Building a Franchise

Platforms, branding, franchise, fans, discoverability. There are many words bandied about that all represent the same thing: how does an author build a base of loyal readers. Forbes recently published an article by David Vinjamuri  titled: The Strongest Brand In Publishing Is ... The premise of the article is that brand is more important than platform. He argues that if platform was key, celebrity books would all be successful. One of his interesting observations is that consumers are willing to pay a 66% premium for a book by a favorite author over an unknown author. This means favorite authors sell more books at a higher price. It does seem that brand loyalty is more important than a social media platform.

So, how do you build a literary brand? Although not called out specifically by Vinjamuri , it appears that characterization is the most crucial element. Granted, authors need to know how to write and tell a good story, but readers develop the greatest loyalty to a character. A good character draws readers back to an author faster than fame, storytelling, or exceptional writing skill.

The strongest brand in the most recent Codex survey is Jack Reacher, who is a character created by Lee Child. Reacher is completely different from the stereotypical thriller hero. Jack Reacher novels have sold over 70 million copies, making Child comfortable enough to buy a Boeing product. Vinjamuri writes, “Child carries a higher percentage of his readers with him to each successive book than any other bestselling author.”

If you’re interested in finding out how Child accomplished this, get it from the horse’s mouth. In Vinjamuri’s article, Child gives three perceptive reasons why Reacher has strong brand loyalty.

Now, if I can just get Steve Dancy an introduction to Jack Reacher, all will be right in the world.

Large Print Edition of The Return Now Available

The large print edition of The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale became available in March. Center Point Publishing has released all four Steve Dancy books in large print.  (The Shopkeeper and Leadville are sold out, but used copies are available at Amazon and other booksellers.) As of this writing, The Return has 30 Amazon customer reviews for 4.9 stars. This fourth novel in the series has also received good reviews from Western Writers of America, Bookviews, Examiner.com, and Brandywine. 

Libraries continue to form the core of large-print business, but these library-bound editions also make terrific gifts. Books as gifts provide hours of pleasure and an ability to write a personal message on the flyleaf that won't be discarded like most greeting cards. 

Honest westerns ... filled with dishonest characters.

Review of The Return by Western Fiction Review

The U.K. based Western Fiction Review has reviewed The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale. It’s a good review that everyone in the world should read. Maybe that’s going too far, but you could read it.  This Steve Dancy title has also been well received by readers. Take a gander and buy a copy. You’ll make a restless writer happy.

Western Fiction Review

Bookviews

Brandywine Books

Amazon Customer Reviews

Goodreads Reviews

Honest westerns filled with dishonest characters.

Book Reviews—The good, the bad, and ...

There are no ugly book reviews— only good and bad reviews.  At least that would be true under the axiom that any publicity is good publicity. The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale recently received one of each. Let’s start with the good.

Bookviews by Alan Caruba is one of my favorite book blogs. Caruba is a writer by profession and a longtime book reviewer. In his review of The Return, he puts me in the same paragraph with Elmore Leonard. That alone puts Bookviews into my favorite column, even if Caruba hadn’t already reviewed most of my other books. He writes: “James D. Best … is arguably one of the best writers of westerns.” Those are kind words, and I appreciate them. You’ll find Caruba’s review of The Return in his September Picks of the Month.

On the other hand, at Brandywine Books, Lars Walker writes, “The Return, another Dancy story, is another well-written tale,” but adds, “it turned me off the series, not because of the writing, but because of one of the themes.” It seems Mr. Walker was offended by Dancy's interaction with his snobbish mother. He writes, “Steve’s ability to defy her through premarital cohabitation is presented as a sort of moral triumph.” A good observation, but I feel obligated to support my characters despite their failings. You can read Walker’s review of The Return by clicking on this link.

The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale has also received some nice reviews by Amazon Readers.

Steve Dancy Tales

Are Audio Books for Non-Readers?

I normally read three to four books simultaneously. When I tell people this, they immediately asked if they are fiction or nonfiction. I tell them the mix varies. Actually, that’s only two thirds true. I'm usually reading an e-book, listening to an audio book, and reading one or more print books at the same time. The print books are almost always nonfiction. The Kindle and audio formats vary depending on what strikes my fancy, but generally both formats are fiction. It can be a bit confusing, but when I switch mediums, I back up a bit and usually get right back into the story.

