When Famous Author Promos Backfire

A conversation between Peg Brantley and L.J. Sellers

L.J.: You mentioned in our last conversation how much you liked Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller series, and it reminded me that I’d recently encountered something surprising with that series. A promotional website posted a link on my Facebook page to the author’s short story, The Switchblade. (Which was odd and made me wonder if his publisher had hired them.)

More important, I went to Amazon to check out the short story and discovered that it has almost all one-star reviews. I was stunned! I read several, and they all have the same complaints: The story doesn’t have a real conclusion, and the ebook serves mostly as a promotion for Connelly’s next book, The Gods of Guilt. Both the short story and the novel are selling well, so was it effective? And even so, was it worth alienating some readers?

Peg: My guess would be no, soooo not worth it. I have become a huge fan of Michael Connelly and have to wonder what his publisher was thinking. By the way, while I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews on sites like DorothyL and For Mystery Addicts about The Gods of Guilt, but I enjoyed it.

But Connelly isn’t the only author who might be suffering repercussions from this new marketing tactic. I recently downloaded what I thought was a short story by Dean Koontz, another of my favorites. I was completely turned off when at some point (it was moving rather slowly for a short story) I figured out it was simply a marketing promotion for his next book. I never finished it. And it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

L.J.: Readers hate that! Which makes me wonder whether the author knew what his publisher planned and if he had any say in the matter. I like to think that he didn’t and that he’s not happy about the situation. I know that publishers sometimes encourage (pressure?) authors to write short stories as between-book promos. And sometimes they want their authors to participate in new programs and formats.

Thomas & Mercer asked me to publish my last Jackson story as a serial because they were launching the new program and needed material for it. But it was my choice and I said no, that I would rather wait for a traditional release because that's what my readers expected and I didn't want to alienate even a few. Other publishers don’t give their authors as much control, which is why I would never sign with anyone but Amazon.

Peg: As you know I’m self-published and love the control it gives me. I establish content and cover and price and marketing. It isn’t always easy, but I don’t ever have to risk a publisher who is so focused on the bottom line they forget the reader. The future. The next book. If I have a win, it’s all mine, but so are my losses. I’ve watched you and others with Amazon and know they’d be my first choice as a publisher if I ever wanted to have a foot in both camps. I can’t see Amazon ever doing something that would be such a career game-changer without the full support of an author. Kudos to both them and you regarding the serial program.

L.J.: After I saw the one-star reviews with comments that said they would never buy another Connelly book, I thought, He should leave his publisher and go indie. Connelley has so many readers and so much clout that he could sign a deal with Ingram to get his self-pubbed print books into stores and make more money both in print and digital. If he had only his own profit to worry about—and not be concerned about Hatchette’s bottom line—he could be very successful as an indie and never have to participate in gimmicky promotions that piss off readers.

Peg: I totally agree! But I’m betting he has another consideration: What about his agent? Those bonds get sticky. I know they do. Maybe that’s another discussion?

L.J.: Lots of indie and hybrid authors have agents, who often secure foreign rights or negotiate contracts with new-age publishers and distributors. But with Connelly's Harry Bosch series finally debuting on Amazon Prime, maybe the author will feel empowered to make a break from his legacy publisher (Hachette). Maybe Amazon Publishing will be able to lure him away.

Readers: What do you think about these promotions? Has it made you drop an author?
Writers: How do you make short stories work as a promotion for your other books?

There are authors, and then there are authors

By Gayle Carline

I met Dean Koontz a couple of weeks ago. Every time I type that sentence, I have to pause for a moment to run around my house and squeal like a schoolgirl.

Me, Dean, and my hubby Dale

Frankly, I have to do that even when I think that sentence.

Dean was our guest speaker at the 2013 Placentia Library Friends Foundation Author's Luncheon. It is our largest fundraiser every year, and this year we set a record for money raised. Two years ago, I wrote a letter to Dean, asking him to appear at our luncheon. Believe me, I've been the belle of the ball in my community because he said yes, although I truly don't feel like I deserve the accolades. I wrote a letter, Folks. You can, too.

To say that Dean Koontz and I are both authors is like saying that these two are both cats:

Koontz is from the old school, where an author could actually make money being with a major publisher. He's prolific and hard working, with a normal schedule of ten hours a day, six days a week. Because I got to introduce him at our luncheon, I looked up some statistics on his best sellers, etc. The only number I want you to know is that he has sold over 450 million books.

Try to let that number sink in before you continue.

As famous and rich as he is, Dean is equally gracious and charming. His speech was full of hysterically funny stories. Even if I had not gotten to sit next to him at lunch, I still would consider this a highlight of my year, if not my life.

The thing I admire about Dean Koontz is not just his writing, but the choices he made with his life, given his childhood. He was raised in poverty. His father was a violent alcoholic. His mother died when he was on the young-ish side. I have seen these kids. Know a few of them. Too many times, they tell the world they will never go down that road, and end up being just like their parents anyway.

Koontz didn't. He found solace in reading and writing. He found a true soul mate in his wife. He avoided the many pitfalls of the children of alcoholics and built a life of calm out of chaos.

Even if you don't like his writing, how can you not admire him?

Koontz got me thinking about other authors I admire for more than their words. A couple of them came to mind.

James Thurber. I fell in love with his humor essays as a freshman in high school, and I confess, I owe as much of my humor writing to him as to my other humor-idol, Erma Bombeck. I visited the James Thurber House and Museum in Columbus, Ohio a few years back and was overwhelmed by the man's simple-yet-complex life.

