Phil Foglio ([info]philfoglio) wrote,
2011-01-11 20:09:00
  • Location: Seattle
  • Mood: drained
  • Music: Sade/Diamond Life

Fretting

I believe I am anxious. This is a surprising emotion. You'd think I'd be used to it, having been a freelance comic book guy for close to 40 years now, but usually?  Not so much.

Tomorrow is our self proclaimed 'Girl Genius Day'. (It is also Kaja's birthday, and while I usually stress out over that, this year I actually got her a nice present, on time and everything).

No, January 12th is the day when we've told people to go out and Buy The New Girl Genius Novel! In an attempt to make a bit of a splash in the jaded, cynical world of prose publishing.

Originally, we had been told that the book would be released on January 5th. Okay, we'd ask people to wait a week, but that would just guarantee that the book would have time to be delivered to wholesalers, who would get it to the shops. Well oh hey, guess what?  It was actually released with absolutely no fanfare in late December. This was when we learned that hard and fast book release dates are only for books in the Harry Potter league. We are nowhere near this, obviously, and thus the operating procedure is to ship stuff out before the ink is dry and start selling. Okay, fine, but If you go to the Night Shade Books site, they show that the book is Sold Out.

PANIC!!

Well a quick e-mail to said publisher and the panic has abated a bit. Everybody thinks this book is going to do well, so everybody "ordered heavy", so they'll have a lot of books ready to meet demand. Great. Now there's performance anxiety. And the publisher is still sold out, but they fully expect that they will have to reprint. The question is when. Thus they are now waiting to see how quickly the shops and wholesalers "sell through' on the books they have in stock.

Okay, okay. So the book's been out for a while now, and we don't know how it'll do, because we, by our own actions, have artificially repressed sales. Or Have we? Maybe January 12th will speed past and there won't be a sales bump at all. See? There's all sorts of ways I can drive myself crazy. We are not used to this. Up until now, we were the publisher. We dealt with the distributor, and had a direct line as to how our books were selling before it even came out. Hells Belles, we won't even put it up on the Studio Foglio web store until January 13.

Luckily, we are doing signings for the rest of the week, and thus there will be something for me to do besides fret and constantly hit 'refresh' on the Amazon author tracking site. Hopefully we'll see you there.
Tags: amazon, girl genius, publishing, stress

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  • 28 comments

[info]sveethot

January 12 2011, 04:17:09 UTC 1 year ago

Relax. Take a deep breath and have a nice cuppa tea. Hell, add a splash of sumpnsumpn. I'll see you tomorrow on Amazon. And give Kaja a birthday hug, k? And take one for yourself, too!

[info]captain_slinky

January 12 2011, 04:31:03 UTC 1 year ago

I was going to wait till ECCC to buy my copy, get it signed and sketchified (through manipulation and treachery, no doubt), but now... would you rather that I just go ahead and buiy it on Amazon tomorrow morning?

[info]captain_slinky

January 12 2011, 17:59:03 UTC 1 year ago

HOLEY SMOKES it was down around # 450 when I looked last night, but today after my purchase it's at #39! TOP 100 BAYBEEE!!!

[info]selenesue

January 12 2011, 04:34:19 UTC 1 year ago

Aw, sweetie darling, darling sweetie, this book is going to do GREAT. Go to your signing party, draw fun pictures and do whatever you can to stay AWAY from the computer and click-click-clicking on Amazon. Your devotees will take care of everything. Honest.

[info]solipsistnation

January 12 2011, 04:50:58 UTC 1 year ago

You're going to post a reminder tomorrow, right? I'll be at work and I might not remember...

[info]bladespark

January 12 2011, 05:43:50 UTC 1 year ago

:D I'll be ordering one tomorrow. I'm sure my solitary purchase fills you with confidence, but ever bit helps, I'm sure. :D

[info]bladespark

January 12 2011, 11:26:59 UTC 1 year ago

Have now ordered. :) It was ranked at #433 after I bought mine. I rather suspect that there's going to be a sales bump.

[info]gamingkitty

1 year ago

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[info]archangelbeth

1 year ago

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[info]solipsistnation

1 year ago

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[info]hawkfist

January 12 2011, 06:17:26 UTC 1 year ago

If I was anywhere near your coast, I'd have driven up, even from San Jose... alas, I am exiled to Colorado Springs for my sins. But I will read it in front of the gamer geeks at Verizon tomorrow, along with a stack of the business cards of the comic shop which has them on the shelf!

