What the other six OMOM covers would say

If it were financially feasible, I'd have had Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide published with half a dozen different covers: one aimed at tourists, one at New Yorkers, one at Objectivists, one at art lovers, one at historians, one at librarians, and one at insatiable readers like me, who have been known to read books completely outside their field of interest if they offer new perspectives on how to think, rather than information guaranteed to be useful within the next week. My most recent find in this category was Haffner's Defying Hitler. Although I have no immediate application for further knowledge about Nazi Germany, Haffner's style is riveting and his description of the behavior of himself and his compatriots was fascinating - an excellent supplement to Peikoff's The Ominous Parallels, which discusses the philosophical causes of Nazism in detail. This is off the supposed topic of this blog entry, but I liked the Haffner book so much that I wanted to recommend it highly before I forget about it. For the blurbs that would appear on the other covers, see the Forgotten Delights website.

Win a Tote Bag or an 8 x 10" B&W Photo for Writing a Review

With a very limited marketing budget, it's a challenge to find inexpensive ways to promote Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan effectively. The best methods seem to be on the web and by word of mouth. For starters, I'm offering rewards to writers of what I judge to be the 10 best Amazon reviews to appear by the end of March 2007.

Winners can choose either a 13 x 13" black tote bag with an actual-size image of OMOM's cover (I have 5 of these), or an 8 x 10" B&W print of your favorite image from the book. To enter the contest, upload your review to Amazon and email a copy to me at forgottendeli@earthlink.net.

I am particularly interested in reviews that would make OMOM appealing to niche markets. If you're a history buff and you find the "About the Subject" sections particularly interesting, say that. If you're a fan of Ayn Rand and the discussions of esthetics interest you, go with that. If you're an artist, art teacher, or art student and think the book would be valuable for colleagues, say so. If you can make an informed judgment on the importance or innovativeness of this book for New York City sculpture, Ayn Rand's esthetics, the demolition of Penn Station, or any other relevant topic, go right ahead. If, like Alexander Hamilton (Essay 53), you're in love with New York and OMOM gave your more to love, by all means say so. If you can explain why non-New Yorkers would benefit from reading it, that would be a big selling point. If you are or have ever been a book-club member and can imagine a book club discussing OMOM and then studying sculptures in your town, say that.

According to marketing researchers, reviews and testimonials have more impact if the audience knows something about the writer. If possible, therefore, mention in your review that you've been a Civil War history reenactor for three decades, that you teach economics at the University of Tegucigalpa, that your favorite activity is strolling Manhattan on Sunday mornings looking for things to admire, that you have a shelf full of books on art or Ayn Rand …

The winning entries need not be long or ornately phrased - they need only be clear and to the point. State what you like about the book, and why others might like it as well.

Good luck!

Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan now in NYC bookstores

On Wednesday 2/14, Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan finally began to appear on the shelves of New York City bookstores. I dropped in at half a dozen Barnes & Noble locations and signed every copy they had on hand - look for the "autographed copy" stickers. You may have to ask a clerk to help you find the book; it never seems to be in the same subcategory of their New York shelves. Borders has copies on order, and I'll be dropping in to sign theirs next week. Over the next week I'll also be visiting many smaller, independent bookstores with copies of the New York Times and Sculpture magazine reviews in hand, asking them to carry it (if they don't already) and offering to sign copies. Employees at the independent bookstores often seem more interested in reading and recommending books than employees at the big chains, so just bringing the book to their attention might be helpful. One B&N employee already took advantage of my presence to ask me who that statue at the north end of Union Square represents. (Lincoln, Essay 15, although you'd never guess it from the back view.) Signing copies wherever I can is about the best way I've thought of to make up for the fact that the Times review appeared 3 weeks in advance of the day the books appeared in stores. Copies with autographed stickers get a little more attention, sometimes even face-out rather than spine-out display.

In tomorrow's blog: you, yes you, could win a fabulous Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan tote bag! Or, if you prefer, an 8x10 B&W print of your favorite OMOM sculpture. No, you do not need to be in New York City (10 degrees and 4 inches of icy slush) to enter or win.

Marketing Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan

Publishers these days don't run to three-martini lunches and author tours - at least not for a first-time author who writes about New York and already lives there - so as the release date of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan approaches I'm spending a fair amount of time thinking about marketing. This is far, far from my fields of expertise, so I make it a game.

Who do I know who's most likely to talk about the book to a lot of people if given a pre-publication copy? Make a list, and ask NYU Press to send galleys.

What periodicals and newspapers are most likely to publish reviews or mention the book? Keep a running list, ask NYU Press to let me know who they're sending review copies to, and suggest additions.

NYU Press will produce postcards and some printed material. What promo pieces can I produce inexpensively? "Moo cards" (http://www.moo.com/ ) are extremely cute, but too small for any practical use. Instead, I designed print-at-home business cards with the book's cover on them, in hopes people will remember the image well enough to stop, look, and pick up the book if they see it in a bookstore.

This week's project was designing a promo piece to offer as a prize to the first five people who write good reviews for Amazon. I decided on a tote bag rather than a mug or mousepad, because the tote would presumably be carried around rather than sitting on a desk. But the minimum order for silk-screened tote bags is dozens, which would cost far more than I should spend. If I order only 5, the cost shoots up to $25 each. Youch. The solution: using Avery T-shirt transfer paper to copy the book's cover to a piece of fabric, which I can then sew as a pocket onto a mass-produced plain-color tote. That brings the cost of the totes down to $9 or so each, which I can afford as long as I only produce 5 of them.