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February 09, 2009

Who asked what I think of word of mouth?

Not to be too abstracted, but I’m trying to think about how and what to think about this.

In September, we published a remarkable debut novel by Joyce Hinnefeld, which was a #1 Indie Next selection for that month and which sold well and steadily through the end of the year. It still steps quietly and steadily along both in online sales and according to BookScan (which we all know under-reports) through bricks and mortar stores.

We’re pleased by the success we’ve had with this artful novel and with the personal responses it has generated. And we’re looking forward to releasing the paperback in the fall, knowing well that its potential in that format is even greater.

But here’s the thing I’m wondering about: On February first The New York Times Book Review ran an odd little fiction chronicle nod to the book five months after the publication date. I say odd, because, of all the things this complex novel addresses, especially the deep personalization of a woman’s move from youthful idealism and heartfelt love to disappointment with the world and herself, of all those things that have warranted reader response, the NYTBR reviewer concludes that the novel’s most significant assertion is “the importance of finding a way to keep fighting from the grave.”

What?

Other than that too-late and too-quick NYTBR reading (with its surprisingly distorted perspective), In Hovering Flight received significant positive reviews: in the trades, in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News.

And most notably in The Washington Post. Ron Charles said there that “The movement of this novel is frankly a miracle, but a natural one—like the graceful flight of a bird . . . .”

Wonderful. Once upon a time, a review like that could have pushed a novel into other reviewers' spheres of attention.

But that’s pretty much the msm coverage In Hovering Flight received.

And so, whatever ongoing success this novel enjoys is, I think, more likely and fully a result of something else. I submit this list (partial and in no particular order) of websites and blogspots where Joyce Hinnefeld’s debut novel has made its appearances:

Bookslut
FreshInkBooks
Blogging for a Good Book
LargeHeartedBoy
LibraryThing
bookshopgirl
NovelsNow
CurledUp
SheIsTooFondofBooks
Shelfari
TheTomeTraveler
NewPages
BiblioBuffet
Genregoaroundreviews
MyFriendAmy
Bookingmama
Beth Kephart Books
Linus’sBlanket
ModernMommyhood
Bookbrothel