Episode #78: What To Do When Your Book Underperforms
Grace and Alvina discuss what it means for a book to underperform, and what an author can do when that happens.
* Grace’s 2021 Where The Mountain Meets the Moon Trilogy Calendar is now for sale online at the Eric Carle Museum! Check out these gorgeous calendar pages and more books from Grace Lin at the online museum shop!
Grace and her daughter hold up the 2021 Where The Mountain Meets the Moon Trilogy Calendars.
“How have you been?”
Alvina has been living in Vermont and the the big news this week was that she bought a car! She has been thinking about buying one for awhile now so that she can get in out of the city and probably do some back and forth driving from NY to VT. She purchased a blue Prius in Burlington at Earthycars.com! She was looking for an environmentally-friendly vehicle. They named the car “Eartha”.
Based on conversations about managing daily routines in last week’s episode, Grace has been getting up a little bit earlier each day and doing less walking so that she can make more time for creative work. She finally launched the Patreon page for her other podcast, Kids Ask Authors!
When Books Underperform
First, Alvina defines “underperforming” from a publisher’s point of view: When a book did not sell as many copies as you expected it to and didn’t budget for.
Grace defines underperforming from an author’s point of view as having many layers to it. The first one is the most heartbreaking; you know the book just can’t find its audience but you’re not really sure why. As an example, when her book Where The Mountain Meets The Moon came out, it was very successful. Then Starry River of the Sky which Grace thought would do just as well, didn’t quite reach people. She loved the book, it wasn’t a total flop, but it just didn’t connect to readers the same way.
Then there are sales and reviews. This is a really tough part of underperforming to deal with. Just as A Big Mooncake for Little Star got a number of starred reviews, the follow-up book, A Big Bed for Little Snow, only received one star review. Sales is another tough part of underperforming. Like the Mulan movie and book being released right around the start of the Pandemic. It wasn’t necessarily that the book was a failure, it just was released at a bad time. Grace is willing to bet many artists have been struggling with this same thing during the pandemic. It’s tough when the expectations are so high and then something underperforms in circumstances out of your control.
What to do when your book underperforms:
Alvina suggests maybe trying a different genre and not necessarily writing about the exact same thing in the same waym but don’t give up completely. At the end of the day though, she is saying “write the book you feel you are meant to write". It might mean a lower advance pay, but that will not always determine your salary. The advance is really based on how many books the publisher thinks they will be able to sell. She explains “joint accounting” which is when an advance you get for each book pulls into one advance. The first book typically does the best just like in movies. Alvina goes on to explain that you really just never know how, if, or when some kind of magic will help a book in sales and popularity. Some people are very media savvy or you never know when that one person might be promoting your book in some way that can result in thousands of copies.
She recommends a push to do pre-orders. Pre-orders tied into book launch are successful. In reality, hitting the best seller lists might not actually mean you’re selling that many copies for very long.
Grace’s reaction to a book underperforming is to first wallow in self pity and feel sad. Then, you have to get back up and write the next book. That’s really all you can do. When a book underperforms, it can lead into imposter syndrome just like we spoke about at the SCBWI Conference. Grace sometimes thinks, O.k. maybe the world doesn’t need my work or my art but the truth is, I still need to make my art. “When I take that attitude, my only choice is to sit up and write the next book.”
What are you grateful for?
Alvin is grateful for maple creamee’s! A maple flavored rich soft-serve specialty ice cream in Vermont.
Grace is grateful for the opportunity to create a Little Free Library! It even has glow-in-the dark stars painted on it! She’s also very grateful for her husband. She sent him to the vet with one of their chickens who wasn’t laying any eggs. When he got there, he learned that Grace had the wrong date of the appointment! She’s grateful for his patience and understanding.
2-Minute Book Review with Alison Morris:
“Measuring Up” by Lily LaMotte and illustrated by Ann Xu. Coming October 22nd!
A book about bias, privilege, and the connections between food and culture identity.
“A satisfying and surprisingly suspenseful story of food identity, pride, and friendship that I thoroughly enjoyed and feel certain kids will to.”
Alison Morris is a nationally recognized children's book buyer with an infectious enthusiasm for reading and 20 years' experience matching books to readers. As the Senior Director of Title Selection for nonprofit First Book, she oversees the curation of children’s and young adult books on the First Book Marketplace, hand-selecting a diverse range of titles that speak to and address the needs of kids in underserved communities, with a keen eye to inclusion, authenticity, and kid-appeal. She previously served as Senior Editor at Scholastic Book Clubs, Children's Book Buyer for Wellesley Booksmith and The Dartmouth Bookstore, and was the founding blogger of the ShelfTalker children’s book blog for Publishers Weekly. She'll be joining us from her home near Washington, DC where she spends LOTS of time discussing books with her husband, illustrator and graphic novelist Gareth Hinds.
