DISQUS

Heather Fowler · 5 months ago

Excellent discussion. Enjoyed this! :)

jonathan evison · 5 months ago

. . .oh, and here's a question for booksellers and publishers, since today is officially "all about lulu's" 1 year birthday: how do you you keep the heat on a TPO into year the second without the benefit of a second launch?

DH · 5 months ago

JE, about keeping "All About Lulu" warm for a second year...take opportunities to suggest it as an ideal book club selection (which it is), also consider whether there are seasonal tie-ins that work...like: perfect summer read ...Valentine's Day...back to school...that's a versatile book you've got there, JE. For most retailers, cyclical events are a big deal.


Cross-merchandizing? Find some venues for the book that are away from bookstores...like cool apparel outlets maybe...anywhere that a hipper crowd would gather to do shopping anyway.



Get your publisher to re-list tbe book, with cover, in the frontlist section of their forthcoming catalog..."currently available"...maybe to tie-in to the cyclical events that I mentioned above.

jonathan evison · 5 months ago

. . .good stuff, DH . . . i'm doing a large ladies book club this very afternoon, as a matter of fact, and i'm crossing my fingers that they honor my rider (a six pack of beer!) . . . not sure how one would work the outside venue angle, as consignment is out of the question .

DH · 5 months ago

you'd need your pub's help for the offbeat venue idea...it's called "special sales".


my last suggestion: go to a good bookstore and see how your book is positioned on the shelf...offer to buy the clerk a coffee if they will face it out or improve its position in some other way. You may not even have to buy the coffee, just the offer may be enough.



this worked on me once. it helps if you're good looking. but that always helps, of course.

jonathan evison · 5 months ago

. . .well shit, looks like i'm out of luck . . .i was sorta good looking 20 years ago . . . my friends from all over always e-mail me telling me how they always face my book out whenever they see it on the shelf . . . i have a feeling, booksellers correct this in pretty short order, but you gotta' love the effort!

DH · 5 months ago

okay...one more suggestion...made as a reader who loves Lulu...write a short story that riffs off "All About Lulu"...like a separate story about Lulu...something that happens to her, a date, a job, a new cat...or something about another character...


Get it published in an online lit journal...or put it on Three Guys...we'ed be honored...



the story would lead readers to Lulu who haven't read it...or would want to recommend or re-read it...



tell me a story, Jonathan...I think that's the best answer.

jonathan evison · 5 months ago

. . . ha! no sequels or spin-offs of any of my work--it's a rule of mine . . .

DH · 5 months ago

well...I'm still wondering what happened to Lulu...I guess I will always wonder...one of the reasons that we call it "art"...that's a good deal, Jonathan. :)

Violet · 5 months ago

No spin-offs? That's too bad. I'm curating a Fan Fic segment of the next Opium Magazine, and looking for work that riffs off literary characters. I just got a great piece by author Matt Briggs that uses a character from a book by Jim Crace. I agree with DH that such a thing could keep interest for a book burning...

jonathan evison · 5 months ago

cool beans! i've published in opium before . . . i also know matt briggs, who is a fellow seattle boy . . .

Greg Olear · 5 months ago

My mom went to the bookstore today in my home town and dropped off a galley. I did not ask her to do it; she offered.


The response was better than when I did it myself.



Why no sequels, JE? Would it really be that awful to update us on Lulu's whereabouts? Heck, even Shakespeare wrote sequels.

jonathan evison · 5 months ago

. . . so, greg and DH, i guess my answer is that i've already imagined what happened to lulu and all my other characters, you know? i've already imagined where their roads take them . . . i prefer not to know a character's destiny before i write it, because it takes away from the sense of discovery and wonder which drives me to write in the first place, you know what i mean? it's like writing a screenplay where you've already outlined the scenarios beat by beat-- i feel like i'm just going through the motions . . .plus, i guess i like the idea of just starting from scratch each time . . . sometimes i'm tempted to have my own everyman-- my zuckerman or rabbit or whatever, but then i figure, it'd just be funner to cook something up from scratch in terms of character, because that's what floats my boat . . . i can totally understand the desire to serialize characters, and why so many readers might like it, i just don't think i'd have fun doing it . . .

James P. Othmer · 5 months ago

Thanks for more behind the scenes enlightenment. JE, I keep thinking about that "large ladies book club" of yours. Are we talking height or weight or, I don't know, ego? At any rate, I suggest you wear your platform-soled Chuck Taylors to that one.

Patrick T. Kilgallon · 5 months ago

Good information as always, but I would have to disagree with Stephen King being a blurbmeister. If he did not like a book, he would not blurb for it. I have mindlessly followed his recommendations and it paid off for me in term of liking other talented and brillant dark fiction writers for years like Gillan Flynn of 'Dark Places' and 'Sharp Objects.' He recently commented on Stephenie Meyer's, "Twilight" that she was not a good writer and he did not like that book. He, like all of us, loves reading and when he likes a book, he will honestly say so. But I don't think getting a blurb or not is the final means to helping with the book sales because despite what Stephen King said about "Twilight", readers ignored him, including fans, and bought dem' lousy vampire romance novels.


As for the large ladies, I think or I hope Jonathan Evison meant quanity not mass in term of 'so much more of you to love even if you insist on bringing your own hand truck to the nearest 31 Flavors ice cream shop.'

jonathan evison · 5 months ago

. . .i've always admired stephen king for being a blurb whore . . . gary shteyngart, too . . . i'm well on my way to being one (i think i've blurbed six books this year--which is probably about how many books a blurb from me is likely to sell!) . . . writers gotta' help writers . . .period . . . i think writers who pass on blurbs to avoid political blowback, or because they don't want their name on something are big pussies out for themselves . . . scheduling conflicts are one thing, not liking the book you're supposed to read is another thing, but issuing a blanket clause through your agent that you "don't do blurbs" is like getting to the summit and pulling the rope up behind you . . .