Selling the Sizzle
Had a busy week doing all the promo stuff for my novel. I went to the Latino Book & Family Festival and got to meet
Zane, the best-selling author of smoking hot erotica. She's started her own imprint with my publishers, Simon & Schuster. I also got quoted in the
LA Times, which was swell.
Had a couple of interviews for various publications. I kept saying things and then adding, "Don't write that I said that!" You think I'd know better since I write interviews myself.
How much do these appearances and interviews increase the chances of success with a book? I haven't a clue. As Jeanne wrote below, a big chunk o' change can be dumped into the promotion of a book and it goes nowhere -- although The
Interpretation of Murder seems to be doing fairly well, so I don't know why the publisher is kvetching.
I had to get my car smogged, so I popped into the Starbuck's next door for some attitude with my coffee while I waited. I noticed they were selling a book,
For One More Day, that
Mitch Albom wrote specifically for the coffee chainstore.
So what kind of book sells the Starbuck's brand? A book about spending one more day with a dead relative. So the next time you think about your dead relatives, think double latte! (Okay, I do always think of
dead male models when I think of Orange Mocha Frapacchinos.)
Not that I'm against tie-ins to your book. I would say that I totally support anything that supports book sales -- except that I'm completely creeped out by O.J. Simpson writing a book titled
If I Did It.