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Monday, August 23, 2010

What *exactly* is a "Poetry Bestseller?"

So, let's say your local B&N has 10 copies of a book by Charles Bukowski. That is a nice initial buy for a guy who tends to do well in B&N stores. That book could be displayed on a table, an endcap and faced-out in the section. Faced-out books sell 80% better than spined-out books. It catches the eye. And most Americans have trouble reading the titles of books on bookshelves. Assuming things in any particular bookstore are alphabetical to begin with. Which is a 30-70 proposition, especially in the low trafficked Poetry Section. Which unless you have a poet on staff is like the Herpes Section.

So what chance does your book have against Charles'? No chance. Yours, if it's even there, is just another tiny spine crushed between a bunch of other tiny spines. Without publisher backed placement dollars, an in-store event or major review attention (what poetry book gets that?) you gotta hope some totally turned-on person comes in and says, whoa, Rebecca Wolff has a new book. Cool.
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Posted by Suzanne at 9:40 AM
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1 comment:

Bubba said...

So, if you want YOUR book to sell, you just need to grab all the Charles Bukowski books on display, hide them in the Poetry section's shelves, then re-face the display with a supply of your own books?

Sounds like a plan, Stan!

1:29 PM

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Suzanne
Author of four poetry books including Whipsaw (Anhinga Press 2024) and Fixed Star (JackLeg Press 2022), as well as five chapbooks.

My poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Cincinnati Review, Denver Quarterly, North American Review, Salamander Magazine, South Dakota Review, Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, and elsewhere.

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