(Let’s go for 3-in-a row)
UncleBeer said:
Hey, Unc, if you want to review it for NonfictionReviews.com, let me know. It has to be an honest review of course, no giving Cal extra points just 'cus you know him. 
Love books, love libraries! Drachillix and I are in Central California and I’d love to hear you read!
Wow! Fascinating, and scary. How did GregAtlanta ever come across this in the first place?
DavidB: Neither B&N nor Amazon give the correct publication date. The book actually made it into my hands in June. But it’s still surprising that it took so long to get to the attention of the folks at the Globe. They were actually sent three copies before the review appeared. Persistence pays off.
Inventory for major childrens book distributor checks in.
You’re on the right track Greg but theres even more to it. I am asked to provide books for author signings all the time and its a many faceted problem.
Scenario 1: Author does reading, everyone goes wild, 80 people want this book, they have 4 in stock. Result 76 pissed off customers (they knew he was coming why didnt they order more books sheesh) customers are not going to be happy with placing orders because they wanted it signed by Author.
Scenario 2: Author does reading, and everyone hates the book, 3 copies sell, forementioned bookstore has 80 copies on, bookstore spends money on 77 copies of book that they will probably never get rid of, = wasted money. A small bookstore might not be able to afford to take a 300-500 dollar product cost hit like that without being hurt badly.
Chains like B&N probably have minimum purchases for alot of things (I know I do) If they cant sell say 50 copies at X markup then by the time they put it through purchasing, accounting cuts check, receiving receives and distributes to stores, pays for shipping, stores check in and add to inventory, cashier sells to customer. They have LOST money.
Scenario 3: Author shows, finds out store does not carry most of his or her books, throws hissy fit, storms out, customers are pissed, author is pissed, nobody wins. This happened to the company I work for once.
In almost every scenario its really easy for the bookstore to be the bad guy.
Suggestion to Cal: This won’t work for a major chain but a small store should go for it in a heartbeat. Bring your own copies of the book and do a consignment sale. I would imagine you can aquire some copies on a wholesale price level.
Example: you show up at store with 100 copies of your book
Cal provides inventory and attracts customers.
Store provides roof and sale facilities.
Store keeps $x.xx of each book sold.
20 copies to start 7 sold store gets $x.xx * 7 copies and gives back the other 13 unsold books.
It alleviates all of the ordering and inventory issues for the store, they get a little money and publicity. You could easily do several of these promotions and bring the product to each one and probably make a few bucks off of each sale yourself if you wanted to. This way you’re guarenteeing an adequate supply of your book, if it dosen’t sell the store dosen’t get hurt by it and is more likely to embrace future author visits.
I’m sure you can do the math on your own and come up with an acceptable method for this on your own without any trouble. When we do this type of thing we don’t get anything out of it if author provides the books, we are just happy to have an author appearance.
and balance of sales to cover cost of books etc.
preview, smack self
Cal said:
June of this year or last? If so, any clue why they have the wrong date?
If it was June of this year, I could still try to review it for the local paper.
drachillix, the story was quite literally dropped in my lap. A friend was exploring some family history in that part of Georgia and stumbled upon a short description of the incident. He brought that summary to me and when I looked into it, every thing I found out was shocking. I was absolutely amazed that this was not already a well known story.
It’s all true, so I can’t take credit for the story itself. Quite a bizarre story, and it says a lot about the South in the early 20th century.
– Greg
David B:
June of 2000 (last year), I’m afraid. Still - I wouldn’t mind if you reviewed it. So few people know about it that it might as well have come out this year.
– CalMeacham
Well, like I said, my editor is pretty strict about that. However, I might be able to get a reviewer to do it for NonfictionReviews.com. I just can’t promise millions (or even thousands) of people will see it. I’m gonna send you an e-mail.
Well, why don’t you do an online book reading on the SDMB?
Quote a couple of passages and talk about them.
I’ll bet you get more people reading them here, than you’d have show up at a bookstore, and I’ll bet you’d have a better audience more suited to this than you’d have at a bookstore, and I’ll bet that your reputation as a poster will be strong enough to get people that normally wouldn’t be interested to ceck out your thread.
More importantly, if you post a link to Amazon.com I’ll bet you sell more books than you do with a reading at a bookstore.
Finally, don’t you owe it to the message board that you participate in to show them what you’ve done? Don’t you value their feedback?
What are you waiting for, you fool?
::grumble grumble::
I usually get paid for these kind of ideas.
Scylla: Thanks for the suggestion, but I’ve been trying to be a good boy. I’m not trying to sell my book over the SDMB, and quoting it here feels uncomfortably like that. I didn’t even want to mention the title, but someone did that for me.
I started this thread out of genuine frustration, and to get advice from the Teeming Millions, especially those in publishing. I’m grateful for the advice I’ve gotten, and I have in fact set up two lectures since I posted this – one at the local library and one at a University (I think having a good review on hand helped to “sell” me as legit). I’ve been sending out copies of the review in the hopes that it will get my foot in the door at a few others.
Cal:
While your principles are admirable, do realize that they are working at cross-purposes here.
You are depriving yourself the pleasure and satisfaction of sharing your efforts, and you are depriving this community of a topic and a reading that many (myself included) would find interesting.
The fact that you may possibly sell a few books doing this is not a negative.
Check with Tuba, or David, or Unclebeer. I’m sure it would be ok for an established poster to do something like this.
With all the flirt threads around here it certainy wouldn’t help to class up the joint with this kind of discussion.
Just post a link to the book on Amazon, and do your reading, similar to the way it would be done at a store.
Do it this way, and you’re not huckstering, you’re performing a service.
Some of my questions are answered in the curent issue of Newsweek:
Apparently gettin a book tour is status symbol. No wonder I cant et a reading!
“The hard part of my job isn’t telling an author he has to tour. It’s explaining tht he won;t be touring because his sales don’t justify it.”
I still don’t understand why it’s such a big deal to arrange a reading.