Wow. Big wow. Michael Eisner’s Head-sized wow.
I’ve done a few silly things in my day to sell a book. There was the group discussion I moderated at a “furry convention” (attended by a few hundred people in home-made animal costumes, including a couple of kinky foxes and a “man” who could do strange tricks with his tail).
There was the talk I gave at a seedy Los Angeles bookstore to a small audience of homeless theme park historians (the Q&A was, let’s just say, intoxicating).
You may even have heard of my short stint as a renegade Disneyland tour guide.
But none of these stunts seemed as ludicrous as trying to convince people to buy my new book just so it could become a best seller…for a day. I figured that if I bribed people by promising to send them a free article, enough might buy the book within a small period of time and artificially drive up its sales ranking on Amazon.com.
I pitched the idea to Jim, Nancy and Dave O’Neal of the Extinct Attractions Club. To my amazement, they agreed to play along.
I had three goals for this promotion:
1. Hopefully sell a few dozen copies of my new book, the Golden Anniversary Special Edition of “Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland.”
2. Break into Amazon’s Top 1,000 best selling books, even if just for an instant.
3. Make sure Jim and Dave didn’t receive too much flak for participating in my Shameless Ploy.
Well, I don’t know how much grief Jim and Dave have gotten. But I will say that their audiences drove the new books from #172,000 to #123 (Admittedly, just for an instant). In fact it fluctuated in the 200’s and 300’s all week. We sold a couple of hundred books. And, I’ve gotten some great feedback on the free article, “Golden Goofs: 30 Foul-Ups for the 50th” (Evidently, the designers were asked to make certain areas such as Tom Sawyer Island more lush so the model of 1955’s Disneyland would look prettier).
There have also been a couple of questions:
? “I just missed last week’s deadline. If I buy the book today, can I still get the free article?”
Yes, I’ll still send the “Golden Goofs” article to anyone who buys the new book from Amazon for as long as JimHillMedia.com keeps that handy link along the left side of its home page. Just send a copy of your electronic receipt to Publishing@BonaventurePress.com.
? “Will it really take 3 to 5 weeks for this book to ship?”
Gosh, I hope not. Amazon has just placed a hefty order with the publisher and should have plenty of copies in stock to get your order in the mail later this week.
? “But I already bought ‘Mouse Tales’ 10 years ago. Do I really need to buy it again?”
Yes. You really need to.
Finally, to Jim, Nancy, Dave and all of you who were kind enough to induldge this juvenile whim of mine, I sincerely thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you. (Well, I could have, but I wouldn’t be able to pay my Amazon bill.)
Richest blessings,
David Koenig