Category Archives: bestsellers

May 25, 2011   Miriam   authors, bestsellers, buzz, digital publishing, e-books, fun, Miriam, self-publishing, technology  
6

If you get it for free…

Conventional wisdom (and mothers concerned about their daughters’ virtue) holds that if you give something away for free, you’ll never find someone to actually pay you for it. That is so clearly not the case in the e-publishing world that it seems almost suicidally pigheaded to hew to that line of reasoning.

This morning, Jane and I sat with longtime client, author Joe Konrath, at Coffee Shop on Union Square for a very early breakfast. As usual, the waitresses were rude and inattentive and the coffee only okay. But, I digress. Some of you might know Joe as one of the founding fathers of the electronic self-publishing movement. He is also a very smart man who made it a point to educate himself about traditional publishing prior to heading out into the then uncharted e-book waters. He is an evangelist who knows whereof he speaks, whatever your opinion on what he has to say.

Anyhow, we were talking about file sharing and free content and the subject of Go the F**k to Sleep came up. The book is, of course, a publishing phenomenon. Currently #4 on Amazon on the basis of pre-orders alone, film rights are already sold and an article about it in New York magazine this week attempts to analyze what particular nerve it’s struck for harried parents. The book is putting Akashic Books, a small Brooklyn independent publisher on the map.

The interesting thing about this story is that this 34-page book has already been read by, well, everyone. The .pdf was leaked weeks ago and went viral so fast it was back in your in-box before you’d sent it out to all your friends. It’s funny that the e-version is just now being announced. Did I mention that everyone has already read this on their computers?

To me, this only supports the theory that offering free content and file sharing is a good idea in order to get people to buy books. Yes? No? Maybe in certain cases but not others? What do you all say?

April 18, 2011   Jane   advice, bestsellers, Jane, memoir, opinion  
12

I think I’ll write a memoir

Have you noticed that so many writers these days are writing memoirs?  There are some modern classics:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Dress Yourself in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz

One L by Scott Turow

And then there is the current New York Times hardcover Non-Fiction Bestseller list (April 17/11):

# 1:   Onward by Howard Schultz

#  5:   Red by Sammy Hagar with Joel Selvin

# 6:    All My Life by Susan Lucci

#13:   Decision Points by George Bush

#14:   Come to the Edge by Christine Haag

#15:  Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

And perhaps the ultimate, a memoir by the White House janitor.

The problem is that those considering writing about an emotional point (or points) in their lives, and in many cases, that is what a memoir is, don’t consider seriously enough whether they are ready to do this.  Are they ready to open themselves up and truthfully tell this story, which will expose them to a large audience in a way they have never been exposed before?  Are they ready to deal with probable criticism from those close to them about what they’ve written?

The point I am trying to make here is that before you think about undertaking this most difficult and personal effort, you should give very careful consideration to whether you can accept the results.  If not, then move on to an easier and safer undertaking.  If so, then go for it.  Writing your emotional and hopefully fresh and inspirational story might be the best thing you can ever do for yourself.

Have any of you ever thought of writing a memoir and decided against doing so?  What went into your decision making process?

March 14, 2011   Jane   about us, bestsellers, fun, Jane  
10

It’s raining dogs and dogs

After much soul searching and researching we decided to welcome a new dog into our home this weekend.  We lost Jefferson (he was over sixteen years old) last December, and his sidekick Lincoln was very unhappy and confused as to where his pal had gone.  But with all of our incredibly bad weather, we were loath to get a new dog immediately.  And then the thought of training a puppy stopped us—we had done this four times over the last twenty-plus years and weren’t sure we were still up to the task.

And so we opted for a two-year-old blond, long haired mini-dachshund whom we named Gilli.  And here he is.

Gilli was raised by a breeder but his back was too short to show him and so the breeder elected to find him another home.  He has never walked on city streets or heard city noises or smelled the city smells so educating him is going to take some time but he has an incredibly sweet temperament and Lincoln already adores him.

Indeed, most everybody loves dogs I have found.  Just look at the bestseller lists; there is almost always a dog book on it.  The big seller now is Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz.  And just think of these others: How to Speak Dog and How Dogs Think by Stanley Coren, For the Love of a Dog by Patricia McConnell, Paws & Effect by Sharon Sakson, Amazing Gracie by Dan Dye and on and on.  Dog tales always seem to attract a large readership which speaks to the millions of dog lovers out there.

I have two authors currently putting together dog books—one non-fiction and one fiction—and I can’t wait to get each of them out into the market place.

And who knows—maybe some day down the line, I will write about my life with all of my dogs.  Not now though, I just want to enjoy Gilli and Lincoln for the time being.