My audio habit drew my attention to a Wall Street Journal article about audio books.  The claim is that audio is experiencing an explosion in popularity, especially with the younger generation. This article describes some interesting new concepts in audio that can leverage a franchise to a whole new audience. Throw in big-time tie-in marketing and you can extend a successful property into a phenomenon. Don Katz, Audible's founder and CEO is quoted in the article as saying, "We're moving toward a media-agnostic consumer who doesn't think of the difference between textual and visual and auditory experience. It's the story, and it is there for you in the way you want it."

One Audible.Com development is a syncing feature between audio and e-books. Now, that hit me where I live. I could read/listen to one novel at a time. Read my Kindle with my morning coffee, and then listen to the audio format driving to the gym and on the elliptical. Life just got simpler … which is what new technology is supposed to do, but seldom accomplishes on the first try.

The Steve Dancy Tales are in large print, trade paperback, Kindle, and five are available in audio. For audio buffs, Books-in-Motion produced the first two books in audio format. Narrated by Rusty Nelson, a skillful actor, the books are available from Audible.com. Jim Tedder narrated Murder at Thumb Butte and The Return, and Joe Formichella read Jenny's Revenge.

Are audio books for non-readers? Sometimes. But audio books are also for readers who never want to be away from the story. Remember, “It's the story, and it is there for you in the way you want it."

Will Libraries End up as Museums?

Are books becoming obsolete? Is a library the only place we’ll be able to see these odd antiquities? Will librarians admonish us “don’t touch,” instead of shushing chatterboxes? Are we entering a binary world where everything is decomposed into a series of ones and zeros to be instantly reassembled on a hand-held device?

My Dream Library - A Great Place to Read

Libraries may one day become faux ambiance designed for reading books on an electronic device. I've had a library built in my last three homes. Now, I’m moving once again and my biggest task is going through thousands of books to decide which ones I really want to keep. I'll build a formal library in my new house, but it will certainly not be as large as my current one.

I've had friends tell me they prefer a real book because they like the scent and feel and the genuine article. Then someone gives them an e-reader. Soon, they discover that the medium doesn't matter; they still get lost in the words. By the third novel, they’re converts.

There might be some truth in the demise of the book … at least as a commodity. But it will not happen as quickly as pundits predict and some form of books will always be with us. 

Books started as art, and I suspect they will return to art. Nobody will miss the mass paperback, or even cheaply printed and bound hardcovers. Books will once again become beautiful … but I still won’t need a big library because they’ll also become much more expensive.

Getting Top Ranking at Amazon—Easy as PW Says?

Publishers Weekly has an article that estimates the number of sales required to reach a Top 5 ranking on Amazon. Something doesn’t look right. PW estimate that as few as 300 print sales per day will win a coveted spot in the Top 5. This is based on monitoring the ranking and sales for one book for two weeks.

You can read the full article here.

Here’s why I think the estimate is off. My best sales day was 660 books for Tempest at Dawn. This occurred  after a television appearance and sales remained above 300 per day for nearly a week. Although the book made #1 in several categories like Historical Fiction, it only briefly broke through the top 100 for general sales. Also, The Shopkeeper has had spurts of very good sales, but only temporarily has broken the Top 1,000 in books. Sales would need to increase exponentially to get a Top 5 ranking.

Is it possible that the shift to e-books has so dramatically reduced print sales at Amazon that 300 sales per day would land you on top of the heap? I doubt it. It’s more likely that faulty assumptions resulted in the smallish number. We’ll never know, of course, because Amazon keeps all of its sales data close to the vest.

Word-of-Mouth is Still King

Goodreads has completed a survey of their members about how they discovered books. They published the results at the link below.

Goodreads Survey





How do people discover what book to read? Unsurprisingly, word-of-mouth is still king. A recommendation from a trusted friend is the top answer, with "Everyone talking about it" in second place. The third most frequent answer: a book club recommendation. Since book clubs are made up of trusted fellow readers, I would add this answer to the word-of-mouth category. These three answers put together dwarf all of the other responses.

What does this mean for an aspiring author? One thing, and one thing only: write a good book. There are many out there who believe the trick is to jump on the next e-book marketing gimmick. That works ... but only for a brief period. People don't recommend or talk about shoddy books. If word-of-mouth is the #1, #2, and #3 best way to sell books, then authors need to write books that people want to share with friends. As Goodreads says, the survey pointed out "one powerful need: wanting to be connected with our 'tribe' through stories." 

So if you want to be an author instead of a digital huckster, write a good story, polish it to perfection, have it professionally edited and proofread, and then do it all again.

