Howard Hughes vs. the Amazon Sales Rank
Jul. 28th, 2009 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastHot yesterday, and it looks like more hot today. Summer finally found us, halfway through the summer.
A strange sort of day yesterday. I only managed 616 words on "January 28, 1926," before the swelter of the office got to me. I could no longer trust that I was putting the words where they belonged, or that they were even the correct words. So Spooky and I left the House, venturing Outside, where it was not quite so hot. We drove down to Beavertail on Conanicut Island. The wind was wonderfully cool. We followed the trail leading north from the northernmost parking lot, through the woods, along the fairy trail to the field on the other side. The tide was coming in, and the surf was rough, wild, sending white spray up and out across the slick black stone. We watched herrings gulls and cormorants and smaller sea birds until it was almost too dark to see. I think we reached Beavertail about 7 p.m., so it must have been well after 8 p.m. when we headed back to Providence. But it was only a little time with the sea, and I need so much more just now.
This book, The Red Tree, I don't think I've ever before had such a feeling that I was selling a book one goddamn copy at a time, by hand. And, here, I mean all the promotion that I've taken upon myself (because who else would ever do it?). Most of the summer has gone into promoting it, and I obsessively watch the sales rank at Amazon. It goes way up, then it drops precipitously. It goes up, and for an hour or three I have hope. Then it plunges again, and hope is pulled apart and scattered to the winds. This is the reality of publishing. None of the romance is left to me, I think. Only these numbers, the fear of these numbers. And I ask, if you haven't yet pre-ordered, please do so today. Thanks.
I'd not meant the comments I made yesterday to spiral into some sort of debate over "paranormal romance." I'd thought there would, instead, be discussion of Plate XV and a certain dubious bit of film. But what I intend to happen, and what actually happens...often they bear little resemblance to one another. I won't retract anything I said, because it was well thought out, and I meant what was said, and if I may not speak my mind in this blog, then it has no value, not to me and not to anyone else. I will add a couple of points, though. There were protests that it's not fair to compare what is obviously junk food to the gourmet stuff. That it's like, oh, comparing a B sf film to Dr. Zhivago. And yes, I will agree. I myself occasionally enjoy bad food and bad movies (though not so much bad writing). And this is fine. Just as long as we do not delude ourselves into believing that because we like Big Macs, because they make us feel good, that they are actually, you know, good food. And these books I speak of, they are literary candy bars, and if you subsist only on a steady diet of them, your brain will rot as surely as if it were only made of the stuff of teeth. Bah, I really don't feel like talking about this anymore. Though, I will add this, a marvelous quote from Liz Williams (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mevennen):
I am occasionally asked to do a talk on the Gothic, and one of my pet peeves is the continual process of making the other safe. Once, unicorns were savage destroyers that slew anything that wasn't a virgin. Vampires were a horde of rats, or smoke. Angels eviscerated those who did not believe the word of God with flaming swords.
And now they're our imaginary friends, who have nothing better to do than schlep around being our 'totems.' I do, sometimes, feel that pagans have debased the great powers far more effectively than any Christian fundamentalist ever has. I work, on occasion, with Sekhmet, who is not to me a symbol of modern women's empowerment, but something huge and distant and remote. Like Aslan, not a tame lion. I think we need to get the 'awwww' out of 'awe', and pretty damn quick, too.
Which really gets to the heart of it all, much better than I managed to do.
The Very Special Auction auction continues. I should add, this is the only ARC of The Red Tree I will be auctioning.
And there are photos from yesterday:
From the field above the sea, looking south to the lighthouse.
Thistle!
Looking south across Cambrian slate towards the lighthouse.
View to the west, looking back up towards the field.
I cannot get enough of this view.
Homeward bound, crossing the Jamestown Bridge, driving into the setting sun.
One of my favorite lighthouses, Plum Beach Light, built in 1899; below the west end of the Jamestown Bridge. View to the northeast.
