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Celebrities have brand power. That's how they get books published. And that's why they can charge $10.00 for a seat at the Miami Book Fair. The quiet author with tomorrow's bestseller or classic is flattened against the wall as the crowd stampedes to the big names.
The celebrity chefs and rock stars will pull the big numbers, followed by Al Gore, Isabella Rossellini and maybe Margaret Attwood. An unknown author can expect to sell twenty to thirty books an hour at a signing with good traffic flow. A free sales assistant helps the book seller but pays the author pennies six months later. Raising the price of SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS may increase the perceived value and sales of the novel, but it'll be months before any money finds its way to C.J. Beck.
Then there's Stendhal's syndrome. Even if a reader has unlimited funds and a retinue of native porters to carry her purchases, eventually the serial sights and sounds will overwhelm her, and she'll need to rest quietly in a dark room for several days.
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