What do James Patterson, Harry Potter, Tide, and Volkswagen have in common?  They are all well-known “brands.” As we at Fuze scale the learning curve in marketing, we’ve been asked what the difference is between marketing and branding.  Put simply, marketing is a sustained effort to tell readers that your novel exists and is available for sale, whereas a brand is created as the result of a successful, continuous marketing initiative.Here’s what we’ve learned about book marketing.  Large publishing houses devote sizable marketing budgets to authors with substantial following and sales track records.   For first time authors, if there even is a marketing budget, it is typically a small amount and generally it goes to buying space in the chain bookstores.   Publishers also pay extra to have their books placed on special tables near the entrance to the store or turned face out on the shelves.   Again this prime “real estate” position is usually reserved for well-known authors.

Well, Fuze doesn’t have a marketing budget, so we had to get creative with our marketing and branding strategies.  We find ourselves pursuing two levels of marketing.  First there’s what we wish will happen with our book in the long-range best case.   We visualize being on the Today show, Oprah, the front page of Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, and attending book signings across the country.

First, we developed an “elevator” speech.  We learned to describe our story in a few concise sentences – the time it takes to ride up in an elevator.  Then we talk to everyone we know or meet about Satan’s Chamber.  For relatively little money we printed post cards and bookmarks showcasing our book cover and a praising blurb from a reviewer.   And we freely hand them out.

Independent bookstores are one of our best resources.  These fine shops are happy to help new authors and have allowed us to host book signings and readings.  In fact, they recommend our book to readers who are looking for mystery/thrillers.  Book clubs are another way we have reached readers to create a “buzz” about our story.  We find these book groups enjoy having one of us come to describe the writing and research process as well as facilitate the book discussion.   And of course, we have a presence on the Internet social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Digg. We have also posted a blog on our website.

Selling on Amazon is obligatory to reach the mass market, even though it is expensive – they take 55% of each hard copy book sale and 65% of Kindle sales.  And we have to pay to ship the books to Amazon.  However, as useful as Amazon’s “brand” value, the other true value is their review process.  We can get noticed and have them review our book if we reach a threshold number of reviews on the site.  So we ask everyone who enjoys our book to post a five star review.

So that’s the marketing story.  The story of branding is much shorter.  Branding cannot occur without marketing and is a slow process that requires time.  But once you have your “brand” the public will trust it and count on the brand resurfacing time and again.  That’s why Karetta and Molly are sticking with Tory and Maud in their Satan’s Chamber sequel. Remember Harry Potter.  And cross your fingers for a call from Oprah any day!

For a humorous account of the book publishing industry, please read the following article in the New Yorker.  It says it all.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2009/10/19/091019sh_shouts_weiner

Thanks to all who responded to the paper book vs. e-book article. Your remarks are rich with detail and we hope you don’t mind sharing them with other newsletter readers–-we have removed last names to protect the innocent!  Suffice it to say the debate continues!

Even though I’m an old-fashioned lady, we have to keep up with the times. E-books are the way and not far a way!
Anne

I like getting cheaper books on Amazon and in books stores, and I’m not sure I can get the same price range from an ebook or Kindle – seems like an expensive investment and then to have to pay $14 for each book seems extravagant to me – however, I might feel differently if someone GAVE me an ereader …
Steven

I bought Satan’s Chamber on eBook- my Kindle –
Amy

Re the Fuze discussion, the determining factor for me is whether one can download library e-books on an electronic reader.  Now that Fairfax Library
has downloadable books (before you had to read them on your computer) I might consider it–but my thrifty soul wonders whether a once or twice a
year convenience is worth the investment in the sort of gadget that will be obsolete in a few years…
Alice

I bought the Kindle to store/read my work papers in pdf format.  I thought it would lighten my briefcase and generally make it easier to manage all the documents I need to review.  However, I stopped using it after a month or so.  The pdf reader on the Kindle has limited functionality.  You can’t change the size of the font or zoom in/out, etc.  All you can do is turn the Kindle on its side and the print gets a bit bigger.  Also, you can’t highlight any of the text in the pdf files.  For books, there is more
functionality.  You can change the font size and highlight, etc.  But I prefer to read real  books…..although appreciate the convenience of being able to download a book in a minute if I need to….
Neil

Karetta should not be shy about loving her Kindle…how could you NOT love the Kindle?  I love the look and feel of a new book too, but the Kindle won me over in 30 seconds flat.  I absolutely love the ease of handling, the lightness for packing in my purse, briefcase or suitcase, the ease of impulse buying, the bookmarking where I left off, and not having to wonder where I am going to store yet another book.  Go Kindle……….it takes a while to win over the true blue paper people, but time is on Kindle’s side:)
Lynne

I still enjoy the tactile experience of books and paper.  As a frequent traveler, I am drawn to the convenience of e-books, but so far the pleasure
of the book has remained in ink and paper and not bits and bytes and plastic for me…
David

I too am enjoying my Kindle and pondering the  IPAD.  I read Molly’s musing on the use of put down and put out as poor uses of prepositions when
stronger verbs could be used.  I agree except that although down and out can be prepositions, when used in the context given, I would think they are
being used as adverbs and not prepositions.
Pete

Please visit our blog to read more!
http://www.fuzepublishing.com/blog

I, Karetta, am a book person.  I respect reading as a fine art form.  In fact, my husband and I own more than 500 books and every year we give away many to AAUW and other eager book recipients.  I thought I would never be interested in an e-reader.

