Good Marketing from the Past

On occasion I run across odd gems that deal with writing. One such is the 1922 pamphlet "The Short-cut to Successful Writing." I picked it out of a used book bin, its cover quite intact, thinking what a chuckle this would be. Surprise, surprise! Madam Elinor Glyn, the book's author, offered interesting encouragement to new authors. Here's a Glyn suggestion:

"Every one of the great writers and playwrights you have ever read about or heard of--everyone of them had to begin at a weak starting point. Every one of them was uncertain at the outset. Every one of them had to overcome his or her doubts or misgivings…When they started many didn't really know what they COULD do. The wonderful part about literary ability is that we do not know how much of it we have in us. Then, by persistency, by patient development, by proper guidance, we may some day bloom forth all of a sudden and surprise even ourselves!"

Fine words to remember, especially when embarking on a new project.

Why is this anecdote a marketing tip? Because that's just what Madam Glyn was doing. The entire thirty-two page (book size: 7.5" x 4.75") pamphlet was enticement from her publisher for people to buy her book about writing. It was an early 20th century INFOMERCIAL where on the last page the publisher exhorts, "Right this minute—NOW, when you finish reading this—is your chance to send for The Elinor Glyn System…"

It's good marketing with tidbits of advice, pages of endorsements, and a sincere promise of more in the complete book. Successful marketing develops from offering something to a client, not just hoping people will buy.

Expresso Book Machines

Expresso Book Machines (EBM) are developed by On Demand Books, and first went public in 2006. The purpose: to offer good quality books from digital content while you wait. Many of the machines are at universities and libraries, and are now showing up in bookstores. A few publishers
have signed agreements with On Demand Books to have their books available via Expresso Book Machines.

The EBM company also has a self-publishing program where the contract is set as a consignment from the EBM location--i.e. a University Library agrees to pay the author an agreed-to percentage of profits on a books sale through their EBM. The Author sets the retail price.

The machines can be found in several U.S. locations, Canada, and in various western hemisphere locations.
Check out their informative video.

Authorgraph

AuthorGraph has been around since spring 2011 (originally called kindlegraph), and is slowly catching on. The site offers a way for authors to send their autograph with one of their titles, and even a personal message if they wish. Readers who already have books can request autographs from their favorite authors.

Information on how it works is straightforward. It is necessary, however, to have a Twitter account (readers and authors). It isn't necessary for the author or the requester to have a particular brand of eReader. A nice keepsake from authors to readers; a nice incentive when readers are making book choices.

Distractions in Books

I often find elements in a novel that pull me away from the story or theme. A few years ago I read Jeremy Jackson's first novel, Life At These Speeds. This contemporary novel, written in first person, is a convincing depiction of an adolescent's four-year coming to grips with death and loss. The setting of track and field events is persuasive, with high school and college administrators bending the rules to get their hands on primo athletes. A good sense of place in the Midwestern environment.

Drawbacks: Jackson's use of ridiculous names for most characters (except for protagonist Kevin and the coach he likes) belittled the serious themes in the book.

Yet perhaps Jackson was attempting to give some levity to a serious and often troublesome topic. I guess it's akin to the way some people twitter, laugh and giggle when something controversial is mentioned—especially something dark. It becomes a way to relieve tension, or draw emotions from a debilitating concern. But I found the names distracting.

What story elements distract you?

Women's History Month

Today is the beginning of the U.S. Women's History Month (WHM). Many events are going on at different places, like the The Library of Congress as well as the organization’s site.

A fine book to start the month is Vicki Leon's Uppity Women of Ancient Times. It's one of several of Leon's Uppity Women books. Leon's book has a selected bibliography for more info, and a good index to find one of the 200 or so entries in this book. Uppity Women is written in a lively style that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Young Writer Wins Awards

This is Cool

Eight-year-old Brooklyn Wright has written another book The Adventures of the Earth Saver Girl. The book took the second place 2010 National Award for Litter Prevention from Keep America Beautiful and this month Brooklyn received the Captain Planet Eco Superhero Award. She's up for two more awards, too.

You can see Brooklyn's first book (completed when she was six), here.

Black History Month Author #4

Octavia Butler (1947 - 2006) has been an inspiration for me to try new things, to follow my own path. I'd always hoped to meet her. In 1995 she said, "I'm a 48-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer...." Unfortunately, that didn't come to be.

Her writing has always been considered "cutting edge". Along with winning Hugo and Nebula awards, she was given a McAurther Foundation "Genius Grant" in 1995—the first science fiction author to receive this. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in June, 2010. Learn more about her at Answers and see her titles here.

Black History Month Author #3

For clarification: the numbers on these posts do not indicate any type of ranking system. Most blogs don't respect posts with the same name, and would probably give numbers anyway. Proof forthwith that this, #3 contains info on two authors. Two authors from antiquity: Lokman and Aesop.
Lokman lived 3000 years ago (1100 B,C,); he was a slave, but his prestige is still highly regarded in Arab countries. One of the best reknown fabulists, many of his stories and proverbs endure today. One of my favorites:

A fly buzzing around full of its own importance finally lit on the horn of a bull and said, "Let me know if I am too heavy for you and I will take myself off."
To which the bull replied,"Who are you? I did not know you came, nor shall I know when you leave."

