New Book coming soon...
Feb. 23rd, 2012 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillSeanan McGuire's new book "Discount Armageddon" is coming out soon.
Apparently the publishers look at first week sales to decide what is hot and should get optioned as a series and what is not selling. Mine is not to reason why, here, but apparently if you love a particular author or series and you're hoping for your book purchase to make more books in the series more likely, you need to make a point of buying the book the first week.
E-books, if I'm understanding correctly, don't count. Books ordered from Amazon, if I'm understanding correctly, don't count. (The author still gets paid and everything, but they don't count toward the "first week sales" numbers that the bean counters use to decide who gets a contract for more books and who gets a polite "don't call us; we'll call you" letter.)
So, okay, I want to do this up right; the Incrypted series sounds like great fun, and Seanan has done a good job producing books I liked in the past, so I will get the book the first week.
But now it gets more complicated. Apparently Amazon and the online part of Barnes and Noble are shipping early, so some stores have the book early, draining off those crucial first week sales into week 0 where they don't get counted (presumably unless they exceed week 1 but in that case week 1's sales don't get counted). So I made a point of telling the nice lady at Barnes and Noble that I would be picking my copy up on or after the sixth of March.
This system strikes me as stupid. But if I want more Incrypted books, these are the rules I have to play by. And if you want your "vote" to count, you also need to keep them in mind.
So if you're planning on buying "Discount Armageddon" or some other book by an author you think is just cool beans, allow me to commend to you the practice of buying in the first week after the release date if possible, and not assuming because you see it in a store that the release date has passed.
That said, plenty of people find out about books after the first week, and it's not like those sales don't matter. So buy when you find 'em. Just...think twice about buying them before the release date. If you want them that much, you probably want your purchase to count.
[later edit] It turns out I was wrong about the publisher using first week sales--the publisher cares about *total* sales so those early purchases still count. It's the bestseller's list that cares about sales-per-week (usually highest in the first week, unless early releases drain some of those off). Authors hope their books make it to bestseller's lists because 1) it proves people like the book, which is nice on its own and also nets better terms for the next book and 2) it's free advertising of the "yo! everybody likes this!" variety, which can help sales.
I apologize for the confusion. [/later edit]
Apparently the publishers look at first week sales to decide what is hot and should get optioned as a series and what is not selling. Mine is not to reason why, here, but apparently if you love a particular author or series and you're hoping for your book purchase to make more books in the series more likely, you need to make a point of buying the book the first week.
E-books, if I'm understanding correctly, don't count. Books ordered from Amazon, if I'm understanding correctly, don't count. (The author still gets paid and everything, but they don't count toward the "first week sales" numbers that the bean counters use to decide who gets a contract for more books and who gets a polite "don't call us; we'll call you" letter.)
So, okay, I want to do this up right; the Incrypted series sounds like great fun, and Seanan has done a good job producing books I liked in the past, so I will get the book the first week.
But now it gets more complicated. Apparently Amazon and the online part of Barnes and Noble are shipping early, so some stores have the book early, draining off those crucial first week sales into week 0 where they don't get counted (presumably unless they exceed week 1 but in that case week 1's sales don't get counted). So I made a point of telling the nice lady at Barnes and Noble that I would be picking my copy up on or after the sixth of March.
This system strikes me as stupid. But if I want more Incrypted books, these are the rules I have to play by. And if you want your "vote" to count, you also need to keep them in mind.
So if you're planning on buying "Discount Armageddon" or some other book by an author you think is just cool beans, allow me to commend to you the practice of buying in the first week after the release date if possible, and not assuming because you see it in a store that the release date has passed.
That said, plenty of people find out about books after the first week, and it's not like those sales don't matter. So buy when you find 'em. Just...think twice about buying them before the release date. If you want them that much, you probably want your purchase to count.
[later edit] It turns out I was wrong about the publisher using first week sales--the publisher cares about *total* sales so those early purchases still count. It's the bestseller's list that cares about sales-per-week (usually highest in the first week, unless early releases drain some of those off). Authors hope their books make it to bestseller's lists because 1) it proves people like the book, which is nice on its own and also nets better terms for the next book and 2) it's free advertising of the "yo! everybody likes this!" variety, which can help sales.
I apologize for the confusion. [/later edit]
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 06:33 pm (UTC)The "paper book, bricks and mortar store, first week" issue is about the book's chance to hit the *bestsellers lists*--which provide a book that makes it that far a bit of an extra boost because of the publicity and the "everyone else likes it; it's probably good" thing.
Every sale gets counted by the publisher, though. Week -2 to week however-many-before-they-offer-the-next-contract, which would probably be months at least. (Realistically they would have to do this anyway because how else are they going to pay the author her royalties?)
So, yes, I would think that overseas sales still count for the publisher going "ooo, we want more of this series."
Sorry about the confusion.