An e-reader?  Ridiculous, I thought. It wouldn’t feel like vacation without lugging five or six books along and experiencing the satisfaction of placing one on top of the other as I finished them.

But for my last pre-medicare birthday my husband bought me a Kindle ereader.  Curious, I slid the tab on top and read the message from Jeff Bezos.  It was informative but not compelling enough to get me to download an ebook.  So I put the Kindle in my laptop briefcase as a place to store it, and frankly forgot about it.  On a trip to Florida I was at the airport and noticed the Kindle in the laptop case.  Since I only had one book with me, I thought, what could be the harm?  So I registered, went into the Kindle store and downloaded an ebook.  Less than thirty seconds later there it was.  In fine, readable form.  I changed the font to the largest size and began clicking through each page.  Thus on the plane I read my first novel on a Kindle – didn’t quite finish it then, but managed to that night.

I have a big confession:  I LOVE my Kindle.

As you can guess it was not an easy transition for me.  My writing partner, Molly, insists that even though I have gone over to the print dark side, she will never, ever, follow.  She loves the weight of the old fashioned book in her lap, the rustle of the paper as she turns the page.  I tell her that she can scribble all over the pages of e-books—another habit of hers—but she won’t be swayed.

Currently the print book business is a worldwide, multi-billion dollar industry.   But over the past several years the revenue from the sales of books has declined annually.   Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), June 10, 2009, New York, NY, for the month of April were down by 4.1 percent for the year.

However, the bright spot for the publishing industry is the fact that ebook sales have skyrocketed during the same time period. These sales jumped up by 228.3 percent for the month ($12.1 million), reflecting an increase of 154.8 percent for the year.   Relative to the paper book market, $12.1 million may be a drop in the bucket, but the percentage increase bodes well for the future of book sales overall.

First let’s acknowledge the similarities of these two genres.  Both are plot-based; both create puzzles to solve; both build on suspense and surprise. In general, though, a mystery is smaller in scope.  It focuses on crime, usually murder.  It has a singular protagonist, usually a police officer or a private detective.  If the protagonist doesn’t relate the story in the first person, it still most often comes to us through her or his eyes.  We know as much as the protagonist knows.  And although the explosion of communications technology has expanded the possibilities for far-flung settings, many of the prototypical, traditional mysteries are confined to one city, one village, one olde English mansion.

A thriller splashes across a larger canvas.  Instead of a clear crime that needs to be solved, it is driven by a conspiracy—often furthered by many different crimes–that must be exposed.  Its larger scope requires multiple settings and points of view, which generate a constant tension.  The reader is always kept aware of actions taking place simultaneously in various locations, often at cross-purposes.  Although one character emerges as the protagonist, the perspectives of other characters maybe equally developed, as the plot is braided out of several strands.  The antagonists, notably, are given equal time as the reader sees them undercutting or second guessing the hero.  We know more than the protagonist knows, yet can’t quite figure out what it all means.

Whereas the big surprise occurs at the end of a mystery, when the protagonist fits the puzzle pieces together and presents the unexpected reality, a thriller deploys major surprises throughout, continually overturning the provisional reality and forcing reevaluation.  The more leisurely pace of the mystery allows more emphasis on characters’ backstories; the fast-paced multi-tasking of the thriller keeps physical action at the forefront.  Mysteries intrigue the mind; thrillers get the heart pounding.  See if you don’t think Satan’s Chamber manages the best of both worlds.

Writer Linda Adams in Joy of the Thriller, summarizes the differences between the thriller and a mystery.  “The thriller is about something bigger and more important at stake behind the murder that may endanger more lives.  Because the storylines are bigger, the plot itself becomes more complex . . . .A thriller may start out looking like it’s about one thing and then take a sudden turn and become something else . . . .And, of course, where would a thriller be without the action?  The action of thriller stories makes it perfect for feature films.  Because thrillers have so many diverse possibilities, there is something for everyone — and especially for readers who love action.” (The Joy of Thrillers, Vision: a Resource for Writers, September 2005)

Dreaming about publishing a book of your own? Thinking about the future for readers and writers alike? Katherine Rosman, writing for the Wall Street Journal, explores the challenges and changes for twenty-first century publishers in her recent article, “The Death of the Slush Pile.”

The slush pile refers to the stream of unsolicited manuscripts (that is, manuscripts without representation by an agent) received by large publishers. It used to be that publishing companies employed entry-level readers to sift through these offerings, in search of surprise gems. Philip Roth and Judith Guest (Ordinary People), for example, were slush pile discoveries. Obviously this strategy is more idealistic than cost-effective; thus in today’s industry, where the bottom-line rules, slush piles have become history.

