Tag: selling books

What an Interesting Development

I track several things on the Amazon page for Hurricane Baby–sales rank, number of reviews, some sales numbers. Until recently, I didn’t think much about price.

I would see the price occasionally dip to $18, $17.99, $16.50–small changes from the cover price of $20.95, but nothing to really wonder about–until after the first of this year.

Then I noticed the price dropped to $8.50 for the paperback version. (The Kindle version is $9.99.) I thought that was odd but assumed it would be short-lived. Next thing I knew, the price was $8.48. Then $8.12.

I really started to pay attention then. It kept dropping until it reached $7.99 a few weeks ago.

I wrote my publisher asking if she had any insight as to why this had happened, Her answer was “not a clue”.

Hm.

So I turned to Google for answers. I input “Why did Amazon discount my book”. I got various websites proffering reasons that largely fell into three camps:

A) The book is selling really, really well and they discount it to sell more, or

B) It’s a completely algorithmic decision, or

C) it may be a case of setting your book up as a “loss leader”, hoping that a low price will cause shoppers to buy even more products than just the one book.

Another possible reason is Amazon may have ordered too many, and they want them out of their warehouse. That doesn’t sound likely since my book is print-on-demand–the book is assembled in response to the number of orders.

I was glad to find out it wasn’t necessarily a case of Amazon being ready to remainder the book and selling copies at fire-sale prices to get rid of them, which had been my first thought.

So we will see what happens in the future for my Hurricane Baby, the little book who could. Hope everyone has a good week!

PS 3/24/2025–I posted this last night, and then I looked at Amazon and found that the book has gone back up to regular price! That’s an interesting coincidence!

Lemuria Books Thursday

Thursday I did a Q&A with my fellow Madville author Steve Yates, who I’ve known professionally for almost twenty-five years. He signed books for a bit in the store proper, then we moved over to the store’s event space for me to ask Steve questions about his book. I pulled from the list my friend Shannon gave to me to set up my own Q&A document on my website, and some flowed just from the conversation. All very low-key; we had a crowd of about 12 there, including a fellow who said he planned to do a story on the event. I’m not quite sure how that’s going to turn out, but we will see.

I also talked to another bookstore in north Mississippi about a signing; we will see how that goes. Supposedly they have a book on the way to them. I talked to one lady over the phone and another over email. The issue is going to be turnout, as usual–how can I conjure up a crowd? I got my post cards to mail for folks to go to my Ackerman event, so I;ll be sending those next week. Who knows what’s going to happen,

I’ve also got invited out of the blue to do a library appearance in Pontotoc, which I’m not sure I’ve ever been to. It would take me out in the middle of a week but they have a high weekly turnout. So we will will see, there, too.

Pic below of me and Steve, courtesy of Tammy Yates:

Publicity Matters

So now I am starting to be in the thick of publicity/marketing/selling Hurricane Baby. I’ve identified several bookstores I want to do small events with. Bookstore events are tricky, because the bookstore orders a lot of product, and if you can’t muster up that many people to show up at the event, they can return those books and get their money back from your publisher. I am trying to do bookstore events in conjunction with other events around the state so the events will be joined in time. People could possibly go to my events then swing by the bookstore and buy the book. So that’s one angle.

Another angle is getting news outlets to cover my book. I made a couple of big asks such as sending info on my book to big names like NYT, WaPo, and Kirkus. But I am really working a lot of my personal contacts for interviews, book reviews, and other publicity opportunities–people I worked with when I was a freelancer, colleges I attended and worked for to participate in readings on those campuses, people I attended my MFA program with (who have been absolute rockstars in promoting my book) and word-of-mouth among the people I know.

Another marketing avenue is book festivals. I have about ten, all in the southeast, that I hope to be invited to where I can make some noise about my book. The Festival for the Book, Southern Literary Festival, etc. etc. Most of that is legwork I’ve done myself; others already have a connection to the publisher.

And working all these connections is outside of what my publisher is doing, such as shipping my book to reviewers, nominating me for book awards, and playing up posts about my book on social media. My motto for this whole endeavor has been to do everything I could to position my book for the best outcome possible–and that’s what I’m trying to do.

Events and More

I am starting to have a few events start to shape up around my book launch! I have an interview for a podcast coming up–I’m so far supposed to do the interview this weekend, then it will be edited and released whenever the host has a spot to insert it. Hopefully I can post the audio link to the Tombigbee Tales podcast here on my site.

Right around launch I have a signing at my local independent bookstore, Lemuria Books in Jackson. I had filled out a form and left a review copy at the store a few weeks ago, and they contacted me back for Saturday, August 24, at noon. It’s only a few days after launch but before football season really gets in gear. So that was a wonderful feeling to have getting this one set up.

The next week I am going to try to give back to my community back home in Ackerman with a reading and signing event at Ackerman Library, a place that was a home-away-from home for me. If mom needed to run errands or grocery shop or go to the bank, she’d drop me off there–and I was in heaven. No one ever bothered me, and I never bothered anyone else with so many books around me to read! I feel like that will be a real full-circle event for me. It is currently set for September 5 at 6 p.m. (again working round the football games!)

The final event that’s fallen into place recently is being part of a forum on Hurricane Katrina literature in observance of the twentieth anniversary of the storm. So that will be all the way off into next year with an event in conjunction with Prince George County’s Office of Human Rights in Virginia.

Of course, I am aiming to schedule more–the goal is to have at least one event/speaking opportunity a month for the first year the book is out. So this feels like a really good start! Three-and-a-half months before it’s out in stores. I wonder when the reality kicks in. I still feel like this is all some kind of dream. But it’s a good one. If it’s a dream, it’s one of the best.

Good Evening!

I didn’t post yesterday because we were traveling by car most of the day.

Just got the notification that Hurricane Baby is up for pre-order on Barnes & Noble! You can click on the Hurricane Baby: Stories page on the left-hand side of the blog and then click on the preorder button provided, or you can go to this link (paperback is the only format available there right now):

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hurricane-baby-julie-liddell-whitehead/1145144169?ean=9781956440959

Pre-orders are really important to get buzz going early for the book, so feel free to take advantage of these connections! Thank you for reading!