The Shopkeeper exceeds 100 Customer Reviews

A few weeks ago, The Shopkeeper has reached a milestone, so to speak. The novel was reviewed for the 100th time by an Amazon customer. One hundred reviews for 4.3 Stars. Needless to say, I'm pleased. Thanks to all of my readers.

My ratio of reviews to book sales is about one half of a percent. So that means one out of two hundred readers return to write a review. I'm not sure if that's good or bad compared to other books, but I appreciate the people who made the extra effort to provide feedback ... good and bad.

I read every customer review. It's surprising how much I learn. One surprise is that nearly half of the reviewers are women. By looking at reviewer profile pages, I'm also surprised how many are young, or at least have young tastes in the other products they buy and review. I want to appeal to a broad audience, so I'm thrilled.

Read reviews of James D. Best books
Read Amazon reviews
Read Goodreads reviews

Don't like your name? Change it.

What famous author's real name was Howard Allen O'Brien? Unless you already know, you'll never guess. 

11 Points (Because Top 10 Lists are for Cowards) has listed 11 surprising pen names.

The article is interesting, but I think the website is more intriguing. This is a clever book promotion blog. The lists draw readers back time after time and the blog has the type of content people love to share. I probably should develop a core theme for this blog. Except then it would become a chore rather than a fun diversion from my novels. I think I'll stay with eclectic. 

Click here to discover the celebrity author who was born Howard Allen O'Brien.

Zane Grey Defined a Genre

Portrait of Grey at Monument Valley

Zane Grey was an athlete, avid fisherman, and a lifelong philander. Grey was introverted and remained somewhat antisocial his entire life. Oh yeah, he was also a writer. In fact, he wrote his first story at age fifteen.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, and played minor league ball for several seasons. After graduating with a dentistry degree, he set up practice in New York City. About ten years later, he gave up dentistry to write full time.

His first published work was a magazine article about fishing, and he wrote extensively about fishing his entire life. At first, his novels were repeatedly rejected. He grew to love the West after several hunting trips to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, so he incorporated these experiences into his writing. Still his novels continued to be rejected. (His early works were not Westerns.)

In 1910, he wrote his first Western, The Heritage of the Desert which became a bestseller. Two years later, Riders of the Purple Sage became his best-selling book of all time. From that point forward, he was a celebrity writer and Grey’s Westerns were eagerly published.

Zane Grey authored over ninety books, counting the ones published posthumously from manuscripts or serialized magazine stories. He would cease writing for long periods, and then burst into writing frenzies where he would scribe over 3,000 words a day. He sold over 40 million books, most of them Western novels, but some were children’s stories or non-fiction books about hunting, fishing, and baseball. Over 100 films were based on his stories. After his death, he even made it to television with The Lone Ranger, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon—which were based on his characters—and Zane Grey Western Theater. His Westerns allowed him to explore the world extensively, maintain several homes, and write about fishing. In fact, his books made him a millionaire, which irked critics who had little respect for his writing skill.

Zane Grey’s West Society claims that “In 57 novels, 10 books of Western nonfiction, and 130 movies, Grey, who died in 1939 at age 67, almost single-handedly created the "Myth of the West."

The official Zane Grey website lists his books, movies, and magazine serializations.

Europe's Infatuation with the American Wild West

Sometimes we forget that American genre fiction is popular overseas—Westerns included. And why not? We might think of the Wild West as uniquely American, but we enjoy King Arthur, Lawrence of Arabia, The Count of Monte Cristo, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and samurai adventures. If you write genre fiction, don't neglect this market. (The Steve Dancy Tales are popular in foreign counties, especially England and Germany.) 

If you want a feel for Euro-Westerns, visit The Tainted Archive which is based in the United Kingdom. This article is about Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti Westerns. Not as well known as Sergio Leone, Corbucci wrote and directed the original Django, among other Westerns.

(A couple yearsback, I did an interview with The Tainted Archive.)

It used to be difficult to sell in foreign markets, but not anymore. This is another major change brought about by eBooks. Your book can be decomposed into ones and zeros, bytes can sprint across the globe at the speed of light, and then be instantly reassembled in some far off land. In a small way, Scotty of Star Trek fame has been displaced by a Kindle.

The Future of Large Print

The popularity of eReaders has decimated the mass paperback market, and several publishers have even abandoned the format. An eReader can display font in any size, so I assumed the next casualty of eBooks would be large print. Not so. Or, at least, not yet. When I received my statement from my large print publisher, I was pleasantly surprised. How is it that large print holds its own against the ebook revolution?

