Eric

More great ideas, which we will follow up on. As for Amazon, we do get paid on those, yes – but they’re calculated by the distributor, and of course are with lower retail prices. In any case, money has to come back to the publisher before money goes to authors.

J.D.

Great stuff. Eric and I are VERY fortunate in that we have a great publicity machine in Ted Savas and Sarah at Savas-Beatie LLC. Ted definitely promotes his books, and he’s always thinking. He pushes his authors to do everything possible and is constantly throwing out ideas. Ted only wants authors who will “work” their books, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to do so.

J.D.

Best
Rob

Take as another example the difference between Mike Kauffman’s “American Brutus” and Swanson’s festering pile of turds (to borrow your words about another scribbler). Both books were published by major houses (Kauffman was Random House and Swanson was HarperCollins), but Harper put the bucks into publicity and promotions and took Swanson to the best seller list. While I doubt anyone would disagree that Kauffman’s work was much better, we don’t even have it on our shelves (which I plan to rectify soon) although we have 20 copies of “Manhunt”.

Another factor is a knowledgeable salesman. The people I’ve sold your books to weren’t looking for a history of Stuart’s ride (or a book on Little Phil or the battle of Monroe’s Crossroads). It was more along the lines of “my father, grandfather, brother, husband, etc., is a Civil War nut and his birthday is coming up. What’s new?” When I tell them about your book and how it’s well respected (and that I know the author!) I’ve never had one person tell me they weren’t interested. If you have someone who knows what is current in the field, that will make a big difference.

I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know already, but sadly even a superstore only has so much room on the shelves. We will always stock more of what the buyer thinks will sell instead of the book that cuts out all the crap and tells the story as it actually happened.

Best
Rob

That’s why I think your book on Dahlgren will do very well. He had two things going for him, a controversy at the time of his death and a controversy today. And, too, he was a young man who, unlike many, had an entrance into the highest levels of government because of his father. That makes him an ‘insider’ to a certain extent.

Tragedies play well too as do, of course, controversies. Dahlgren’s short life can be seen in both of those lights. He had everything to live for but died in the commission of what might be viewed either as a brave attempt to bring the war to an early (and thus less bloody) conclusion or, in the alternative, a vicious dishonorable act contrary to the accepted rules of warfare. Again, I know that the raid is not the focus of the book, but it certainly must be considered its culmination. In a way, it’s like Lincoln. Whenever anyone thinks of Lincoln, their first thoughts are usually about the assassination even though there was a lot more to Lincoln’s life than the last few hours in which he was not even an active participant!

Perhaps books that are less focused on a single person or event – such as your upcoming on Rush’s Lancers – would do even better if any advertisement included those particular points at which the subject intersected a ‘famous incident’. For instance, as you mentioned, the Lancers ALMOST caught up with J.E.B. Stuart in his ‘ride around McClellan’. In other words, they came within a few moments of being as, if not MORE famous than Stuart: “The command that caught an impudent General in his audacious raid!” and so forth.

Except for the very scholarly, most people buy books because something within those books piques an interest. People may BUY an encyclopedia, but they don’t usually read them in bed! Ergo, to foster sales, people have to see something in the book other than the mere ‘nuts and bolts’ of history – some story that garners passion and interest. At least this is why I buy a book.

Drew

Valerie – that’s one of the things we did upon release of the Stuart book… mailings to CWRTs. We think that really helped. We needed a second edition one week after release (literally) when the first sold out, and the third hardback edition, only four months after release, is just being ordered.

We’re really humbled and tickled by the sales.

J.D.

I’m purchasing some software myself – its cheaper!

Scott