A strange sort of day yesterday. I only managed 616 words on "January 28, 1926," before the swelter of the office got to me. I could no longer trust that I was putting the words where they belonged, or that they were even the correct words. So Spooky and I left the House, venturing Outside, where it was not quite so hot. We drove down to Beavertail on Conanicut Island. The wind was wonderfully cool. We followed the trail leading north from the northernmost parking lot, through the woods, along the fairy trail to the field on the other side. The tide was coming in, and the surf was rough, wild, sending white spray up and out across the slick black stone. We watched herrings gulls and cormorants and smaller sea birds until it was almost too dark to see. I think we reached Beavertail about 7 p.m., so it must have been well after 8 p.m. when we headed back to Providence. But it was only a little time with the sea, and I need so much more just now.
This book, The Red Tree, I don't think I've ever before had such a feeling that I was selling a book one goddamn copy at a time, by hand. And, here, I mean all the promotion that I've taken upon myself (because who else would ever do it?). Most of the summer has gone into promoting it, and I obsessively watch the sales rank at Amazon. It goes way up, then it drops precipitously. It goes up, and for an hour or three I have hope. Then it plunges again, and hope is pulled apart and scattered to the winds. This is the reality of publishing. None of the romance is left to me, I think. Only these numbers, the fear of these numbers. And I ask, if you haven't yet pre-ordered, please do so today. Thanks.
I'd not meant the comments I made yesterday to spiral into some sort of debate over "paranormal romance." I'd thought there would, instead, be discussion of Plate XV and a certain dubious bit of film. But what I intend to happen, and what actually happens...often they bear little resemblance to one another. I won't retract anything I said, because it was well thought out, and I meant what was said, and if I may not speak my mind in this blog, then it has no value, not to me and not to anyone else. I will add a couple of points, though. There were protests that it's not fair to compare what is obviously junk food to the gourmet stuff. That it's like, oh, comparing a B sf film to Dr. Zhivago. And yes, I will agree. I myself occasionally enjoy bad food and bad movies (though not so much bad writing). And this is fine. Just as long as we do not delude ourselves into believing that because we like Big Macs, because they make us feel good, that they are actually, you know, good food. And these books I speak of, they are literary candy bars, and if you subsist only on a steady diet of them, your brain will rot as surely as if it were only made of the stuff of teeth. Bah, I really don't feel like talking about this anymore. Though, I will add this, a marvelous quote from Liz Williams (
mevennen):I am occasionally asked to do a talk on the Gothic, and one of my pet peeves is the continual process of making the other safe. Once, unicorns were savage destroyers that slew anything that wasn't a virgin. Vampires were a horde of rats, or smoke. Angels eviscerated those who did not believe the word of God with flaming swords.
And now they're our imaginary friends, who have nothing better to do than schlep around being our 'totems.' I do, sometimes, feel that pagans have debased the great powers far more effectively than any Christian fundamentalist ever has. I work, on occasion, with Sekhmet, who is not to me a symbol of modern women's empowerment, but something huge and distant and remote. Like Aslan, not a tame lion. I think we need to get the 'awwww' out of 'awe', and pretty damn quick, too.
Which really gets to the heart of it all, much better than I managed to do.
The Very Special Auction auction continues. I should add, this is the only ARC of The Red Tree I will be auctioning.
And there are photos from yesterday:
From the field above the sea, looking south to the lighthouse.
Thistle!
Looking south across Cambrian slate towards the lighthouse.
View to the west, looking back up towards the field.
I cannot get enough of this view.
Homeward bound, crossing the Jamestown Bridge, driving into the setting sun.
One of my favorite lighthouses, Plum Beach Light, built in 1899; below the west end of the Jamestown Bridge. View to the northeast.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:05 pm (UTC)In general, I'm curious to see how having considered the evidence will affect my reading of the book. Which then makes me wonder about whether any potential limited editions might have the evidence incorporated in some way...
