| Did all this sell any books? Maybe, but it's doubtful. Bombardiers, which is derivative of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (only not anywhere near as powerful) didn't reach any bestseller lists that I ever saw. The point is, they tried, which is more than most authors can hope for. | |
| "...made a hit out of her first book... simply by a single appearance on Oprah." | But an undeniably powerful tool in selling books is TV. An appearance on Good Morning America, The Today Show, or best yet, Oprah is thought to be worth X number of books sold (and think of X as a pretty hefty figure, considering the number of people who watch these shows each day). And the more photogenic you are, the better your chances of making these shows. A friend, Sharyn Wolf, author of Guerilla Dating Tactics, made a hit out of her first book, Fifty Ways to Find a Lover, which was dead in the water, simply by a single appearance on Oprah. |
| When it comes to certain books, publishers are willing to spend money to make money -- or so they think. The book party for select authors is meant to draw attention to the book, thus translating into high sales and bestseller lists. Recently, Joy Behar, author of Joy Shtick, an anthology of humorous essays (I must disclose here that I am credited in the acknowledgments as helping with the book) had two parties thrown for her, one at Caroline's, the other at the Friar's Club, and so far as I know, neither was paid for by the publisher. And yet they did provide a vast number of books to be displayed (or sold), most of which were simply "pocketed" by guests believing, I assume, that they were party favors. Nevertheless, photo ops were abundant and I assume some of those photos wound up in newspapers, were seen by folks who then ran out and bought the book. Or did they? |