By Steven Pressfield | Published: January 10, 2011
Scott Oden, author of The Lion of Cairo
Hailing from the hills of rural North Alabama, Scott Oden’s fascination with far-off places began when his oldest brother introduced him to the staggering and savage vistas of Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb. Though Oden started writing his own tales at the age of fourteen, it would be many years before anything would come of it. In the meantime, he had a brief and tempestuous fling with academia before retiring to the private sector, where he worked the usual roster of odd jobs—from delivering pizza to stacking paper in the bindery of a printing company to clerking at a video store. Nowadays, Oden writes full-time from his family home near Somerville. The Lion of Cairo is his third novel. (more…)
By Shawn Coyne | Published: January 7, 2011
My last post was about the tried-and-true book publishing methods of making sure that the most important element of publication—getting books in stores and displayed—is successful. Selling-in a book at the retail and wholesale level is vitally important. So the early discussion at our December 1, 2010, marketing/publicity meeting at Crown covered this ground. Here is what is planned for The Profession.
- Crown will feature The Profession as a lead title in its summer 2011 catalog. A publisher’s catalog is a sales rep’s calling card. Getting featured placement in it is crucial to launch a bestseller campaign.
- Crown will produce advance reading galleys of The Profession (an early copy of the book in a paperback format) and distribute them to its sales force in January 2011, five months before the book goes on sale. Crown’s sales reps—the people who actually solicit orders—will read the book and pass on copies to the buyers and bookstore managers at the major chains before they ask them for an order.
- An additional quantity of galleys will be given to Steve and me to solicit advance praise for the book from big thriller writers—just like we did with Gates of Fire. Armed with these quotes and having many of the buyers read the book before ordering, the sales reps will be in a better position to convince retailers to take a big position. That is, bookstore buyers will order a critical mass of copies (enough out there to make the bestseller list out of the gate) of The Profession and display the book prominently in their stores.
- As many retailers and wholesalers have e-newsletters that target consumers, Crown’s marketing and publicity departments also suggested that Steve do an interview with them to give deep background about the genesis of the book and how he came to write it. The interview will help in the pitch to the editors of these newsletters to include The Profession in their “Hot Picks” for summer reading. The interview will also be included in the galley hand-off so that those bookstore managers or buyers who wouldn’t ordinarily read a book with a military theme can get a sense of the craft and its raison d’être.
(more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: January 5, 2011
My friend Paul is writing a cop novel (I mentioned this in an earlier post, on the subject of trusting your instincts, even the darker ones–particularly the darker ones.) Paul has written screenplays and stuff for TV, but he’s never tackled a novel, which is really his native medium. At the same time, he’s writing more from his true center than he ever has. Paul’s about halfway through and, though he puts up a brave front when I ask him how he’s feeling, I can tell from his eyes that he’s in full panic mode. He looks like a rabbit caught in the open with a hawk dive-bombing onto him at 120 per. He is paralyzed with Resistance.
Have you ever seen these eyes in the mirror?
My message to Paul is this: panic is good.
We panic when we find ourselves on a threshold. We freak when we discover ourselves on the cusp of moving to a higher level. That’s what’s happening now with Paul.
Did you ever see Marianne Williamson’s famous quote about fear of success?
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. (more…)
