marketing

No, it’s book promotion in the age of the author video. Seth Greenland waxes eloquent on the rapidly blurring line between writer and salesman:

“Now, because of recent developments in the world of publishing, writer and merchant are fusing into one. Willy Loman and Arthur Miller have commingled. Call it -- forgive me -- Birth of a Salesman.”

Talk about an innovative way to get the edge on your competition! Beginning in May, a digital version of each issue of SFX Magazine will be beamed into outer space, where it will bounce around the stars forever.

Write for SFX and your work is guaranteed to live on in perpetuity. :)

Sometimes literature is defined by its content and other times simply by its target readership. There is ‘black’ literature, ‘feminist’ literature, ‘Christian’ literature and ‘gay’ literature; and somewhere I’m sure there’ll be black, feminist, Christian gay lit too! It may be argued that these are simply marketing niches rather than literary categories ...

Exactly how did James Patterson become such a wildly successful author? The secret’s as much in the marketing as in the writing, and he’s a guru. Following a talk given by Patterson, Harvard Business School professor John Deighton remarked: "I'd never actually heard a product speak…It was like listening to a can of Coca-Cola describe how it would like to be marketed."

How do you feel about product placement in books? Is it okay for authors to make a buck by having their characters drink Coke or wear Cover Girl makeup? Or does it cheapen the story and the writer? It’s something to think about, as product placement in books is becoming rather prevalent these days.

Having one hundred and fifty million copies of his books in print worldwide and being the most borrowed author in the library just isn’t enough for James Patterson. He wants bigger numbers, more sales. He wants the children. He wants their mothers. He wants book world domination.

Why does it take so long for a book to go from submission to publication? With all the technology available, one would think that publishers could speed up the process. The book world, however, still relies heavily on the slowest form of marketing—word of mouth—and it takes nine months to a year for the public to clue in.

Someone deserves a raise; this is brilliant. The book may or may not be trash, but it’s going to sell to the millions who live vicariously through TV soap dramas. This isn’t just a tie-in, uh uh. Charm! is supposedly written by a character on the show and has been featured as an integral part of the storyline of All My Children since the end of November.

If this wasn’t so pathetic it would be funny. A tobacco company is claiming that a series of classic books made to look like cigarette packs are damaging its image. I can think of a few other things that might be more damaging to the “health of the brand”…like heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

It seems the release of the Kindle has put an end to Amazon’s discounts on mass market paperbacks. Besos says it’s an effort to balance the low-margin and high-volumes sales. “If Kindle success rises or falls on the backs of the mass market purchasers, this is going to be ugly.”