Phil Rossi is taking over the blog today with a timely guest post. Phil’s Amazon.com Chart Rush for the print release of his novel, CRESCENT, will be this Thursday, July 9th at 1pm Eastern. You can participate by buying the book on Amazon, attending Phil’s live uStream concert Thursday afternoon, and raising awareness by embedding the promotional video on your website or blog, wearing Crescent merchandise, or dressing up your online appearance with Crescent icons.
CRESCENT is showing as live and available on Amazon now, but wait for Thursday if you can!
Why?
Phil explains, below.
Why “Rush the Charts?”
by Phil Rossi
As more authors have been attacking the Amazon.com sales rankings, this question has been rearing its head more often—it’s a good question and I think every author that does a Chart Rush has their own compelling reasons to do so. I sat down with myself the other night for an impromptu Q and A session based around this topic and that’s what follows:
Me: State your name for the record:
Me: [silence]
Me: On July 9th, 2009 you’re going to be “Rushing the Amazon.com Charts” with your debut novel, Crescent—a horror/science fiction yarn about a vice-happy salvage pilot who stumbles into the scorpion’s nest. I’d like to figure out why you’re investing so much effort in promoting this chart rush (sleepless nights, multiple interviews, email blasts, fliers, tweets, #RossiCoverMe and so on).
Me: I’ve been asking myself that same question. Let me see if I can’t shed some light: Is it a matter of exposure? Sure—on any given Amazon sales chart a rank of 25 is a lot more visible than, say, 225,000. That might get me one or five more readers, depending on who is looking at that chart at that time–but every set of eyes count. There’s bragging rights, too. Who doesn’t like to have bragging rights stored up in a mason jar for a rainy day?
Also, and perhaps paramount, rushing these charts is a way to celebrate Crescent’s journey from a podcast novel to a print book, which is the realization of a dream for me. This is a major milestone and the fans have been there along the way. It’s an exciting way of keeping everyone involved in taking this to the “next level.”
Me: The next level? Do you think a sexy ranking could lead to interest in say, a reputable agent or perhaps “big” publishing house?
Me: Do I think dancing all over the Amazon’s sales ranking will make all the difference, allowing me to move from moonlighting as a writer to doing this as a nine to five gig? No—I don’t think it will make *all* the difference. Could it help? It’s not going to hurt. A robust CV is a valuable tool and adding a successful Chart Rush is going to only to add to the accomplishments that have marked this journey—and again, these accomplishments would not have been possible without the love and support of the fan base.
Me: I see—so you look at the Chart Rush as part of a bigger picture?
Me: Absolutely. The Chart Rush is one piece of the picture. The podcast version of Crescent (and everything else I’ve put out there, am putting out there currently, and will put out there) is another piece. The public outreach, the social networking, the supporting my fellow authors, artists, and musicians—still more pieces. What is the big picture? Getting my work read and enjoyed by as many people as possible—I told the Crescent story for people to hear it and to be entertained.
Me: You’re doing a uStream “event” for the Chart Rush where you’ll be doing a concert and a reading—how did you come to decide to do that?
Me: The reason is pretty simple, and I hate to sound redundant, but I want this event to be a celebration for everyone involved. I couldn’t be more happy, thrilled, and excited for this move into the print world, and I want to share that energy with anyone and everyone who is available to be on the internet at 1:00 pm Eastern. In doing the concert thing, I get my music fix and I also get to not only play tunes off the Crescent original soundtrack, but also the Harvey soundtrack, which is my current podcast novel release.
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Visit Phil’s website at crescentstation.net, follow him on Twitter at @philrossi, and tune into his latest podiobook thriller, HARVEY. And stop by on Thursday, when Phil will be back here to tell us more about CRESCENT and the process of bringing it to the printed page!
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