Way back in junior high school I worked at a bookstore after school. Now I have worked at a bookstore for 35 years and still ponder how authors choose the name they write under. I realize retail stores and libraries file books completely differently, but here's my advice. Choose a last name that starts with a letter at the beginning of the alphabet. Don't go past the letter M. The reason being: if you go to a store and you are in the mood for a mystery and you are just browsing, hoping someone new will jump out at you, you're going to find someone before you get too far down the line. How do I know this? It's because the beginning shelves are always the most picked over. I watch customers every day pick a genre and start at the beginning of the alphabetically listed authors. I feel so bad for the new authors that come up with names that start with S, T, U and on down the line. Come on...think this out.
Here is a great example. Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, and Jayne Castle. Was she smart or what? This is all the same person and she is just rolling down the alphabet.
Archer, Burke, Coben, Cussler, Cook! Do you think this was an accident?
Thanks for listening (or reading).
Karol
No comments:
Post a Comment