The decision to sell THE PROVIDENCE OF DEATH at locally owned stores was not the result of original thinking. Many years ago, as part of the journalism program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, one of the required courses was in advertising. A guest lecturer during that class was a Coca-Cola representative. He said that better than ninety-five percent of Americans surveyed knew the name, Coca-Cola, proof that the corporation’s marketing efforts were successful.
However, he said marketing was not enough to guarantee sales. There had to be a sales plan that included two elements. First, The product has to be placed WHERE the customers are, in a position WHERE it can be seen. The second element of successful sales was POS (point of sale) advertising that changes periodically. He said that an experiment was held in a sales region near the home of Coca-Cola, Atlanta, Ga., that proved this latter point. For a period of time, all POS advertising was eliminated in some stores, not changed in others. He said the sales drop in the region during the test period reached “double digits.”
I knew that manufacturing reps paid for product placement in grocery stores. And I’d been told had that the big displays immediately inside the front door at Barnes & Noble come about the same way. Money changed hands. That was what led me to decide to be the only fish in several little ponds, rather than be buried alphabetically among dozens of other books on a shelf somewhere in the fiction section.
When THE PROVIDENCE OF DEATH went on sale at these local sites, POS advertising was a part of each sales site, but for a period of time, it was not changed. After the initial surge, sales dropped off. Now that the POS copy is changed on a periodic basis, there has been a measurable increase in sales.
Many folks may not equate peddling books with soap, cereal, or soft drinks, but the principle is the same. Like the producers of these products, folks involved in book selling need both a marketing and sales plan. In today’s world, on-line efforts have become the major venue for marketing. But it like the rep from Cola-Cola said, there also must be a sales plan, a method to put books before the buyers, and continue to grab their attention with new POS advertising.
WELCOME TO THE VIRTUAL HOME OF BRONSON L. PARKER. A native of Tennessee, "Bo" is a former journalist and writer of historical non-fiction. His creative writing career began after retirement from his day job as an appointed public servant in his adopted town of Hampton, VA. "It isn't a gipe site," he says. "If I enjoy something I read, or learn something about the writing game that I think is worthwhile, I'll have a few comments to make. His goal is to make it a fun site, both to write and, hopfully, to read.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sinclair Lewis .... Upton Sinclair .... and..... Jane Haddam?
Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, and…. Jane Haddam?
Yes.
Lewis and Sinclair used the novel to take readers beyond the façade of our society to reveal and explain issues not easily seen, understood, and often ignored. Jane Haddam does the same with complex interpersonal and social issues that exist in today’s world.
She takes readers to a prep school campus where scholarship is confused with intelligence; to a movie location where actors gain public attention with behavior instead of talent; to a small town where local residents look with scorn and resentment at a fellow native who achieves success on a national scale. The rest of Haddam's plots are as varied as these three examples.
For readers who want murder, Haddam includes one. Sometimes, there are two, or even more. To solve these crimes, she had created the character, Gregor Demarkian, a former head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, now retired, and living in Philadelphia. He is not a private detective. He abhors the concept. He is a crime consultant. Sometimes, he gets paid, sometimes, he does not.
This character, oft called an American-Armenian Hercule Poirot, has been the central character in Haddam’s work through twenty-seven novels since his first appearance in NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, published in 1990. At times, Demarkian’s demeanor could be compared to Colombo, the TV character portrayed by the late Peter Faulk. They both think a lot faster and deeper than outwards appearances convey.
However, readers should be prepared for much more than a murder on page four, fourteen, or at the latest, page forty-four, with the rest of the book devoted to a simplified process of determining whodunit. The crimes with which Demarkian becomes involved are not simple ones.
People impacted by the crimes have other daily issues to face, ones not erased, but often exacerbated by the situation. There may be a direct connection between these issues, or maybe not. This is the beauty of Haddam’s writing, part of the puzzle. It is Demarkian’s task to look at the crime, look at the issues, and sort through them to identify the guilty party. It’s this aspect of the novels that elevate them above the average whodunit.
While the author mixes social issues with murder, she does not hit the reader over the head with a point of view. She uses Demarkian, with his slow, questioning, but always-focused thoughts and questions, to shine a light on them. They become a natural part of his investigation. This approach not only presents elements of the issues, but their potential consequences that the reader might never consider on his or her own.
Those who open a Haddam novel should not expect an easy read. She is one of the few novelists writing today who appears to have experienced enough of life to understand the human condition at its deepest roots. And she is one of the few with the talent to pass on to the reader what she has come to know through that experience.
Yes.
Lewis and Sinclair used the novel to take readers beyond the façade of our society to reveal and explain issues not easily seen, understood, and often ignored. Jane Haddam does the same with complex interpersonal and social issues that exist in today’s world.
She takes readers to a prep school campus where scholarship is confused with intelligence; to a movie location where actors gain public attention with behavior instead of talent; to a small town where local residents look with scorn and resentment at a fellow native who achieves success on a national scale. The rest of Haddam's plots are as varied as these three examples.
For readers who want murder, Haddam includes one. Sometimes, there are two, or even more. To solve these crimes, she had created the character, Gregor Demarkian, a former head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, now retired, and living in Philadelphia. He is not a private detective. He abhors the concept. He is a crime consultant. Sometimes, he gets paid, sometimes, he does not.
This character, oft called an American-Armenian Hercule Poirot, has been the central character in Haddam’s work through twenty-seven novels since his first appearance in NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, published in 1990. At times, Demarkian’s demeanor could be compared to Colombo, the TV character portrayed by the late Peter Faulk. They both think a lot faster and deeper than outwards appearances convey.
However, readers should be prepared for much more than a murder on page four, fourteen, or at the latest, page forty-four, with the rest of the book devoted to a simplified process of determining whodunit. The crimes with which Demarkian becomes involved are not simple ones.
People impacted by the crimes have other daily issues to face, ones not erased, but often exacerbated by the situation. There may be a direct connection between these issues, or maybe not. This is the beauty of Haddam’s writing, part of the puzzle. It is Demarkian’s task to look at the crime, look at the issues, and sort through them to identify the guilty party. It’s this aspect of the novels that elevate them above the average whodunit.
While the author mixes social issues with murder, she does not hit the reader over the head with a point of view. She uses Demarkian, with his slow, questioning, but always-focused thoughts and questions, to shine a light on them. They become a natural part of his investigation. This approach not only presents elements of the issues, but their potential consequences that the reader might never consider on his or her own.
Those who open a Haddam novel should not expect an easy read. She is one of the few novelists writing today who appears to have experienced enough of life to understand the human condition at its deepest roots. And she is one of the few with the talent to pass on to the reader what she has come to know through that experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)