HarperCollins has decided to let us peruse their published books on their website.

As of today, you can browse inside over 100 titles at HarperCollins.com. But be patient, the system is still being set up and it is slow.

Over 10,000 HarperCollins new and back-listed titles have been digitized for their new “browse inside” feature, which the company says is different from other book searches online. The full line should be available soon.

In addition, the publisher is adding more audio and digital content to promote their books. This company is looking forward at a time that many are resisting change.

Congratulations, HarperCollins!

Aug 3, 2006

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Well, it’s happened again! Yet another book has been scooped by the media this week: Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.

CBS’s 60 Minutes was supposed to have an exclusive first look at the revelations of author David Kuo’s book this Sunday night, timed perfectly for the book’s sale to begin everywhere on Monday.

Despite the embargo, an MSNBC producer for the show, “Countdown,” was able to buy a copy of the conservative Christian’s book blasting Bush in a Manhattan bookstore. Keith Olbermann then read excerpts of the book on air staring last Wednesday, even posting the excerpts in his online transcripts along with the video of the show.

The publisher, The Free Press/Simon & Schuster, got the quoted excerpts removed from the transcript (but not the video), which now reads:

“At request of the publisher, MSNBC has temporarily removed the portions of Wednesday’s Countdown transcript that quote directly from David Kuo’s new book, “Tempting Faith.”    We will restore the full transcript once the book is more widely published.”  Read the full transcript here.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Related reading:

When Your Book Gets Scooped

Scooped! Press Leaks Book Contents

Stolen Thunder, Stolen Profits

The true story behind The Interpretation of Murder, a book by Jed Rubenfeld.

Most book authors think that “if only” their publisher would do more to promote their book, it would be a big success. And so they blame the publisher if their book sales are lackluster, or even if their sales are good, believing that they would have been a better, “if only.” Authors dream of book publicity guarantees from publisher-backed promotion efforts including author-tours, radio interviews, TV appearances, and a special website full of high-tech enhancements.

Of interest to every published book author or aspiring writer is an article in the Wall Street Journal, “Dream Scenario: In an Era of Blockbuster Books, One Publisher Rolls the Dice.” Although describing the publication of a novel, the story could easily have been about nonfiction book publishing as well.

Here are the details:

Henry Holt & Company (a reputable house which puts out 150 adult titles per year) paid an $800,000 advance to publish first-time novelist Jed Rubenfeld’s The Interpretation of Murder, believing it had the potential to become the next Da Vinci Code.

Holt initiated a $500,000 marketing campaign to promote the book, including paying for the author’s 12-city tour and $10,000 for a website. A dozen large newspapers as well as magazines such as Entertainment Weekly were doing reviews or otherwise mentioning the upcoming book.

Because of the publicity and strong interest from book sellers, the publisher set the first print run at 185,000 copies, an astounding amount for a first-time author, perhaps costing the publisher a million dollars.

The book came out in September and landed at number 18 on the New York Times bestseller list after its first week of sales, dropping to number 20 in its second week and number 30 in its third week. The total number of copies sold is in the low five figures. Normally, this would have been a great showing for a first time author.

Instead, it was an expensive gamble that failed.

The publisher has probably lost about two million dollars on the book, money it is unlikely to recoup even if the title remains in print for years. The best hope now would be for the book to become a successful Hollywood movie.

John Sterling, President of Henry Holt, compared book publishing to a “roll of the dice,” in the Wall Street Journal article: “I still marvel that despite everything we do, we just don’t know,” he said. “It’s the wonderful thing and the agonizing thing about the business.”

Lessons learned

The truth is, publishers know that spending a lot of money promoting first-time and mid-list authors usually does not result in enough sales to justify the investment until the book is already selling well enough to climb the bestseller lists. Then, putting money behind the title might create a blockbuster.

Advice for writers

Authors and publishers can do to many things to create a successful book without a big promotion budget. We’ll discuss these in future articles.

In the meantime, if you like murder mysteries, please consider helping Henry Holt by buying a copy of The Interpretation of Murder from your favorite bookseller.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

“Dream Scenario: In an Era of Blockbuster Books, One Publisher Rolls the Dice.”

Two bestsellers, State of Denial by Bob Woodward, and Tough Choices by Carly Fiorina, were scooped by journalists before their publication dates. Learn how and why this occurred and what effect it has on the book’s success.

Nonfiction books sometimes contain unique information or perhaps a viewpoint not available elsewhere, often relating to a high-profile author or a topic that is highly newsworthy. The public’s eagerness for information fuels interest in the book. To capitalize on this, publishers orchestrate a carefully planned release date in association with author interviews as well as excerpt sales, which allows the acquiring publication the right to print part of the book before it is available. All of this is jeopardized when the media scoops the author’s material first.

Two bestsellers have been scooped:

* Tough Choices by ousted Hewlett-Packard head Carly Fiorina. Apparently the New York Times was able to purchase a copy of this book prematurely from a bookstore. They ran a lengthy article scooping other media, including CBS’s 60 Minutes, which was supposed to have an exclusive interview running Oct. 8.

