying? Because while I have no problems paying $5-$7 for a paperback book, I find myself affected by matter prejudice, because an ebook is physically nothing. I get a little shiver of “Damn that’s a lot” when I pay $5 for an ebook. I know, I know, I am making no sense. And my little shiver of “damn” is not going to stop me from buying ebooks, so fear not, epublishers. But the fact is, when I browse the Kindle-Aid store, and the newest books and the oldest ebooks, like Kinsale’s Midsummer Moon, are over $7.00 - $7.19 to be specific - I am startled. Now, $7.19 for a paperback of Midsummer Moon? I’m down. $7.19 for the ebook, and I have to overcome an internal sense of, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s so much, it’s hardly a deal at all.’
If I think about it economically, $7.19 doesn’t make a lot of room for the author, the publisher, and the myriad of other people whose incomes are hooked into the publication of a book to get paid and paid fairly, let alone well. So I click and buy and enjoy my book. I do make the purchase. But I blink at the price.
Ray Bradbury is quoted in Italie’s article as saying during a speech last Friday, “There is no future for e-books because they are not books.... E-books smell like burned fuel.” I disagree with him there - I’d rather avoid spending the fuel to go to the bookstore, even the one that’s 3 miles from my house, because holy shit, gas is $3.75 a gallon in NJ, and we won’t even discuss Connecticut (well past $4.20, if you’re interested) or, and say this in a hushed whisper like you’re talking about something truly awful, gas prices in Manhattan. E-books don’t smell like burned fuel to me; they smell like fuel saved, especially since I shop digitally and don’t heft my booty out of my chair.
But I do question the future of ebooks for people like me who have to overcome (I’m working on it, srsly) a sense that similar prices for ebooks vs. paperbacks is unfair, because while $7 for the three-dimensional paper and matter of a paperback is ok in my mind, because of the tangible item I’ve purchased, $7 for the digital words that transmit through the ether and then get deleted from my device (though stored at Kindle-Aid Headquarters) seems too much.
That said, I’m fascinated that at the same convention, there’s Bezos hawking the revolution away from paper, while American Booksellers Association announced the “Literary Liberation” movement that will attempt to “build communities nationwide” by shipping “cards, stickers and other materials” (all made of ...wait for it… paper) to independent local booksellers. Cross purposes, perhaps? Is it possible to resurrect the paper bookstore and advance the ebook? I suspect so - though I ponder if more bookstores will have to become community centers - coffee, books, discussions, etc - in part to accommodate those who look for books and socializing, using the socialization to further additional sales. What do you think?
by SB Sarah • Sunday, June 01, 2008 at 07:12 AM
While doing research about heroines, romance novels, who identifies with whom, and what exactly is the attraction to some of these absolute dimwits who populate old skool romance (I still haven’t answered that question to my own satisfaction), I’ve had to go back at my old and dusty keeper shelf and look at some of my favorite heroines from romances in the past 20 years.
I started reading romance that wasn’t breast-grabbing Sweet Valley Highs in 1992, and my introduction was Midsummer Magic, a book that still occupies a very special, creamy place in my heart (ok, ew, sorry, I couldn’t resist). But since digging in the depths of my bookshelf, I’ve come up with a few other heroines in the Frances mold that I just love revisiting.
The Lion’s Lady by Julie Garwood features one of my very faves, “Princess” Christina, a white woman with blonde hair and striking blue eyes (of course) who is raised by the Dakota and brought to England to make her debut. Because what does any self-respecting white girl raised by Native Americans need? A marquess, duh. One who is just as dangerous and out of bounds of society as she could be, were her past made known to all the snobby, snooty ton. I love her dialogue with Lyon, I love the fact that she munches on shrubs, and I love that she hides who she is but never once thinks she’d be better off if she’d never been raised by her Dakota family. She thinks most of English social customs are nuts. She kicks ass and has no problems about her ability to do so, though she knows she has to hide her talents. I only wish the period of time when Lyon and Christina verbally sparred with one another lasted longer, because their relationship was resolved so quickly in the course of the story that the only obstacle to their happiness was an external villain, and as much as I was ready for him to have his ass handed to him on the sharper end of a spear, I loved the conflict between Lyon and Christina more.
