![Fiction Issue Cover. Photo by Adam Ekberg.](/sites/default/files/styles/cke_media_resize_small/public/2024-08/100-2-Fiction2024-Cover.jpg?itok=-2NZG1zJ)
How to Market a Novel
Melville House is one of the better regarded indie publishers, and from my remote perch, the reasons for their industry esteem and their success seem obvious: besides a solid and satisfyingly eclectic mix of titles (e.g. a book of Ray Bradbury interviews, a Jules Verne vampire & zombie novel, B.R. Myers’ book on North Korea’s self-image), including a series of pleasingly designed novellas, the people at Melville know how to communicate. Unlike many publishers, they have a clean, easy-to-navigate website, and, in my experience, they respond quickly to e-mails asking for galley copies and author information. And then there’s their blog, Moby Lives, on which house founder Dennis Johnson and Melville employees and authors offer commentary on literary news and frequently snipe at industry behemoth Amazon—a kind of bristling honesty that rarely appears on industry blogs.
Also, below is a trailer for the book, which features footage shot by Benjamin Ditzen, Fallada’s grandson.