A Disgrace to the Profession

Becoming a Voice, The Power of Word of Mouth

“My wife read this last night. She wants every teacher in her building to have this.”

“You’re spreading it around, eh? You must like it.”

This exchange between George Moore and Nicholas Staal in A Disgrace to the Profession, our novel, describes how word of an underground newspaper spread. The same thing happened with our novel: Readers found the book, read it, and then told their friends about it. They bought copies to give to others. In fact, salespeople at the local Borders told us that they’d never had so many book buyers comment on a book while purchasing it. “I’m going to send this to my niece, my old roommate, my dad, my college teacher, etc.,” they’d announce at the cash register.

We watched book sales grow exponentially as one or a few readers would hear about the novel in an area. We’d get an order or two, and a then a flood would come in from bookstores, the local library, and individuals. (That’s one of the perks of self-distribution—we get to see where the book is going!)

We’re pleased that we’ve been invited to book club meetings and bookstore signings in Iowa, Minnesota, and Texas. The first book club we attended was Read and Feed, a group of teachers from the Glidden-Ralston school district in northwest Iowa. The school secretary in the K-12 building found the book and recommended it to the group. Twenty-three people attended the dinner meeting, and the group only has 10 members! The manager of Prairie Lights in Iowa City told us that the store had to carry the book because of the persistence of customers.

We know that school board members and teachers’ organization representatives have purchased books to give to other members of their groups. Graham Gillette of the Des Moines School Board wrote us, “A Disgrace to the Profession should be standard issue for teachers so that they know they’re not alone. [It] should be mandatory for administrators and school board members to remind them about those struggling to teach. [It] should be read by every adult who cares about education.”

Paula Cain, a terminal cancer patient living in Iowa City, called to thank us for writing the book. “I’m just glad I got to read it before I die,” she said. Friends in Belmond, her former residence, had told her of the book. Then she told a group in Iowa City, “the subversives,” she called them, and word spread. When Paula died, her friends in Belmond asked us to donate two books to the public library in her memory.

We got an order from Portland, Oregon, from a woman who heard about the book from someone in California who heard about the book from someone in Missouri—and so it goes.

The book has turned up on Internet chat rooms, on organizations’ newsletters, and in comments on many home pages such as those for Project Fit America and the University of Delaware’s Research and Development Center. We found this comment on BiologyBooks.net (and we don’t even know where the company is or how to contact it!): “A Disgrace to the Profession is the best book written by teachers about teachers.”

We know that word of mouth has been our strongest marketing tool, stronger than all the press coverage. Not everyone has access to or even reads newspaper and magazine reviews. However, a recommendation from one friend to another carries with it the strength of sincerity. As one reader told us just this week, “Every teacher I know respects your work and thanks you for telling the truth.” What is this type of praise worth? Priceless!

Watch for our next posting: Becoming a Voice, the Stuart Book Dump.

Becoming a Voice, How the Book Took Off

“Most teachers will enjoy this paperback. . . . Most administrators will want to burn it.” Marc Hansen, Des Moines Register

How do three unknowns in Des Moines with no budget and limited marketing skills sell a book? We persuaded two local bookstores, Borders Books in West Des Moines and Big Table Books in Ames, to take a few copies. Then Marc Hansen of the Des Moines Register wrote an article about it—and the book took off. Within one week after his column, the first printing was gone.

We hit the airwaves, too. Gretchen appeared on a local radio talk show where Steve Deace, the host, called the book “required reading for all teachers and parents.” She also did a live interview with Marcus McIntosh on the KCCI-TV noon news. The book sold out at both stores. The Des Moines Public Library bought seven copies.

About that time, Christian Gurney and Dick Kirsner from KGInterdev read our novel and GAVE us a Web site, www.disgracetotheprofession.com. That made information about the book—and the means to order it—available worldwide. Monitoring Web hits became our passion; we were thrilled and excited to mark its progress around North America. We printed twice more, increasing the number of books each time.

Jane Burns of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wrote a review. Our Web site had over 1,600 hits in 24 hours. We heard from bookstores all over Minnesota and some from Wisconsin. Her column, “Des Moines Book Creates Stir Among Teachers,” was also syndicated in papers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts (perhaps others). We printed two more times.

Tim Schmitt, writer for Point Blank, one of Des Moines’ alternative newspapers, called the book “the brutal truth.” Mike Kilen, also of the Des Moines Register, featured our novel in the “Iowa Life” section; the subhead announced, “Little Book, Big Message.” His column was also syndicated nationally and was listed with a link on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) e-mail “InBox.” Pam England discussed the book in her weekly column, “Whim Whams,” in the Adams County Free Press. Omaha-World Herald columnist Bob Glissmann read the book during a snowstorm and called the next day to schedule an interview for an article.

We landed in some magazines, too. The Iowan featured the book in the “Iowa Authors” column. Kellye Carter Crocker’s “A Is for Effort” in Pages told the nation that “teachers around the country are cheering the spot-on depiction of the bureaucratic red tape and petty, image-obsessed administrators that make it so difficult for them to focus on their primary job—teaching.” And we were thrilled when the American Library Association’s Book List gave us a very positive review.

What about our book led to this publicity? Pam England: “Lively, concise writing … depicts a small cast of memorable and sometimes eerily familiar characters.” Tim Schmitt: “The story flows nicely, the characters are engaging and real, and the problems are presented in a way that is understandable and never preachy.” Education Matters: “A Disgrace to the Profession has proven to be the most popular of all the books reviewed by members of our staff and our book review council over the past several years.” Whitney Scott in Book List: The book is a “roman engagé [that presents] the all-too-credible circumstances that define [readers’] lives.” Jane Burns: “It’s contagious.”

Watch for our next posting: Becoming a Voice, the Power of Word of Mouth.