Everytime I go on Amazon these days I see an ad for an "Amazon Success Story" - a self published author who becomes a bestseller overnight. I've read a few of the books of these chaps and they don't seem to be particularly special or brilliant to me. (But then again what the hell do I know?) What these authors seem to have done is capture the Zeitgeist in a certain moment with a concept or idea that explodes virally with the general public. Book #2 of a best seller will always sell but the real test for these authors will be book #3. I'm sure some of them will continue to do well and I wish all of them nothing but continued success: it must feel brilliant to be rejected by the mainstream publishers and then become a million seller on Amazon. Anyway I know nothing about ebooks but I do know about mainstream publishing and drawing on my wealth of experience I've produced a helpful little pie chart for all you aspiring novelists out there. The figures take your average best seller and break down into percentages what I think the components of that success amount to. I genuinely think that this is pretty much how the mainstream publishing world works for new writers. What I'm really saying here - rather cynically I admit - is that its better to be pretty and connected than to have written a good book. (Not better for your soul, of course.) The pie chart applies to all new novelists except for Nordic crime and mystery writers: if you are lucky enough to be Scandinavian you can write any old tosh and the general public will lap it up.
20 comments:
Well, sure, if by "successful" you mean able to support your children...
I might make the luck piece of that pie a little bigger. And it's no surprise it's better to be lucky than good.
What gets me is the gap between selling a few hundred copies and a few hundred thousand - there doesn't seem to be much middle ground.
Yeah, that disappearance of a middle ground is an alarming phenomenon in any number of areas these days.
I actually think pretty has declined in its percentage. Pretty was when people actually watched authors on television. Pretty only counts after you're successful and have a lot TV appearances to do, and one way or another it can be concocted.
Talent is good for small scale success, but has nothing whatever to do with large scale success.
Marketing, I'd say, is king.
You're too hard on the Scandinavians, though.
John
Yeah the middle has vanished hasn't it?
In the last couple of years I've had a dozen or more New York publishers reject me and in about half of those cases I got emails or even phone calls from editors who told me that they liked my writing but "it was all about the numbers". My previous books didnt sell so they couldnt justify taking me on to their bosses.
Peter
Yes indeed.
Seana
Yeeesss, except that when I see a new author profiled in the Guardian or the New York Times, strangely, a very high proportion of them seem to be attractive young women.
Seana
The figure seems to be even higher on Charlie Rose.
E.L.James is attractive in her way, but I don't think this is exactly the reason the book has become the fastest to a million paperback yet.
I mean, you thought she was a man...
Seana
Yeah I did. And I thought it was an anonymous made up name too.
Thats definitely a luck Zeitgeist thing.
One of my friends who probably would know says its a marketing connections thing.
Personally, I'd blame it all on Twilight.
Wel, yeah, there are fads. Some books are hula hoops, there's really no accounting for that kind of thing.
Seana
Isnt the Gray Lady's husband some kind of film producer? Could be a Citizen Kane Susan Alexander thing that got out of hand.
John
Did you ever see The Hudsucker Proxy? It isnt my favourite the Coens by a long chalk but I like the fact that the hula hoop is invented by a simpleton.
"You know, for kids!" Hudsucker Proxy is one of my favourite Coen brothers' movies - or maybe it would make the best coffee table book.
Lately I've been bummed out by the very poor reviews and ratings my books get on places like Amazon and GoodReads. The good news, I tell myself, is that there are so few of them ;).
You haven't put in 'Marketing Budget'. Much more important than anything else, including luck. I'd say it's 90% marketing budget, 8% luck and 2% everything else.
Cheers, Dec
John
If you want a good laugh you should read my reviews for Deviant in both those places. Not only did I write the worst book in the history of the world but I'm an awful person too.
Dec
Yup that goes into marketing I guess. I think you discount being connected, esp in a big media market like London or New York.
We are agreed though that talent is a very slender part of the pie.
I happened to look at the best of all the lists in PW today. The top four were the Fifty Shades of Grey books, which is pretty impressive for a trilogy, followed by all three of the Hunger Games trilogy, one Janet Evanovich (and not even a Stephanie Plum one)another upstart erotica writer, and some kids' book I had never heard of. And yes, all women.
I have to say that the Indiebound list is quite a bit more diverse, and though I'm not looking at it at the moment, does include Richard Ford's Canada, and the one I'm most intrigued to get to, Jess Walter's Splendid Ruins.
Since you seem to be interested in this Fifty Shades thing, you might like this article. It seems plausible to me.
anim3snipe
sadt3ars
animeonlye
nsf7
3solat
mnoms
magicians4all
animexyt
mexyt
delegnet
Post a Comment