I'm told people like to hear about numbers
A project like The Nickronomicon is perfect for a micropress—that is a press much like Innsmouth Free Press. It's short stories, which nobody cares about, in the Lovecraftian mode, which nobody cares about, but at right angles with Lovecraftian traditions, which nobody cares about, by me, whom nobody cares about.
Pre-orders, at a twenty percent discount, went up for hard copies on the publisher's website on Monday. Our hope was for sixty pre-orders by the end of the month—it was just a round, achievable number. (The book comes out in November and will be available through the usual e-tailers plus whatever adventurous bookstores are left on this useless mudball of a planet.) As she put it about thirty minutes later:
And we got it, fairly easily. Twenty-five by the end of Monday. Bam!
Another ten on Tuesday, thanks largely to Brian Keene tweeting a link. (I took the day of tweeting and retweeting and blogging and whatnot. But obviously I've not taken two days off.) Four sold this morning so far. Hey, almost at sixty already, and plenty of time to go.
Left unstated is that after fifteen years of publishing short and long fiction, essays and anthologies, novels and joke books, and even a writing guide, sixty in three weeks is a pretty low bar. Or I hope it would be. This is only an issue for a micropress book—for novels the sell-in to bookstores and such are in the thousands. There's no reason for a commercial publisher to bother if there isn't. Thirty-nine in a day in a half isn't bad at all, except that it is likely that the big burst is already over. Back a few years ago there was this fascination with the idea of the long tail and the One Thousand True Fans that would supposedly allow an artist to live if he or she did nothing but cater to them by being some sort of online goofball with never a bad word to say about anything. True Fan #427 one of those humanoids totally into the idea that Diversity is White Genocide? Uh...we won't talk politics!
Fifteen years of work, thirty-nine people ready to instantly part with ten bucks, most of whom are writers themselves. Actually, not a bad start and I am glad I didn't do some insane Kickstarteresque promise like "I'll rub everyone's feet, but only if they fly out to a parking lot in North Oakland and line up on their own!"
Honestly, I'd like 200 pre-orders before the end of the month. Did you know that The Nickronomicon will feature interior art, mostly by Gmb Chomichuk? Check it ouuuuuut:
Sound interesting? At all? Pre-order The Nickronomicon.
Pre-orders, at a twenty percent discount, went up for hard copies on the publisher's website on Monday. Our hope was for sixty pre-orders by the end of the month—it was just a round, achievable number. (The book comes out in November and will be available through the usual e-tailers plus whatever adventurous bookstores are left on this useless mudball of a planet.) As she put it about thirty minutes later:
One we reach 20 pre-sales of THE NICKRONOMICON I stop rolling on the floor yelling "whydidIdothisGodwhy." Please RT! http://t.co/hXMr8oxaa9
— Silvia Moreno-Garcia (@silviamg) October 6, 2014
And we got it, fairly easily. Twenty-five by the end of Monday. Bam!
Another ten on Tuesday, thanks largely to Brian Keene tweeting a link. (I took the day of tweeting and retweeting and blogging and whatnot. But obviously I've not taken two days off.) Four sold this morning so far. Hey, almost at sixty already, and plenty of time to go.
Left unstated is that after fifteen years of publishing short and long fiction, essays and anthologies, novels and joke books, and even a writing guide, sixty in three weeks is a pretty low bar. Or I hope it would be. This is only an issue for a micropress book—for novels the sell-in to bookstores and such are in the thousands. There's no reason for a commercial publisher to bother if there isn't. Thirty-nine in a day in a half isn't bad at all, except that it is likely that the big burst is already over. Back a few years ago there was this fascination with the idea of the long tail and the One Thousand True Fans that would supposedly allow an artist to live if he or she did nothing but cater to them by being some sort of online goofball with never a bad word to say about anything. True Fan #427 one of those humanoids totally into the idea that Diversity is White Genocide? Uh...we won't talk politics!
Fifteen years of work, thirty-nine people ready to instantly part with ten bucks, most of whom are writers themselves. Actually, not a bad start and I am glad I didn't do some insane Kickstarteresque promise like "I'll rub everyone's feet, but only if they fly out to a parking lot in North Oakland and line up on their own!"
Honestly, I'd like 200 pre-orders before the end of the month. Did you know that The Nickronomicon will feature interior art, mostly by Gmb Chomichuk? Check it ouuuuuut:
Sound interesting? At all? Pre-order The Nickronomicon.
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