In re: junk, Michael Pollan makes the very good point in The Omnivore's Dilemma that much of what lines grocery store aisles is not actually food, even if it may look like it at first glance. It's one or possibly even two generations removed from actual cut-from-the-cow or plucked-from-the-soil. Much the same could be said for the literary candy bar.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:09 pm (UTC)In re: junk, Michael Pollan makes the very good point in The Omnivore's Dilemma that much of what lines grocery store aisles is not actually food, even if it may look like it at first glance. It's one or possibly even two generations removed from actual cut-from-the-cow or plucked-from-the-soil. Much the same could be said for the literary candy bar.
Bingo.
My big question, which I was hesitant to ask yesterday but for which time has apparently given me courage, is how you feel about comparisons between the Gable film and things like Cloverfield or The Blair Witch Projects.
The comparisons are inescapable. And as I am a fan of both Cloverfield and The Blair With Project (first film; had enough sense not to see the second), not unwelcome, though I know people are jaded. I love metafiction, and I'm always willing the play along.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:25 pm (UTC)I've always liked illustrated books, especially those where the illustrations become an integral part of the book. In this case the illustrations are housed elsewhere, but that works perfectly for something that purports to tell a documentary-like story (if that's the right adjective). Evidence does not arrange itself neatly.
Plate VI I loved for its implication of the ruin that went before. Was it merely a storm? The fungi from Yuggoth? Who knows. Plate VIII was nice for its,er, "Kiernian signature," but I especially liked the identity of the paleontologist in question! I enjoy that kind of allusiveness at least as much as I do the more ham-handed kind that shows up when an author is visibly straining to tie stories or worlds together.
Question: do you mind if people link directly to images of the evidence in blog posts, etc.? I don't know what the status of the images & text is vis-a-vis copyright or other rights.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:46 pm (UTC)Evidence does not arrange itself neatly.
That's a great line.
Plate VIII was nice for its,er, "Kiernian signature," but I especially liked the identity of the paleontologist in question! I enjoy that kind of allusiveness at least as much as I do the more ham-handed kind that shows up when an author is visibly straining to tie stories or worlds together.
The caption for that plate originally appeared as a footnote in Chapter One, which I cut.
Question: do you mind if people link directly to images of the evidence in blog posts, etc.? I don't know what the status of the images & text is vis-a-vis copyright or other rights.
No, please. Feel free to link directly to anything any everything.
One More Question
Date: 2009-07-28 07:26 pm (UTC)Re: One More Question
Date: 2009-07-28 07:48 pm (UTC)I know I posted it to the journal at some point. But I have no idea where it might be, right off. Sorry.
Re: One More Question
Date: 2009-07-28 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:14 pm (UTC)Which, I must admit, I've never fact-checked, but it always made sense to me.
I've made a similar observation about the whankfest that some parts of Neopaganism and Leathersex/BDSM has become regarding *cue scary music* doing Jungian Shadow-work. Unfortunately instead of using the Shadow to discuss fears and experiences of Darkness within us most of it has become self-absorbed discussion with the Shadow about itself.
Which entirely misses the point, and becomes masturbatory mirror-gazing.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:41 pm (UTC)Which, I must admit, I've never fact-checked, but it always made sense to me.
There's a quote from The Angels of Bastogne by Gilbert Morris, "Funny thing, every time an angel appeared to someone in the Bible, the first thing he'd say was, "Fear not." ... I guess they were pretty spectacular." But no, I can't speak to the veracity of that comment, either.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 07:17 pm (UTC)sorta like aliens in the movies who say "We Come in Peace"
Essentially, yes.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 07:15 pm (UTC)Promotion
Date: 2009-07-28 06:24 pm (UTC)I believe you when you say it feels like you are selling one book at a time. I had my publishing debut several weeks back. With a marketing budget of '0' I still managed to reach #1 in Movers and Shakers, #5 in Horror, and #52 overall on the Amazon.com best seller lists when my fans "rushed the charts." Truly, it was an act of selling one book at a time. It becomes an obsessive activity and by the second week of July, I felt more like a pimp than a writer--minus the cane, fun hat, and white fur coat. I hate numbers, but numbers aren't going away.
Enough rambling.
