First Word

One my associates made the comment about how hard it is to sell unique story ideas. It seems like Hollywood, publishers like to stick to tried-and-true subjects that have sold in the past. You know like Hang Over 2 . Problem for the writers is that it forces them to stick to retread topics or form a highly persuasive marketing proposals within their book proposal to persuade publishers to take a leap of faith. When you're already working in a highly competitive area, asking a publisher to leap and possibly fall isn't always a persuasive argument. When I decide on a book, I always base it on a little bit of gut and a little bit of knowledge about the marketplace. For example, when the Fertile Kitchen Cookbook authors approached me, I considered my own experience with infertility. I remembered the hunger for knowledge and solutions -- and the library I accumulated. Knowing that couples experiencing this sort of crisis would also be just as hungry for knowledge, I knew that boo...

The answer to the question, "Why does one book sell super well on Amazon while another does not but sells well in the bookstores?" is the question of the super sleuth. So many variables drive book sales. Public relations and marketing, of course, play important roles in exposure and visibility. But sometimes even a book that has received abundant, positive reviews may not sell well on Amazon but sell well in its market of interest. For example, Daughter of the Caribbean appears to be a big hit in the bookstores near the Caribbean, but still faces low Amazon sales. On the flip side, Fertile Kitchen Cookbook has enjoyed rich Amazon sales and can't sell worth a darn off our table displays. In each case it has to do with the markets these books appeal to. Most Daughter readers may be from regions of the country where online book sales don't appeal to those shoppers so they rely on the bookstore. Fertility is personal, and most couples don't want their personal prob...