Marketing The Monster, Part Two

Okay, so I've obviously been avoiding this post for some time now, not for lack of desire, but because it's such a large amount of information to approach. There are literally as many ways to market a book as you can think of, depending on the depth and breadth of your imagination (and mine is vastly overactive). But to help you along, I will attempt to offer here something of an overview of what you might expect to try at various points in the promotion of a self-published work, based on what I've done myself so far with some success.

As I may have said before, marketing non-fiction is vastly easier than it is for those of us who dwell within imaginary realms. Every subject has its audience, and successful marketing is more than not about defining and then finding that potential market, and only afterwards in setting out your wares for display. You could, of course, just set your book up on a shelf and hope a given number of random hands will stumble upon it. But that is as near a guarantee for failure as I can imagine. A market plan based entirely on luck is not a plan at all.

I only mention this seemingly obvious fact because everything else that comes after should be targeted to a particular market, and the narrower your focus the more likely your efforts will prove fruitful. Much of the time this will be accomplished through the use of keywords in your ad campaigns, but more often you will have to do the footwork yourself, searching out the likeliest of places that your target crowd might congregate. Only then should you implement your battle strategy, which is exactly what an ad campaign is like - the term "campaign" implying an inherently aggressive effort here.

1. Book Listing Data

The first thing you need to do, even before your book is published, is determine its market value. That is, what will you charge for it? This will be based on two things: 1) how much it costs to manufacture each copy, and 2) what similar competing works are selling (or not selling) for.

During the process of setting up your title for printing, you will need to enter a wealth of information about it, all of which you must decide yourself as the publisher: the most relevant to these being the book's page count, page size, cover type, and paper type, and then whether you will accept returns, and what your trade discount will be.

The main factor to consider here with regard to marketing is how best to be competitive. Clearly you want to make as much as you possibly can, but if you overprice your book and it doesn't sell, you won't make anything at all, so aim low; you can always raise the retail price later (that is, if you don't have it printed on the cover with the barcode, which I recommend you don't do for this very reason).

The other factor of major consideration in this equation is whether or not you will target brick-and-mortar book stores. With my debut novel, due to its high cost to print, this was not an option. Retail outlets require a standard trade discount of 55-65% off the cover price, as well as accepting returns on any unsold quantities they no longer want sometime down the line. If your book is something less than 350 pages or so in black & white you can manage this discount, but above that becomes prohibitive, requiring a relative increase in your suggested retail that will price you right out of the market.

As far as returns are concerned, all I can say is don't spend all the money Barnes & Noble give you for that fifteen hundred copy order, because they might well want it back. Your best bet there is to set up a savings account in reserve for just such a likelihood. You'll have to decide for yourself when and how much you can safely withdraw. But you should take into consideration a certain percentage of damaged copies among the returns, and the cost of shipping, which may not make it worth your while. Those costs come out of your profits, if you have any. This is why most trade publishers implemented the policy of "stripping," which is where the book store literally tears the cover off a book and throws the rest away, returning just the cover to the publisher to save on shipping costs. It's cheaper to burn the book than pay for its return. Of course, that won't apply to you if you self-publish, as the cost of each book will be vastly higher than what the big boys pay.

2. Bookstore Sales

So let's say you've decided to give up a majority of your profits and accept returns to give your book a chance out in the "real" world. This is a reasonable assumption, since after all that's where good books belong, right? (actually, they belong in readers' hands, but this is one way you can try to get them there.) Assuming you've decided it's worth your while to try, then try you must. So how do you go about it?

This is one of the main places where Lightning Source has a vast advantage over every other self-publication venue out there, because Lightning Source is a sister company of Ingram Books, who are the foremost supplier of books to bookstore and libraries throughout North America. Putting your work out through Lightning Source gets you an automatic listing in Ingram's catalog, and from there into the databases of nearly every major retail buyer in the country. That doesn't mean they'll stock your book, of course, or even ever see your listing. But it will be there if they look, and so it's your job to make them do so. When you set your title up, you can pay to have it given ad space in Ingram's print catalog that goes out to retailers, but I didn't do this, since I wasn't aiming at that market, so I can't tell you if it's worth the cost. Those who know seem to think it's not really worth the money, but then it couldn't really hurt anything either (except your budget, of course).

Before you ever got to this stage, however, you will already have procured an ISBN with Bowker, and this will also have gotten you a listing in another of the major book databases in the U.S., which is linked with the Library of Congress catalog. But bookstores don't do their shopping in Washington, so this will likely not avail you much, except that your book will be searchable in certain databases, if not through Ingram. How you get into Ingram if you're published through someone other than Lightning Source I don't know, but I suggest you find out, or change your publishing partnership. Unless bookstores can readily get your book wholesale there's little point in approaching them, and you'll want to make it as easy of possible for them to boot. If it's going to be some special order only item, you can bet the sales will be few, and the sales clerks' efforts to promote it even less.

3. Press Kit

This brings us to your first real marketing tool, the Press Kit, sometimes called a Media Kit (since it's intended for more than just the press). This will be your workhorse: a multi-faceted powerhouse that's designed to make a big impression on whomever you might give it to. Depending on the focus of your marketing campaign at any given moment, the press kit might contain any number of things, but here is a list of what it should contain at the very least:

1. As concise and powerful a description of your book as you can manage, including cover art;
2. An excerpt or two from the book;
3. A data sheet with all the pertinent info listed, including title, genre, ISBN, publication date, formats available, page count, publisher, distributors, and retail price, as well as all your contact information;
4. An author biography, with a nice, clear picture of the perpetrator (you);
5. A list of endorsements and advance reviews, which you should have got by now (I didn't);
6. An official "Press Release" written in standard journalistic prose, given as it might be printed in a newspaper (because if you're so lucky it probably will be lifted wholesale);
7. FAQ's or interview questions, with your answers, obviously;
8. Anything else you can think of that might be a useful sales tool, including but not limited to cds with promotional videos and/or audio readings of your book, promotional bookmarks, additional artwork, prior press clippings and/or listings of media appearances, etc.

These can be presented in any number of ways, but among the best is in a standard report-type binder with a full size sheet or half-page fliers for each element, with a business card attached. Make up lots of these, you'll want them. Every bookstore where you hope to do a signing gets one. Every library where you might give a talk or reading gets one. Every gamer hangout or writers' workshop you walk into should be left with a reminder that you were there. Bring your book, too, while you're at it. It's a pretty good sales tool in itself. Nothing says "I'm an author" quite like a book with your name on it.

In connection with this is a general broadcast of your press release, which you can have sent out to any or every contact in the world through email these days using any of a number of services (free or otherwise) like PRWeb to get word out about your book. Send it to radio stations and newspapers and book reviewers and college professors and tv talk show hosts and whoever else might show some interest. It's probably a good practice to also send out hard copies to your top choices, just in case their email filter is better than mine.

4. Web Presence

There should be an online equivalent to the Press Kit as well, and here I've gotten a little out of order, really, because WEBSITE should have been #1 back up there at the top. Get a website up post-haste, and be serious about it. This is your storefront, and your book's home turf. Here you can post up not just e-docs of all your press kit stuff, but every other thing that you can dream up. Go take a look at mine for a few ideas (http://www.fantasycastlebooks.com/ in case you were sleeping all the other times I listed it). My website is beginning to approach absurdity in quantity of stuff, and pretty soon I'll have to overhaul it to make it easier to navigate, but probably not until I start to promote The Jester's Quest (that's a plug, well in advance, for the sake of keyword density if nothing else).

I based my website around my publisher name rather than my own, since I'm not well-known and no one will be searching for me yet. This way I can put all my books up on the publisher site as they come out, and keep it nice and professional.

