True West Magazine--April Issue

The Steve Dancy Tales will be featured in a full-page ad in the April edition of True West Magazine.
Look for it in your mail box or local newsstand.

Get a Spine!

The spine is the most undervalued aspect of book design. This is especially true today, when so many indie-books only publish electronically. Writers are doing themselves a disservice by restricting the market for their books. Granted, the majority of my sales are eBooks, but I also sell a respectable number of print books. I do well with libraries, and despite not pursuing bookstores, I've found my novels carried in the big chains and independent stores. Additionally, some readers who prefer electronic books still look to see if there is a print version to strengthen their purchase decision. My recommendation is that authors insist on a printed version. 

If a print format is produced, then a book becomes a three-dimensional object and must have a back cover and spine. The spine is the most important.

Unless you’re a bestselling author, your books will not be stacked on tables at the front of the store, so only the spine will be seen when your book is on a shelf. The same is true for a library. If you want to sell your next book to a library, people must find and check-out your previous books. So pay attention to the spine. Getting sales is tough enough without your book disappearing in a maze of other books screaming for attention.

Judging a Book by Its Cover

February, 27, 1860

The Shut Mouth Society is a contemporary thriller about a conspiracy that goes back to Abraham Lincoln. The novel was published in 2008, which happened to be the Lincoln Bicentennial. It opens with Lincoln's Copper Union address on February 27, 1860, prior to his nomination for president. On the same day, he had a photograph taken by Mathew Brady. (Lincoln claimed the Copper Union address and Brady photograph made him president.) A book cover that used this photograph would tie into both the novel's introduction and the Bicentennial. My designer came up with a unique close-up cropping that really showed Lincoln’s intelligence and determination. I thought it couldn’t miss.

Big miss. Sales were lackluster and customer reviews on Amazon and Goodreads were mediocre to scathing. Sales were hurt by an avalanche of nonfiction books released to take advantage of the bicentennial, and early buyers of The Shut Mouth Society assumed it was another book about Lincoln. A few even bought it because they assumed it was nonfiction. Although the story did include extensive Lincoln history, the novel was a modern-day chase thriller in which the protagonists desperately try to unravel a one hundred and fifty year old conspiracy.

I could have given up on the book, but The Shut Mouth Society was a finalist for Best Novel in the Glyph Awards, and it had received excellent reviews in the general press. We decided to try another cover design. You can see both of them side by side below. 

The new cover worked miracles. Sales increased dramatically and customer reviews were effusive. At the time of this writing, the book has 161 Amazon reviews for 4.3 stars, and 491 ratings on Goodreads for 3.7 stars. I’m pleased with the Goodreads numbers because the newer rankings had to overcome dismal early returns. 

Nothing changed but the book cover.

Why am I bringing this up now? Because we’re in the final throe of designing a book cover for The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale. We had many concept mock-ups, but I rejected many of them because despite being nice graphically, they didn’t fit the story. I learned my lesson. Covers build reader expectations. This is why genre covers look alike. They’re designed to appeal to an audience that will appreciate the book. So don't believe the cliché that people should never judge a book by its cover. People do. 

Insist on a well-designed cover that fits your storyline.

You might want to look at Flavorwire’s “20 Embarrassingly Bad Book Covers for Classic Novels.” Many of these are a hoot. 

The Western in Advertising

Westerns were hugely popular for over a hundred years. Not only were they popular in the United States, but the whole world devoured them. Recently, my brother bought a book about Chinese firecracker art. (He’s an art professor who likes quirky design.) He sent me a couple vintage images with cowboys. It started me thinking about advertising with a Western Theme. Once common, it’s a bit rarer today. There were some clever concepts … and some not so clever.

I put up a Pinterest Board with some examples.

The Western used to be a staple of advertising ... and fiction, movies, television, and daydreams. It will be again.

If you do nothing, nothing happens!

A few days ago, I posted an article titled “How do you pick your next book to read?” I received a couple questions on a throwaway comment that “sales can occur a considerable time after a promotional event.”

My background is direct marketing , so I understood why this statement was troubling. The mantra in direct marketing is measure and react. If you can’t measure due to an extended time delay, how can you react by adjusting or amplifying your marketing actions? 

I don’t know.

I do know personal appearances like signings, club presentations, and book festivals work because even if I don’t sell many books at the event, I see Amazon sales improve the following week. But what about greater delays? Most people take a long time to read a book, and prolific readers always have a queue. How do you know what specific event caused a reader to download a sample of your book onto an eReader? How long does it take for a reader to get around to a free sample they downloaded? Another question: do sample chapters at the end of your book generate follow-on sales?

One time I sat down and made a list of all the marketing things I was doing and then separated them into three groups: 1) actions that didn't work, 2) actions that did work, 3) actions I didn't know if they worked or not. You guessed it; the third category was by far the longer list. 

The real issue isn't whether something works or not, but which actions are the most productive. I know the #1 most productive marketing action. Write a darn good book—one that will generate word-of-mouth. Beyond that, I’m at a loss.

I may not know which other actions are productive, but I have learned the cardinal rule of book marketing.

If you do nothing ... nothing happens!

Selling Your Books on Amazon

I'm conducting a webinar today at 2:00 PM PST at Book Street Cafe. This is a new membership site for publishers, authors, and publishing vendors. It's a fun virtual cafe hosted by terrific people dedicated to the book industry. This webinar, as well as all the others, will be posted to the site to be viewed at any time.


Book Street Cafe
Webinar Page: Selling Your Books on Amazon

Steve Dancy Tales Promoted in True West Magazine

The Steve Dancy Tales are being promoted in True West magazine with a full page advertisement. The collector issue celebrates the Arizona Centennial, and also recognizes Prescott, Arizona the Top Western Town for 2012. This is a great connection with a great magazine because the latest Steve Dancy adventure, Murder at Thumb Butte, occurs in 1880 in Prescott. Pick up a copy. It's filled with little known facts about Arizona's road to statehood, the gunfight at the OK corral, the 12 guns that tamed Arizona, and the Top Ten True Western Towns of the year.