Friday, July 21, 2006

The Locked Fish House Mystery

It's time for me to write my short story, and I think I'm going to eat some popcorn first. Then, I'll write. I've decided to save Lex Ham's fabulously postmodern writer writing about writing story for something longer and instead write a locked fish house mystery. Is that the name of the little hut that you clean fish in at a resort? There's going to be a wedding dance still, and during "Brick House," everyone is going to hear a scream and rush to see him (it's gotta be a him, but I don't know who), with a knife in his back? chest? dead in the fish house, which is locked from the inside. The screens are nailed down and whole, so who killed him? How did they get out?

That's why it's called a mystery. In the meantime, for those of you who like trivial knowledge or aspire to someday make a living as an author, here's some totally un-fact-checked facts I just read:

From Publishers Weekly, some sobering statistics:

In 2004, Nielsen Bookscan tracked sales of 1.2 million books in the US.

Of those 1.2 million, 950,000 sold fewer than 99 (yes, ninety-nine) copies each.

Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies.

Only 25,000 books sold more than 5,000 copies. Fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000 copies. Only 10 books sold more than a million copies each.

THE AVERAGE BOOK IN THE US SELLS ABOUT 500 COPIES.

On that note, I hope to see you in Battle Lake tomorrow! Stop by the Art of the Lakes Gallery for some free refreshments, some May Day, and a little bit of Jessica in your life, and stay for the parade and the great homemade fudge next door at Granny's Pantry. They have Nut Goodie fudge, btw...
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4 comments:

  1. Chelty6:30 PM

    Not sure if you meant to, but you brought to mind that song "Mambo #9" or something like that (a little Monica in the sun, etc). Very fun wedding song!

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  2. Rand8:17 AM

    How many copies of May Day have you sold at this point?

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  3. Jessica Lourey6:29 PM

    It was a direct Lou Bega reference, so yay to Chelty for catching it! It is an underappreciated album; it's got electronic soul.

    I'm not sure, Lex Ham. As of May, around 4000 copies of May Day had been sold. I'd like to think I've broken the 5000 ceiling, but it would just be a guess.

    Tune in tomorrow for a low-down on the Battle Lake book signing. Maybe my friend Christine dropped the meat and cheese tray upside down, cover off onto the shoulder of a major Alexandria highway pre-signing and we had to scoop the gravel off and try to make it look nice real quick. Maybe. I can neither confirm nor deny the story, but will go on the record saying I had some food off the tray after this incident did or did not happen.

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  4. Brian Farrey4:21 PM

    True, but what you have to know about Bookscan is that they only track sales of major retail outlets, like BN and Borders. This does not take into account sales to libraries, most independent bookstores, and other small outlets or distributors. Sobering figures, certainly, but still just a small picture.

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