Rosman explores some of the implications of this change. In short supply, coveted agents have become powerful gate-keepers, and now they are demanding clients with recommendations and track records. They are unwilling, by their own admission to take a shot on a new voice. Editors also admit anxiety that as the industry constricts, good stuff is slipping through the cracks. That’s where Fuze comes in, ready to catch some of those literate, exciting works by new authors.

Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703414504575001271351446274.html to read Rosman’s entire article.

Across the country, Jeff Baker, Book Editor for The Oregonian, profiled Fuze Publishing’s own Molly Best Tinsley in last week’s Arts and Entertainment section. He recounts the collaborative journey that led to the independent publication of Satan’s Chamber and praises the “can do” attitude behind the creation and development of Fuze Publishing. Baker also covers the four-night run of one of Molly’s short plays as part of Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival. An annual, ten-day celebration of new work by local writers and performers, Fertile Ground springs from much the same impulse that nourishes Fuze: the desire to preserve the creative spirit despite our corporate culture and to encourage the arts at the grass roots.

Read more about Molly’s lengthy career in Baker’s article: http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2010/01/molly_best_tinsley_oregon_book.html

Why Fuze Publishing?

–Because there are too many dedicated writers generating strong new work that is not reaching an audience.

A recent The New Yorker cartoon eavesdrops on a cocktail party conversation in an urban living room, someone asking, “Is there anyone here who isn’t self-publishing a book?” We don’t think that question implies a rise in vanity nationwide so much as a drop in the number of worthy writers being admitted through the gate into mainstream publishing.

–Because after decades of merger mania, book publishing has become a manufacturing industry, strait-jacketed by business models and marketing platforms rather than nourished by cultural and literary values.

In an article entitled “The Long Good-bye,” Elizabeth Sifton, grande dame of literary editors, recalls the 1990s when “the money men” invaded publishing, determined to raise profit margins from the traditional five to 15 percent. Sifton argues that “they had no confidence in books per se and knew nothing about writers or readers.” Increasingly they opted for what Sifton calls “book-like objects,” team-written, celebrity-driven commodities that stole shelf-space, ad budgets, and public attention from actual literature. (The Nation, June 8, 2009.)

In his Clairvoyant Culture, Inc. (Oxford University Press, 1989), Herbert Schiller includes the symbiosis between big publishing houses and national book-selling chains as furthering the commercialization of the book, discouraging subject matter that might be unpopular, unfamiliar, socially critical, or depressing, and thus lowering sales.

–Because the major publishing companies are in the process of demonstrating that you can be too big not to fail.

Did you know Random House, Knopf, Doubleday, Bantam, Dell, and half a dozen other imprints are all owned by the German-based company Bertelsmann? That’s big.

Even before the financial crisis of 2008, which left several imprints suspending acquisitions, mainstream publishing was freezing up, locked into bricks and mortar distribution through nation-wide chains, cold to experimentation, competing to overpay the same safe, popularly-vetted writers.

Dennis Stovall is director of Ooligan Press, the student-run centerpiece of Portland State University’s unique M. A. in Publishing. He thinks this is the perfect time to start up a small press, because everything is changing, “where the book is sold, what it’s read on.” The complete commodification of the book is failing. “I think we’re getting the book back,” he concludes. (www.writersdojo.org/Wells+Stovall+Ooligan)

So that’s why Fuze Publishing. One volume at a time, we want to get the book back too.

What do the following books have in common?

1. I, ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson
2. PIRATE LATITUDES, by Michael Crichton
3. THE LOST SYMBOL, by Dan Brown
4. UNDER THE DOME, by Stephen King
5. BREATHLESS, by Dean Koontz

For starters, they’re the New York Times‘ top five bestselling hardback novels. They are also all adventure novels that are written by men and feature male protagonists. While we may enjoy reading Dan Brown and Stephen King as much as you do, don’t you think it’s time for the New York Times bestsellers to represent a more diverse range of writers and characters? Satan’s Chamber breaks with the tradition of the thriller genre, by featuring strong female protagonists. But, don’t worry, fans, Satan’s Chamber is filled with strong male characters too.

When you’re thinking about gifts for your friends and family, consider a read that breaks the mold. If you’ve already read Satan’s Chamber, show your support for its prominent female characters by writing a review on Amazon.com, joining the Satan’s Chamber club on Facebook, buying a copy for a friend, or asking your local, independent bookstore to carry the novel.

Thank you!

The mystery of the Amazon.com ranking system is difficult to unravel. What we do know is that it is based on an algorithm and the rankings are updated hourly. What we also know is that when we make a sale through Amazon.com our ranking goes down (a good thing — the closer we get to number 1, the better!) and when readers who like the book post 5-star reviews the ranking goes down more.

So, for those of you who have read Satan’s Chamber and really like it, posting your positive response helps us. Your review can cover one or two main thoughts that you are left with after you have finished the book. No need to retell the story; just the fact you liked it is sufficient. To see current reviews, click here and scroll down the page until you get to the review section.