Last night, on my blog and Facebook, we had a new kind of book party for the launch of “The Story Of Rose: A Man And His Dog,” my first e-book original. I stayed up until 2 a.m. until the wine Maria brought me got to me and I dozed off. When I woke up my first e-book was spreading everywhere like a stiff breeze. Messages were pouring in from all over the world. I could feel it moving through the ether, watching the messages pile up. It was one of the most intimate and exciting book parties I have ever had.
And the party is still going on. According to Facebook stats, more than 5,000 people were on hand at my site at midnight for the book to be downloaded to people’s computers, Iphones and reading tablets. There are currently many thousands more following our discussions. I am eager to see how people feel about this very innovative book after they have read it.
We had running commentaries on the speed and ease with which Ibooks, Amazon, Bn.com were – or were not – transmitting the book. By 12:15 people were getting impatient. The books started flowing around 1 a.m. It was an extraordinary and very moving experience for me. I tried to greet each of the messagers – some from Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico – who reported on their downloading issues, their first use of Kindles and Ipads, their anxiety and guilt and buying an electronic book, their delight at seeing Rose remembered in words, still and moving images. Many people were very surprised and pleased at the price, so much so that they bought both the regular and enhanced editions ($2.99 and $3.99). I’m keeping the thread going all day, and as the messages came in, the book began rising on bestseller lists.
I heard from people who liked and disliked my work, from breeders, professors, computer geeks and old friends from my other lives. I was cranked up and could barely sleep. A dream come true.
People talked about their love of bookstores and their great concern for them, their attachment to paper books. They talked about their delighted shock at the ease and low cost of using the Ipads and Kindles to buy books, and how they were all buying more books and reading more because it was so easy and inexpensive. Some said they were holding on to the idea of the paperbook and just couldn’t buy “The Story Of Rose.” People argued that e-books are not books. People talked about how much they loved them. Many struggled to figure out how to read the book on computers and laptops without using a Kindle or Ipad. It was wonderful to have this real-time conversation with my readers, many of whom reported on their feelings about the book as they were reading it.
I did one marketing initiative that worked. I spent $50 to get Facebook to transmit the topic to my Facebook followers who were not on the blog at the moment, but had visited the page repeatedly, and I could see that this work and extended the reach of the discussion. I was able to reach roughly more than 9,000 people in this way. That’s a pretty big book party.
People came on to cheer me on, remember Rose, argue with me about putting Orson down. It was the outpouring of a new kind of community. This is not magical. I have worked on this blog and social media every day for years and I love it and am grateful for it – I am not sure I would be a writer today without it – and this book is a labor of love with great editing and support from my publisher. But I also sensed this new kind of community forming. I wanted to be a part of it. I am very grateful to be a part of it.
The Facebook thread will be running all day and beyond I will respond to the new messages. Tonight the conversation continues at 6 p.m. Battenkill Books, my local bookstore. Connie Brooks is good and open enough to allow this discussion of e-books in her store. We will talk about the impact of e-books on writing, reading, publishing and bookstores. I hope to continue this discussion on my book tour for “Dancing Dogs,” a paper book of short stories about people and animals to be published on September 25. And I will nag my editors to let me do another e-book. I want it to be about talking to animals. ( I’m showing up tonight with all the heavy guns – Maria, Lenore, Red.)