F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Promotion

Going Indie—What I’ve Learned (So Far)—Part 10

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By HarperTeen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Liars, Liars, Pants On Fire! (By HarperTeen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Over the weekend I got into a short exchange about book blurbs. It was mentioned that during the BEA, that there was a “lot” of talk among editors about how important book blurbs are, now, for debut works to be taken seriously. I watched some of the comments, and saw that not everyone (as readers) seemed enamored over them.

Book blurbs are having some famous person giving a little mini review of your book, like “This is the best piece of literary action/adventure since Shakespeare!” It’s an “If all these people like this book, you will too” marketing approach. I have nothing against that. Personally, blurbs never really played much into my buying a book. As was mentioned by one or two others, it was always about plot, story, title, cover art (yes, I have bought books for the cool looking covers, before…but that’s no longer a factor, since I became a serious writer). That kind of thing.

Then one day, as the “serious writer,” I asked an acquaintance of mine to blurb one of my books.

This person got back to me within an hour or so (to be honest don’t remember the actual response period, but I do remember thinking this person could not have read the book that quickly) with a blurb.

A blurb that was written without having read my work.

I asked if this person had read the book and was, indeed, told no, they hadn’t. I thanked the person, but told them that I would not use it, because I wanted my blurbs to come from people who actually read my work.

Over the years, I had found that this was standard industry practice!

Yes, the traditional publishing industry, that place that brought you your Hunger Games, your Harry Potters, your Dragon Tattoos, even your Chicken Soups, or any of the Oprah-endorsed books…look at all those blurbs famous people wrote. It’s a sure bet most of those were written without the blurber having actually read any of the book in question.

Now, I could be wrong.

It could be that today’s publishing industry has grown morally and ethically since the 15-30 years ago when I discovered this from other authors (yes, I asked some others, and one or two even told me they’d supplied blurbs without having read the books…that it was just “the thing to do…how it was done.”)…buuut, I doubt it. So, I did some quick research over the Internet, and this article is representative of what I found. You might find it interesting, even if it is dated 2012, especially this little line: “Shteyngart admits that he hasn’t fully read all the books he’s blurbed….”

In this (and other articles I found online) nearly all of them all said the same thing: they don’t really sell books. They help get them into bookstores, perhaps, but readers don’t really pay attention to them. Oh, sure, the blurbers might be well meaning, helping out a friend or student…or are sleeping with an editor…or even have a gun to their head, one article joked…but a 2012 Bowker Market Research study showed that only 6% of readers become aware of books through jacket covers or testimonials…blurb effectiveness was anecdotal.

Back to my weekend comment: “So, given the comments, how in touch ARE editors with their readers? Are the blurbs more for official reviews?”

Yes, was the basic response, but when I mentioned that most blurb writers do not read the books they blurb, and make stuff up, the person I interacted with no longer responded. I found that extremely unprofessional on this person’s part. Really, when presented with a “hard” question, you simply…ummm…ignore and run away?

Funny thing, is, I really wasn’t even looking for a fight…was just “organically” responding with the others, and providing my POV, in that I also don’t pay attention to blurbs. So, really, I wasn’t (nor am I currently) looking to embarrass anyone, I was just trying to have a meaningful conversation, in which (I’d hoped) I would be told that, hey, “We, here, in the Publishing Industry no longer hold to misguiding the public with the practice of MAKING UP book review blurbs so you will buy our books. That was then…this is now. But, hey, thank you for bringing up that concern so, we, here, in the Publishing Industry, can address this heinous activity and set the record straight.”

Yeah, well, guess I got my answer.

Yet, we all got all bent out of shape and pissy with the Amazon review scandal of a couple years back, with authors doing their own fake reviews. When you’re making shit up—aka, lying—does it really matter who‘s doing it, if you’re all part of the same bucket?

One may say that they’re not useless, they still get books into bookstores, but getting books into bookstores is not the same as selling them.

Oh, and there’s still the lying part….

As to my own books blurbs, every one of those are from people who read my books (and, in one case, the screenplay I adapted from The Uninvited, which I allowed, because I adapted the screenplay myself and knew it was perfectly inline with the novel). I will also not give any blurbs to books with which I have not read. Yeah, like I’ll be asked, but I’m just sayin’.