November 11, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, digital publishing, e-books, future of publishing, Michael  
7

The Times it is a-changin’

by Michael

While it was certainly inevitable, since the Times seems to love to add to its bestseller lists (14 and counting!), last night’s news about the addition of an e-book bestseller list came as a bit of a surprise. It’s interesting to note that in the announcement, Janet Elder, editor of news surveys and election analysis, says that the Times has been creating the e-book tracking system for two years. That’s serious investment in time and money on their part. They also mention that they’ll be partnering with RoyaltyShare, a company that tracks all sorts of digital downloads and actually got its start in the music business.

It’ll be interesting to see what this list looks like when it debuts. How similar will it be to what’s selling well on the Kindle platform? Will we see more clearly the effects of the agency model on e-book sales? Will the exclusion of certain publishers from Apple’s iBookstore hamper their sales? And how many books will appear both on the e-list and the hardcover or non-fiction lists? How many children’s titles will show up on the e-list? Will a Harry Potter-sized smash force the creation of a children’s e-list? Could I possibly ask another question?

Seriously, this is a major development in e-book publishing, and I eagerly await the publication of that first list. Do you, as readers and writers, care?

September 24, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, fun, genre, Lauren, opinion, romance  
6

Romance is not a dirty word

by Lauren

 

Oh, Danielle Steel! First Nicholas Sparks, now you. How can we help you make peace with romance novels? It may be true that your novels are not romance, narrowly defined by some conventions of the genre. I’m not sure I agree, but I’ll grant the premise isn’t completely without merit, not least because I’m not immune to the packaging efforts of publishers. Which is not to say your books are without their conventions—I hate to judge*, but formulaic is a word that comes to mind—but perhaps in some way those conventions are quite specific to you and your prolific output, possibly distinct enough to consider them in a separate category from other titles. However, I get the impression here, Ms. Steel, that you don’t want people to think of you as an author of romance because it devalues your work, which it turns out is some kind of lofty thing about the human condition, and that is a problem. (To be fair, you handle the issue with quite a bit more grace than Mr. Sparks.)

Romance novels can be totally fabulous. Not all of them are, sure, but that’s true in any category including whatever category you’d each like to be in. More than that, though, if you think a different label will change how seriously people take you, you’re being a bit naive. You’re both giant targets, especially you, Ms. Steel, with your shelves and shelves of bright and shiny spines branded more thoroughly than any other set of books in any store. When I worked at Barnes & Noble, you took up half a bookcase all by yourself, even without duplicate copies of anything. Trust me when I tell you that that’s a noticeable amount of gold foil and fuchsia. When people notice success, they deride it. That, my friend, is the human condition.

But you’re also massively successful with more readers than you can count and dedicated fan bases who come back for more every time it’s on offer. Let the haters hate, as they say, and take a look at your bank statement when you’re feeling insecure about what people think of you. Not because money matters more than respect or makes up for all the world’s ills, but because it proves that people keep buying your books in droves, so you’re doing something right.

Oh, and, don’t make us link this blog to the Ducktales theme again, because you know we will.

*I love to judge.

July 07, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, middle grade, opinion, reading, Stacey  
3

Rise of the Lightning Thief

by Stacey

Rick Riordan is likely a household name to anyone with young readers at home. His Percy Jackson series of middle grade fantasy novels have sold millions of copies around the world. This article goes into some detail about his publishing history. What’s interesting to me about this piece is that they talk about how just a few years ago he was clearly a mid-list author, with a series of adult detective novels that had sales that were modest at best. He moved into children’s publishing after some inventive storytelling shared with his son, who recommended Riordan turn the tale into a book. Then The Lightning Thief hit in 2005 and became an incredibly successful franchise. It’s a wonderfully inspiring and uplifting story to me because not only is this guy super talented, but he had a sales track to overcome before taking his career to this next level. Granted, it’s easier to move from adult to children’s to make this happen, but it’s still an incredibly positive success story (you know how much I love to share those). I think this article is stretching the boundaries of comparison by suggesting that the books are a publishing phenomenon, but not a cultural one. By any measure, these books are a whopping success, and even though the movie didn’t do as well as one might hope, there are more books to come and many more opportunities for new fans to come to the table. Speaking as a publishing professional, that seems like a pretty good place to be for the author, his publisher, and his agent too.

June 14, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, Jim, opinion, reading, retailers  
32

Big boxes and buzz

by Jim

I was out for dinner with a friend and her sister recently, and I mentioned that I had finally read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to read that,” said friend’s sister. “I keep seeing it at WalMart.”

“I know! It’s everywhere!” I replied, at this point still enjoying the conversation.

