A few months ago, I was asked and agreed to participate in a first of its kind literary event at the Berkeley County-Martinsburg Public Library here in my new West Virginia hometown. It would be a meet-n-greet, book signing supported by Four Seasons Books in Shepherdstown, WV. A few weeks later, the organizers reached out again and asked if I would mind if a second author joined the event. Magnanimous fellow that I try to be, I agreed right away, then asked for the other author’s name and genre. I had never heard of the name, probably because the genre was romance.
Well, that would be different, wouldn’t it? I’d never done a panel that mashed up romance and thrillers. I even agreed to promote the event on my radio show and put it out on my Facebook feed as the time approached.
About two weeks out, the organizers sent an email about how to get tickets for this event.
Wait. What? Tickets? In advance? They were free, but they were required to get through the door. This was new to me, and I’ve been doing this stuff for a long time. When I clicked on the link to the tickets and discovered that the event was already sold out, I said to myself, “Self, you should have taken this romance writer you’ve never heard of more seriously.”
Not that anything would have changed.
It turns out that Jennifer L. Armentrout, a delightful, fabulously successful #1 New York Times bestselling author does not write romance. She writes . . . wait for it . . . young adult paranormal sci-fi romance. And she lives about eight miles from me. A bit of a recluse, I believe her when she says she has not taken a vacation or even a weekend off in over 10 years. That’s how she’s been able to churn out 60 books in that period of time. But she’s wildly active on social media, so when she announced that her fans could meet her in Martinsburg . . .
The event.
When I arrived at the library and was ushered to the second floor to the green room, I still didn’t get it. Worse, I didn’t think the library got it. They’d cleared out the entire space–bookshelves and everything–and set up hundreds of chairs. Who the hell was going to fill them?
The the human spigot opened. At 1:50, ten minutes before the event was to start, people started flowing up the stairs, each of them sporting a yellow wrist band that proved they’d been ticketed. Nearly all carried books, many carried bags of books. None of the books bore one of my covers. I have never seen such a rainbow of different hair colors, or variety of facial piercings and tattoos. I put the median age at twenty-three–twenty-five, max.
The discussion.
Once everyone was seated, the moderator introduced Jennifer and me, and we took our places behind the long table next to the display of our books. The light hearted banter we’d developed in the green room transferred well onto the stage and the audience laughed a lot, so a good time was had by all.
For me, though, there was one truly sobering moment–the one that demonstrated just what a dinosaur I am in this business. The question was something like, “Tell us how you sold your first book. How did you find your agent, you know how did all of that work?”
Jennifer answered first. The only part I remember is, “I sold my first book in 2012, and I . . .” From there, she ground through social media/computer-speak that clearly made perfect sense to the audience but meant nothing to me. She talked about promotional sites I’d never heard of and something really big on TikTok. The whole time she was speaking, my brain was screaming, oh, shit, I’m next!
When it was my turn, I played the truth for a laugh. In 1994, after I finished marking up the pages of a book called Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents, I sent my query letter and self-addressed stamped envelope . . .
It’s an entirely different world now.
The signing.
I’ve signed next to Lee Child and Mary Higgins Clark. I have never seen fans as passionate as the ones who stood in line for three hours to have their books signed by Jennifer L. Armentrout. One fan had driven overnight from Buffalo to be there, and another had taken a train from Connecticut. At least two fans were so overwhelmed that they cried.
I’m happy to say that I sold and signed a dozen or so books, too, but to be honest, they felt like sympathy sales. As much as I tried not to look sad and lonely as I was largely ignored, maybe I didn’t quite pull it off.
Lessons learned.
First, I learned that there’s a genre called young adult paranormal sci-fi romance.
More importantly, I experienced my first vivid, first-person demonstration of the power of social media to spread word of an event. Unfortunately, I think there’s a generational component to those particular social media outlets. I could be wrong, but I don’t see TikTok as a destination for the average Jonathan Grave fan.
Been there, John. I did a signing once in a booth with several authors, at UCLA. We got a straggler or two, but there was a line at the end stretching out for what seemed like miles….for Mary HIggins Clark.