In volume one of J.A. Rogers World's Great Men of Color, Aesop is said to have lived in the fifth century B.C., and the scant physical descriptions very much match those of Lokman (a coal-black Ethiopian with wooly hair). Some of the fables attributed to Aesop were originally written by Lokman. More is known about Aesop, however, because of the modern era in which he lived, and the profound influence he had on many Western philosophers. Rogers says, "Socrates spent his last days putting his [Aesop's] fables into verse."

Black History Month Author #2

Zora Neale Hurston (1891 - 1960) is one of my favorite authors. The San Francisco Chronicle once e wrote about her, "One of the best prose writers of this century." I've read most of her works at least twice. One book I have is a 1948 collector’s edition of Seraph on the Suwanee. I lucked into that when the indy bookstore I frequented called me that they had the edition someone else had ordered and then didn’t want. I got it at cost.
I have her other titles, too, including a volume of short stories. The title of that is Spunk that could be a moniker for Hurston.
More than two dozen works have been written about her, most heralding her as one of the founding voices in the Harlem Renaissance. She is a graduate of Howard University and published her first story in 1921. At various times she was part of the Federal Writing Project, and was also a Guggenheim Fellow (1936-1938).

Much more can be told, but reading her work is the best way to know this great American author.

Black History Month Author #1

Frank Garvin Yerby
(1916-1991), was born in Augusta, GA. He wrote popular historical fiction, and his books are often categorized as Romance and Gothic. In 1944 Yerby won the O.Henry Award for "Health Card" -- a best first-published short story. In 1946 The Foxes of Harrow was published, and later picked up as a popular Hollywood movie.
The Black literary community criticized Yerby for not giving more attention to racial problems. He moved to Europe in the early 1950's and lived the rest of his life outside the U.S.
Yerby's career boasts thirty-one published titles, many of which have been reprinted in England and U.S, in large print and paperback; three titles were adapted for movies. He died in Madrid, Spain in 1991.

Early American Writer

James Fenimore Cooper is one of America's first novelists. In his first series, The Littlepage Manuscripts, Corny Littlepage was the hero of the Satanstoe. Other books in the series, (written in two years!) are The Chainbearer and The Redskins. All the novels deal with the anti-rent controversy of the mid-1840s.

Cooper's strong political feelings in favor of the landed gentry progressively colored each book until the last is considered more of a diatribe than a novel. Since he favored the "landed gentry" they obviously favored him, by publishing his books that espoused their needs with no care to the essence of a good novel. (Even then, it paid to have connections!).

Cooper's best known and hallmark Leatherstocking series wasn't named for a character. The protagonist was Natty Bumppo--a"natural man." The five books tell Bumppo's life from his youth (Deerslayer) to his death (The Prairie). The Leatherstocking series also includes The Pioneers(1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), and The Pathfinder (1840).

Cooper was a family man; he married Susan DeLancey in 1811.

Active Senior

Now that I qualify for this marketing category of "senior," I'm really conscious of how my peers are represented in books. Several mystery writers have had senior protagonists, but most often in the Cozies and the protagonist is a bit ditzy and whimsical. The Man from Yesterday by Seymour Shubin offers a a fresh character with senior status.

In this mystery, retired police detective Jack Lehman becomes embroiled in investigating a heist that hasn't yet been reported to the police. In his seventies, Lehman can't always recall details on demand, and the local constabulary thinks he's a bit balmy--even when his life is threatened. Nonetheless, Lehman is doggedly active, aggressive and creative in his search for the truth. His emotional relationships with wife and son, as well as memories from the past, are also interesting.

Shubin has created a believable character and good supporting cast in this intriguing story.

Telling the BackStory

Here are two books that have different and effective ways of telling the backstory. The tactic often used is a direct narrative about the past, but these authors were more creative.

In the historical piece, The Diezmo, Rick Bass used a first-person narrative, and the reader learns right at the beginning that the story is a remembrance, told fifty-years after the fact. This allows information to be presented that the narrator wouldn't have known at the time, and we're told that:"...he always paused near the end. It was not until much later...that I found out he had been skipping a sentence..." (page 11). Background information about characters is given ("$1400 worth of jewelry…")--precise facts that the narrator wouldn't have known at the time. Bass could also relate incidents about other people who weren't in the narrator's presence--information the narrator learned during the ensuing 50 years ("John Alexander and his group spent the rest of the day lying in that pool...In the meantime--never dreaming of Alexander's success...")

The book's Epilogue reinforces the fifty years that have past before the telling, and gives closure to the story.

The other title is contemporary. In Blue Dog, Green River author Brock Brower chose to make his first-person narrator the recipient of a story. The "I" character is river rafting with a friend, and the friend, Paul, tells the story. Opening lines: "'I spaced the dog [Blue Dog].' Paul Nozik started telling me his story up on a Navaho sandstone ledge..."

The narrator isn't really a participant in the story, but the verbose Paul tells it all, including the background of other characters, the geology of the region, and more. The reader is reminded of the passive narrator on occasion: "Paul stood up, dusting his palms, you could see excited. He does love to tell you the best part of a story…He got me up, politely dragging me along for company, talking his way around to the far side of this squared-off limestone." Brower breaks up Paul's storytelling with chapters from Blue Dog's perspective, in an omniscient narration rich in language and detail.

Both authors kept their stories short (Blue Dog, Green River - 108 pages, The Diezmo- 208 pages) and I enjoyed reading these well-crafted books.