 [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] |
8 Books in 8 Weeks: Week FourRed Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out on July 6, and I’m counting down the days by giving away a book each week. Congratulations to Jenn Johnson, who won the third giveaway. This week, I think I’m going to go with something simple and straightforward. Next Tuesday I’ll randomly select one of my Twitter followers to receive an autographed copy of one of the following books (your choice):
# Like many authors, I don’t get much info on how things are doing behind the scenes. It’s one of the reasons many of us obsess over Amazon rankings. Those rankings might not mean much in the big picture, but they’re the only indication I get about preorders. I use TitleZ to track my books on Amazon. It’s a dangerous tool, allowing authors to completely obsess, but I like it. Among other things, I can pull up a graph of sales rankings over time:
Every one of those dips represents at least one person who was excited enough to order Red Hood’s Revenge. I have no way of knowing exactly how many orders this represents, but it’s significantly better than the preorders for Mermaid’s Madness. So thank you. At the risk of getting all sappy, I very much appreciate your trust. I know this series isn’t for everyone, but it’s an incredible feeling to realize so many people are excited about the story and the characters. And it makes me want to work even harder on Snow Queen, to do everything I can to live up to that trust. 13 comments to 8 Books in 8 Weeks: Week Four |
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Ok, if authors obsess about Amazon rankings, what do publishers obsess about? Obviously, the only metric you have access to is the Amazon ranks, they have more, but they probably have a one or two that they trust in more than others. Do you have any inkling about which are favored by your publisher?
I’ve never worked on the publishing side, so I suspect there are others who could better answer this one. But if I had to guess, I’d say the first thing is the actual preorders. By now they know how many books are being ordered by Borders, B&N, Books a Million, and various independents. I suspect they’ve known for a while now. Early orders can actually affect the size of a print run, if there are more (or fewer) than expected.
Yes! I’m automatically entered into this one. I finally purchased The Stepsister Scheme and my wife shanghaied it from me. But I did some free advertisement for ya over at my blog.
Thank you! The shout-out is very much appreciated.
I should warn you though that the princess books aren’t as humorous as the goblin series. I think they have their funny moments, but people who go in expecting nonstop goblin-style hilarity have been … not disappointed, but jarred, if that makes sense?
Woohoo! I love contests where I don’t have to do anything extra.
In response to your post, Jim, about the differences in the Goblin series compared to the Princess series, I think it’s a welcomed change. I loved the Goblin series (in fact, Goblin Wars was how I was introduced to you) and so do I love the Princess series. But I think the differences show your great talent, eh
(Next step, tackle a western! :P)
A western … with goblins!
(Okay, actually that sounds like fun. Hm…)
The Wild, Wild Western Goblins! Yes! I want to read it.
::HUGS:: ♥
Even though we’ve never met you face-to-face, we’ve “spoken” with you at length through your books and obviously really liked the person we “met” there (or we wouldn’t come hang out on your blog, right? :D). So no worries about the new book’s sales, Jim—we’ve got your back. ;-D
And yay for the twitter contest~~ Since I already follow you, I’m all good for this week. ^^
Thank you. That’s truly appreciated.
And hey, if you feel like buying about 50K extra copies that first week to help get me onto the NYT Bestseller list, please feel free
*cough* Uh, by “we’ve got your back,” I kind of meant “I’m gonna buy my one copy and count on your other fans to do the same.” How about we say my well wishes for you and the new book make up for my lack of monetary largess? ^^;;
::Overdrawn, melodramatic sigh::
Well, I *suppose* that would be okay too…