I had lunch today with Chris Bigelow, my publisher at Zarahemla Books. It was fun, as it always is. We shared gossip and talked about future projects, both joint and individual, and about my recent review of Doug Thayer’s book The Tree House (also published by Zarahemla Books) — and about the fact that we seem to be running out of ideas for ways to publicize No Going Back.
Here’s a short list of some of the things we’ve done:
So I did my appearance at King’s English bookstore in Salt Lake City as part of their Local Author Showcase. And it was a lot of fun.
So guess what? I’m scheduled to appear at King’s English bookstore in Salt Lake City at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 13, as part of a Local Author Showcase. The way I understand it, four other authors and I will each read for up to five minutes from our books, answer questions, and sign book copies. Woo-hoo! My first reading/book signing! For more details, read here.
Cross-posted at A Motley Vision website.
I was over at Amazon.com the other day, trying to figure out someplace to post about my book in the Mormon community. I mean, I was able to find a couple of places to post in the Gay etc. community. Surely there ought to be a place to post in the Mormon community
The last week or so has been kind of bittersweet from my perspective. The Whitney Awards were announced, and while I was very pleased to have been a finalist, I was unsurprised to discover that I didn’t win the award in my category. (The person who did win the award, Jamie Ford, is a very fine author whose book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, is the one I thought probably would win, so I’m not complaining.)
On January 19, 2010, the Daily Universe, BYU’s student newspaper, ran a feature article on No Going Back that made the paper’s front page, sharing headlines with Haiti. They’d interviewed me the week before, and apparently also contacted Rex Goode, whose discussions on AML-List helped spark my initial ideas for the story, and Steve Walker, my old BYU English professor who read and endorsed the book in glowing terms.
Yeah, I’m still on Christmas break. But I couldn’t resist the temptation to post something. And so…
Getting comments from readers of my novel has given me a new appreciation of Tolkien’s observation that elements of his book that “are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved.” Despite this, it seems to me that there have been some common themes among those who like my book. The following list, then represents (in unranked order) my summary of some of the top reasons why I think No Going Back is worth reading — based on reader responses to date, together with my own thinking. (Or — to put it another way — no one else seems to be beating down the door to list all the reasons why my novel is wonderful, so I need to do it myself.) Please feel free to read, respond, and (hopefully) add reasons of your own! (more…)
Each week, I get a report from Chris Bigelow, my publisher, on how many copies have sold to date through our national distributor. Yesterday, the number was 49. Chris informed me that he’s also sold about 30-40 directly (including, I think, 12 copies for the BYU Bookstore). And I’ve sold a few myself, mostly to members of my ward, plus a couple to the local LDS bookstore in Oakdale, Minnesota. So it looks like we’re creeping up to that big one-double-zero! Yay rah, go team.
There are times when I feel like I’ve been personally involved in every sale so far. That seems very odd to me. I’ve never been adept at sales, and there’s some part of me that feels like it’s somehow not entirely proper for me as an author to be out there peddling my own books. A much bigger part asks, if I’m not going to peddle them, who will — and why should they care?
I’ve been wondering recently just what it is that keeps some readers from wanting to look at No Going Back, prompted in part by several comments on a blog from people who said they’d seen descriptions of the book and decided they didn’t want to read it. One of them will now be reading the book and writing a review. I’ll be interested to find out what she thinks of it, and whether her fears/presuppositions turn out to be justified. (This was originally written several weeks ago. See below for the rest of the story.)
In the meantime… What is it about my book that pushes some people — natural members of the audience I’m trying to reach with the book (adults, readers, believing members of the LDS faith) — away from a choice to read?
Talking with Readers
Saturday, August 28th, 2010One of the best parts of having written No Going Back has been the chance to have conversations with readers of the book: Mormons, non-Mormons, ex-Mormons; literary readers, nonliterary readers, occasional readers; those with firsthand experience of homosexuality, those with secondhand knowledge, and those with little direct knowledge. Partly that’s because I think the themes of the book are important, and I like talking about them. And partly it’s because I find it fascinating — and instructive — to find out what my own writing looks like through other people’s eyes.
(more…)
Tags: homosexuality, Jonathan Langford, Mormon, No Going Back, North Star, reader comments, reader responses, readings
Posted in Homosexuality and Mormonism, Marketing | No Comments »