For a more personal side I suggest you start a blog. This gives you a chance to just blather on and be yourself, chatting about whatever thoughts are on your mind and what you like (or dislike, although I would keep it upbeat, since depression and bitterness wear thin real fast, unless that's the audience you're aiming for). A blog will give you greater visibility on the web, and soon you'll have a built-in audience who will come to you as soon as your next book hits the printer (wishful thinking there).

By the way, you should put links to your online marketing tools in all your email correspondence, like all those press releases that you're sending out.

5. Social Networking

Along this line of thinking are all the social network sites that are flourishing these days - MySpace and Facebook and Twitter and Grouply and whatnot. This includes discussion boards and Yahoo groups and all of that. There is no shortage of places to look (or talk, as it were), and there will only be more with every passing day. Get involved.

This is kind of a big general grouping, but the idea is to get out there and interact with people. These are your potential readers. And don't just talk up your book ad nauseum - no one's interested in a book by someone they don't know - you just want to meet and greet and get to know some folks with similar interests to your own, and when you find a reader you will know, and so will they. This is a long-haul proposition, by the way, so get started!

I belong to so many groups on one topic or another that I can't possibly keep up on them all. And in fact, I've been remiss of late, ironically, when now is the time I should be most on top of it. But the list is long and the days are short, as the saying goes. Getting a book put together and published is no small chore, and really I'd just like to take a nap. But unfortunately I'm not even halfway down my list yet.

6. Book Signings

Now, I haven't done any of these, so I'm not going to go into great length about it here. But it should be mentioned, obviously, that if you're aiming at the brick-and-mortar stores you need to focus a good deal of your marketing campaign in that direction, and the foremost way to do that is through readings and signings of your book. That is, make a personal appearance.

Even if you're too shy or busy to sit for several hours in a bookstore, you might at least put in an appearance for the sake of the manager and staff, just to sign whatever copies they have on the shelves just then, or maybe more if you can make arrangements with them in advance. Print up some posters and take a stack of fliers to them for their counter, and maybe a good handful of bookmarks, whatever you can persuade them take that has your name and book art on it. Mail them out to all the rest, and call to follow up, even if it's just a counter person that you say hello to - at the very least they'll remember you when your fliers show up on the counter right in front of them.

Signings are certainly not necessary, and often not even practical, at least for any but the nearest of outlets. However, you should at least make an effort to gain some footing on your own turf, using the "local author" angle if you have to. Either way, the process is the same. Armed with your trusty Press Kit, you send it or take it to the manager along with your best sales pitch, delivered with enthusiasm and an offer of personal promotion, which the overburdened bookstore drudge will greet with either frank derision (as yet more work that they would have to do) or absolute relief (for those who need a way to appease the corporate forces bearing down on them to meet this month's projected sales - can you tell I've worked in bookstores before?).

Whatever the outcome, be forewarned: you will have to do virtually ALL of the promotion for any such events that you set up. Do not count on them to do anything. In fact, assume that they will not, and do it all yourself in any case. Bring a table in the back of your beat up truck if you have one, and make sure that there are listings in the local entertainment guides well in advance. Make up posters with your name and date and cover art and take or send them in. Call to make sure extra books are ordered, and bring some of your own in any case. Never do a bookstore tour without a trunk full of backup copies. How embarassing would it be to have no books to sell to a line of waiting fans (not to mention the loss of income)? Bring your own pens. Bring some extra fliers and bookmarks, because hopefully the first batch will all be gone by now. I've been to signings where the author had no pen, no business card, no bookmarks, not even cookies, and then they took my pen and kept it. And the book sucked too, but I was nice and bought it anyway, because I thought it might be good for my karma, if nothing else. Well, if ever I do a signing of my own, I'll let you know if that pans out.

7. Book Reviews

This is way out of order, but better here than not at all. This is sort of how the process goes - you just do what you can when you think of it. If you're well organized it likely makes some sense, but chaos works quite nicely, too. Anyway, as I said before, you should have gotten some reviews WAY before now. Like months ago at this point. Like I said, I didn't. Next time I'll know better. I could have used my social networking connections to get them easily enough, but I was so focused on just writing the damned thing that I really didn't even think of it until it was way too late. But better late than never, as they say.

I've already talked a bit about Amazon reviews in my prior postings, but I'll mention here a bit about how I went about it. Given this is a self-published work none of the major trade publications, save one (Midwest Book Review), are available to me, since they state outright that they do not review self-published works. That is, of course, if they know the work is self-published, which I suppose there's no real reason they need know up front, although I've never tried to hide the fact. Since I wasn't aiming at the bookstores, I figured it didn't matter anyway. And given that I didn't even think about marketing until the book was done and on it's way to press, it was way too late by then at any rate. I did, however, send two copies to the Midwest Book Review, who are the only major trade that openly courts self-publishers, and I highly recommend you do so too. I haven't heard back from them yet, and don't honestly expect to anytime soon.

For those of you who do intend to go that route and approach the major trades, you should send out advance copies for review well in advance - say six months at the very least, if not a year. Since you're producing your own book, that means you'll simply have to sit on it for all that time when it could be out on the market making sales and gaining visibility all the while, so I don't know if that's a worthwhile route to go, especially since you can get reviews so many other ways. Some of these contacts will accept ebook editions for review, but most will want Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) in print form, and many will require two. And be forewarned that most of them will never read your book. Some will end up in the trash, others in the used book bin. Write it off as part of the ad budget, and use it on your taxes.

Other places you can get reviews are any professional contacts you have in either the literary field or any area of expertise your book might cover (historians in the case of historical fiction, for example, or aliens that you might know if you're writing science fiction), other published writers in your genre, people in the media if you know any, basically anyone with any sort of professional platform to support your work. I don't know any aliens, but I sent a copy to my medieval lit professor. She ignored me so far as I can tell.

The other source is book reviewers themselves in other than the major trades, and these can be in smaller independent rags or, more likely, online. You can even buy reviews from a vast array of businesses whose sole source of income is from struggling writers like ourselves, but I wouldn't recommend it, if only because your money could be better spent almost anywhere else, but mainly because the review you get won't be worth the paper it's written on: a paid review cannot be taken seriously as an honest opinion of your work, which is what you (and the review's other readers) truly want. Paid reviews will probably sound false and hollow anyway, and chances are the reviewer will have skimmed the work just enough to get a sense of what the story is in order to write a summary, which is almost all the review will consist of (and this you will have already done far better yourself in your promotional book description).

By the way, I should have mentioned up there in the Book Listing Data section that you will need to write a really smoking promo for your story for inclusion in the description field of the title listing with Lightning Source (or whoever you should choose to produce it) - this will be picked up in every listing of your book in every catalog and all the hundreds of e-retailers that will suddenly be "stocking" it, even though they don't actually have a single copy in their warehouse. This happens on Amazon as well, where your book will almost immediately have a dozen or so "new and used" copies for sale, even before a single copy has been sold anywhere.

But back to the reviewers. You have several options here, foremost among which are Amazon reviewers, book review bloggers, and discussion group reviewers, each of which I'll mention in a bit more detail here.

To approach Amazon reviewers you can either look up books that are like your own and see who has reviewed them in the recent past (their contact link is right there with the review, so use it), or you can go to the Amazon reviewers listing page at www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers.html, where the Top Reviewers are ranked by both the new and old criteria. Then you look for likely candidates and either send them a "friend request" or look up their contact info (if given) on their profile page. You can also do some web searching using "Amazon Reviewer" and your book genre as your keyword search.

Related to this are discussion group reviewers, if only because there is an Amazon Book Reviewers discussion group, to which you can post a message offering up copies of your book to any takers, which I did, and from it got about a half a dozen replies. This is how my main man Justin Gaines was found. Listing there also got me posted on LibraryThing and GoodReads discussion boards, as well as a number of other book related sites and blogs, each of which garnered a few more takers, and more leads. It sort of works that way, like fishing, only in a really really really big pond, and with a little more than worms for bait. LibraryThing, by the way, is a must for anyone connected in any way to books. You won't find a place with more readers circled round than you will there.