The unicorn in his garden.

I knew that Thurber had problems with his eyesight, which was already poor before his brother accidentally shot him in the eye with an arrow. What I didn't know was that he kept drawing cartoons and writing beyond the point where he was legally blind. In his house, there are huge - and I mean wall-sized pieces of board, each one with a super-size sketch. A photograph shows Thurber hunched over one of these walls, wearing glasses that can only be described as a contraption, making thick strokes of one of his famous dogs.

I left that house amazed. Thurber's will to create was stronger than his physical limitations. At some point, wouldn't you say, "Hey, I'm freakin' blind here. I can't draw stuff anymore."

Speaking of humor, Erma Bombeck is also one of my idols. Although she teased and made fun of her life as a wife and mother, the underlying mood of each piece was that she wouldn't have done anything different. To see this woman who stood for home and hearth, even in a funny way, standing up for women's rights was a revelation to me as a young girl. Housewives can be activists? Wow! Erma was even involved with the Presidential Advisory Committee for Women, trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified. You go, girl.

I'm going to throw Ray Bradbury into the mix here, too. My admiration for him stems from the fact that I consider him hopefully naïve. I heard him tell his story at quite a few functions. Some of the details changed, but overall, his description of his life went something like this: "I decided I wanted to <do X, meet Y, etc>. So I did it." There was never any hint that he doubted his ability to, oh, meet John Huston for example. I always think of him handing me a big stick to beat my own insecurities down with.

Who are the authors you most admire beyond their works?

Do Reviews Matter?

A guest post by author Jordyn Redwood

Now that I am a published author, the whole world of reviewing and what it actually means has been an interest of mine.

Do you trust reviewers? Does it influence your decision to buy a book?

First, let me give my pre-published-just-a-reader point of view. I can say reviews really didn't matter me. I didn't read them unless the book was published by a well known author and poorly reviewed. I don't know. Maybe it's like when we slow down to look at the carnage from a car accident.

When I got my e-reader, I began to look more at reviews. I didn't want to junk up my reader with poorly written books that I wouldn't read through the first couple of chapters.

I found myself suspicious of reviews that were under twenty and all five star. I mean, to me that felt like family and close friends and were they really giving an unbiased review? Hard to know. If the novel had over thirty or so reviews and had a distribution amongst all the stars but most were four and five stars with a few one, two, and three stars—I was more likely to download it.

Then I began to realize there is a trust issue between the buyer and those who review. There was an interesting column by author Mike Duran that focused on this issue where he hypothesized that those who reviewed Christian books were softer and more favorable toward certain publishers’ books so it wouldn’t hurt their chances of someday being published by that particular house. You can read his thoughts here.

After I was published, I was not one of those authors who couldn't read the reviews—though I did find myself mostly focusing on Amazon and Goodreads for my primary perusing.

My now I'm-published-but-still-mostly-unknown-author viewpoint concerning reviews is as follows.

1. Reviews are important for newer authors who are building a readership. This is one of those Catch 22 situations of getting people to review your novel who don't know you by perhaps offering them a free book and hoping they follow through. Perhaps 50% of the people who received review copies of Proof actually have thus far followed through with a review. The reason I do think it's valuable in this phase of the author's life is to help with that word of mouth spread. If you look at a debut novel that's gotten over 100 favorable reviews—WOW, a lot of people are loving that book and I know it would influence me to buy the novel too.

2. Reviews from well respected sites do help book sales. Proof, my debut medical-crime thriller, got a starred review from Library Journal and I know that has definitely influenced sales.

3. Reviews don't help me decide to buy books from authors I regularly follow. For me, Dean Koontz, is my most favorite author. Do I 100% love everything he's written—no. But, what I've learned from reading Dean through his lifetime of writing books is that there are definitely highs and lows to the writer's life but I know a prolific author has it in them to produce good stories.

4. Reviews help evaluate the competition. There is one particular author who was a debut novelist that released her book the same time Proof released. She has over 100 reviews and the reason I've been reading them is to see what it is in her novel that is resonating with readers. That can help me have market awareness.

5.  I also need to review books. This is becoming more apparent to me that it helps people determine what kind of author I might be by what I like to read. A couple of people who have sent me letters have mentioned this specifically.

What are your thoughts on reviews? Helpful? Trustworthy? Do they influence your decision to buy books particularly from a newer author?



Jordyn Redwood is a pediatric ER nurse by day, suspense novelist by night. She hosts Redwood’s Medical Edge, a blog devoted to helping contemporary and historical authors write medically accurate fiction. Her debut novel, Proof, garnered a starred review from Library Journal and has been endorsed by the likes of Dr. Richard Mabry, Lynette Eason, and Mike Dellosso to name a few. You can connect with Jordyn via her website at www.jordynredwood.net. 

Dr. Lilly Reeves is a young, accomplished ER physician with her whole life ahead of her. But that life instantly changes when she becomes the fifth victim of a serial rapist. Believing it's the only way to recover her reputation and secure peace for herself, Lilly sets out to find--and punish--her assailant. Sporting a mysterious tattoo and unusually colored eyes, the rapist should be easy to identify. He even leaves what police would consider solid evidence. But when Lilly believes she has found him, DNA testing clears him as a suspect. How can she prove he is guilty, if science says he is not?