It’s More than the Sale, More than the Book: Authors and their Readers

Please share your stories of serendipitous encounters with readers.

Hogtowne Quill will run the occasional article on such inspiring happenings.

Three WAG authors share their stories about connecting with readers

Once upon a few years ago, I attended a book signing event at the library. The author was from out of town, and I suspect the novel he was pushing was his first. He had an appealing story, an attractive book cover. His presentation was solid—solid enough to make me want to buy the book, even though I hadn’t planned on it.

That book is still sitting on my shelf, unread. I’ll get around to it one of these days, but it’s not top of the heap. In fact, it’s not even in my to-read-next heap.

Why?

While standing in line to get the book signed and then chatting with the author, it became apparent that he was in high salesman mode: This is me, this is my book. Buy my book. Me, me, me. Here let me take your money. I had attempted a conversation as a fellow author and was stonewalled. There was no conversation, only monologue. Me, me, me; my book, my book.

I left feeling like I needed a bath. I regretted that I had then felt pressured into buying the book. Maybe I could have just set it back down and left. Who would have stopped me?

There is a balance to be struck between getting a sale and being too pushy and overbearing.

Yes, it is a great marketing strategy to put a book in someone’s hand. Yes, you want to sell. But beyond that, you are putting yourself out there. You are setting up an ephemeral relationship with your reader, not just for this sale this minute but going forward indefinitely. We’ve all heard of nightmare celebrity encounters where someone says they met a famous actor who behaved badly. It taints everything.

Being kind, showing some interest in your audience, even going the extra mile can have surprising effects. You just never know who you are talking to or what your little bit of kindness might mean to someone.

Shortly after putting Monkey Mind out there as an eBook, I listed it as a giveaway on Goodreads. The very day that the giveaway took place, I got a notice in my Goodreads account from a winner. She couldn’t open the book she’d won. Turns out, I had followed the directions on Create Space and picked the one format, that for whatever reason, is not compatible with all their products. It would not open on a Paperwhite. I was horrified with embarrassment. To make things right, I mailed her a signed book with a bookmark, an apology, and an explanation. She was so thrilled, she read the book right away, wrote a lovely review, told all her friends and got her mom to read it and do a review. She remains my #1 fan. I wrote alpacas into the most recent book because she’s keen on alpacas. She’s over the moon to be listed in the acknowledgments. She was a beta reader for the last book. I’ve got a friend and a fan in Maryland because I wanted to right a wrong.

I shared this experience with a few other WAG members, who told similar-but-different versions of the same dynamic.

New York Calling

Susie H. Baxter writes award-winning memoirs and teaches others how to do the same. Her inspiring story about one of her books reiterates my experience: you never know what will lead a reader to your work.

“My little handbook, Write Your Memoir, has outsold my other books two to one,” Susie said, “and it’s not the result of marketing in the traditional sense. I suspect it’s due to my follow-up on this request via my website:

I urgently want to order your book … for my top client who will visit on Friday morning. It’s his birthday, and this would be the perfect gift for him. Is it at all possible to order from you and give you our FedEx # so we can receive it tomorrow morning? I am based in New York. Huge thanks for helping me make this happen. Caroline

I was pleased that this person thought my book would be the perfect gift for her top client, but I was renovating a house in Suwannee County and didn’t have a copy of the book there. I sent her my regrets and suggested other books she could purchase at a bookstore. But she was persistent. She said this client, a travel agent with thousands of followers on Twitter, had referred many customers to her hotel in NYC. ‘He’s retiring,’ she said, ‘and I want him to write his memoir. Won’t you please overnight me an autographed copy to give him over lunch tomorrow?’ She said she could pay via PayPal and gave me her FedEx number for shipping.

My husband thought I was crazy when I left our farmhouse to drive sixty-five miles to Gainesville to ship a book to a stranger in New York City. Gas for the trip would far exceed the royalty on the book. But this person was no longer a stranger. She was a potential customer I felt compelled to please.

Back in Gainesville, I wrote a note on the title page, signed it, and wrapped the book for shipment. At FedEx, I told the agent, ‘This needs to arrive by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.’ He weighed the package and quoted the price. I gasped but shipped it. Two days later, I received a thank-you email from this customer and a photo that showed her client holding my book. (I’ve cropped the image below since I don’t have permission to show their faces.)

The following week, I also received from Caroline a gift box that contained a fabulous scarf. But what followed in the months ahead was astounding. Sales of that book shot up 500%.

Might this customer’s client have mentioned my book on Twitter? That is my guess.”

All You Can Eat

I remarked that every author has similar stories, but maybe not as dramatic. Cynthia D. Bertelsen nodded in agreement. Cynthia has spent most of her life thinking about her next meal and how to cook it, so it’s not surprising that she also writes about food and cooking, mostly through the lens of history:

“For what it’s worth, I tend to forego reading reviews on Amazon, and I don’t check Google much either to see if there are new reviews other than on Amazon.

As with most writers who’ve published books, I try to stay away from the hard-sell approach. Finding the right balance is very, very difficult, as Jess Elliott mentions.

I have had a few interesting encounters with readers, however.

One experience with author/reader interactions came about via a reader who manages a website devoted to historic cooking and gives classes on fermentation as well. Right after my book, “A Hastiness of Cooks“, came out, she wrote to me, thanking me for writing it. We are now Facebook friends. Apparently, she recommends it to a lot of people, as the number of reviews keeps climbing on Amazon. (Yes, I do take note of those numbers!)

Another story concerns something that happened after my book, Meatballs & Lefse, came out. That book relates a small part of the history of my husband’s hometown and focuses on my mother-in-law’s life in food. My husband’s best friend from high school got wind of it, read it (and he’s not usually much of a reader, according to him), and spread the word via social media. Soon the local Barnes & Noble featured the book in a display, as did the public library.

That same friend also owns a small summer house in Pepin, Wisconsin, near a town called Stockholm, a gorgeous little place. Filled with what could be haunted houses! Old, stately Victorians! There’s a shop on the main road selling Scandinavian wares—winter sweaters with intricate designs, thick red candles, fluffy sheep skins, and so on. Plus … cookbooks. Our friend’s wife took their copy of Meatballs & Lefse over to the shop one day, and it turns out the owner now stocks the book.

Stockholm, Wisconsin (Wikicommons)

And finally, I learned that my neighbor across the street knows about my culinary memoir, Stoves & Suitcases, because her mother is friends with a friend of mine. My friend presented my neighbor’s mother with a copy of my book. Otherwise, I doubt my neighbor would know about the book, because we rarely see each other, except at the mailbox!”

Just letting people know that your book exists goes a long way to getting the word out.

What’s Your Story?

Please share your stories about readers and encounters that brought you more readers or notice? We’d love to know, so please send Hogtowne Quill up to 500 words about any such experience. We will publish them periodically in HQ.

[Editor’s note: WAG would love to see articles on any and all topics of interest to writers. Please send your ideas or finished pieces to Cynthia D. Bertelsen at BlogEditor@writersalliance.org for consideration. Remember: these posts are more than just posts, for they are actual articles and can be cited in your CV/résumé in the same way you would a short story, essay, or any other writing credit you may possess.]