MiniBookExpo is another place to post some books in exchange for reviews. I put three up there and they were gone within a day. I'm still waiting for the reviews, but with a book as long as mine it's bound to take a while. Also I'm sure like most reviewers my book is not the only one in their stack. This is why it's a good idea to send them out well in advance.

Bloggers are another great source both for reviews and for promotion in general, and will become one of your major outlets down the road when it comes time to do a virtual book tour (but more on that another day). For now just contact the better of the bloggers you can find for your genre and offer them a copy of your book, an interview, a free copy to give away in a drawing, or whatever. It will get you featured on their daily post, and create links both to your website and to Amazon. And all good blogs have still another feature which makes them preeminent in website networking, and that's the blogroll: the list of the blog host's favorite other blogs. Once you find one good blog you'll be hard pressed to run out of links to follow up on, and pretty soon you'll get a sense of who the top blogs are. Read them. Link to them. Subscribe to their RSS feed, and follow it. This you should be doing long ago as well.

Other than that you're limited to readers, but these are probably the best reviews that you can get, because they'll be completely objective, based on actual reading experience and nothing more. But these you'll simply have to wait for.

* * *

Okay, so this post has covered more or less all the things I didn't do, plus a few of those I did. Next time I'll talk about online marketing specifically, and give you details about many of the ways to get your book promoted in the virtual world, with special emphasis placed on how to tweak and utilize the vast range of tools for marketing that Amazon puts at your disposal once you become a publisher.

Book Giveaway Reminder

Just a reminder: there are only two days left to sign up for a chance to win an autographed copy of The Saga of Beowulf. The drawing will be held at midnight New Years Eve. To enter all you have to do is leave a comment here on Scot's Blog, or through the comment page on my website at http://www.fantasycastlebooks.com/. So far there are only twenty or thirty entrants, so your chances are pretty good.

Also, you can download the first six chapters for free from the website if you don't want to wait to start reading. That section takes you through the first "episode" of the story: Beowulf's battle with Grendel - the most read section of the original poem. After that things get really rough for our hero!

Amazon Rankings

Just a quick side note here concerning my rankings on Amazon. This is one of the foremost tools an online marketer can use to track their sales progress in the real world. Lightning Source provides sales data for POD & eBooks sold through them, but if you're a savvy marketer they're just one of many channels you're selling through.

Amazon, of course, will be your foremost outlet on the Internet, and although Lightning Source provides distribution for three eBook formats (of which I've opted for MS Reader and Adobe PDF), I have yet to sell a single one, even though they're listed on at least a couple dozen eBook sites. Amazon used to provide support for these as well, but with the advent of the Kindle two years ago they've eliminated all other competing formats. So I submitted my book in Kindle as well, since to do so all you have to do is upload the PDF file you've already sent to Lightning Source. In addition, you will likely also want to send the file to Google Books, and Amazon again for its "Search Inside" feature - but more on this in Marketing the Monster, Part Two!

The reason for today's sidebar is that my Kindle sales have spiked over the past few days, so that I can reasonably conclude a lot of Kindles were wrapped in ribbons and bows this year. Apparently, just like last year when they were first introduced, Amazon sold out well before the holidays, either underestimating demand, or intentionally creating it through artificial means -nothing is more highly sought after than that which cannot be had!

Although my print copy sales have not seen an equivalent increase, the Kindle sales have pushed The Saga of Beowulf for the first time into the Top Ten in a category (small though that category is). Here were my vital stats on Amazon this morning when I checked:

• #10 in Norse & Icelandic Sagas / Poetry
• #16 in Norse Mythology / World Literature
• #21 in Historical Fantasy / Kindle Books

These are the highest levels my books has reached thus far. And while the first two categories are for books overall, the last is for the Kindle ranking alone - my ranking in the equivalent print book category is above 100, and so does not show at present (category ranks are only given for the top 100), although it had reached #25 at its peak last month.

This really doesn't equate to as high a sales rate as it might sound, as these are relatively small categories - "historical fantasy" is a very minor sub-genre of fantasy overall, where my ranking is quite likely down in the thousands (or less). And it's not like Norse Sagas are exactly hot reading right now (if ever). Still, it's exciting to see the numbers climb. One of the things you end up doing a lot in self-publishing is checking on your sales stats. After all, how else will you know if your marketing efforts are effective? I check Amazon every morning (and sometimes several times a day when sales are good), as well as my website traffic stats and various others, such as my GoogleAds stats when I'm running that (which I have been the past two days).

A curious note about my Kindle stats, however, is that for some reason I actually have two listings for my Kindle edition, each of which show close, but different numbers. Right now my Kindle book is ranked overall at #8,255 on one listing, but #11,973 on the other, and only one of them shows the subcategory rankings. How that happened I don't know, nor exactly what it means to my overall Kindle sales, except that I've sold some, which I guess is all that really matters. I'll have to look into it today. For now I'm just happy to have someone out there enjoying my book on their state-of-the-art 21st century reading machine.

ADDENDUM:

After some investigation, it turns out that Mobipocket eBooks (one of the additional formats in which The Saga of Beowulf is available) are automatically uplinked to Amazon in Kindle format, and this is why I have two listings for the Kindle edition of my book. The sales stats are apparently relative to one another, with each version's sales also boosting the other. I noticed the other day that any time I sold a print copy my Kindle ranking also increased, but that when a Kindle edition sells it does not boost the print copy stats. Curious. I'm sure there's a logic behind that, but I can't fathom it out, unless it's a marketing tactic by Amazon to artificially boost the ratings impact of its Kindle reader, but I doubt they'll cop to that. Not to me anyway.

Marketing The Monster, Part One

So you've spent years writing this thing. Learning the ropes. Honing your craft. Taking classes and joining writer's groups. Editing and polishing and revising it yet again. Finally you have this masterpiece, a tome which represents the tangible landscape of your inner soul.

Then you spend a year or more in sending it to everyone you know and any name on every list that you might think will show some interest in this monstrosity that you've created. But still it's little more than just a pile of paper sitting on your desk, weighing down the forward progress of your life.

So then you spend more time (and no small sum of money) traversing the rugged landscape of self-publishing to see the thing in print at last. You've done the layout, the artwork for the cover, proof-read the thing more times than you can count. Finally you have your debut book in hand, hot off the press.

The question is, now what?

Probably you might have asked this question earlier, but the answer tended to be something like: "Then the publisher sends me out on a worldwide book tour where I sign a million copies of my masterpiece!"

Only now you're the publisher, and the bookstores aren't interested in self-published works by unknown authors. Unless you can offer them a standard trade discount of 55-65% off the cover price, as well as accepting returns - meaning they will very likely send them back for a full refund somewhere down the road, which you will have to cough up then - the brick-and-mortar retailers won't be all too interested in your offer. Very probably even if you do offer these incentives they still won't stock your book, because they don't know you from Joe Dirt. I imagine some local shops might take pity on you and give your book a tryout in the "local author" section, and if you play your cards right (and do some highly-publicized book signings there) you might make an inroad that could lead to other stores taking your work on.

But I didn't go that route, so I can't help you there. Maybe next time.

The dilemma for me in this regard was that the size of my monster epic was such that the cost of printing it alone is $9.48, leaving little room for discounts to the retail outlets. Setting a short discount of 20% off a cover price of $16.95 gives $3.39 to the retailer (rather than the $11.01 discount 65% comes to), leaving $13.56 that is sent to Lightning Source from the retailer. Taking out their $9.48 printing cost, the remaining $4.08 is deposited into my bank account (after 90 days, that is, allowing time for invoicing at either end). Were I to offer even a 55% discount, I would have to list a suggested retail price of just over $30 to make my same four bucks from book store chains. Clearly not a practical strategy for me, at least this time.