“Well, I just don’t buy books until they’re in the WalMart,” she commented. “Once they’re there, I just know they’re good.”

After briefly choking on my tongue, I asked her to explain. Her theory, which in fairness does make some sense, was that WalMart only carries the most popular books, so once they’re there, they’ve essentially been pre-screened by the public. And okay, that makes a good degree of sense. But in a market where so much great new fiction doesn’t really have a chance to break out, it made me worried about how people choose what to read.

Have we created a system in which only books pre-ordained to bestsellerdom even have a chance? Is there such a thing as a word of mouth bestseller anymore?

It reminds me of when Jonathan Franzen turned down the Oprah book club back in 2001 and made comments alluding to his own discomfort that we trust so few people to tell us what to read and are so willing to jump on board with whatever they point us to. For me, so much of the thrill is in finding something unexpected or something no one else has talked to me about so I can go in with no expectations.

That brings me back to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which I loved more than most folks I know who have read or tried to read it and which does seem like an honest to goodness word of mouth bestseller. It did get a huge push from its publisher, but as folks have dived in and the rest of the trilogy came out, it has expanded hugely. So the chance for books to break out is there, but…I’m still concerned about the nature of big box retail and its effect on book buying habits.

What about you guys? Do you prefer books you know other people love, or would you rather uncover an unexpected gem? And how do you decide what to read?

I won’t pretend I’m uninfluenced by buzz. I just bought Justin Cronin’s doorstop The Passage this weekend because I’ve heard so many great things. But then I started something else…

June 09, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, fun, Miriam, opinion, our clients, trends, vampires  
10

From Vlad to RPatts

by Miriam

Around these parts, everyone knows that my love of vampires long precedes the Twilight phenomenon. Robert Pattinson was probably still in diapers when I was falling in love with Anne Rice’s Lestat and I remember then-starting-out agents at DGLM rolling their eyes at me when I suggested that they fill their lists with vampire books. One who took me seriously was Jim McCarthy and he’s got the delightful and talented Richelle Mead and her Vampire Academy series, among others, to show for it.

Thing is, it made sense for people to be skeptical. Before Stephenie Meyer re-energized the vampire tale with her sparkly bloodsuckers, this was a tired literary standby. As Meg Cabot reminds us vampires have been around longer even than Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, and, throughout the ages, they have preyed on our imaginations precisely because they traffic in the two most powerful human preoccupations: sex and death.

I’ve been hearing a lot about The Passage, Justin Cronin’s contribution to vampire lit (the description of which makes me think of a cross between 28 Days Later and The Road), including Stephen King’s over-the-top praise of the novel. It’s expected to be one of the summer’s blockbusters. We publishing people are forever trying to predict trends (a fool’s game in the best of times), and we at DGLM often ask ourselves whether the vampire mania is subsiding or getting ready for yet another resurgence. Is it too late to be signing up yet another vampire novel? Or am I right in thinking that this genre will, ahem, never die?
What do you all think?

May 26, 2010   DG&B   BEA, bestsellers, fun, galleys, marketing/publicity, Miriam, reading  
4

Galley tales

by Miriam

It’s BEA week (check this out for an overview of the conference if you’re not familiar with it) which means that some of us are at the Javitz Center checking out publishers’ exhibits, schmoozing with authors who are in from out of town, and loading up free tote bags with galleys of books that are already generating buzz.

For me, the point of BEA has always been collecting those galleys. Invariably, I find myself walking the huge expanse of the Javitz arena ridiculously bogged down by the weight of too many of these advanced readers copies only to realize when I leave the building that getting from 11th Avenue to civilization requires a very long walk to the nearest subway or an endless wait for a cab. No matter. It’s still a thrill to read something in this vulnerable, unfinished format (complete with typos and mostly exaggerated promotional information on the back cover) and then watch the published book race up the bestseller lists, win a huge prize, or both.

I just came across this old piece from New York magazine and was delighted to see how many of those galleys I’d picked up at the 2007 BEA went on to gaudy sales and great acclaim.

Are any of you attending BEA this year? What galleys are you walking away with?

May 19, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, fun, Stacey  
6

Sh*t My Dad Says

by Stacey

This might be old news, but the fact that Justin Halpern’s book based on his tweets about his dad is making its debut at No. 8 on the New York Times list this weekend is just incredible. This article goes into detail about the book, currently #25 on Amazon, and the sitcom scheduled for next season starring William Shatner. Wow is all I can say about the whole thing. This proves that all you need to make it is a really crass dad with a smart, funny writer for a son, and a quirky, catching idea. The Internet will do the rest.

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