Keep it up, you are kicking ass, and have inspired me to go preorder your book right now.
Oh..and another thing. My sister lives in Jamestown and now you've got me thinking about Beavertail and the Ganny!
Warmest regards,
Phil Rossi
-----
www.crescentstation.net
Re: Promotion
Date: 2009-07-28 06:37 pm (UTC)Just a quick line--I follow you on Twitter (my handle is @philrossi) and I applaud how you are taking a big, fistful of the promotional reigns. I dig seeing established authors using social network tools to enhance their fan outreach. It's had an inspiring impact on my writing and self-promotion.
Thanks for saying so. See, I have this dread that people are perceiving me as a spammer, and I've been worried about that, how I'm using Twitter.
ruly, it was an act of selling one book at a time. It becomes an obsessive activity and by the second week of July, I felt more like a pimp than a writer--minus the cane, fun hat, and white fur coat. I hate numbers, but numbers aren't going away.
I think it's weighing so on me right now because I've been at this since 1998, when Penguin released my first novel. Since then, they've released six (counting The Red Tree), and there have been many, many books from other publishers, and I'm exhausted, and it just seems it should have gotten easier, not harder. I know there's no truth to that. For most of us, it never gets any easier, but still.
Oh..and another thing. My sister lives in Jamestown and now you've got me thinking about Beavertail and the Ganny!
Jamestown is one of the places I wish I'd moved instead of Providence.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:41 pm (UTC)And that excitement is due to your marketing efforts. So...it's not in vain?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:47 pm (UTC)And that excitement is due to your marketing efforts. So...it's not in vain?
Thank you. No, it's not in vain. On some level I know that. I'm just very, very tired, that's all.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 06:54 pm (UTC)Tell you what. Email me your snail-mail addy, at greygirlbeast(at)gmail(dot)com. I'll see you get a copy.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 08:11 pm (UTC)Keep feeding us quality content and we will continue linking to it and retweeting it.
I will certainly try. There's something new in the works even now...
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 08:13 pm (UTC)The "get the 'awwwe' out of 'awe'" bit, that was brilliant.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 10:41 pm (UTC)Amen.
That is some lovely Cambrian slate.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 10:43 pm (UTC)That is some lovely Cambrian slate.
If only it were not so devoid of fossils.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 10:52 pm (UTC)Would you have better luck elsewhere in Rhode Island? (I can't even suggest Maine in this case; the Casco Bay area, which is what I grew up familiar with, doesn't turn up fossils at all. I remember being very disappointed by this.)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 10:55 pm (UTC)Would you have better luck elsewhere in Rhode Island? (I can't even suggest Maine in this case; the Casco Bay area, which is what I grew up familiar with, doesn't turn up fossils at all. I remember being very disappointed by this.)
Rhode Island just isn't a place to find fossils. Most of the rock is igneous and metamorphic. There are a few exposures with trilobites, and some Carboniferous-aged plant fossils here and there. But nothing much to get excited about. Connecticut and western Massachusetts have some decent stuff. I was spoiled by the grand fossil fields of the southeast.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 02:47 am (UTC)In regards to, "The Red Tree"...I have already purchased my copy. I work at a Borders here in NYC and we received our copies(without a laydown or strict release date)...so I bought mine a few hours ago.
Thank you.
Yeah, the reports of sightings keep coming in. So much for street dates.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 10:04 am (UTC)i'm looking forward to it (and i loved the stories in Alabaster, and felt Ted's illustrations were a great match)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 03:53 am (UTC)That being said, this promotional campaign has me really psyched to read the book. New books should be able generate excitement and "buzz" just as well as new movies.
And the addition of the Gable film to the site has lent "The Red Tree" a Navidson vibe for me, and that is a good thing!
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 04:01 am (UTC)That being said, this promotional campaign has me really psyched to read the book. New books should be able generate excitement and "buzz" just as well as new movies.
That was my thought, precisely.
"Evidence" will continue to appear on the website after the release date, by the way.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 10:29 am (UTC)