But for a moment let's reverse engineer that equation, just to see what would work. We'll use our $16.95 suggested retail as a model for comparison. This price, by the way, is probably the upper range of what is practical to charge for a 6x9 softcover novel - over this and the cost becomes exponentially prohibitive to potential buyers - less, of course, works just the opposite, with 12.95 seeming to be a nice fit, under ten even better, although not for the author. Amazon and some other online retailers will discount your cover price (while others will increase it, and get far fewer sales as a result), but it comes out of their share not yours: half of my 20% discount is passed on to the buyer by Amazon, making their list price $15.25. Barnes & Noble offers that price as well, but only to members of their book buyer's club.

So taking our suggested retail of $16.95, a 65% discount leaves us with 5.93, while a 55% discount nets $7.17. Keeping our hoped for profit around 25% (that is, $4.23) we can see that there is little left for printing cost: a 65% discount with a 25% profit gives us only $1.70 to cover printing - that would be a max book length of 61 pages (1.3¢ per page x 61 pages + .90 for the cover). For my money, $16.95 is a lot to pay for a 60 page book, unless it has some really useful information in it, like a guaranteed way to make more money (a very popular subject, by the way). Now, using that same method, but offering a 55% discount leaves us with $5.55 for printing ($16.95-7.17 discount= 9.78-4.23 profit = $5.55). This gives us enough to print a book a little over 350 pages (1.3¢ x 350 =4.55 + .90¢ = $5.45), which is far more reasonable.

Of course, we don't need to make four bucks off each book (although it would be nice). In exchange for the potential increase in sales exposure in bookstores offer, a drop in profit per book is certainly in order. Let's say we cut our profit to just 10%, netting us $1.65 per sale (still better than almost all trade published authors net). $16.95 - 65% = $5.93 (wholesale cost to bookstore), minus our $1.65 net leaves $4.28 for printing costs, giving us enough for a book of 260 pages at the best trade discount.

Somewhere between these two is probably where you'll want to fall. 300 is a good page length, 60% a reasonable discount, and a buck or two of profit per sale acceptable. You might, of course, also lower the suggested retail in this equation, in hopes of getting more sales that way. For example, a 300 page book listing for $14.95 with a 60% trade discount would net you $1.18 per sale (subtracting $4.80 print cost and $8.97 wholesale discount to outlet), while $15.95 for the same book would give you $1.58 (-$4.80 print cost, -$9.57 wholesale discount). The full $16.95 for same nets $1.98 by comparison.

You could, of course, also write a shorter book than this, but the cover price would have to drop accordingly. The exception to that seems to be graphic novels, which sell for high retail prices relative to their generally short page length. Color costs more to print, but for a book of less than a hundred pages it's likely quite profitable, and something I intend to look into.

As you can see, you'll really have to crunch some numbers if you plan to approach brick-and-mortar outlets. And bear in mind your costs of advertising and promotions such as driving around the country signing books (hopefully) and printing up posters and fliers (definitely) all have to come out of your portion. Some of the larger bookstores will help with advertising, but it will be the author's job as much, or more, than theirs to promote your appearances with local ads and press releases sent out well in advance.

Also, unless you accept returns, it won't matter how much of a discount you offer, because Barnes & Noble isn't interested in getting stuck with several thousand copies of a book that they can't sell. But then, neither are you. It defeats one of the foremost benefits of print-on-demand, which is not printing any copies of the book until they're sold. But that model just doesn't work in the brick-and-mortar world, unless you're selling a lot of books.

So tomorrow I'll talk about what you can do to market your book online, from the comfort of your own home (in your pj's if you wish), whether or not you also intend to hit the streets with a trunk full of books in tow.

Peace On Earth, Good Will To All

Happy Holidays everyone. Whatever your theological or political views may be, I urge you all to take a moment here at the winding down of another year to revel in your freedom to express and practice those beliefs. Ring out Solstice Bells!

Here's to better years (and better leadership) ahead.

Virtual Book Tour Promo

After a weekend off for good behavior it was back to work for me today. Well, not at my day job - I'm off for three weeks there! - but time instead to get back with a gusto to this book promotion effort. I had intended to do my next post on all of the various marketing tactics I've used up to now, with an evaluation of how they've fared, but that will have to wait until next time.

Today I'm focused not on what I've already done, but what I'm doing next. So with that in mind, I spent the day putting together a "virtual book tour" promotion, which follows. Now, the idea behind this is much like a standard author book tour, but instead of tramping about the country visiting bookstores, the virtual book tour stops off at book-related blogs, where the author generally does a guest post and follows up on any comments left for the next several days. Sometimes this includes an interview, sometimes a book giveaway or other promotion to draw in readers, but as I've never done one yet, I really don't know what all might come up. Discussion, hopefully. Sales, preferably.

So the first step was to put together something the potential blogger could post as a primer to the guest appearance, with enough information about the book and author to hopefully entice both the host and the blog's readers. I had already put together a promo flyer for use in book store signings, as well as a "press release" - although I have yet to put either of these to their intented use. However, they came in quite handy here. With the additional of some additional details and a few added book excerpts, I think this should suffice to entice potential readers.

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~ SPECIAL FEATURE ~

THE SAGA OF BEOWULF

AN EPIC ADVENTURE

1500 YEARS IN THE MAKING

The debut epic fantasy novel by

R. Scot Johns

INTRODUCTION

The Saga of Beowulf is the first complete novelization of the epic Old English poem Beowulf.

Based on ten years of research utilizing countless historical documents, the story chronicles the tragic wars of the rising Nordic nations, the endless blood-feuds of their clans, battles with mythic creatures in an ancient heroic age, and the final, futile struggle of one man against the will of Fate that made of him a Legend.

“I wanted to tell the story in its entirety,” says author R. Scot Johns, “to bring the tale as accurately as possible to a modern audience, in its original setting of early 6th century Scandinavia. It had never been done before in its full scope, with both the historical and mythological elements intact. And it took me well over a decade, so now I know why.”

The story follows the young Norse warrior Beowulf as he embarks upon a fateful quest for vengeance against the creature that slew his father, setting in motion a sequence of events that will take him from the fetid fens of Denmark to the frozen fields of Sweden, ranging from the rocky heights of Geatland to the sprawling battlefields of ancient France as he battles men and demons in a quest to conquer his own fears, all the while fleeing from the woman he has sworn to love.

Steeped in Nordic myth and lore, the tale unfolds upon a northern landscape filled with dragons, ogres, trolls, and six-foot broadswords carved with runes. And yet it is a realm that still exists in history, a world where Danes and Swedes and Franks do battle for the future of their clans, nations that exist today, in places where the bones of those who live within these pages now are lain.

“I drew on every name and slight digression told in passing in the poem,” Johns said. “And bolstered that with all the details I could glean from ancient chronicles and modern archaeology, sources ranging from the near-contemporary Historia Francorum and the Icelandic Saga of Hrolf Kraki to the excavations done in Old Uppsala and the Rhine river estuary. Such a great wealth of Beowulf scholarship has been undertaken in the last century that one could easily spend a lifetime scouring through it. For those who have studied the poem at all thoroughly there are many subtle details you will find here. And for those who have not, there is in store for you an epic tale of bravery and wonder such as only the Norsemen could have forged with sword and song.”