* State of Denial by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. Both the New York Times and The Daily News were able to buy copies of this book prematurely, running stories about the contents. Once again CBS’s 60 Minutes was supposed to get an exclusive on the Sunday night before the Monday bookstore sales began.

Double Jeopardy

A magazine, newspaper or other print media publication can purchase exclusive rights to be the first to publish an excerpt from an about-to-be-published book. These rights are valuable, sometimes earning 6 figures, because the public will be eager to buy that copy of the publication to access that story, thus boosting sales. If another media outlet, either print, radio, TV or online, runs stories about the information first—even if it is not an excerpt but a summary of what is contained in it—the excerpt rights publisher is, understandably, unhappy. The reason? It will reduce the sales for that issue of the magazine or newspaper because people got that information elsewhere. The publication may cancel the excerpt purchase entirely, or demand a much-reduced price for it.

Being scooped also can harm the book’s sales, for the same reason. If the public is eager to know certain information that is freely available in the media, there is less interest in shelling out cash to purchase the published book. It could even jeopardize that book’s chances of appearing on the bestseller lists. LINK

Timing is Everything

It is a truism that any publicity is good publicity. Properly involving the media to create interest in a book is important for generating successful sales. However, we don’t want media publicity to drive people to bookstores to buy the book before it is available. Nor do we want much of the unique information that motivates people to buy to book to be freely available, leaving nothing new for the reader to discover in the contents.

Solutions

Apparently, the two bestsellers discussed here were scooped because bookstores violated their embargoes. The solution lies in enforcement. Bookstores have signed a contract; honoring it will increase the benefits to all of us in publishing and in the media.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Related:

Publisher’s Big Publicity Gamble

Scooped! Press Leaks Book Contents

When Your Book Gets Scooped

Top Best Seller Book Lists

Books listed on best selling lists go on to become even more successful, selling many more copies. But, what exactly is a bestseller list? How are they compiled? And where are they found?

Bestseller lists are a ranking of those books selling the fastest in a given period of time, often each week. The rankings are calculated in various ways, depending on the individual list. Some are compiled from information received from bookstores about their sales; others get raw data from wholesalers. None of them can tell you which books have sold the most copies over time, just which books are hottest-selling now.

Media lists

The New York Times Best Seller Lists

Appearing every Sunday, The New York Times Best Seller Lists have long been considered the premier place for an author and his or her book to be. Data is compiled from 4,000 stores and wholesalers. The main lists are hardcover and paperback books, with further divisions into other categories including: Fiction, Nonfiction, Advice & How-To, and Miscellaneous. A website category is Chains Versus Independents, which tracks how books are selling in the chain bookstores as opposed to independently owned stores.

USA Today Weekly Top 150 Best Sellers

Using computer data from retail stores, this list tracks all books sold in about 3,000 larger bookstores during the past week, which covers over one million titles. The list includes all types and categories of books mixed together based on actual sales, not by taking a smaller sample and extrapolating the statistics. Their lists include sales from bricks and mortar stores as well as online stores. The Top 50 titles are printed in the USA Today’s Life section every Thursday.

Book Sense Bestsellers

Using reports from independent bookstores only, this list is published in over a dozen newspapers as well as U. S. News and World Report and on CSPAN. Their lists include hardcover fiction, hardcover nonfiction, trade paperback fiction, trade paperback nonfiction, and mass market paperback.

Wall Street Journal Best Sellers (Click on Leisure, then Best Selling Books)

The opposite of the Book Sense list, the Wall Street Journal collects reports from over 2500 chain bookstores as well as from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Their lists cover fiction, nonfiction, and business books.

Online retailer lists

Amazon.com Most Popular Books

This list, updated hourly, contains the top one hundred books selling at the Amazon.com website. You can also choose from a number of categories to view top selling books of all types, or you can do a subject search, which ranks books based on sales.

Barnes and Noble Top 100

Updated hourly, this list contains the top one hundred books selling at the Barnes and Noble website. Also on their website, you can find the weekly bestsellers at their stores. Other interesting lists include their daily top ten books by subject, and their year-to-date best sellers.

Industry lists

The Book Standard Bestsellers

Available every Thursday, the Book Standard Bestsellers Chart analyzes data from Nielsen’s BookScan, electronically tracking sales from 4500 retailers to create the lists. Their main lists are Overall, Fiction, Nonfiction, Regional and Top Category Sellers, which further calculates top sellers in about 150 different book lists. The data dates back to Jan. 1, 2001. These lists are used primarily by industry professionals, but you can see the top ten sellers in the main lists for free; the others require subscription.

Publisher’s Weekly Best Seller Lists

Publisher’s Weekly Best Selling lists are divided up into hardcover fiction, hardcover nonfiction, trade paperback (contains both fiction and nonfiction) and mass-market paperback. Their other lists include religion and audio fiction and nonfiction. Widely read by authors and publishing professionals, these lists appear in their weekly magazine.

Older lists, covering the years 1900-1995

Past Best Sellers Almanac

Curious about what titles might have been on previous bestseller lists? Here is a source of the best selling fiction and nonfiction books divided by decade, then broken down by year, going back to 1900.

Copyright 2006-2007 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.