Adrian Stephens's Blog - Posts Tagged "body-swap"

Everyone's heard the saying, "no publicity is bad publicity." In my case, that may not be true. In business, owners are always looking for a way to find their niche, because a niche provides a market where no others (or few others) can compete.

As an author, having my book fall into a niche would seem great. I have been very fortunate to find progressing sales on several websites where my book is for sale. Looking at my sales rank on Amazon, my ranking has been steady over the last few months it's been available.

Amazon is great because it has lots of information that potential buyers can use to determine whether it is right for them. One of the resources available is a 'Customers Who Purchased This Book also Bought' section. In looking at the In My Shoes for Kindle page, there are plenty of pages of 'other' books customers purchased. The problem is, most of the books are adult themed transgender books.

Though I can see how In My Shoes loosely fits into this category, it really is a book that can be more compared to a cross-gender Freaky Friday than anything else. My book is intended to be appropriate for a teenage as well as adult audience, where many of the 'other' books seem definitely geared towards adults only. The little feedback I have received from this niche market tells me that though it's a little more "Puritanical" than what they are used to, they still seem to enjoy the story.

So, you may be wondering why I would turn away a market that is eager to buy my book. It's not so much that I am trying to turn away any market...it's more that I want people to understand what they are looking at. I don't want my targeted market to turn away before they even read it, because they think it's not appropriate for them or their teenage son or daughter. I'm sure as time goes on, there will be a better variety of books displayed on Amazon's page. Until that time, I can only hope that people read the synopsis, read the reviews and make their decision on that basis.In My Shoes

I received a text message from one of my closest friends the other day. He told me that he had finally started reading my book, and he was enjoying it. He was actually excited to tell me this. He finally got around to it, and he was burning through the pages.

When I received his text, I couldn't help but to smile. In talking to other authors, I've heard their frustrations with family and friends (let's call them framily to save space) who hadn't read their novels. They take it as a lack of support for their work.

In a way, they are right. The problem is, they fail to see it from their framilys' standpoint. Our framily have known us a long time. They know us a certain way, with a certain personality, and they know our strengths and weaknesses.

More than that, they care about us. While many authors feel that if their framily cared they'd read the book, I realize it's their caring that makes some of them hesitant to read it. Why? What if it's not a genre they like? What if it's just bad? What if it's so bad that they have a hard time getting to the end of it? Now, we'd all like our framily to have more faith in our abilities but, especially when it's our first book, is it fair to ask them to expect that we have a talent that to this point may have been hidden?

Let's face it, we all think we can write, or we wouldn't have taken the time to do it. But, just because we think
can write, doesn't make it true. Even if we have a brilliant idea for a story, the ability to develop it, create interesting characters and put it all together for a well developed novel eludes enough of us to warrant the fear.

The last thing our framily wants to do is tell us they didn't like the novel we worked so hard on. And it's hard to lie and tell someone they've got talent if they don't believe it. It's much easier to have excuses why they haven't been able to read it. It may not even be a conscious decision, but it happens.

Having had several of my framily seemingly excited to tell me that they liked my book, I recognize that it's really not even excitement. It's relief. A weight has been lifted. They don't have to lie or make excuses. They don't have to trudge through the pages. Relief.

I made a decision when I started writing In My Shoes (and even my Ghostbusters III treatment) to do my best not to put people in that position. I don't ask people if they've read my book, and I don't ask them how they liked it. It's not that I don't care, I just don't want to put them in an uncomfortable position. If they want to talk about it, what they liked and what they didn't, I'm always more than happy to talk about it. I'm proud of it, so talking about it is quite fun for me. If they gush too much, I get a little embarrassed, but I still enjoy it. And when they tell me they loved it with that hint of excitement/relief, I still can't help but smile.

If you haven't read In My Shoes yet, I hope you do, and I hope you enjoy it!

If you've been checking out my previous blogs, you might be wondering why they tend to be all over the place. Since I'm sure you've all been holding your breath waiting for the answer, I'll keep you in suspense no more...they're just gonna be that way. I don't really see a point in writing a blog if I'm not going to be speaking about the things that interest me. For the most part, what interests me these days is the writing and publishing processes for my book, In My Shoes. But sometimes I'm going to go off topic and talk about something in left field. Hopefully, at the end, you won't feel you wasted your time. Speaking of wasting time, let's get on topic...

