Victoria Strauss Quotes

No one really knows the value of book tours. Whether or not they're good ideas, or if they improve book sales. I happen to think the author is the last person you'd want to talk to about a book. They hate it by that point; they've already moved on to a new lover. Besides, the author never knows what the book is about anyway.

Ask your editor or ask your agent to find out what the house's goals are for your book before it comes out. Get some sense of expectations so you are prepared.

I'm such a fangirl when it comes to other writers. I read 250 books a year, and I'm always talking up books by other authors.

The effort invested in 'getting it right' should be commensurate with the importance of the decision.

Whether you work with a small or corporate press, the important thing is to have realistic expectations in terms of sales, promotion, and the work you have to do as an author promoting your novel.

Most books reviews aren't very well-written. They tend to be more about the reviewer than the book.

I endorse a lot of people - sometimes people say I endorse too many books. And my response has always been the same: If I can get one case study that can give me one good idea that I can implement for $25, or for these days one-third of that on Kindle, I've gotten a very good deal.

In the case of 'Goon Squad,' which sold slowly for a long time despite the good reviews, those 'best of 2010' lists were pivotal, and made the book really sell.

You can use a lot of different technologies to create something that doesn't really have a lot of value.

I lived through a classic publishing story. My editor was fired a month before the book came out. The editor who took it over already had a full plate. It was never advertised. We didn't get reviewed in any major outlets.

No, my publisher has always done the marketing.

A bad book and good marketing won't work, the same way a good book and bad marketing will also not work. There is no choice in the matter that if you need to write a good book, you also need to have good marketing for it.

I feel luck plays a vey crucial role in determining the success of the book. Marketing a book is also very important. You need to try all tricks in the trade.

I never read articles about my books.

A person might see that I've blurbed a certain book and decide they want nothing to do with it! Like, 'If that reprobate Toews likes it, forget it!' So, it's a crapshoot. But it feels good to be able to praise a book that I love or that has been written by a new writer.

Search folks don't understand editorial. I'm not afraid of editorial costs, just like machine-search folks are not afraid of computer servers.

When a product is made, everyone hopes for the best. Whether it could have been better or not is more of an afterthought.

Since I make my living as a literary journalist, not a book scout, I spend inordinate amounts of time either reading or writing.

Clients do not expect the infrastructure to be any less reliable just because the service is being delivered from an offshore location; thus, the uptime requirements justify the expense.

I think 'The Time Traveler's Wife' is one of the most brilliantly marketed books I have ever seen.

Efforts to approach zero risk through exhaustive pre-release testing are extremely expensive and time-consuming. New drugs are delayed in reaching those who need them, and marginal drugs may not be developed at all.

The Corps of Engineers Analyses are fraught with errors, mistakes and miscalculations, and used invalid assumptions and outdated data.

Customers are now driven by trying to optimize value.

In business, we use certain principles to measure performance, and I envision applying those principles in the public sector.

Yes, it's important to make things great, and you can certainly do this by upgrading over time, but good and profitable is better than perfect and never done.