Robbi and I have been making books together for ten years now. We were living together in Massachusetts when we finished our first collaboration, an odd, nonlinear, episodic meditation on the turmoil of adolescence called A Bully Named Chuck. When we were done, we struggled to print, trim, and bind five copies, which we gave to our parents and best friends. That’s about as far as it went. We made a book because we wanted to make a book. But very few people have ever actually read it.
Things are different in the commercial book world, where books are made to be sold. Which means that there are people whose job it is to sell them. Diane, our publicist for Ten Thousand Stories, sent a press release and info about Robbi and me to hundreds of blogs and magazines, hoping that someone would bite. Last week, she sent us some links.
We got a nice write-up on Design Crush.
A mention in the Swiss Miss Friday Link Pack (which just about made Robbi’s year; she’s a huge fan).
And a wonderfully creative tribute on hello lovely, who paid us the ultimate compliment of calling Ten Thousand Stories an “offbeat gem.”
We heard from our editor that the book is selling well so far, but that the coming holiday season will determine whether or not it’s truly a success. Which may well determine whether we get to publish any more books with Chronicle.
As you think ahead to your holiday shopping, keep in mind that Ten Thousand Stories might be the perfect gift: a book that can never actually be finished. Perfect for the coffee table. Perfect for entertaining dinner guests while you finish in the kitchen.
And, in keeping with the theme of this post, if you have read Ten Thousand Stories and have something nice to say about it, we’d be hugely appreciative if you’d stroll on over to the Ten Thousand Stories Amazon page and leave a customer review. I heard a story on NPR last week that said that reviews are so important to driving sales on Amazon that products with negative reviews sell better than products with no reviews.
So if you want to rant and rail, have at it. But if you want to say nice things, that would be ok with us too.
Here’s the link. Just scroll down to the “Customer Reviews” section.
And thanks. We don’t like asking you for things, but in this case, it could really help.
I’m admittedly the furthest thing from a marketing expert, but it strikes me that the neverendingness of “Ten Thousand Stories” would make it the perfect reading material for bathrooms everywhere. No need to clutter the throne room w/ dozens of dogeared, outdated copies of ‘People’ & ‘Vanity Fair’ when a single piece of literature can suffice to provide endless, never-repeating stories of an appropriate length for those, um, activities. Could be a heretofore unexploited niche. Titans have emerged from far humbler ones.
Stu: This is an excellent framework for your Amazon review. Go to it!
Stu: I never thought that someday my work might be included in the near-unattainable literary echelon of bathroom-reading. And I must admit – who wouldn’t want to feel like they’re accomplishing so much on the pot? Reading TEN THOUSAND STORIES while dropping a load?! That’s impressive.
Also: I’m not sure if that would constitute a positive or negative Amazon review. But as we learned last week, it apparently doesn’t really matter.