When people seek out to buy my book, sometimes they can feel like it's a Where's Waldo adventure. You've got to know where to look to find it. So, I thought I would share an experience I had with a major national bookseller. I've waited a while to tell the story because it's personal to me, and I didn't want to rant before I had time to analyze it better.

When I started the publishing process for In My Shoes, I spent a lot of time researching the process. I'm not one to just shoot from the hip. I wanted to do it right, and I wanted to be taken seriously. I'm willing to jump through the hoops, as long as the goal is attainable. Major reviewers and booksellers alike have guidelines for submitting your books for their consideration. For instance, many books reviewers will not consider reviewing your book once it's been published. They want an advanced copy at least three to six months prior to publication.

Booksellers also have guidelines. They all play by their own rules and as far as they are concerned, they are doing you a favor by even considering your book. So, when I started the process, I contacted one of the national booksellers, and asked them some specific questions regarding their criteria, to be sure I understood what I needed to send them. Their response was short, but I thought they answered my questions. When the book was ready, I registered the ISBN and sent a finished manuscript copy, with all of the other requested data to this seller. I over-nighted the package so they would receive it right away. Two weeks later a representative called me, told me that she just received my package, and that I did not submit an actual finished, bound book to them, and that they would not consider my book until I did. I explained that my book was currently with the printer and would not be ready for over a month, and I also told her that I had emailed them with that specific question, and their reply did not say anything about a bound book back from the printer. She replied if I wanted my book in their stores, I'll get them the copy. I did that the day I received my books from the printer, nearly a month later.

Here's the thing, though. Almost immediately after my conversation with that representative, my book showed up on their website. They were pre-selling my book, more than $6 off the cover price, and without any agreement in place with me (come to find later, they pull the data automatically from the ISBN database and start pre-selling books, whether they actually have any intent to sell the book or not). They continued the pre-selling until the release date, which I had provided when I registered the ISBN. The day the book was released, they stopped pre-selling my book, and marked it as unavailable. People who had purchased my book were out of luck (and I know people had bought the book because I had a sales ranking on their webpage). About a month after my book was for sale at Amazon.com
(for both hardcover and Kindle), my website adrianstephens.com and several smaller stores, the national bookseller finally placed their order for my book. They ordered one book. I had pre-sold at least that many, and had already sold plenty more than that on my website and through Amazon, but they wanted one book. So, I shipped them one book.

After selling over 200 books through other sellers, I contacted the company again, asking them to consider placing my book in their stores. My book was getting lost on their website, and I knew that people wouldn’t catch on unless they saw it in the stores. On a website, if it’s not a featured book, it has no chance. As my name doesn’t end in Rowling, Meyer or Collins, my book doesn’t have much chance of being featured, which I completely understand. So, I emailed her, suggested letting me place my books in the stores local to me. I offered to hand deliver them (so there was no shipping cost), and asked them to give it six months on their shelves to see how it did. A test market. In the stores where the book is on the shelf, people are picking it up and buying it. I also offered to forego invoicing them until the books actually sold.

I was excited when the representative asked me to call her so we could discuss it. I thought, if she’s actually asking me to call her, she must be considering it. Heck, I’d be willing to adjust my terms to get a foot in the door, so things were looking good. That was until I called her. I called her that day, and reminded her who I was since she has so many people she deals with. When she found my email, she began reading it back to me, and laughing as she read it. That’s right, she started laughing. Not boisterous laughing…just average run of the mill old laughing. Then she explained to me that is not how they work. Now, I understand that’s not how they work. But, from my standpoint, while my book is selling consistently at other retailers, my book is crawling with them. What I also understand is that, if that’s not how they work, an email with that statement would have sufficed to get that point across. If she is as busy as she says, why have me call her to go through the motions? I decided she must have needed a laugh for the day, and I was the designated fool.

So, we continue along…they sell one book, they order one book. In the time it takes my book to get to their warehouse, the book is listed as not available. In times like this, when it can be quite frustrating, I remind myself that I was able to publish my book the way I wanted, on my terms. Coming up on 300 books sold, I’m pleased with the progress. It’s a learning experience, and I’m enjoying the ride. It may take me longer, but I’ll get there. Is it worth it? Oh yeah!


So…what are you still doing here? Go out and buy my book, tell your friends, post a review! Oh, and thank you!