Friday, October 28, 2005

Friday Morning Pumpkin Pie (unlimited Cool Whip)

Need a sugar fix? And love gourds? Well, you've come to the right place.

Oh, yeah--and we've got a nice P5, too:

(1) SUFFER IN SILENCE: 25,431 5
(2) WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END: 53,238 6
(3) NIPPLE CONFUSION, UNCOORDINATED POOPING AND SPITTLE: 93,931 5
(4) INFERTILITY SUCKS: 97,777 6
(5) THE CIRCLE OF SODOM: 103,903 6

____________________

If you just can't get your fill of POD releases (stop laughing), then check out Dan Silvia's new blog, where he showcases some good POD titles. And here's the twist: Dan is a POD insider (he works for iUniverse.) Stay tuned for some inside scoop. (Speaking of scoop, throw another glob of that Cool Whip on my plate.)
____________________

And from the "disillusioned with my agent" department, I thought I'd share a few stories people have passed on regarding their agents, as a result of my agent diatribe blog entry. Today will be the first. This author has three books published by traditional houses (two imprints of Random House) and sells enough books that he can write for a living. How rare.

"It took me four years to get my first book published. Why? My manuscript sat with three different agents while they tried to sell it. And I mean sat, as in gathering dust. The first two [both with very large agencies] were afraid--and I mean this literally--of following up on the submitted manuscripts. It was so bad that once I broke off my relationship with one of the agents and had to call in the submissions, two editors actually claimed they had never even heard of the book. And who knows--maybe if my agent had followed up, he would have sold the thing.

Agent Two was no better, except that she was far worse about returning my phone calls. She was all enthusiastic at the start, which quickly faded after a quick rejection from one of her favorite editors.

Then again, I'm glad these agents failed at placing my work. I Love [my current agent] and she sold my book in six days."
____________________

It's a short one today, folks. But thanks for visiting. And feel free to take some extra Cool Whip home for your spouse, if you catch my drift.

Treasure abounds on Monday!

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Shelly Rivoli discusses POD sales (a loose term)

Shelly Rivoli, author of the highly touted novel (by me, of course), I WAS A VACUUM CLEANER SALESMAN, was in touch recently to discuss book sales, lack of book sales, and to serve up the straight dope on life as a POD author.

This is a cautionary tale. Proceed with a box of tissues in hand.

Shelly had this to say:

In the depressed spirit of your "Why my novel has been incredibly successful" posting, I had to let you know how my iUniverse royalties worked out after making it onto the P5 in July, at 129, 656. As I mentioned, the book came out 2 years ago and no one I know has bought a copy in recent history--so that was an unexpected and exhilarating surprise. Naturally, I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll have racked up enough royalties once again to get a check from iUniverse," the minimum earnings for check issue being $25.

I waited anxiously to see how many books sold in the month of July (June had "No activity reported"). I knew it would take a while for the monthly activity to get posted to MyUniverse at iUniverse, so I began checking vigilantly at the end of August. September 28th, I finally saw my July earnings activity report.

Q: So how many sales did I get, according to iUniverse, for the month of July?
A: ONE.

Q: How much did I earn in royalties?

A: $1.91

Q: How much does that bring my total royalties earned to?
A: $18.47

Q: When will they cut me another check for the money I've earned?
A: When I hit $25 or more (not in this lifetime).

Q: How is this possible--only one book sale reported?
A1: iUniverse has erred in my gross disfavor, and how would I know the difference? There is no way for authors to know what sales activity has really happened out there in the iUniverse, but we must trust that for marketing's sake, they report every sale of one of their books possible.
A2: Or more likely, my sales ranking rocketed from sales of all those other "Used & new from..." copies posted on Amazon (most of which I had bought and sent to bookstores who said they were interested and would like a sample but didn't open the books to even see that I had inscribed them...).

Q: What is the most disappointing part of this?
A: That's hard to say. Right now I'm feeling particularly flustered that iUniverse has no idea how many copies of my book sold-and that it actually saw more action on Amazon at the time than some of it's other titles have that are now in the iUniverse best-seller showcase. Why else do I care (no it's not for the want of a check for $25)? If I sold enough copies (which I'm guessing I *unofficially* have), it might be nice to qualify for the iUniverse Star program (see
http://www.iuniverse.com/roadmap/star-program.htm) then they would pay for a Kirkus Discovery review, they would give my book industry-standard discounts at book retailers and, imagine this: they would make my book fully returnable. If my book continued to do well under the Star status, they would present it to industry reps and houses for me, etc.

Of course, my book came out two years ago-that's when I sold the most copies, and through every channel possible (including but not limited to fast food drive-thrus and on the sidewalk in front of my house, oh, and BookSense), not just Amazon. And that's when I did readings and it was written up in newspapers, etc. That it popped up onto the radar again this late is a fluke. I should be grateful more people read it at all. I should be grateful bookstores took my "sample" copies for their sales racks in the first place--after all, I think that's how you found me!


Sadly, I cannot say I paid cover price for Shelly's novel. In fact, I can't even say I paid for it. There are just so many . . .

Where is Shelly now? Well, brighter skies may be approaching. Her novel is currently being read by at least one of the angel agents. And best of luck to her.

Monday, October 24, 2005

MURDER ACROSS THE BOARD by Jane Barcroft (iUniverse)

I was tipped off to MURDER ACROSS THE BOARD by Jane Barcroft almost simultaneously by a contact in the industry and a friend in local government near where I live (if you recall, I am in the DC area.) Turns out the book is a murder-mystery about real-life Arlington County (Northern Virginia) Board Members. Sort of.

Sound boring? Stay with me.

Hector de la Roja (incredibly similar to real life Walter Tejada) gets murdered early in the novel. Barbara Favola is hauntingly close in appearance and style to Betty Bravo (or vice versa, depending on your point of view.) The list goes on and on. Real life people who get involved in a not-real-life murder.

And then there's the author, Jane Barcroft--who doesn't seem to exist. We can only imagine she (he?) did not make such similar comparisons to her (his?) actual name.

Is this story of local interest? Sure. But the writing here is so good it is irrelevant. This is just as good a murder mystery as you will find anywhere, with a compelling story and clever writing to match. And since when does locale make a difference? Heaven knows Mississippi politics are of interest only to folks in Mississippi (and even then . . .) but John Grisham makes a case for paying attention in at least a third of his books.

The story is truly twisted (right down to our protagonist--a man--having the name Paige) and the murder-mystery here is fun and energetic. No one is who they seem in this fast read, and as the story unfolds, the plot rolls along like a freight-train. What may have started as a goof on some friends or a dig at local politics has turned into a clever, engaging page-turner.

Drop this baby in your Amazon shopping cart.