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WHAT READERS SAY

“Worlds better than most fantasy novels from the major publishers. The Saga of Beowulf unfolds like an epic Hollywood movie. I could almost see these towering Norsemen battling for land and king amidst blood and flame. Johns' storytelling is poetic, and his focus on the cares and motivations of kings and peasants alike brought to mind my all-time favorite heroic fantasy author, the late David Gemmell. It’s one of the finest heroic fantasy tales I’ve ever read.”
- Justin Gaines, Amazon Top 500 Reviewer

“Johns has captured the feel of the saga in his work. The story is populated by characters who are complex and tormented by their fate. There is bravery and cowardice, honesty and treachery, all of it described with richness and power. There is some of the fatalism of the Norse tradition, but the heroes at their best struggle against it to shine brightly, if briefly, against the dark. This book is one of the defining works of our language and culture, a terrific story told with great skill.”
- Alex McGilvery, ArmchairInterviews.com

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. Scot Johns wrote, edited, and type-set The Saga of Beowulf, as well as creating the cover and interior art, including the title font and logos. A life-long student of ancient and medieval literature, with an enduring fascination for Norse mythology and fantasy epics, he first came to Beowulf through his love of J. R. R. Tolkien, a leading scholar on the subject. A medieval Honors English Lit major, he has given lectures on such topics as the historical King Arthur and the construction of Stonehenge. He lives in Boise, Idaho and works for Books Are Fun, a division of Readers Digest.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

The Saga of Beowulf
by R. Scot Johns
October 2008 · Heroic Fantasy
6x9 Trade Paperback · 640 pages · $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-9821538-0-2

Fantasy Castle Books · http://www.fantasycastlebooks.com/

Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other online book e-tailers.

Also available in Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, and Lulu formats, as well as MS Reader and Adobe PDF from most eBook retailers.

Browse the novel in GoogleBooks!

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EXCERPTS FROM THE NOVEL

PROLOGUE
To the Unknown Poet...

Late in the third year of King Hrothgar's reign the Great Hall of Heorot was completed at Lejre, and there was much joy in the land of the Danes. Denmark was then new-born, and only recently had the Scylding clan founded by Hrothgar's far-father Sceaf risen to prominence in the rugged lands between the wild North Sea and the dark Baltic. The year was 503 and that joy was to be short-lived.

At that time the Danes had not yet spread across the Jutland peninsula which would one day become their home, but still clung to the cold, hard rock known then as Sea-Land, pressed hard on all sides by the raging ocean tides. Turbulent times would mold this sturdy people into a great seafaring race, proud and strong, whose descendants would range across the far reaches of the world in search of riches and fame. Vikings they would be called, and all who saw their sails would know fear and terror.

But that time had not yet come.

Another race was on the rise at that time as well. They dwelt upon the rocky western shores of Sweden, known then as Göta-Land, the land of the Geats, for so they were called. All along those shores they made their home, beside a frigid Northern Sea that swelled and crashed upon a broad and wild land of sprawling lakes and densely wooded slopes whose jagged peaks were crowned in spires of rugged stone. They, too, were a hearty folk and mighty in those days, already a proud seaworthy people who embraced the shores and the coastal lands that looked across high waves toward the southern island realm of the war-famed Danes. Many loved and feared them, and the tales told of their deeds are filled with dread and wonder.

But their Fate was to be far different from that of the Danes, or of the Swedes who would one day devour their lands, for they were doomed to perish utterly and to fade forever from this world. Yet they would not fall easily, nor fade quietly away, and before that hard day came upon them they would mark their passing with sword and song.

None can now say what poet first wove the words which tell their tale; the poet has fallen as surely as the warriors whose bold deeds he has set down in song. But though the name has perished, still the song remains: in Valhalla it is sung, and down the far corridors its echo may yet be heard.

* * *

Unferth’s blade came down upon the royal table, barely missing Hrothulf’s head, severing a golden cup and spilling out its crimson contents on the polished oak. Red wine spread like seeping blood across the inlaid table as the Queen clutched tighter to her frightened sons.

Back Hrothulf came once more, and barely Unferth lunged aside in time, avoiding the frenzied blow and falling to the floor below the raised dais with a painful thud, for his balance was thrown off now that he could not move his other arm, and thus, the precision and efficient manipulation of his moves was lost. Blood seeped from his gaping wound, leaving a streak across the tiled floor as he rolled to his good side and pushed himself back up just as Hrothulf’s sword came down.

The weapons crashed once more, grinding steel on steel as Halga’s son pressed down upon the dark-eyed Dane. Hrothulf leered as he leaned in, using the advantage of his weight to hold Unferth down upon the ground as all about the battle raged.

“I am the rightful King!” spat Hrothulf in his face, so that only he could hear. “You will not deny me of my Fate!”

“That I will not,” Unferth returned, struggling against the heavy weapon pressing down upon him. “Your Fate has already been decided, and I am only here to see it carried out.”

With a wrenching twist that nearly made him swoon with pain, Unferth spun about and swung his sword-arm elbow into Hrothulf’s crotch, bringing the assailant quickly to his knees as their swords clashed down upon hard stone, nearly hitting Unferth’s wounded arm. With his hilt yet gripped within his clenching hand, Unferth punched his disarmed foe hard in the face, knocking Halga’s son onto his back, sprawling out across the inlaid stones of Heorot.

Slowly, Unferth rose to his feet, standing over Hrothulf with the weapon pointed at his throat. Hrothulf’s sword lay out of reach beneath the royal table, where it had skittered across the stone-paved floor.

“Unferth, no!” cried Queen Wealtheow. “He is of your own Danish blood!”

Unferth turned then to the Queen, prepared to risk his own exile – and even death – to reveal the plot that he himself had helped to instigate, and only now impeded, to his peril.

“Do not kill my son!” Yrsa pleaded at her side.

* * *

Out in Raven’s Meadow the night was drawing to a close, and dawn would soon be coming on. The Swedes could smell it in the air, and feel it in the chill that crept over the land just before the sun’s return each day. The howl of night’s moonlight marauders was gradually giving way to the rising chatter of the winged woodland creatures as they called out for their morning meal.

Hæreth lay still in the back of the supply wagon where she had been for two long days, guarded day and night and given little to eat or drink. But she was neither thirsty nor hungry, and she was not asleep. She knew that with the dawn would come the Swede’s attack, for she had overheard the Swedish guardsmen speaking of it in the night.

“Rutger says the King will strike at first light,” said Otto not long after they had taken up their watch the night before. The long night then lay stretching out ahead of them, and it was sure to drag, what with the Geatish Queen tied up and sleeping soundly. Little excitement could he expect to keep him awake until the dawn.

“Oy, is that so, now?” asked Osmund in response.

“Aye, it is,” Otto replied, glad to have some news to tell that Osmund had not heard. “And I s’pose Rutger knows, him being Captain to the King and all.”

“And none too soon, neither, I’d say,” Osmund replied. “These night posts will be the death of me afore long. I’m a man of action, I am. I can’t abide this infernal standin’ round.”

“Well,” said Otto, “we won’t be standin’ round come dawn!”

“And thank the Gods for that, I says,” said Osmund.

Osmund cast a covert glance back at the Queen, who seemed to be asleep, though it was hard to tell, for it was dark and she could hardly move for the tightness of her bonds. The tattered remains of her flaxen bed-dress did little now to hide her shapely form, or conceal her peach-soft skin, dirty though it was.

“She’s a pretty lass,” Osmund observed, eyeing Hæreth lustily. “What say we have a go, eh Otto?”

“Nay, not me,” Otto replied. “She’s for the king, Oz. He’ll have his way with her afore he’s through, though. Most likely kill her in the end.”

“Aye, then what’s stoppin’ us?” Osmund asked.

“I’m just doin’ me job here, Oz,” Otto returned. “Orders is orders, and I don’t want no trouble. I got two more years, then I can settle down with me wife and mind the farm.”

“Oy, always the farm!” said Osmund. “Leave off with the pigs and cows already!”

“What?” Otto shot back. “What’s wrong with pigs and cows? You eat enough of ‘em!”

“Bloody Hel, Otto, we’re warriors! We may not live two more years, you imbecile!”

“Well, it don’t hurt none to plan for the future,” Otto replied in a hurt and downcast tone.

