In the midst of all this chaos of the financial meltdown of our country, this is one of the best pieces of news I received this week!!!! David Yoo’s newest book is finally OUT!! Here’s an email i received from The Man himself this morning:
Hey everybody,
Well, it’s been three long years since my first novel, Girls For Breakfast, came out, and a lot has happened to me since then. I had a suspicious looking mole surgically removed from my back. I re-connected with old friends. I became an uncle. I got married to my long-time girlfriend.
But none of that even remotely compares to the most gratifying thing to happen to me—I finally finished my second novel!
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before (Hyperion) is the story of an unorthodox high school love-triangle, starring an earnest-if-awkward young man named Albert Kim, a headstrong wisp of a girl named Mia Stone, and a frustratingly perfect, mesomorphic monster named Ryan “The House” Stackhouse. The novel features the music of Phil Collins, a handful of seemingly magical frogs that figure largely into the story, and within the pages you’ll discover the origins of the Damnit Game, soon to be sweeping the nation. It’s received advance praise from some of my favorite authors (see below), and is now officially available for purchase at your local bookstore and online.
The thing is, I need your help spreading the word about this novel, because I’m notoriously horrendous at book promotion. For one thing, I almost never leave my house. I very rarely “talk” to anyone (I don’t even own a cell-phone). As a result, I don’t seem to know that many humans (is that what you carbon-based life forms prefer to go by?), so I was thinking maybe we could turn this into one of those really cool chain letter emails that everyone seems to enjoy so much. Therefore, please pass on this email to at least 10 people, and ask those people to send it to 10 more people, ad infinitum.
And like all chain emails, please be aware that if you don’t pass this email on to at least 10 other people, something terrible will happen to you.
Truth be told, the results of my efforts to promote my first novel back in the day were inconclusive at best, but more likely an utter failure. Basically, I did three things to promote my first book:
1.) I scribbled “Girls For Breakfast” or “David Yoo” on every piece of paper currency I came in contact with over a three year period. (Alas, my dismal earning potential limited the amount of paper currency I came into contact with during that period.)
2.) I visited bookstores in the area and secretly tore the front cover off copies of my books because I’d been mistakenly informed that doing so would guarantee the bookstore would have to purchase the copy. (Turns out that not only is this NOT true, but it’s also a prosecutable offense.)
3.) I tried to form my first fan club, Davey’s Palz. (Currently, I’m still the sole member.)
Needless to say, these efforts did not impact my sales whatsoever. So for the last fifteen minutes or so I’ve been brainstorming new ways to get the word out on my new book. My first gangbusters idea was the chain-letter thing. My other ideas are as follows:
Idea #2: I need you to actively discuss my title in bookstores. For example, you could loiter by the front register and, when you make eye contact with a customer in line, smile broadly and say something like, “I heard that book really sucks! Say, have you read Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before yet?” That’s just a boilerplate example, of course, feel free to tweak the dialogue however which way you like.
Idea #3: Call up your local radio station during their request hour, and ask that they play Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before, by David Yoo. When they say they don’t have that song by that artist, reply, “Oh, actually, it’s a book. Why, do you only play songs?” Then wait five minutes, call back and say, “Hey pal, why haven’t you played my book request yet?” Repeat this process a total of 9 times, because according to marketing experts the average, potential customer needs to hear a title at least 9 times before it finally sticks in their heads. (Note: The beauty of this strategy is that it can easily be modified to work with just about anyone working in any vocation)
In the meantime, I’ve also decided to try to re-kickstart my fan club, Davey’s Palz. In hindsight, I realize now that what scared everyone off the first time was the admittedly exorbitant membership fees. Originally, I had it set up that a 1-year membership cost $100, and that you could purchase a discounted 2-year membership for $198. This time around, due in part to our struggling economy, I’ve decided to take the financial hit on your behalf and offer, for a limited time only, a lifetime membership fee for the fire sale price of just $99! That’s right, for under a hundred buckashmoozies you’re entitled to all the benefits of being a Davey’s Pal for the duration of your life (of course it goes without saying that the younger you are the more valuable the membership), including:
receiving an annual e-newsletter, recapping all the wonderful things to happen to David in the previous calendar year (note: this year’s newsletter has been cancelled due to time constraints)
-automatic entry in a yearly raffle (prizes include: signed copies of my novels, as well as still-to-be-determined, assorted random crap laying around on my desk)
-permission to freely refer to yourself as a “Davey’s Pal” at public, non-Davey’s Palz-related functions.
That’s the perks of being in the fan club, in a nutshell. Otherwise, I’m elated to finally be able to introduce you to my new novel, which has been a long time in the making.
A few final bits of book-related news before I go:
-There’s a book trailer for STOP ME at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6QW1HX7gCk
– I have a new web site at www.daveyoo.com, which features up-to-date news and events, links to purchase my books online, and a picture of possibly the most menacing cat you’ll see in your lifetime.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this, and know that I actually was being quite serious earlier—if you don’t pass this on to at least 10 people something really terrible will happen to you.
Have a great day!
David Yoo
—————-
Author of
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before (Hyperion)
ON SALE NOW!
Advanced Praise:
“Albert is one of the most unique characters I’ve ever encountered in fiction or in life. His absurd and deeply romantic fall into first love is funny, heartbreaking and surprising. David Yoo is a major talent.”
–E. Lockhart (author of The Boyfriend List and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks)
“David Yoo’s voice is so witty and charming it only seems fair to give warning: he’ll break hearts of teenage readers of all ages with this bittersweet love story.”
– Jonathan Lethem
visit http://www.daveyoo.com for more information.
박사라 Sarah Park Dahlen, Ph.D. 