brianrayfiction.com Blog

New story on Burton’s upcoming Alice and Wonderland makes me wish it were coming out this Christmas and not next March. (Having just finished final revisions on an essay about Burton coming out in a collection from Utah State U. Press, I wouldn’t mind looking at that script.) Oh, well. At least I’ll get to tour the new online gallery on Burton’s website – albeit with creepy Stainboy. Must admit, it’s not unlike walking through Edgewood’s prison studio in my book.

Meanwhile, I’m set to read at Fiction Addiction’s author lunch series on Oct 2. Should be fun. Plus, new video and podcast up on Atlanta Forum.

Now for a surprise. Big chain retailers like Target are actually known to boost new, indie-ish writers into the spotlight. Take this excerpt from a recent NY Times article:

Indeed, the book, by the first-time novelist Tatiana de Rosnay, was well on its way to sinking out of sight last fall when Target, the discount retailer, chose the paperback version of “Sarah’s Key” as its Bookmarked Club Pick: a choice for a program that designates titles for prominent display throughout the chain’s stores. Suddenly sales exploded…Target “can sell hundreds of thousands of copies of a book that is virtually unknown in the rest of the marketplace,” said Jacqueline Updike, director of adult sales at Random House, one of the world’s largest publishers…By assembling a collection of books by unheralded authors, Target behaves more like an independent bookstore than like a mere retailer of mainstream must-haves (although, of course, Target sells its share of best-seller list regulars, like James Patterson and Janet Evanovich).

de Rosnay went from a few thousand copies sold to nearly 200,000 between hardback and paperback versions. Thanks, Target. If you’re out there.