Hæreth followed the conversation with her eyes, for the Swedish Guards were stationed one on either side of her before the open wagon, and she could see their own eyes shining in the night as they glanced across at one another. Two nights now these same two men had taken up their posts at Hæreth’s side, and all night long kept up an endless stream of idle chatter that never ceased or even slowed until the rising of the sun and the changing of the Guard. By now Queen Hæreth felt she knew them both, and slept all through the day that she might be entertained all through the night by their endless ramblings.

Seeing Hæreth watching him, Otto turned to her instead.

“See,” said Otto, growing more excited now, “me and the missus, we got this little place up in the valley all staked out. Nice thatched hut, two rooms, ocean view. It’s got an indoor well! Get us some sheep, couple o’ cows, a few pigs—”

“Oy!” shouted Osmund. “With the pigs again!”

Hæreth could not help but smile, and hoped for Otto’s sake this war would soon be over. Her gaze grew distant as she thought upon another farmer she had known once, long ago.

* * *

Candlelight cast its golden glow over a bed piled high with furs, in the midst of which Queen Hæreth lay with Beowulf beside her, clad only in light and shadow. Softly he traced the flowing curves of her sinuous figure with the tips of his strong and stocky fingers, following the undulating line down from her shoulder to her thigh, rising slowly then gently falling as a ship upon a rolling sea.

“I’m so glad you’ve come home again, Beowulf,” Hæreth softly whispered in a hushed and breathy voice. “Back home to me. I thought never to see you more.”

“I could never stay away from you, Hæreth,” Beowulf replied. “You draw me ever back again, as a moth is drawn to flame.”

Gently he kissed her then, and her sparkling sea-green eyes flickered with an inner light that came not from the many glowing candles scattered through the room.

“You did promise to return to me,” laughed the Geatish Queen.

“Aye, that I did,” said Beowulf sincerely, “as you promised always to be mine. The two of us together, for ever and all time.”

Again they kissed, and this time it was she that came to him. Long was that embrace, and soft, and warm, and Beowulf thought that he would never let her leave his arms again, or take his lips from hers.

But just then a wrenching crash rent the silent stillness as the chamber door burst inward, and the King of Geats stormed in with gleaming weapon poised. Covered all in hairy hides and heavy matted furs, the Geatish King glared down at them with bright red burning eyes, his grizzled beard hanging down over his heavy paunch, the Iron Crown upon his skull-like head strung thick with dangling moss and weeds.

“Faithless wench!” bellowed Hygelac. “So this is how a lowly peasant girl repays the King who made of her a Queen!”

Hæreth quickly drew the covers up to hide her naked form.

“I never wanted to marry you, you fat pig!” she spat her rage. “You made me do it out of spite for Beowulf, because you’re jealous of him! He is all that you could never be!”

Beowulf rolled aside as Hygelac’s heavy broadsword sank down deep into the bed where he had lain. Hæreth’s eyes went wide as the King drew out the sword and towered over her.

“Savor well the last moments of your wretched life, foul Demon of Darkness!” the King of Geats cried out, raising up his heavy blade.

Beowulf screamed as Hæreth’s crimson blood spilled out across the bed, gushing from the gaping wound where the shining sword had run her through, piercing through her golden skin to sink into the floor beneath the bed.

Beowulf raged and lunged at Hygelac, smashing the Ogre King against the wall with crushing force.

“Why, uncle?!” he screamed and spat, smashing his clenching fist time and again into the Geat King’s glaring face. “You took everything from me! Why?!”

Reaching out for the protruding hilt, Beowulf wrenched the sword free from its bloody sheath and swung with all his might, screaming maniacally as the blade swept out, passing cleanly through his Uncle-King’s thick neck. Hygelac’s gurgling mouth gaped wide.

“Beowulf!” the King’s voice cried, its thin red lips drawn wide to bare sharp teeth. Again the voice called out as the Geat King’s severed head toppled slowly to the floor—

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DELVE DEEPER

Read the first six chapters at http://www.fantasycastlebooks.com/, plus enjoy a wealth of additional resources, including author adaptation notes, a deleted sequence, development artwork, a Norse Rune decoder, bookmarks, audio excerpts, an author interview, and much more.

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Okay, back to the post...

I actually chose the first excerpt completely at random (not counting the Prologue, that is), just letting the book fall open, and that's the passage that leapt out. The other two I thought about and chose on purpose - the first to show a little of the humor that is in the book, and the second the romantic drama. Tell me what you think. Would this entice you to attend a blog appearance, or better, to follow up and buy the book?

I also did quite a bit of research today. There are a number of blog tour promotion services that will do various amounts of the work involved in setting up and promoting a virtual book tour. These seem to run anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, and include a wide range of bells and whistles, such as putting together a promotional video trailer, which I intend to do myself, hopefully this week, so I don't need that. If I pursue one of these it would be the few hundred dollar variety, but sticking with my practice of doing virtually everything myself, I'll probably approach some bloggers first myself and see how that goes. Only if that proves less than successful would I hire someone to do the work for me. But I have to say, frankly, that I'm beginning to tire of the work involved in marketing, if only because I want to get on with writing my next book, which I have every intention of starting on by the first of the year. That gives me about a eight days, so I've no time to waste!

Review: Beyond Beowulf, by Christopher L. Webber

BEYOND BEOWULF by Christopher L. Webber
ISBN: 0-595-37358-5, 2006 iUniverse, 124 pp., $10.95

The number of versions and translations of Beowulf that I have read in the past several years while doing research for my debut novelization of that epic poem might reasonably be described as staggering ("ludicrous" is a term that comes to mind). But of all these, no one in the all the span of time those works represent had attempted to pen a sequel to the original work, until now (or 2006 to be precise).

Christopher L. Webber's Beyond Beowulf is, in fact, the first true sequel to Beowulf, not only in terms of story, but also in its form. Webber wrote his continuation in alliterative iambic pentameter, a natural meter to bring the Old English mode into the modern age. And while the ancient Anglo-Saxon in which the original poem was composed employs rhythmic syllabication, the steady driving metre provided by its rigid system of stressed alliteration is amply mirrored in modern English through the clever intermarriage of these forms. The Old English poem was intended to be listened to, recited aloud by a poet before a hushed and rapt audience in a performance much akin to the one-man show in modern theater. The use of iambic pentameter enforces the sense of sound that audience would have experienced as part and parcel of this ancient tale.

Webber discusses this in his introduction to the sequel, noting how pervasive alliteration still remains in modern parlance, for example in such common phrases as "rant and rave" or "aid and abet." In adhering to this auditory sense of poetic composition, Webber alliterates such words as "ceaseless sounds," which do not scan visually, but only vocally, while "ceaseless cares" is just the opposite. This careful attention to diction is one of the many elements that render this work so impressive, both as poetry and sequel.

Less successful is his use of end notes. Although there is a fair amount of information given in the six pages of notes provided for specific passages, there is no reference in the work itself that an end note exists for a given line, so that the reader is forced either to keep constant watch on the note section while reading, or to simply ignore them altogether. In the end, I simply went through and entered asterisks on the relevant lines as should have been done to indicate an end note exists.

Still, it is the story that matters, and here Webber succeeds admirably, taking up the tale where the original left off, with the imminent downfall of the Geats after Beowulf's demise. Much speculation and hypothesis has ensued in the last century concerning the fate of this once-legendary tribe of ancient Scandinavians, and best guesses have had them wiped out by the expanding clan of Swedes, or fleeing westward to new lands as so many northerners would do throughout the intervening centuries that lay between the 6th century and the 10th, when those earlier events were at last committed to a written form. Here Webber follows the prevailing winds and sends our tattered remnants sailing west and north through stormy seas to hostile foreign shores, where they meet with foes both human and unnatural, just as Beowulf had done before. And while the story constantly refers back to its predecessor, it is both reverential and unique in its approach.