Perhaps I’ll even stop my own practice of asking for them, given their shady nature.

So, be wary of any blurb on any book, by anyone. Seems like it’s still a damned good bet that they’re all made up.

 

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Promotion vs. Promotion

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Spy vs. Spy
Image via Wikipedia

Such an ugly word to some, choiristic (that a word?) angels and bright lights to others. But a genuine concern to anyone who has anything to sell.

How much is too much?

Just yesterday a friend and I exchanged an e-mail on why some booksignings may or may not be getting the quantity of people to them they used to in the past. The topic arose about social media. That now, on Twitter,  Facebook, and you-name-it, everyone knows about everyone’s nosepicking, butt-wiping, teeth brushing habits, so there’s little left to the imaginaton…little mystery left to authors. Many claim social media the cure-all to selling anything, others, like The Red Pen Of Doom, decry diametrically. I am somewhere in the middle, but basically subscribe to the notion that it’s all “word of mouth.” Pick your platform, pick your poison, but I feel it doesn’t necessarily matter what your poison is, if it’s at all interesting to anyone, it will sell. I also believe in the Zen of life, and that applies to everything (so there’s always a Zen reason for why anything may or may not succeed as the owner may wish it to, and that trumps most of this discussion…). Sure, it has to get out there, but that’s where one’s poisonous platforms come into play. Once it’s out there, there simply has to be interest, and I feel basic “backyard clothesline telegraphy” can get the job done just was well as any TV advertisement, YouTube, or tweet. Because it all comes into play when people are interested in anything.

So, while I agree with much of Mr. Red Pen, and greatly like what he has to say, I disagree in that anything can sell anything. There just has to be some kind of a fire lit under it. And I can’t tell you what that fire is. It could your burning wit, your good looks, your eloquence. Your tireless promotional energy. Yes, it could still be Oprah.

Hell, it could even be your powerfully delivered story, characters, and message.

Now, I’m a huge fan of mystery. I realize long ago, I don’t really and necessarily want to know a movie star’s political alignment, nor an author’s brand of toothpaste. We all have our quirks and weirdness, and I don’t think we need to broadcast every little thing about ourselves. I love the imagination, and I love to What-if. I think we all need a little mystery left to our lives, left to our imaginations…these will help fire our imaginations. Imagination is important. It fuels pretty much everything about our lives. We imagine to do better, to go farther, to grow and improve. If every little thing about about every little thing is laid out bared and eviscerated, it can well kill (at the very least blunt) the imagination. An ability not used atrophies. It also takes away the fun, and there’s something to be said for experiencing more fun in our lives…perhaps now more than ever. Deadening our imagination takes away our ability to think for ourselves. Leave a little meat on the bone, for crying out loud, and let your imagination run wild, not your tweets.

So, in summary (I’m imagining myself before a packed lecture hall…), all I’m saying is, is that anything could sell your wares. Literally anything. And that we need to allow mystery back into our lives. Not always going for the explicit the minutiae inundated lifestyle that seems to have overtaken us. I hope to prove this in the near future, but it’s what I truly believe.

In the interests of promotion, I’ll be in Longmont, Colorado, April 13th, for an en masse booksigning at the Longmont Public Library. I’ll be signing my novel, Sleepwalkers. Hope to see you there!

Also, in interests of promotion, I’ve created a new blog site, called Reality Check. We’ve all had weird things that have happened to us throughout our lives, so I thought I’d try a new site to handle this stuff, which greatly interests me, ever since I was a wee lad, and which factors in my fictional work.  I’m preferring to make this a positive site, not about the dark and the nasty.  There’s enough of that out there. This site is about the GOOD in life. Please check it out!

Just had this epiphany after having posted this earlier today (and maybe it’s not new to you, but it just hit me while I was washing lettuce in the kitchen sink): what if the real secret to utilizing social media in selling anything is not so much sellers and authors using it…but customers? That it’s in the customers’ best interests to FB and tweet the hell out of their praise for an item, since so many get upset at people sell their wares on Twitter, by e-mail, and perhaps even FB?

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for taking the time to read my posts!