So, I am working at Barnes and Noble's for the holidays, reintroducing myself to the reading world from the other side. You know I see outselling everything--Diary of a Wimpy Kid. No joke. I've seen ten of those go for every Stephen King.
I've gotten to speak readers and to hear what they look for and what they like. It's exciting. It's exhausting. The goal is to write 2,000 to 3,000 words/day on The Clone Sedition, then go to the book store at night.
Anyway, I love the people I work with--the finest managers I have ever known--and the customers are fabulous.
Best wishes for the holidays!
Steven L. Kent
(Steve)
19 comments:
I admittedly have little knowledge of the whole authoring/printing industry, but what is stopping you from releasing this book on your own?
A very fair question.
These days, with Nook and Kindle and the whole ebook phenom, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. That said, publishers like Viking and Hachette do more than print books and place them on store shelves.
Readers take books more seriously when they come from big houses because the houses vette books before they invest in them. The horror stories are true, publishers sometimes turn down great books, but they work very hard NOT to publish bad ones.
Once a publisher buys in, you get professional editing--man what a difference that makes! You get top of the line layout and hopefully a little help with publicity as well.
I could hire a professional editor, maybe even hire Christian McGrath to do the cover for my book (he does those great covers for my Harris books), and hire a publicist; but that still would not be as good as going through a solid publisher to begin with.
That said, the book in question very well may find itself going directly to the Nook/Kindle market. If so, I will certainly publicize it on Sad Sam's.
Wow Steven that's sort of wild. Do the people you work with know you're a successful published author? Do you feel like you're getting the pulse of the average reader?
I've heard a few authors lament "why don't I write young adult novels! That's where the money is!" so it's no surprise to me that Diary of a Whimpy Kid is flying off the shelves.
I think you're right about self publishing, in that a book still needs to go through the critical polishing steps. Editing, copy editing and so forth. Unlike many new authors who self publish, your name is a brand and you need to make sure that it is continued to be associated with quality products.
JenMo, you get the Cupie doll for whacking every mole on that one!
Awww well I'm still hoping for my own ABC plush doll. Maybe Santa will bring one.
once i get out of the army i might have to come fill out a application :p
Join the ranks of the Barnes & Nobility. You may be too cool a cat to work in a bookstore.
I happen to be very eager to obtain a copy of The Clone Sedition, and I have no idea what it's about... The editors can be very picky.
I happen to be very eager to obtain a copy of The Clone Sedition, and I have no idea what it's about... The editors can be very picky.
It's a very different story with Harris in a post-Avatari. Remember, I promised an entirely new story arc.
Intriguing. I'm still working on Redemption, so I need to find out about the Avatari galaxy, and what happens to humanity. And if Sedition does come out on the Nook market, you've got one of your first confirmed customers.
All things Harris are available on Nook. BTW, I am finally breaking down and buying myself a Nook Tablet. I'm so excited!
You'll have to let us know how you like the tablet. Is the gig at B&N influencing you towards the Nook over others?
When I started at Barnes and Noble, I had a Kindle preference based solely on notoriety. They asked me to sell Nooks and I was not sure I could do that because I can't lie to customers, then I did a little research. PCWorld, Cnet, Business Insider, and ZDNet give Nook a slight edge. The general consensus seems to be that the two systems are fairly even, that Nook is more powerful but costs $50 more which may or may not be worth the dough.
Because of my employee discount, Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire cost the exact same for me. I like the fact that Nook takes memory cards and allows me to store the books I own rather than save them to cloud. Maybe I am just being paranoid.
The other big seller for me is the face-to-face customer service that Barnes and Noble offers. At our store, they offer free monthly Nook classes for anyone who wants to attend and Anna Lee, the Nook specialist is amazingly generous about helping customers have purchased units but come in with questions.
Mr. Kent, if no publisher wants to have nothing to do with this new book of yours please self publish it through Amazon or somewhere else. I bet your fans would definitely buy it. I know I would! :)
By the way, I read Rogue Clone in one week and I'm half way through The Clone Alliance now. I wish I had got The Clone Elite before I came to Brazil on vacation. I have 3 more weeks here and I'm afraid to finish the 3rd book and have to wait until I get home to read the 4th!!!
So you are enjoying a warm winter. You are a lucky man. I am glad you are enjoying the books.
Not only I'm enjoying the books but I also got 3 friends of mine excited about them. As soon as I'm back to the US I will buy one copy for each. Hopefully they will get into it like I did.
By the way, any chances of the Clone Saga being translated to Portuguese? There is a very large nerd population in my old country, lol. :)
I have heard that the Brazilian population stands out for many, many things... nerds is definitely NOT among them.
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