Wiglaf, the last of Beowulf's bloodline, takes the reins unwillingly to steer his people toward a future only he seems able to envision: one where constant warfare plays no part and peace is what a man should strive for more than fame or glory. In their travels these exiles meet with many opportunities to prove their valor, only to find at every turn that what had once served to strengthen them is now of no avail, but only lessens them, in number and in value. Fleeing from one inhospitable harbor to another, the Geats come at last upon a monastery on the English coast where a brotherhood of monks bolsters Wiglaf's yearning for a better life for his weary tribe. And while Webber is careful in his presentation of a Christian system of belief - more so than the Beowulf poet himself, in fact - the sequel is clearly intended to show how the heathen polytheistic belief in warrior gods cannot support a people who would thrive and grow as they move into an unknown future. This moral eulogizing renders Beyond Beowulf - as with the original - a poignant work with as much to say about the past as it does about the present.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

Visit Christopher L. Webber's blog
An earlier review for Beyond Beowulf, with a short interview, is here

The Saga of Beowulf - Podcast #5

I did a fairly lengthy reading today, but had only edited a short section of it when I was interrupted. Consequently, today's podcast is shorter than I had originally intended, which may or may not be a good thing. The truth is that these audio segments are taking a lot more time than I had planned, and frankly I would rather use the time to get on with my next book. So unless I hear from someone urging me to continue this might well be the end of my podcasting career, which is probably just as well.

At any rate, here is another short snippet of our story, for what it's worth. I won't go into a lengthy diatribe about its content. Suffice it to say we reach the culmination of our conflict here, and I hope it sheds some light on those involved, as they will each play a larger part in events soon to come.

DOWNLOAD (3.31 MB, 3:37 min.)

Review #3 - Armchair Interviews

Today the third review for "The Saga of Beowulf" came out, and it's the first non-Amazon review to appear. I sent Armchair Interviews a review copy on the 19th of November, just one day shy of a month ago, and Alex McGilvery of Ontario, Canada took the work on. Here's what Alex had to say:

Armchair Interviews Review: 5 Stars

Beowulf has the distinction of being one of the earliest pieces of fiction in the English language, though Old English bears little resemblance to the English that is spoken today. The Saga of Beowulf by R. Scot Johns is a novelization of the saga. This book is a satisfying way to get into the story of Beowulf. Johns has taken the story and made it accessible for the average reader.

Beowulf is a hero in a time when clans and families of the north are constantly feuding, and even the gods are worn out. He is a Geat, but sails to Daneland to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the ogre Grendel. He is also sailing
because he isn’t welcome at home since he failed to protect his Queen, and the King’s present wife is still in love with him.

In Daneland, Beowulf finds a land ravaged by Grendel for the last twelve years. There are few men left. In this hard time the weak don’t last and the wolves are circling. Yet facing Grendel is only the beginning of Beowulf’s saga. There is bravery and cowardice, honesty and treachery, all of it described with richness and power.

Johns has captured the feel of the saga in his work. The story is populated by characters who are complex and tormented by their fate. There is some of the fatalism of the Norse tradition, but the heroes at their best struggle against it to shine brightly, if briefly, against the dark. This book is worth a read because it is one of the defining works of our language and culture, and because it is a terrific story told with great skill.

- Alex McGilvery, ArmchairInterviews.com

I love the epic tone of McGilvery's voice. Some of the phrases used are ones I wish I had come up with myself: "the wolves are circling" is a great image, for example, as is "even the gods are worn out." The final line really knocked me over, though, and I can only assume McGilvery is referring to the original poem when he says that this book is "one of the defining works of our language and culture." But I certainly appreciate the compliment implied.

Reading this review made me realize that in my marketing approach I have not really focused very much on describing the story (not counting the recent podcast posts), which is certainly a mistake. In presenting this book to the world I have assumed a general knowledge of the original tale, either by way of English lit classes or the recent film adaptations, or any of the several comic book editions to come out in the past ten years. I've read and re-read and scoured through the Old English poem so many times and in so many different versions that it is to me as if its common knowledge to know this classic tale. I very much enjoyed hearing McGilvery's vivid summation of it; so much so, in fact, that I could not possibly hope to describe it any better myself.

Armchair Interviews has been awarded the Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers" award three years running now. They have a marketing package that I would love to pursue, if only I had a few hundred extra bucks in hand. But alas, I am but a poor, moderately-well-fed writer, and must rely on word-of-mouth, and other low-cost means of promoting my labors. The ten bucks it cost me to send them a review copy is pretty much the extent of my marketing budget. Except, of course, for the hundred and fifty bucks I now owe Google for the ads I've run, but that's another story.

The Saga of Beowulf - Podcast #4

And now, back to our story...

So in the last episode we learned a bit about our hero and his father, a bit of exposition which interupted Edgtheow's sudden struggle with the young warrior Æschere, of whom we so far know almost nothing. But those of you well-versed in your Beowulf will recall him as the brother of Yrmenlaf and favored battle-companion of the Danish King Hrothgar. And you may remember, too, what becomes of him some time later in the tale. For those who don't, I won't spoil the story here.

In today's installment we return to our wrestling match, already in progress, but only for a moment, for there are other characters yet to introduce. Yrmenlaf is one, but you may also recall the name of Unferth from your reading of the poem. In the original, of course, you don't meet him until after Beowulf's arrival in Denmark, but here I thought it best to introduce him just a little earlier.

In the poem we only get a glimpse of Denmark before the fall, in the tale of Scyld and his descendants. There we hear in brief of Hrothgar's war-fame, and how he built his great mead-hall, of which we shall hear much quite soon. Meanwhile, there is merriment and feasting in the Danish hall, and revelries of a sort that Northern warriors enjoy.

DOWNLOAD (4.07 MB, 4:27 min.)

Follow-Up On Harriet's Review

An interesting thing is happening on Amazon. Since Harriet posted her review of my book on Sunday night - just two days ago - her review has garnered 8 votes, 5 helpful and 3 otherwise (up from 3 of 5 yesterday), while Justin's review - posted well over a week earlier on the 5th - has received only 2 votes, both of which are "helpful," giving him a 2 of 2 rating and pushing his earlier review to the top of the list. Meanwhile, the very first review - posted nearly a month ago - has received no votes at all, pro or con.

My question is: why would 8 people rate one review, while only two would rate another review for the same product, and none for the third? And that's assuming the two votes for Justin come from among the 8 voters of Harriet's entry, which is not certain. Added to this it should be noted that I have not sold a single copy of the referenced title in nearly two weeks now (more on that later), so that it might also be asked: why did none of those 7 "helpful" votes result in a sale of the item in question?

The only answer to this is that none of those reviewers actually looked at, or were likely even interested in the book, but only the review. It must also be concluded that they viewed Harriet's review not on the book's listing page, but on her Amazon Profile page instead, where all of her reviews are listed, but of course, none of Justin's or Pam's would be found there. What this tells me is that it is the reviews that are being reviewed here and not their value with regard to the book at all. And to understand this one has to understand the politics of Amazon reviewers.

One of the unfortunate side effects of the reviewer ranking system is the inevitable scrambling by reviewers to reach the top of the list. This would be petty and trivial enough were it not for the fact that top reviewers are sought out and offered free products in exchange for their reviews, and very probably the higher their ranking the more free swag they get. I did this myself, of course, in soliciting reviews for The Saga of Beowulf, for which I naturally sought out the highest ranked reviewers I could find - although I have to say I didn't get very many responses from them.

So it is no longer just an ego boost for these people to achieve a higher status, but they also gain monetary rewards as a result. It has always been a problem for authors that many of the books they send out for review find their way to the "used item" bin on Amazon - a great many of them without ever having been reviewed, or probably even cracked open. I have already caught one such culprit doing just that with my debut novel, which showed up "used" on Amazon mere days after I sent it (I asked them politely to remove it, and they did, but it will likely show up later, or somewhere else - and I never did get a review of it for my expense).