When I wrote my zombie legal thrillers I went to ComicCon to sign. That was a scene, man. I was at a table watching the constumed crowd and wondereing where they all came from. A guy in a T-shirt and scraggly beard came over behind the table and started moving some things. I thought he was some bookstore staff flunky. He put out a name plate, because there was to be another signing at the table. My time was almost up. And then the people swarmed, fought for a place in line. A late surge for JSB? Oh, sure. As it turns out, the scraggly beard belonged to Patrick Rothfuss, who I knew naught about. But the fantasy world surely did.
That is the genre of the young. I suggest you turn to fantasy with a vampire theme: Jonathan Rises From the Grave…and get on TikTok.
Or we can go have a martini.
If I can have a Manhattan, I’d be happy to join you.
Either for me!
I think you’ve landed on the perfect plan.
Au contraire, John. Your books are even listed on the “link book” page, which is incredibly difficult to get on.
Great story, but TikTok is still a hard no for me. Can’t wrap my head around it. Don’t you have to use videos there? A harder no.
I think I have at least a few years on you. Even my kids aren’t on TikTok. (To the best of my knowledge.)
I’ve been to an event signing seated next to Craig Johnson. Some of the people in his line chatted with me. Likewise, when I sat next to Brenda Novak. Chatting with the folks waiting helped pass the time.
I think I’ve seen this setup in a movie. If not, it should be. Insightful!
Jennifer L Armentrout is a big name in SFF, though I haven’t read her books yet.
Social Media works like this. Tiktok is not very popular, most people who have it always have another social media which they use a lot more. Facebook is for millennials and gen X. The younger millenials and gen Z use instagram. In other words, 30-60 people use facebook, 30 and under use instagram. And I’m not even that savvy at social media (I’m 29).
John, I would’ve waited in your line. I’ll be a Jonathan Grave fan as long as you continue to put him on the page. Just sayin’…
Young adult paranormal sci-fi romance? In my black and white brain, that’s just wrong on so many levels. But, who am I to judge?
Happy Hump Day!
Thanks Deb. We could have had a long, uninterrupted chat.
John, aren’t lessons in humility fun? I endure them often.
One heartening trend is YOUNG PEOPLE ARE READING! And reading enthusiastically! And reading print books, not phone screens.
Looking around at the current world, YA paranormal sci-fi romance doesn’t sound all that weird anymore.
Jim’s idea for your new series “Jonathan Rises from the Grave” is a winner. Run with it 😉
I gotta give you that one, Debbie. Even though the genre doesn’t tickle my fancy, if it makes the YA crowd turn pages, bring it on!
🙂
What a great story, John! They say humility is good for the soul, and it sure makes for a wonderful blog post.
“Young adult paranormal sci-fi romance” — I had to think about that for a minute, but like Debbie said, at least young people are reading. One question I had: what was the gender of most of the audience? I would guess they were mostly (all?) female.
Mostly female, but that’s almost always the case at book signings.
A year or so ago I learned that my youngest is a low level influencer. She has done package open TikToks and currently sells cyber cards. Low level. Some of her videos have half a million views. She is currently working on a social media marketing campaign for an LA area college. I have know idea how she will be making central Missouri look like LA, but they are paying her for it.
Maybe she can sell some books? Her sister sold a few.
Ouch! Once, at a convention, I was supposed to give a reading. I came in, and the room was packed with people. Incredible on a Friday afternoon, and I wasn’t one of the big guests. I went to the front to prepare to read. Every last person walked out following the last reader. I ended up with an audience of five. Two were pity listeners from the last group. Everyone loved the reading and laughed through it. If you have an ego as a published writer, it will be squashed to death by the end of your career.
Reading this, John, I could so see it. And I learned something recently. Cross-genre mis-mashes like young adult paranormal sci-fi romance are apparently called “Slipstream”.
I saw once that the average number of books sold at a signing is eight (8(. Twelve far exceeds that.
You’re in good company with Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. At least you made a new friend in the neighborhood.