How Much Fame Do You Need?
Tonight, I was riding home and a radio promo with Mario, the young R&B singer from Baltimore, came on.
You know, the standard "Hey, this is Mario and you're listening to W-blah, blah, blah."
It got me thinking...how much fame does a person really need? When you're a singer (or writer) isn't it cool that you're doing what you love? Isn't it okay that you may be super well-known in some places but can probably still shop at the mall virtually everywhere else?
Mario's very well-known in his home state. But I'm not sure he has any national or international type fame status.
The thing is, the guy's a decent singer. He's certainly as talented as any other young, R&B singer out there. But, you know how fame is. It's a slippery, fickle mistress who dips out on you just when you thought you figured out what it took to keep her by your side.
Even though Mario, Chris Brown, Trey Songz and Ne-Yo could easily go neck and neck when it comes to a voal show down...well actually, I think Trey Songz voice is a bit thin and if it came down to song writing, Ne-Yo would beat the pants off all of them - still, fact is, they're all young, talented and vying for fame in the music game.
Where fame and popularity are concerned, Chris Brown is the hands down winner with Ne-Yo running a close second. I don't think Ne-Yo's mad, you know, because of that songwriting thing I already talked about.
But, at the end of the day, when you're producing material for public consumption and popularity equals sales (mostly) how much fame do you need to consider yourself successful?
A few months after Kensington offered me a contract, I asked my then-editor, something that amounted to did it matter where sales came from as long as they were sales. And she said no. She said if I sold 10,000+ copies all in Maryland it would be as good as selling 10,000 from all different parts of the world. She didn't care, just sell them babies.
And that makes sense. A sale is a sale is a sale.
Problem is, without any or with very little concentrated promotion from a publisher, it's up to an author to make tough decisions on how they play the fame game.
Unlike singers, who can do radio promo and get the attention of listeners in a wide area, it's pretty much all grass roots and pounding the lit event pavement for writers.
My website is a good tool. I love looking at the stats and seeing what part of the world people are discovering me and my books, from. But, I have no idea how many visitors actually go out and buy the book. I can only hope that exposure to the website plants a seed, at the very least.
Definitely face-to-face interaction works best. My library visits sent my Amazon ratings up a bit for a week or two. No idea how many books were actually purchased, but obviously some.
Obviously, you see my tracking methods are quite...inaccurate and unscientific!
But, the rankings rising at the same time as my six visits was not likely a coincidence. It was certainly proof enough for me that face-to-face (or in a singers case, ear-to-ear) works.
Now back to the original question...how much fame do I need?
Going off my library visits, I'll have to stand by the notion that "fame" or at least being recognized or known definitely impacts sales. And with that in mind, I'm all about being, if not famous, at least recognized (my book, I'm saying) within my state and region.
I haven't yet worked out my strategy to sell 10K+ books, just in the state of Maryland. But in due time. I'd love to try some sort of in-state promo blitz in the summer.
Hmmm...I think I'm going to need to do a loootttt more library visits.
You know, the standard "Hey, this is Mario and you're listening to W-blah, blah, blah."
It got me thinking...how much fame does a person really need? When you're a singer (or writer) isn't it cool that you're doing what you love? Isn't it okay that you may be super well-known in some places but can probably still shop at the mall virtually everywhere else?
Mario's very well-known in his home state. But I'm not sure he has any national or international type fame status.
The thing is, the guy's a decent singer. He's certainly as talented as any other young, R&B singer out there. But, you know how fame is. It's a slippery, fickle mistress who dips out on you just when you thought you figured out what it took to keep her by your side.
Even though Mario, Chris Brown, Trey Songz and Ne-Yo could easily go neck and neck when it comes to a voal show down...well actually, I think Trey Songz voice is a bit thin and if it came down to song writing, Ne-Yo would beat the pants off all of them - still, fact is, they're all young, talented and vying for fame in the music game.
Where fame and popularity are concerned, Chris Brown is the hands down winner with Ne-Yo running a close second. I don't think Ne-Yo's mad, you know, because of that songwriting thing I already talked about.
But, at the end of the day, when you're producing material for public consumption and popularity equals sales (mostly) how much fame do you need to consider yourself successful?
A few months after Kensington offered me a contract, I asked my then-editor, something that amounted to did it matter where sales came from as long as they were sales. And she said no. She said if I sold 10,000+ copies all in Maryland it would be as good as selling 10,000 from all different parts of the world. She didn't care, just sell them babies.
And that makes sense. A sale is a sale is a sale.
Problem is, without any or with very little concentrated promotion from a publisher, it's up to an author to make tough decisions on how they play the fame game.
Unlike singers, who can do radio promo and get the attention of listeners in a wide area, it's pretty much all grass roots and pounding the lit event pavement for writers.
My website is a good tool. I love looking at the stats and seeing what part of the world people are discovering me and my books, from. But, I have no idea how many visitors actually go out and buy the book. I can only hope that exposure to the website plants a seed, at the very least.
Definitely face-to-face interaction works best. My library visits sent my Amazon ratings up a bit for a week or two. No idea how many books were actually purchased, but obviously some.
Obviously, you see my tracking methods are quite...inaccurate and unscientific!
But, the rankings rising at the same time as my six visits was not likely a coincidence. It was certainly proof enough for me that face-to-face (or in a singers case, ear-to-ear) works.
Now back to the original question...how much fame do I need?
Going off my library visits, I'll have to stand by the notion that "fame" or at least being recognized or known definitely impacts sales. And with that in mind, I'm all about being, if not famous, at least recognized (my book, I'm saying) within my state and region.
I haven't yet worked out my strategy to sell 10K+ books, just in the state of Maryland. But in due time. I'd love to try some sort of in-state promo blitz in the summer.
Hmmm...I think I'm going to need to do a loootttt more library visits.
posted by Paula at 9:20 PM
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