Kindle Schmindle
Dear readers! I cannot sufficiently thank all those of you who helped get The Possessed onto the Amazon top 100 list and keep it there for the past 4 days! On Wednesday it rose as high as number 24, which literally made my head explode. In good news for my head, we’re currently down to 98, close on the heels of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler, author of Are You There God? It’s Me, Vodka.
For those who would like to give Ms. Handler a run for her money, but are inclined to despondency and thoughts like, “But what can I do to help?”, may I suggest writing a review on Amazon? Reviews would be particularly welcome from anyone who read the book, or saw a copy of it somewhere, and either (a) liked it, (b) disliked it, or (c) noticed anything about it at all other than its availability on Kindle.At the present time of writing, there are exactly six customer reviews, of which these two have been voted most helpful:
I get it, T. Mercer, I really do. Last year I received a Kindle as a gift from my heroic and technologically savvy Webman (who has over the years carried several suitcases containing the works of our great historical graphomaniacs to and from the Stanford library on my behalf); today I, too, am loath to carry around any book with a thickness greater than 0.36 inches—or to wait five days to read a book that God clearly intended for me to receive instantaneously at 4AM in the bath, when I really need it.
But listen, T. Mercer, have you really considered all the angles? For example: whereas a new release on Kindle costs $9.99, The Possessed now sets you back only $9.00! $9.00! What will $9.00 get you these days? An eight-piece bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken? A five-pack of Gillette Mach replacement razors? A quarter of a tank of gasoline? A regular or Kindle edition of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang? No! None of the above! But it does get you The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them: a remarkably lightweight paperback with not only front and back cover art by Roz Chast—Roz Chast!—but also a clearly marked list price of $15.00.
Classy readers! With International Women’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Lent either just around the corner or already upon us, think of what a great gift The Possessed would make for that special someone on whom you wish to appear to have lavished $15.00!
As for the book’s contents, they have been evaluated by trained professionals at some of our nation’s leading publications, including, today, the San Francisco Chronicle and Time Out New York.
So look, T. Meyer. We may not agree on everything, but I’ve honestly come to respect you. I get the feeling that you’re basically a good person who genuinely cares for literature. I just want to tell you, it isn’t too late to do the right thing. Come on, man—stop using my review page to try to blackmail FSG, and buy my book!
Tags: book reviews, graphomania, money, publications, Russian literature, THE POSSESSED
February 21st, 2010 at 7:03 am
I am a little better than half way through the book, and will play fair (by my standards) and wait to finish before I submit a review. All I will divulge right now is that reading it makes me happy!
February 21st, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Hi Elif,
Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. I like to think I am a basically good person who cares about literature. What I didn’t volunteer in my Amazon review is that I am also a Slavophile who’s devoured the 19th century canon – except Oblomov, who is still sitting idly on my bookshelf (I bought that one in pre-Kindle days). I genuinely want to read your book. That’s why I leapt immediately from the New York Times review to the Kindle store to buy it.
I don’t want my distaste for the publisher’s tactics to cost you in any way, so I have a proposition. If you send me a digital copy of your manuscript, I’ll paypal you the full sticker price of $15 and we’ll cut through all of this middle-man bullshit. Not only that, I’ll pledge to read the book and post a revised, better-informed Amazon review within 10 days.
Deal?
Vsyo Luchevo,
T.Mercer
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Elif dear, did you know that most people who buy Isaac Babel’s Selected Writings (Amazon rang 505463) also buy Possessed? What good business!
G.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:22 pm
that’s awesome!! i think people who buy possessed should also buy enigma. i’m going to write about it
tomorrow…soon!February 24th, 2010 at 3:34 am
the novel by robert harris? wikipedia says very little. when it’s early i need more clues, because i am very curious and the jade tree has already been watered. you want me-people to come back here? i will.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:37 am
oh no! if you can edit posts awaiting moderation, can you please append a thank you to that last one – - i really want to be polite here.
if not, than just delete this one right-o and i’ll probably be ok. it’s just the nerves.
thank you!
abe
February 24th, 2010 at 8:01 am
I loved the book, the personal stuff the most, I must admit. I don’t reread books, but I will probably reread the last paragraph. I feel maybe therein lies your next book. I’m only affected by professional reviews, so I don’t write them myself. Thanks for this book and the next one.
February 24th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Dear Elif, I always re-read what I love. And I only buy books that I know I will be willing to tend and dust and cart around for years to come. I went to a Barnes and Noble (which I usually avoid) and voluntarily and knowingly paid full price for your book (technically my boss did, since the $15 was on a gift card from him – but if he had not given it to me I would still have paid full price by going to a different bookstore up the street, even though I suspected that Amazon was selling it for 10 cents) and today I missed one subway stop and a bus because I was reading (actually I was re-reading, because I have already read the parts published elsewhere, several times). For you I may even put a review onto Amazon, though the idea makes my head hurt.
February 24th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
i’m sorry for my comment, but i really loved the book. i read it in a fever about a week ago. so many passages resonated with me. i studied russian for a year, curled up in the stacks during the long, cold winter of rochester, ny. it’s the closest to siberia i’ve ever been. of course, the university of rochester was not where i wanted to be, so (lalala) i went to art school, but i have a love-shelf full of russian novels (which seem to be the only ones that continue to escape the half-price purgings) i used to memorize pushkin verses because i thought they sounded beautiful, especially because i knew it would take me years to ever really understand what i was saying in my head, while at the same time recited them to my professor just for the brownie points. i was still a freshman, you know.
You’re the first writer i’ve devoured whose blog i’ve stumbled upon (you know? alive, technologically competent) – blame it on the season, and it seemed like a fun lark to try to interact with you; somebody who seems very inspiring to me. you write with such clarity. I would have been supremely satisfied, well no, considering you deleted those two posts so eagerly while letting this last one, Deborah – 8:01 am, go through, i’ll have to rest knowing that that was interaction enough. It’s clear that either you intend for this website to remain always a full throat-ed advertisement for your product, or that it is run by people who do. glad to hear your book is selling so well.
thanks, and yes, i will be reading the next book, too.
i probably just went and picked the wrong forum for all this.
abe
February 25th, 2010 at 5:15 am
omg.
(ok, now now, please don’t post this one!!!! you scoundrel!)
thank you! writers, even ones on FSG (Lydia Davis! Donald Barthelme! can you believe your company!?) are people too. sigh.
a celebratory moment.
best wishes,
abe
ps
so when is this enigma article coming out then? Am I gonna look like a total idiot for assuming it was that whatever novel i said it was? is it a fragrance? “people should also buy enigma…..?” is this the enigma, now? was it a trap and bait? you, waiting for some sucker like me to wander in and instigate a remarkably one-sided debate so that you could feel better about putting off writing it, meanwhile forcing much more loyal subscribers of your blog to sit around and eat their socks? i don’t know
however, those are all rhetorical questions. i’m just going to wait. my sock is in already.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:22 am
double scoundrel!
gah. i have a german class to go to.
you’re just so tricky.
(thank you…; ) )
March 6th, 2010 at 6:58 am
Elif, I just left a five-star review at Amazon expressing my thoughts on the Kindle issues around your book. I’m hoping you might be available to do a 15-minute phone interview on Monday 3/8 for my weekly Kindle Chronicles audio podcast. The show notes page is http://TheKindleChronicles.com . I look forward to reading Possessed!