What We're Writing: Julia on pre-Sales and Promotions

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm working on something new, but it's kind of tiny and fragile with sharp claws and needle-like teeth, so I'm not going to be talking about it for some time yet.

I can definitely talk about AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY, and in fact, my publisher would love me to do so. We're at the stage where the book's publication seems both impossibly far away and also holy cow it's coming up fast. The quantum novel: it will never be on the shelves, it will be here practically tomorrow.

My agent and editor have sent out requests for blurbs and they're coming in (many, many thanks to Rhys, who took time she couldn't spare to say very nice things about the book) and there have already been a couple pre-ordering deals. St. Martin's is running a giveaway contest at Goodreads, the second ebook in the series is priced at $2.99 all month, and Steve, my really, really nice marketing manager, has been sharing graphics with me I don't even know what to do with.

This is a "short vertical." I bet Jenn knows how to use this.

I was Zooming with my bestie in Colorado (Hi, Roxanne!) and her husband popped on to say he'd seen a promotion from Barnes & Noble and got all excited about the book being here soon and was shocked to see the pub date was November 18th.

This one's supposed to go on top of my Bluesky profile, I think.

 That's November 18, folks! Find it in fine bookstores everywhere! 

I laughed and said 1) I would send them a book so don't worry and 2) the publisher likes to get way out ahead.

But why?

I've written about what pre-ordering means to the author before: it shows the publisher the amount of reader enthusiasm, and gets bookstores excited, and more likely to up their orders. However, there's another point of view to consider: the publisher's.

I think this version would look nice silk screened on a bolster cushion, what do you think?

Book publishing, you will not be surprised to hear, is a business with slim margins. The old joke goes, "How do you make a small fortune in publishing? Start with a large fortune." Like many businesses, the Big Five try to cut material costs wherever they can. The price for print-quality paper has been rising since 2021, and the looming trade deficits won't help that trend, since a considerable amount of it comes from Canada. (67% of the "uncoated" paper used in the US - that's the stuff you stick in your printer or copy machine, as well as what you find between the covers of your favorite books - comes from our friendly neighbors to the North.)

This is for my Instagram Story. I've never done an Instagram Story! I have a feeling I'm going to let Steve down.

However, publishers have a limit to the amount of raw material they can save. Mars can sell you a mini Snickers bar, but no one is going to read a book that tops out at 87 pages because it's been printed in this size font! 

 In addition, the number of large-scale printing companies in the US have been shrinking over the past twenty years. Scheduling the when, where and most importantly, how many copies of of the book to be produced begins to look like another moon launch at times. 75,000 copies of THE WELL-LOVED DETECTIVE INVESTIGATES? Slot it in between the 25,000 run of AN MFA STUDENT'S STORY and the 200,000 copies of QUIRKY MILLENNIALS IN LOVE. God forbid two weeks ahead of time, AN MFA STUDENT'S STORY gets featured on Fresh Air with Teri Gross and you've got fourteen days to figure out how to double the print run. (I mean, that's a good problem, but it's still a problem.)

Also for my Instagram Story. I'm going to have to call Virginia in De Haag and have her walk me through this.

Every book that doesn't sell, and that has to be pulped, is a waste of resources. Conversely, getting a book on the shelves and immediately having to go back to print is expensive and can lead to a lot of upset bookstore owners who have to send those Teri Gross listeners away. "Sorry, we can have it in two or three weeks, do you want to get on the list?" is not a winning commercial strategy.

So, dear readers, this is why we have pre-sale specials, and contests and publicity and all that other stuff: so when St. Martin's pushes the button for AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY, the printing presses will chunder out exactly the right number of copies to meet the demand - the demand you, dear readers, establish. Fingers crossed I outsell QUIRKY MILLENNIALS IN LOVE...