Selling books (was: Denis Johnson)

[Doug Millison]

There is a way to influence what books get stocked:  You can suggest that
the bookstore stock a certain title. That's one good thing about a good
independent store -- you can often talk to the person who owns it or who
buys the books, they often know something about the books they stock, and
they are often open to such suggestions, especially if you can tell them
who might be interested in such a book and why. It helps them "hand-sell" a
book, that is, recommend the book to specific customers. It works for
authors, too -- I'm editing a book for a guy who just published another
book a couple of weeks ago, and part of the promotional strategy
(independent of the effort the publisher is making, which is considerable)
is to get on the phone and start calling 10-15 bookstores a day around the
U.S. and ask if they have the book in stock:  a sign of interest in the
book from a potential customer indicates it might be a good book to have in
stock.

D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com