Who would have thunk?
We are all aware that bread, milk and cheese have a use by date. Are there any readers, like me, who ignore use by dates? Does anyone else do a sniff test to see if the product really is no good for consumption? I’ve been known to cut mold from the cheese and scrape suspicious green growth from jam. I’ve even taste tested milk with a use by date of last week. I figure that back in the day, there was no such thing as a use by date. My grandmother used every piece of food until it got up from the ice chest and voluntarily walked out to the chook yard. With the onset of the fear of salmonella —and the likelihood of being sued if a case of food poisoning occurs—[bctt tweet=”I fear we witness tons of food wasted that might otherwise still be used.” username=”acwriters”]
Has anyone heard the words ‘use by date’ being used in reference to books?
I’d always comforted myself that at least with books, they could sit on the shelf and not go bad. My sister, who runs a grocery store, is continually reducing prices and throwing stock out. Unlike her, I felt safe that my product would last forever on the bookshelf of the local Christian book store.
Apparently not.
Dickens, Austen and C.S. Lewis have reached the status of classic, which seems to be the ‘sainthood’ of literature. There’s a Hippopotamus on the Roof and Fox in Socks, likewise are protected from the evil culling that sees other perfectly good stories cast out. [bctt tweet=”There’s a Hippopotamus on the Roof and Fox in Socks, likewise are protected from the evil culling that sees other perfectly good stories cast out.” username=”acwriters”]
As writers in this modern ‘that’s-so-last-year’ society, we face the awful reality that most of us are unlikely to reach the safety of the classic zone. Have you read other Christian fiction authors, whose titles persist on the shelves and in catalogues thirty years after publication, and wondered: how much better do I have to write to match these works? If you’re honest, you would know that some in our network have already surpassed the quality of writing promoted in these modern Christian fiction classics. So why did no-one do a taste test on our work to see if it was still safe for consumption?
Digital marketing algorithms are doing the taste-testing.
Algorithms are a super invention, and sort out so many things in our modern consumer-driven world. They recommend which books will pop up on your Amazon search. They will tell you which are the top 100 books for you to consider buying.
The trouble with algorithms is they have no heart. They do not understand the passion of the author, or the many hours of work committed to produce a title. They don’t get depressed when they recommend certain titles be dropped from circulation.
What to do with moldy books?
Are the books really moldy, or has the market moved on without taking time to taste and see?
For those of us with boxes of remainder titles in our sheds, do we persist trying to find other readers, or do we commit the leftovers to the recycling bin?
These are big questions. I know I’m not the only one who has faced this challenge. What are you doing with your books that have passed the six-month use by date? What about those books that have passed the ten or twenty-year use by date?
Let us know what you are doing to let the world of readers have a taste of your personal classic.
I don’t know what to do with books in the shed – I don’t have that problem – but I reckon that if books are to the stage of owner-pulping there must me a better fate for them. Giving them away to school groups or as book club sets – that kind of thing. Or free with a copy of your new book. As far as the IP contained within your book goes, the age of online publishing allows new life to be breathed into old work. Rereleasing with a new cover and an update or two and you have a ready-made means of reaching an audience who has never been into a local Christian bookstore. Throw in the ebook version too :). And if you have a backlist like you have, rereleasing them every six weeks or so will give you at least a temporary blip on the Amazon algorithms. Learn the ins and outs of online promotion and the old dusty books can earn earn you some handy passive income.
All good ideas Susan, and I have tried all of them except the book club idea. One of the biggest giveaways I ever did was 1000 books given to include a book into each food hamper for Christmas. Another idea I tried was to give a book to each delegate at a women’s conference.
It make one wonder, is all the effort we put in even worth it? Of course it is, if for no other reason than self-satisfaction. But those of us struggling with self-doubt will not necessarily be encouraged to read this, though the self-doubt doesn’t come from reading articles like this, it’s in our heads, always there.
But, Meredith, it does give us something to think about, thank you and God bless.
Hi Ray,
Yes, discouragement is a big one when doing anything creative. But you are quite right, we do it anyway if only for the sense of self-satisfaction. However, though this use-by date situation is a new barrier to us finding readers over time, we can still do the writing, and have the eBook versions available, and can continue to promote. For the last few years, I have moved away from traditional print runs, due to the fact that I have such a short amount of time to promote on bookshelves. I now do print on demand through Ingram Spark, and keep a small stock available at all times.
Be encouraged to continue, because there may come a time when all you hard work will be looked at in terms of ‘what else have you written’.
Hi Meredith, My apologies for chiming in late. I finally have a chance to catch up on blog reading now I’m on holidays from the day job. 😊
The other issue with algorithms is that they no longer give authors any free exposure.
An older title can sell well if it’s advertised effectively, but that will likely take a sizeable investment in time and money. If it’s a contemporary novel, then it may need an updated book cover and book description and light editing to modernise the technology in the story. An advantage for historical novels is they don’t need this ‘refresh’.
That said, writing trends will come and go and older title may come back into fashion years later when the sub-genre becomes a hot market.
Confession time: I worked in retail for many years, and I hated the job of ripping book covers off unsold books. I knew those books would be pulped and recycled, but I can’t imagine pulping any of my own print books (I kept a few boxes of my Heartsong books that are now out of print).
You must have hated having to recycle those novels from the bookshelves. I personally have to update my style of writing to release my old titles. I read one of my old contemporary novels to get it ready for e-book and was horrified that I actually needed to rewrite the entire novel. Hence it is still sitting in my computer in its original format. I may rewrite it one day and release for e-book. When it was first released I sold 3000 paperback copies. I guess I should try and get it into a new shape.