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Right inside the entrance of Olsson's bookstore in Arlington, VA I noticed a stack of the rushed-into-print, “I Am a Solider, Too,” by Jessica Lynch and Rick Bragg, published by Alfred A. Knopf and released in early November, 2003. I asked the manager how the Jessica Lynch book was selling. With a click of the keyboard she checked, and said that the up-to-the-minute current inventory control database for all six Olsson stores in the DC area indicated that only one copy of her book had sold!!! Yes, this is only one anecdotal account. But it demonstrates that a traditionally published book with lots of hype, tons of media coverage, a war hero author, nationwide distribution, in-store displays, a TV movie special and the supportive buzz of public awareness—seemingly everything—was experiencing rather dismal sales as of Saturday evening, November 15, 2003, at six very popular Olsson bookstores. My point is, even if you had everything you ever dreamed of having to promote and market your book, you still need a really good book, an author promoting it, and even then, there’s no guarantee the public will rush to buy it. While writing this, I looked up Jessica’s book on Amazon.com to see what the ranking was and to check on the correct title. Amazon didn’t have it listed in their online database—sometimes it takes Amazon a wee bit longer than you’d expect to post a new title to their site. I searched Amazon by author’s name, book title and keywords—nothing!!! All my search efforts showed zero results!!! On my very first try at Barnes & Noble’s online bookstore at www.bn.com, I found her hardcover, 224-page book, with a list price of $23.95 at a B & N price of $14.37 (40% discount), holding a Sales Ranking of 329 as of Sunday evening, November 23.
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