Alison Kent's Blah Blog

(And it has nothing to do with reviews or ads or widgets!)

I linked this past week to Susan Gable’s essay via Julie Leto’s Marisela blog about the importance of books being bought new rather than used when readers can afford to do so. (note: when readers can afford to do so) No author would ever expect a reader to go hungry or be unable to put gas in her car or run short on day care dollars in order to buy new books. Not at all. That’s just not practical, and we authors living contract to contract are nothing if not frugally practical ourselves. As Vanessa Jaye says in the post I’m about to link to, a reader’s budget concerns will always trump an author’s need for earnings – as well it should! (And no one here is telling anyone else what to do. This is about consumer education, and consumers understand this.)

However, there may be (note: may be) readers who can afford to buy new all the time and don’t for any number of reasons. Perhaps they read so much that it’s either trade in the books they have finished reading or risk their shelves tumbling to the floor. And they have a strong relationship with their UBS bookseller and support her business by buying there. Perhaps they are unaware of dwindling print runs and would be happy to buy new if they did know more about the business. Others may not care at all. They’ll just move on to Danielle Steel’s backlist when the authors they’ve been reading for years are no longer writing. One of the commenters at Julie’s blog points this out, saying:

I think it’s more than just frugality, actually. Most readers don’t understand how the publishing business works. They don’t understand why an author they loved is writing under a new name. They don’t understand why her backlist has disappeared. They blame the publishing industry without knowing how or why it works.

And Susan herself says:

I’m not ANTI-used books, definitely not anti-library. I understand frugality, too, believe me. I just want readers to know that these things CAN and DO have an impact on whether or not an author continues a particular series, indeed, whether or not they continue to publish at all sometimes.

That’s all this essay is about. Pointing out the reality for those who don’t mind buying new, can afford buying new, and want to do so to keep their authors employed. (If you don’t think unemployment can happen, check out the thread at Julie’s post where both she and Leslie Kelly talk about the possibility of their series not being continued.)

That said, Vanessa Jaye has a “Field of Dreams” concept on how authors can get readers to buy their books new rather than used. And this is a concept I think needs to be addressed just as strongly – writing the best books possible, not jumping the gun in order to sell now, but taking whatever time is needed to hone their craft.

Why write a book that is going to blend instead of standing out if time spent studying deeper levels of craft will make the difference? I made mention previously of a comment about apprenticeship in one of Joe Konrath’s posts where the commenter said:

For the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of decent career options out there, you need to go to school. To study. To learn. Maybe do an apprenticeship or practicum. (…) If your dream was to be a lawyer, you might not be happy about the price of education, but if that’s what you really wanted to do, you’d suck up the expense. Thousands do. Why? They know there will be a return – and they know they can’t get there without the investment. But writers seem to think they’ll send off the manuscript and get the 6-figure advance immediately.

Maybe not the 6-figure advance, but yeah. The investment in craft, that education seems to get the short shrift too often. And as Vanessa so eloquently reminds us, that attention to the nuts and bolts of storytelling is what will have readers clamoring to buy new.

Remember Field of Dreams? “If you build it, they will come.” Readers want a damn good story. Period. They want to be entertained, swept away; they want to laugh and cry and be scared out of their wits. They want someone to root for and/or a villain to castigate and hate-on. They want the emotional roller-coaster ride of falling in love and/or the titilation of falling in lust. *g* The want to solve the puzzle/mystery.

If you give them all that (or a select combination), they will buy new. They’ll pre-order. They’ll buy hardback, they’ll google you, find your blog/website, and search high and low, online and off for your backlist. They will hunt your ass down like a crackhead looking to score another hit from their dealer. lol. They’ll chat you/your books up at every turn. And those folks (family, friends, coworkers, strangers standing beside them in the bookstore) that they’ve chatted your books up to? Once they read your stories, see that you rock and your stories deliver, they’ll start the whole damn cycle all over again. You write the best book you got in you, every single time, you get the word out on it’s availability. People will buy it. New. Every Single Time. No well thought out posts, or enlightening prodding needed.