I think it has to do with the market for large print books. Whether it’s libraries or direct purchase, the market is seniors. Seniors are not gadget prone and remain attached to the feel and simplicity of a real book. No buttons, no touch screens, no hot links. Books are what seniors have read their entire life and only their children prod them to change. Seniors can’t see the point. They get lost in the story and turn the page without conscious thought, just a motor reflex learned through decades of practice. 

The boomers will probably carry their eReaders into old age, but most of their parents will remain loyal to the printed book.

If you're looking for a senior gift, you might consider one of these large print books.

Honest westerns filled with dishonest characters.

All of the Steve Dancy Tales have been published in large print, library binding editions by Center Point. Some have sold out, but are still available through used book dealers.

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!

How do you pick your next book to read?

I'm a compulsive reader. I read everything and I read all the time. I suspect it started when I was in the fifth grade and I spent my breakfast reading the shredded wheat box. I even read the dividers that separated the rows of three biscuits. Nabisco sponsored the television program Sargent Preston of the Yukon and my hero was all over the box and dividers. That's how I ended up owning one square inch in the Klondike. Darn, I wish I still had my deed.

You'll be pleased to know I've graduated from cereal boxes to books. First the Hardy Boys, and then mass paperbacks. I was a junior in high school when I discover nonfiction with Theodore White's The Making of the President 1960. College introduced me to classics.

In adulthood, I wandered books stores and paperback racks looking for my next read. Bestsellers lists had already down-selected which books got prominent display, and I usually picked by author or back cover copy.


The publishing world has changed. Bookstores are becoming rarer, yet there are tens of thousands of more books available. The shelf-life of a book has been extended well beyond presence on a bestseller list. Electronic books are increasingly taking over fiction and narrative prose. Old book selection tools like magazines and newspapers are withering. Literary reviews are being displaced by reader reviews.

So how does a person pick their next book to read? For me, it's easy. I carry my Kindle with me almost everywhere. Writing has crowded out my reading time, so I read in line at the airport, in my doctor's lobby, in the car as my wife runs into a store, or while eating breakfast or lunch. I also have my Kindle with me when I watch television. It's always around when I use my computer. Why? It has to do with how I pick my next book to read. Whenever I hear or read about a book that sounds interesting, I immediately download a sample onto my kindle. I do this while talking to friends, watching television, surfing the Internet, attending book events, or when reading a periodical. After I finish a book, I metaphorically thumb through my samples, usually reading a chapter or two, then select my next book. At any point in time, I probably have twenty books queued up.

Electronic reading devices have changed the publishing industry and reading habits. It has also changed the way we chose books.

1. Back copy is less important than the opening of the book 
2. Bestseller lists mean less than frequent mention on broadcast and cable outlets
3. Social media builds name recognition
4. Word-of-mouth is even more powerful

This means emerging authors have tools to compete with famous authors. More important  sales can occur a considerable time after a promotional event. Book sales are now a long-haul business. Someone might download a book sample weeks, or even months before they make a purchase decision.

In fact, you might consider downloading samples for these books.

Happy reading.

Click to download samples.

The Western Heritage in Literature

Western fiction is frequently disparaged as illegitimate literature. This myth is perpetuated by classifying literary stories that occur in the West as something other than a Western. Many of the smart people believe Westerns are dime novels, pulp fiction, and straight-to-paperback formula bunkum. But the Western has a long and valid history in literature.

James Fenimore Cooper may have been the first Western author of note. The Last of the Mohicans and the rest of the Leatherstocking Tales were in the Western tradition. Written in 1826 about events that supposedly occurred nearly seventy-five years prior, The Last of the Mohicans incorporates all of the characteristics of a modern Western.

Mark Twain is universally acknowledged as one of the great American literary figures, but is seldom referred to as a Western writer. Yet, Roughing It is a first-hand description of the Wild West of Virginia City during the heyday of the Comstock Lode. Granted, Roughing It is Twain-enriched non-fiction, but The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are coming-of-age novels set on the American frontier.

When Owen Wister published The Virginian in 1902, the novel received critical acclaim and was a huge bestseller, eventually spawning five films, a successful play, and a television series. An instant success, it sold over 20 thousand copies in the first month, an astonishing number for the time. It went on to sell over 200,000 thousand copies in the first year, and over a million and a half copies prior to Wister's death. This classic has never been out of print.

