April 10, 2006
One of my college friend's father worked in international sales for a multinational pharmaceutical company. He used to proudly boast: "I can sell shit in tinfoil!"

He was one of those natural born salesmen, and he probably could sell shit in tinfoil, if the occasion called for it.

My thought when he said this was: "Once."

Because unless you can convince people they have a recurring need for shit in tinfoil, they're not going to buy it more than once.

I've often thought this was a rather, er, pungent analogy for selling books. I don't know if it's just the current state of the industry, or that blogs have convinced people that selling and promoting and marketing is more important than actually learning to write well. Maybe it's just my perception. Most aspiring novelists figure that if they can just get an agent they'll have it made. Then, if I just get a book contract, I'll have it made. If I just get...

Selling and promotion and marketing is a part of the gig, no doubt about it. But, as PJ Parrish recently noted, this is a marathon, not a sprint. If you create a good product--repeatedly--you will hopefully build an audience over time, at least you will if you have a publisher with some patience. And if you as a writer have some patience.

But I do honest to god think all novelists run the risk of trying to sell shit in tinfoil, of "phoning" it in. You have to keep raising the bar for yourself, if for no other reason that readers are fickle and are just as likely to say, "Yeah, loved the first one, but this one wasn't so hot," whether it is or not.

I'm a little troubled by all the energy and words spent on promotion, promotion, promotion.

There's a car company called General Motors that's been struggling with this quality issue for 30 or 40 years. And I can't help but feel that they might have been better off trying to build good cars that people wanted to buy, rather than trying to figure out how to target a vehicle to the 22 to 30 age-set or to women, etc.

But maybe that's just me.

Best,
Mark Terry