The tone and nature of marketing for a book (I think I just pissed off my publisher)

[Feo Takahari]

The good news is, my slow-paced meditation on the nature of heroism got published. The bad news is, it got published under the title Blood Price, complete with an actiony cover and blurb. I posted this comment on the publisher's newsletter:

I don't mean to disrespect you, and I've rewritten this comment a bunch of times to try to find a polite way to say this, but is it really a good move to give my story a blurb that makes it sound like a gritty thriller? Titling it Blood Price was bad enough--I'm kind of afraid the folks who'd pick it up with this blurb would be bored by how slow and thoughtful it is.

The publisher basically just chewed me out, albeit in a really polite way. I'm not sure how much I can quote from what's probably supposed to be private correspondence, but the upshot is that he's marketing the book as an adventure story for the 16-18 market, and calling your book "slow and thoughtful" is something you should never, ever do for the 16-18 market.

What on Earth do I do now? I have no idea how to promote a book like it's gritty and actiony, to say nothing of what folks will think when they actually read it and realize they were lied to. Do I try to do so anyway, do I piss off the publisher and try to find an audience who'd enjoy it, or do I just stand back and let the publisher follow through on whatever plan he's got? (His plan apparently involves book signings and convention appearances, so I'll probably have to talk about the book at some point.)

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I don't mean to sound critical but why did you postthis on some sort of newsletter? Isn't that just salting the wound? Surely it would have been a hundred times better to simply send him an email instead of criticising him in front of others.

Still what's done is done. I would suggest an apology. And at the end of the day you go with his plan as far as possible. He is after all supposed to know how to sell books. And he should know something about your book I assume. So sit back, let him do his job, and wait to see what comes. Then you can deal with it if it comes back as you fear it might. Or you can be pleasantly surprised.

Congrats on being pubbed.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Steerpike]

Blood Price is the name of a Tanya Huff vampire urban fantasy novel. That's the first thing I thought of when I saw the title.

Wouldn't all of these details, including where the book will be placed, how it will be marketed (and to what audience) have been determined prior to your agreeing to allow the publisher to take on the book? If they weren't, they should have been. Just out of curiosity, given that this looks like a very small publisher, what advantages are you getting out of them that you wouldn't get self-publishing? I ask because it sounds like you are not happy with them anyway.

 

[Mythopoet]

Blood Price is the name of a Tanya Huff vampire urban fantasy novel. That's the first thing I thought of when I saw the title.

According to Amazon there are two books titled Blood Price and two others titled The Price of Blood. However, Feo's book is not for sale there.

Wouldn't all of these details, including where the book will be placed, how it will be marketed (and to what audience) have been determined prior to your agreeing to allow the publisher to take on the book? If they weren't, they should have been. Just out of curiosity, given that this looks like a very small publisher, what advantages are you getting out of them that you wouldn't get self-publishing? I ask because it sounds like you are not happy with them anyway.

As far as I know, these things are not generally decided before the contract is signed. The author usually trusts the publisher to take care of these things. There are generally few or no details about how the publisher will do these things in the contract, it ends up being at the sole discretion of the publisher.

Feo, it's unfortunate, but it looks like this publisher has no idea what it's doing. Why isn't your book on Amazon? Why did they choose a title that is already in use multiple times? Why is your cover so awful? Why does the cover say Martin White but the book is listed on Smashwords as being by Matt White? Why did the publisher acquire the book as is if they intend to market it as something else? The whole situation seems like a mess. But to be honest, why did you sign with a tiny publisher with a wordpress website?

There's probably not much you can do at this point. If I were you, I'd focus on writing the next book and self publishing it.

 

[Steerpike]

According to Amazon there are two books titled Blood Price and two others titled The Price of Blood. However, Feo's book is not for sale there.

Yeah. I just knew Huff's work because she's well known, and I read it all those years ago. It is one of the earliest modern vampire UF novels I think.

As far as I know, these things are not generally decided before the contract is signed. The author usually trusts the publisher to take care of these things. There are generally few or no details about how the publisher will do these things in the contract, it ends up being at the sole discretion of the publisher.

Yeah, maybes that's true. One acquaintance who has a traditional publishing contract (with Macmillan) did go through all of that before hand, and on a first novel no less. In her case, they wanted her to rewrite some of her book, so maybe that is why. She submitted it as a straight up fantasy, and they wanted to market it as a fantasy romance, so they asked her to rewrite to focus more on the romantic angle, and also to remove a child's death from the book, which they felt would be unduly heavy material for a romance.

 

[Devor]

First, do people who have read your book agree with the phrase "slow and thoughtful"? I've seen too many people who are bad at describing and understanding themselves and their work. I don't mean to challenge you - I mean, I have no idea what your work is like - but I don't want to assume everything at face value and give you bad advice because of it.

The professional thing to do in your situation is to tow the line until some time after you can find an amicable way to end the relationship.