Max Brand, Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Jack Schaefer, Elmer Kelton, Larry McMurtry, and Cormac McCarthy continued the Western tradition and all of them have been highly successful. Recently Nancy E. Turner (These is my Words) and Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers) have penned praiseworthy Westerns that are popular with readers.

Western literature has a grand heritage and will continue to appeal to readers all over the world.   Good writing, sound plots that move with assurance, and great characterization will elevate the genre back the top of the bestseller charts.



Here are the bestselling Westerns.
The Steve Dancy Tales

Honest westerns filled with dishonest characters.

Tempest at Dawn: The real story of our nation's founding

The following is excerpt from my essay on the 27th Amendment for Constituting America.

"We often hear laments that our politicians no longer honor their pledge to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.  This is backward.  The Constitution was not written for politicians.  Our political leaders have no motivation to abide by a two hundred year old restraining order.  Americans must enforce the supreme law of the land.  The first outsized words of the Constitution read We the People.  It’s our document. It was always meant to be ours, not the government’s.  It is each and every American’s obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Most popular Constitution Books
Constituting America

Selling Books During the Holidays

Books are popular gifts, and the Christmas buying season has traditionally been the best month of the year for book sales. It still is ... for print sales. With the explosion in eBooks, post-Christmas is becoming another hot selling season. Not only are empty Kindles popular gifts, but Amazon gift cards frequently fill stockings and email in-boxes. These two trends are causing a flurry of eBook buying from December 25 through January.

(Please excuse my focus on Kindle. For some reason B&N and other booksellers have not been able to market gift cards with near the intensity of Amazon.)

The question for publishers is how to adjust their marketing plans to meet this shift in book sales. The simple answer is that pre-holiday marketing should focus on print format, and after Christmas marketing should transition to eBooks, preferably starting a bit prior to Christmas.

Gift givers prefer to wrap a physical item in shinny paper to be opened on Christmas, and many readers still like to hold a physical book in their hand. There is still good demand for print books, especially trade paperback and hardbound books. Publishers should focus their attention on print sales before the holiday buying season.

Sales of eBooks seem to get an up-tick as early as Christmas afternoon. My guess is that these are new Kindle owners who are playing with their new toy. To affect this market, eBook promotion needs to start before the 25^th of December.

How do you change the marketing focus? One thing I do is set all my hot links on my various web pages to my print formats, and then the 22^nd change the links to my eBooks formats. Not very clever, I know. But if I had this nailed down, I wouldn’t be posting this article in the throes of holiday shopping.

I’ll do better next year.

Related posts:
eBooks Changing More Than Just Formats
The eReader Revolution is Accelerating
Books Are The Perfect Gift

Guest Blog Post: Meet Author James D. Best

From 
Free Kindle Books and Tips

"Continuing the guest blog posts by independent authors, best-selling author James D. Best tells us the background of his novel, Tempest at Dawn, plus some other interesting facts about him I didn't know prior to reading this post. A friend of mine at work has read it and said it was great, and I have added it to my Kindle."

Read my Post by following this link. Thanks.

Books are a perfect gift ... and a great way to avoid the crowds

At times, friends and relatives can be hard to buy for. Some seem to have everything. Due to age or illness, others may be less mobile than in years past. Some don’t really want much. Families scatter across this huge country and selecting a gift, packaging, and shipping can be a chore.

A book, however, is always a great gift … especially if you take the time to match their taste in fiction or nonfiction special interest. Suddenly, your thoughtfulness becomes part of the gift. Whether your relatives or friends are interested in the Civil War, literature, romance novels, Westerns, paranormal fiction, railroads, guns, cooking, collecting old comic books, antique automobiles, or anything else, there's always a book that will bring a smile to their face.

Books are the best entertainment value. They provide hour after hour of personal pleasure, and then they can be passed on to another person. When I give a book as a gift, I  write a personal note inside that won't get tossed out like last year's Christmas card.

Children's books are great gifts. We search for autographed storybooks for our grandkids. Local bookstores always have children book promotions around the holidays, and this is one area where we actually like to join the crowd. A great find is when the author and the illustrator both sign the book. We've done this for several years, so now our grandkids' bedrooms have dedicated shelves for signed books. The icing on the cake is we get to read them a story from one of these books whenever we visit.

Here are Amazon links to bestselling books in a few categories. There are many more categories a click away, but you can also search for books on a specific subject.

Children's books

Cook books

Crafts & Hobbies

Action Adventure

Romance 

Westerns

Amazon Bestsellers

If you have a Western enthusiast in the family, giving one or more of these books can bring a smile to their face … mine as well.