Newbie Writes a Novel

For Gabe, Part One: The Practical Bit

I have heard the voice of Gabe Chouinard crying out in the wilderness of blogdom, and I've got two cents for him. Aren't I a nice guy? No? Shut up. Do read Gabe's last 2-3 posts before continuing, if you haven't already.

I'm working on the "How?", and with luck so are others. (I say "with luck" because I've *seen* nothing...)

I've come to believe that careful, targeted peer-to-peer networking is the only realistic "activist" means for expanding the readership of the more experimental, refined, and obscure spec fic authors we cherish so much. In my direct experience (and the anecdotal experience of others), readers invariably respond better to something tangible thrust into their hands with a solid recommendation from a friend than they do to any list, harrangue, or non peer-to-peer marketing push. Word of mouth is the power you're looking for, Gabe, and the most efficient means to your end. Everything else (viral marketing, mailing lists, websites, etc.) is inefficient for pushing literature onto a vaguely interested but uninformed demographic. This doesn't mean those things should not exist; merely that their utility is extremely finite for what you seem to be after.

Put another way-- this more a job for literary snipers, taking pot-shots at targets of opportunity close at hand, and less a job for literary saturation bombers putting out newsletters, websites, and such.

Rather than any wild "Operation Get 'Em on the Shelves" scheme, might I suggest the simpler "Buy One Book A Month For Somebody Else" plan? It's easy-- once a month, buy a new copy of a book by an author you enjoy that you deem to be under-appreciated. Give said book to a carefully targeted friend along with a warm and hearty recommendation; assure them they'll almost certainly like it. As an added bonus, this chalks up another sale for said author and makes future sales/print runs more likely. You know how (relatively) few people are needed to substantially affect an author's sales on a national basis, Gabe. Word-of-mouth is not a trivial economic force, although it does take time to build up to a payoff.

In the brief time that I've been reading Matt Stover's work, I've evangelized him (in the form of Heroes Die) to no fewer than a dozen people, including my own girlfriend and my little brother Kevin. From my girlfriend the bug spread to our mutual friends Jason and Amanda. I've sent two copies of Heroes Die to overseas military personnel through the Books For Soldiers program; I snap up every copy of HD that I come across so that I can use it for gift/loaner purposes. I've written a review of the novel for a gaming site that has netted at least one sale so far. In short, I've pushed the sucker, and I'm not the only one doing so. The relatively wider success of Blade of Tyshalle as compared with Heroes Die is solid evidence that Stover has benefitted from continual P2P networking on the part of many people who loved HD enough to pimp it to their friends and associates; true quality sells itself on a personal basis, customer by satisfied customer. Even a fanbase working without central guidance can effectively build a wider readership for a "niche" author.

Now, there are quite a few people I haven't targeted for Stover Evangelism, because I know their personal tastes well enough to foresee disinterest and non-comprehension. At present, they can't be made to enjoy Heroes Die any more than I could be forced to sit through a NASCAR race, though tastes change over time, and I'll be keeping my eyes on certain people in case their sensibilities shift enough to warrant a gamble with a copy of HD.

Why don't we try to set up a group "Buy a Book For a Friend" event through Dead Cities for May, and each month thereafter? Cost per month per participant, $10-20 tops. Let's either a) all pick one underappreciated author to focus on or b) individually select the underappreciated author of our choice, and drive up some sales figures, and try to hook some new readers from our pools of colleagues and friends.

Manifestos, policy statements, and highfalutin' foundations cannot accomplish the fundamental goal of putting books into the hands of potentially interested new readers. A distributed, enthusiastic campaign of chucking books at people on a personal level is, IMHO, what's called for, and what will work best, and what will waste the least possible amount of everyone's time.

Next: Part Two, the Opinionated Bit, AKA "Please, please drop the snobby fucking lie of "consolatory fantasy" and let its corpse sink back into the wet earth from whence it came, and also, if you really want to interest people in Spec Fic you need to hit 'em young, and also, the Twins are going to royally trounce the Tigers in the AL Central this year, and other fairy tales."