And speaking of kicking ass in a complete different way, Honoria Anstruther-Weatherby from Stephanie Laurens’ Devil’s Bride, oh how I love you, despite the man-jawed nightgown-wearing weirdness that is allegedly you pictured on the back of my very old copy (also, worst hair for a hero, ever. Ev-er). I sat on the floor in front of my bookshelf and read the opening third of this book, and an hour disappeared before I knew I’d spent it re-reading. Honoria is upper class and almost snobby about it at times, and determined to embrace her independence in a way that’s historically possible but still shocking (she wants to go to Egypt in the shadow of Hester Stanhope) at the time, but despite all that I really, really love how Honoria shines in ways that are entirely, utterly appropriate, and yet fascinating. She’s good at running huge estates, managing guests, making people feel at home, and telling that giant autocrat Devil where to get off. She’s innocent and yet fearless, and, my favorite part, level headed. She’s capable and longs for adventure of some sort. She kicks ass within the assigned boundaries of her class and her gender, and yet stands out because she’s so strong willed and confident in herself.
I love me some completely impossible heroines in historically plausible settings, especially the ways in which these women shine in that setting. I often wonder if the alpha heroine of the current urban-fantasy, ghost-hunting, vampire-slaying, lycan-shaving, mummy-unwrapping novels has some distant fringe roots in these types of historical heroines, who were ass kicking within the boundaries historically ascribed to them. It’s not like Christina wanted to be a dentist, or Honoria wanted to open a printing press. Ok, well, Honoria did want to go sail into Egypt all by her onesies but even as she pays lip service to her demands for excitement, she demonstrates through the plot how competent she is at the not-insignificant responsibilities expected of women at that time. That part just fascinates me. I could easily be assigning too much significance to heroines I love like damn and luggage, but Christina, Honoria, and heroines like them are unique in ways that never manage to grate on my nerves overly much.
What about you - who are your favorite heroines from Days of Yore?
by SB Sarah • Monday, May 26, 2008 at 05:22 AM
Every Sunday I have to go to the grocery store, usually to buy giant containers of Lactaid, some yogurt, and whatever heatable food items I can find for weeknight dinners (we haven’t had a kitchen since January and oh my holy mother of asparagus does it SUCK). I usually don’t allow myself much time in the book aisle because one, both, or all three men who are with me usually protest the delay within the first 2 minutes of my browsing. But! The A&P got tricky on me and has moved the book section, so it’s now adjacent to the cereal - which means more than five minutes of browsing! WOO!
So check out what I found: you know what’s shelved higher than Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz, and Clive Cussler? Black romance, that’s what. Granted, this is a tiny tiny shelf in a suburban grocery store, but damn, Carmen Green, Adrienne Byrd, Brenda Jackson and Donna Hill got some prime real estate at the A&P. Sweet! Now I want to go meet the book buyer who serves my A&P.
by SB Sarah • Monday, May 19, 2008 at 09:40 AM
Thanks to Bitchery reader KS Augustin for the following link, which was all over the new Urban Baby alternative, YouBeMom discussion boards this weekend: according to Scientific American, which is examining the intricacies of that heavenly moment, that little death, women are emotionless during orgasm. No, seriously. Beginning with a discussion of what women find arousing as compared to men, the article reveals research findings regarding what goes on in women’s brains during orgasm. We’ve talked about the language romance novels use to describe that Big O - and I’m still, for the record, not over the whole “burst like a ripe melon” bit because omg, ew and yuck. There’s no shortage of purple prose describing orgasms: the waves, the stars, the peaks, the flying away, the exploding, the shattering, the inflation like a hot air balloon, that sound you hear when you pull a fruit roll-up from its plastic cellophane.
