Marketing Your Book
to Magic City Books
Thank you for your interest in Magic City Books, and congratulations on your book!
Our store is owned by a 501(c)(3) corporation, the Tulsa Literary Coalition. We raised money from individuals (maybe you were one of them; if so, thank you!) and foundations for start-up costs. We are duty-bound to fulfill our promise to our donors to provide a highly curated selection of books that reflect the best of literary, mainstream, and genre fiction, as well as narrative nonfiction, for all ages.
The purpose of Magic City Books is to provide a literary hub in the Tulsa Arts District, a venue for our events and programs, and a quality bookstore experience for our customers. What does it mean exactly to have a “highly curated selection”? It means we must rely upon many professionals and experts to help us sift through the hundreds of thousands of books that are released by traditional publishers each year. Who are these gatekeepers? They are agents, editors, publishers, publisher reps, publicists, graphic designers, and professional reviewers, as well as our own passionate staff. It is a daunting task to keep up with the industry and to select the best of what is available, but that is our goal, and we believe it is a worthy one.
According to Publishers Weekly, more than 1,680,000 books were self-published in 2018. While not a scientific method, let’s just divide that number by 50 to get a rough idea of how many books might have been self-published in Oklahoma; 33,600. That’s three times more books than we currently have in our store.
This poses a conundrum for us. We value local voices and want to support our writers. Oklahoma has produced many great writers, and there are no doubt many talented writers in our state who are independently publishing their work. We hear from them frequently. Unfortunately, we are unable to vet books that have bypassed the traditional steps that we believe ensure a professional, high quality product. We receive inquiries several times a week from authors wanting us to carry their books or schedule author events for them. It is the most difficult thing we do to say no to someone who has poured her heart and soul into a book. However, it is not practical or feasible for us to stock every independently published book that is pitched to us. As with any book, if your book is available through our wholesaler, with favorable terms, we are happy to special order it for our customers.
What we can do for you is provide free writing workshops to help you perfect your craft, book discussion groups to give you an opportunity to read, analyze, and discuss great books, and author events, which expose you to successful authors sharing their insights about writing. We can also refer you to organizations like Nimrod and the Tulsa City-County Library’s annual Adult Creative Writing Contest, or professional groups like the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation. While not practical for everyone, several area universities offer creative writing and MFA programs.
Keep honing your craft, attending workshops, classes, and book festivals. Take advantage of every opportunity to improve and practice your craft. Someday we hope to see your book in one of our publishers catalogs, at which time, we will be proud to consider it.
