“It’s still too early to tell.”

If there is one question more than any other that has been asked of me over the last weeks, it is “how is the book doing?” And I usually start my answer with “it’s still too early to tell.”

Part of me hates saying it - it almost sounds like the book is doing terribly and I’m just hiding my own failure - but actually it is too early to tell. The Secret War has been on sale for around 8 weeks now, and for a limited print run in four figures, it was never going to be a bestseller – and the bestseller lists are pretty much the only means for a writer to know how well their book is doing.

Well, outside of anecdotal evidence anyway.

Short of phoning around every single shop that is selling your book, there is no real indicator of success. As an author I resist the temptation of sending e-mails every week to my publisher asking how its doing, like some petulant child. Apart from the bestsellers list, I suppose there is also Amazon and their “interesting” ranking system that can lead some authors to obsession in monitoring how well their book is moving up (which is bad) or down (which is, well, good) the ranking. The ranking is not a very scientific thing, but at least you can gauge whether people are actually buying your book, and in that respect I can say they are definitely doing that and have been doing so over the last 8 weeks.

In terms of reception to the book, it’s been quite surprising. The greatest reaction to the book has been from readers who actually don’t read this sort of thing. “Thing” being “fantasy or horror”. I guess, as David Isaak mentioned in my last blog entry, The Secret War really isn’t a straight horror or fantasy story. Since writing it a couple of years ago I see it very much as an action adventure story more than anything else – but one with several toes dipped in blood.

I have had e-mails via the website, from friends of colleagues or friends of friends, and the overall opinion is this is a “fantastic book” for people who don’t read horror or fantasy.
Which presents me with a quandary: how does a writer of fantasy and horror promote a book using limited means to an audience “who doesn’t usually read that sort of thing”?

So far, this blog has been a great way of convincing some readers to buy a book that wouldn’t usually interest them, and I’ve also been toying with beefing up the whole promotion thing with some rather natty promo cards designed by Mel Jones (designer of the MFWCurran.com website). But other than that, I have a feeling there is an untapped reservoir of readers with no obvious way of reaching them. It’s the age-old predicament of promotion vs cost, I guess. My publisher has limited means of promotion, as do I, and word of mouth costs nothing.

But as John Highfield once told me, I need to “make the most of the moment”. It may never come again. If that means perhaps shelling out a few pennies to increase the momentum of progress, then is that too much of risk?

Or am I just being an impatient writer when it really is too early to tell?