But according to the neuroscientists quoted in the article, orgasm from a brain scan perspective looks like complete cessation of brain function:
To find out whether orgasm looks similar in the female brain, Holstege’s team asked the male partners of 12 women to stimulate their partner’s clitoris—the site whose excitation most easily leads to orgasm—until she climaxed, again inside a PET scanner. Not surprisingly, the team reported in 2006, clitoral stimulation by itself led to activation in areas of the brain involved in receiving and perceiving sensory signals from that part of the body and in describing a body sensation—for instance, labeling it “sexual.”
But when a woman reached orgasm, something unexpected happened: much of her brain went silent.... [Neuroscientist Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen] went so far as to declare at the 2005 meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Development: “At the moment of orgasm, women do not have any emotional feelings.”
Dude. No wai. Not that you wanted to know this much about me, but there are times with the big O has made me laugh out loud, which poor Hubby is never sure how to interpret.
While the article also mentions the pharmaceutical efforts being made to restore libido in women, I’m fascinated by the idea that my brain goes quiet and I have no emotions when I soar past the highest peak to bust open a melon in the sky. Augustin, in her email, asked a very salient question: “Is intense pleasure an emotion? Is the French term for orgasm “le petit mort” actually correct, in that there is no emotion in death, as in orgasm?”
Excellent question. I’m curious what you think - and also, I am fully expecting the next round of erotic romances to focus on the orgasm zombies.
by SB Sarah • Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 01:00 PM
Carrie Lofty forwarded me a link to a YouTube book trailer (that is OMG NSFW) for Chuck Palahniuk’s new novel, Snuff. Only the trailer, instead of being directly about the book, is a fake movie trailer for a fake porno called The Wizard of Ass, starring “Cassie Wright, star of ‘Chitty Chitty Gang Bang’ and ‘The Twilight Bone’.” Seems the “movie” “book” “porny” promo link is being passed around, though Lofty wonders, if it is going viral, whether it’s due to some curiosity or buzz, or more of a “WTF” factor. And who knows if “WTF” sells books.
In a marvelous bit of coincidence, in this week’s Crain’s New York Business, a publication I love about a subject I know nothing about, there’s an article by Tina Traster which I found hilarious for it’s unselfconscious absurdity. Of course I can’t link to it because Crain’s content online is for subscribers online but I shall give you a summary of the article, titled “7 tips for healthy viral marketing campaigns.”
Hmm, I think to myself. Perhaps the first viral marketing campaign tip I can come up with: realize that nothing is viral or even remotely organic in its exponential dissemination if it is featured in “Crain’s New York Business.” Much like the first rule of fight club is there is no fight club, viral marketing, to my understanding, hides it’s marketing so well you don’t really know you’re being used as a marketing tool—and if you do realize, you agree implicitly because the content is so strange, so amusing, so titillating, so outrageous, or even innovative and seductive that you pass it along to people you know willingly and eagerly. I’ve never passed along anything - a link, a book, a recommendation for a diaper brand or a YouTube video - because I was compelled out of a sense of marketing pressure.
Oddly, my first tip isn’t among the seven - because that would be a short and meaningless article indeed. The actual Tip 1: Build an e-Network. Citing mythological “sociologists” who say that everyone has a network of 8-12 people, the article recommends anyone looking to virally market something tap into blogs, forums, social networking sites and podcasts. Specifically the article mentions LinkedIn.
Specifically, Sarah has to go lie down with the weight of the flannel-suited well-intentioned-but-out-of-touch blitheness that has obviously missed the entire point of viral marketing. Again: emphasis on viral, hiding the marketing. Nothing comes across as more insincere when I’m reading email than a barely-hidden request for marketing. “Your readers will love this!” Or, messages from people I don’t know that read, “OMG, did you see this?” and then a link to something that clearly comes from the same URL as the sender. My reaction is usually, “OMG do you think I am dumb?”GalleyCat has another example of asking people to behave insincerely for marketing purposes: “Review my book on Amazon, and if it’s posted, I’ll give you $50.” Niiiiice.