[info]amigoid

January 12 2011, 16:07:13 UTC 1 year ago

Hi Neighbor!

I posted in the internal company web at Cricket to go buy the book today! Perhaps we should have a contest to see which company fanbase buys more copies! I'm getting a hardcopy today, to make sure it has the biggest impact, and buying a digital copy on payday to install on my HTC Incredible with Aldiko e-reader.

[info]beth_leonard

January 12 2011, 07:28:12 UTC 1 year ago

We're staying up late tonight to order it just after midnight.
--Beth

[info]lisa_marli

January 12 2011, 08:37:59 UTC 1 year ago

It is 12:31 am on Jan 12th!
This means I've just ordered Girl Genius from Amazon.
Wish I could be at a signing. But we live in San Jose and that is a heck of a drive.

[info]tarmaque

January 12 2011, 09:06:11 UTC 1 year ago

Hmm. I wonder if there'll be any left over at Powells if I head over there on Saturday. I need to go in to Portland anyway. (Wish I could make it up to the book signing, but that's not in the cards.)

[info]davidgoldfarb

January 12 2011, 09:27:56 UTC 1 year ago

Just ordered mine from Amazon.

[info]jcobleigh

January 12 2011, 12:20:38 UTC 1 year ago Edited:  January 13 2011, 02:58:17 UTC

Just ordered my copy from Amazon. Happy Birthday Kaja!

[info]tadprime

January 12 2011, 12:50:48 UTC 1 year ago

Operation KajaGift completed, sah! (said in the style of an old English Sergeant-Major)

[info]aylinn

January 12 2011, 14:29:47 UTC 1 year ago

What he said.

[info]amigoid

January 12 2011, 16:03:27 UTC 1 year ago

Book Order Placed - Happy Birthday Kaja

Phil, with literally the last $20 in my account, I bought the book today.

We'll see how fast Amazon fills the order.
After I get paid on Friday, I am also buying the ebook version, which will mark the first digital book I have ever bought for my Android.

I wanted to know if there is a way I can buy an autographed copy to give to my Niece.

[info]mg4h

January 12 2011, 17:03:29 UTC 1 year ago

Bought! Current ranking:
# Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #52 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

* #3 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
* #3 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
* #4 in Books > Entertainment > Humor > Satire, General

YAY!

[info]sveethot

January 12 2011, 17:31:59 UTC 1 year ago

Book purchased. That noise you hear is the book's rating zooming ever upwards!

[info]spiffystuff

January 12 2011, 20:09:22 UTC 1 year ago

I got my book too, and it looks like it's poised to break into the top 20! Hope you and Kaja have a great day together!

[info]sparkylibrarian

January 12 2011, 21:02:28 UTC 1 year ago

After my order:


Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #21 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

* #1 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
* #1 in Books > Entertainment > Humor > Satire
* #1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Comic

[info]annechen_melo

January 12 2011, 21:30:40 UTC 1 year ago

Two things to say to you - the serenade caught me by surprise, but since there are MULTIPLE days of this, perhaps it could make you fret less: http://radioriel.blogspot.com/2011/01/girl-genius-days-jan-12-13-14.html
That is right, an internet radio station is dedicating three days of programming to the cause.

Also - have bought the book and we are also working on getting the Amazon.uk numbers up as well.

[info]jcobleigh

January 13 2011, 00:48:08 UTC 1 year ago

WOOT!

Right now:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #19 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

#1 in Books > Entertainment > Humor > Satire
#1 in Books > Entertainment > Humor > Satire, General
#1 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

[info]reverancepavane

January 13 2011, 02:25:02 UTC 1 year ago

And on Book Depository it is currently 922/1000 on the best sellers list. The fun bit is that yesterday shifted it up a total of 7,666 places in the rankings.

[info]lilfluff

January 13 2011, 18:04:09 UTC 1 year ago

Hey, it's the next day and it's still:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #24 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

#2 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
#2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Comic
#2 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

Ahead of the second Hunger Games book, ahead of The Girl Who Played With Fire, even ahead of Kieth Richard's Life.

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