The obvious downside, then, to Amazon's new "helpful" voter ranking system is that now instead of striving to post more reviews, the reviewers will spend their time voting for or against one another in an effort to bring the competition down and push their own rank higher, none of which is at all helpful to those the system is supposed to aid.

However, it must be said in fairness that I agree essentially with the votes so far, except that the better of the reviews actually has fewer helpful votes. But since Justin's helpful rating is 100% (2 for 2), his review, although posted earlier, is now at the top of the list, and even Pam's review with no votes at all is ranked above Harriet's with 5 of 8. So I suppose the system is working well enough after all.

Still, I wish just one of them would have bought my book! Every day that I don't sell a book is a day I'm unsuccessful as a writer, and there have been a few too many of these lately for my liking.

Coming soon: a more detailed follow-up on my marketing campaigns and their results thus far.

So what are your thoughts on the Amazon reviewer system? Do you consult them when you are considering a purchase, and if so, how much emphasis do you place on what they say? I'm curious to hear your take on this.

ADDENDUM: DECEMBER 17, 2008

Interestingly, as of this morning the reviewer votes have changed in an unpredictable way: Justin's review is now 3 for 3, but Harriet's review shows only a 1 of 4 helpful rating (down from 5 of 8 last night). Four reviews have gone missing since yesterday! I don't know of any way that you can remove your rating once given, although possibly you could change it by just voting again. Perhaps multiple votes by the same person have been discarded by Amazon. I really don't know. However, I did also notice that my review is listed this morning as the "most recent" activity on Harriet's Amazon profile page. Curious, since it was down the page quite a ways already by Monday. Strange stuff going on here. Your thoughts?

ADDENDUM II: LATER THAT SAME EVENING...

A quick check of Amazon tonight reveals that Harriet's review is now rated "0 of 3" - so it is clear that votes can be removed somehow from posted reviews, but how or who is doing it I do not know. I suppose I might find out if I did some checking about, but it's not really worth the effort. I just find it curious.

The Saga of Beowulf - Podcast #3

In today's installment we get the remainder of the passage dealing with Edgtheow's background. Yesterday we were given a physical description of this rugged Geat warrior, father to our hero Beowulf, and the beginnings of his wrestling match with Æschere (to be continued soon!).

Here we have a section that proved very difficult to write - not so much in terms of getting words down on the page, but more in editing it down to a reasonable length. It was critical that I introduce the character of Edgtheow and give his background right away, because he appears (as an active participant) in just this first chapter, so I had little room to work with. Putting this kind of descriptive narrative so close to the beginning is dangerous, but it runs now for just a little over one page, and also gives our first information concerning our titular hero.

As mentioned earlier, this was edited down from something like 7 or 8 pages which gave a whole wealth of detailed information about Edgtheow's background, telling the story of his coming to Geatland, and of his rivalry with his brother Weohstan - a passage I regret losing, but which could not be helped. I tried to make up for it later, but you never really can. And just like DVD outtakes you can still read this deleted scene at www.fantasycastlebooks.com/beowulf13.html.

The end of this passage, by the way, functions almost as a second prologue, with a bit of foreshadowing and a little of what I like to call "future history" - that is, how these events will one day be viewed by future generations.

DOWNLOAD (3.67 MB, 4:00 min.)

Harriet's Review

I've been waiting for this review to come in for a little while now. One of the things I did when deciding who to send review copies to was to approach a few of the Amazon Top Reviewers who had previously reviewed fantasy fiction. The previous review by Justin Gaines was one of these. Harriet Klausner was another, and one whom I was actually quite surprised to get a positive response from.

For those who don't know, Amazon rates its reviewers based on the total number of reviews they have posted and - beginning only recently - on the number of "helpful" votes their reviews receive from Amazon customers as well. This new change has altered many reviewer's rankings, and was implemented to prevent reviewers from simply posting a mass quantity of short and unsubstantial reviews of little value, and I heartily agree with the decision.

Harriet, long the Amazon #1 Reviewer, with reviews now totalling 17,909, is by the new system ranked at only #476, with a helpful vote ratio of just 69%. Justin, on the other hand, has a "classic" reviewer ranking of 910, but a new reviewer rank of 125, with a helpful vote ratio of 88%, and I think you can see why from their two reviews. Although both reviewers gave my book a 5-star rating, Justin's was by far the more in depth and useful of the two, showing a far greater involvement with the work.

Harriet is a self-proclaimed speed-reader, and it shows. I'm actually a fairly slow and methodical reader myself - actually getting more so with the passing of the years - in great part because I love to savor the words and the worlds that I enter. I'm sure Mrs. Klausner must enjoy her reading, as she certainly does a great amount of it, but it can be seen from the opening paragraph of her review that she really skims over much of the detail, as she gives some inaccurate information in her summary, which is also fairly poorly written. To her credit, she posted the review both on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as on her blog, which I greatly appreciated.

Amazon / B&N Rating: 5 Stars
This is an Excellent Novelization of the Great Epic Poem

Early in the sixth century at Heorot, the victors have won many battles, but none as sweet as defeating the forces of Heruli; they built this great hall to celebrate their conquest. However, now the Danes led by intrepid King Hrothgar and his uncle King Edgtheow the Great face their most dangerous foe ever in their great mead hall. Their single adversary with his claws and teeth rip asunder the once mighty berserker warriors. The monster dines on his victims. A frightened survivor Hrothgar who knows first hand the ogre offers a great reward for the death of Grendel. From across the sea Bear Wolf called Beowulf arrives at the Dane Hall occupied by Grendel the monster. Beowulf challenges the beast in his new lair and kills him. However, though many sing ballads honoring the great Beowulf for his heroism that saved the Danes, he is not done. Grendel’s as monstrous mother Griselda seeks vengeance. He kills the troll-hag before leaving to go home and eventually become a king with many more epic battles including with an invincible dragon.

That is the summary paragraph, and honestly I wish she had just left it out. It does little to describe the story (all but the very last sentence describes only the first third of the book), contains several errors of plot (Edgtheow "the Great" [read: Geat] as the uncle-King of Hygelac), and has so many grammatical errors as to almost make the writer seem unqualified to review a work of English literature. This might seem like nit-picking to review a reviewer, but as an author the English language is my medium, and the pen my chosen weapon. My concern is that this condensation of my tightly-crafted plot will actually turn potential readers away.

But Harriet goes on, and this is the part that matters...

This is an excellent novelization of the great epic poem that authors like Tolkien paid homage to. The story line stays true to the poetry and to the hero, but also provides deeper insight into the champion, his times, and his otherworldly opponents - for instance, the paternal side of Grendel (nice twist). Mindful of the terrific Seamus Heaney translation, fans of epic fantasy, especially of the original poem (and its modernization), and even those who skipped the reading in high school for the Cliff Notes will relish R. Scot Johns’ superb novel rendition of THE SAGA OF BEOWULF. Although last year’s movie version was fun, the SAGA OF BEOWULF would make a fine adventure series of movies along the lines of its "offspring" The Lord of the Rings (is Peter Jackson looking for his next fantasy adaptation?).

I've actually fixed up a bit of her grammer in this latter paragraph, but you can still get the gist of it in her posted version.

Now you might be interested to know that I mailed the review copy to Mrs. Klausner on December 1st (at media mail rate, no less), less than two weeks before her review appeared. This is a 640-page novel of tightly spaced pages, and she plowed through it like a children's picture book. And mine was not the only book review she posted yesterday. Several others appeared as well.

To date I have sent out over 20 copies for review, beginning as early as the first week of November, and these two are the only ones as yet to appear. For that I have to give Mrs. Klausner super cudos (and all the more to Mr. Gaines), as this incessant waiting is worse than Christmas to a kid. What I really want are unsolicited reviews from everyday readers who picked up the book of their own accord, but for now I have to settle for what I can get.

And I have to say that I am greatly pleased with the response my debut effort has thus far received.