In a nutshell: Marketing is by nature insincere. Viral publicity contains the sincerity that marketing lacks - it’s one person saying to another, “Dude, WTF, this cracked me up, awesome, check it out.” It’s a dose of personal endorsement, which in the internet age carries a lot of weight, and it’s about the message more than the product being carried by that message.
Next tip: Convert customers into marketers. Make clients an offer to incentivize their carrying your message with them. Yeah, no thanks. The only time this article comes close to actually Getting It is: “Simply offer such a good deal or exceptional service that customers will reflexively want to tell others about it.”
YES. THAT. Sincerity sells. Sincerity is often viral.
Tip 3: Go where the eyeballs are. Find sites with traffic to “generate buzz.”
Oh, for God’s sake. That’s not viral. That’s plain old everyday smart marketing.
But, but, but! The viral element in that section of the article isn’t fully highlighted in the “tip” text. The example provided is rather savvy: companies like Sweetriot Inc. use their MySpace page to link customers and invite them to submit artwork for packaging purposes. Brilliant. Imagine that for an author and publisher, where readers are invited to submit a cover design or art for a promotional postcard to publicize a book. But that’s not just going where the eyeballs are; that’s using MySpace’s strengths to allow customers a sense of ownership in a product they love. Cultivating personal investment - another dose of sincerity - through social networking.
Tips 4-7 are really not rocket science: make the message interesting, simple, and targeted towards the interests of the audience. Yeah. I’m bowled over by the brilliance. Add a few quotes from random business people about “getting their name out there” and other empty-nouned phrases of no consequence, and that’s the rest of the article. Game, set, yawn.
So why am I wanking on about this? Because one thing I’ve learned in the few years I’ve been here is that authors have a majestic uphill battle to publicize their books, and a very short window in which to do it. Thus my first thought was, “How do authors create viral marketing campaigns? Is it possible?”
Maybe. Sincerity and viral marketing seems to be often spontaneous, and because it is, there are conditions under which its likely, and there are ways to make that elusive viral campaign more likely, but there is no set formula. That said, what seems to nudge the viral into blisters of popularity, aside from sincerity? In my opinion it’s a twinset of enticements:
1. Entertainment.
2. A good deal.
First: entertainment. Absurd & funny, silly & sexy. As I think about the book trailers I’ve seen, among the most successful and hilarious was Sherry Thomas’ video trailer for Private Arrangements. Before I’d heard about the book or even the plot, I heard about the trailer, which operated on simplicity and hilarity. I wasn’t even sure the plot was one I’d like but dude, that video cracked me up.
And viral marketing doesn’t even have to be a trailer - because damn, standing out in the sea of book trailers seems an incredibly difficult task right now. Consider Janet Mullany’s hilarious “Top ten things no one would ever say in a Regency-set historical romance” which was mentioned and teased in reviews and in non-romance blogs as being particularly hilarious - and it was a back-of-the-book Easter egg for readers who picked up a copy of The Rules of Gentility. Funny, silly, and absurd or sexy spreads faster than slick and overprocessed every time in my experience.
And second, the allure of a good deal. Jane at Dear Author has a poll up asking for the preferred promotional giveaway - ARCs, Published books, or gift certificates. Wise question - anything that’s something for little or something for nothing spreads online. Bloggers doing giveaways, big or small - and there are some big ticket givers out there, tend to attract traffic. One method of viral giveaways that seems to work, but likely because it’s new, is the method used by Jane and by Ann Aguirre in which if you win a book from them, you commit to blogging about it either there or at your own site. Granted, if you’re an author, postage get get way expensive, but asking for a word in exchange for free reading material isn’t such a stiff request. At least, I haven’t heard anyone complain.
What marketing tools work for you - or what techniques have you seen that were so great, you wish you’d thought of them yourself?
Stay tuned - as soon as my scanner and I are back on speaking terms, I have a whole collection of promo material and giveaways from the RT Gauntlet of Promo Hall that are so over the top with awesome and holyshit for your collective perusal.
