Tuesday Tidbits & Triumphs: Sell Sizzle Get Steak
Are you a reader?
If you are a writer, you must be. Getting lost in another author's world instructs, inspires, encourages, and motivates us to create our own worlds with words.
Swapping recommendations with other book lovers also helps us connect with readers, discover what they are reading and ask the how and why those books caught their eye and interest enough to take the book off the library or booksellers' shelf.
Consider "Where the Crawdads Sing", the number one selling book last year. To find out why, I placed a hold on the book through my local library. The email notice of availability came six weeks later. The librarian called my attention to the Express Read restriction I'd never seen in decades of checking out books and said the book must be returned in one week due to reader reserve demand.
I read the book with days to spare. Beautifully written. Impressive word crafting. Characters that live in your head and compel the reader to go back into their world. Exemplary descriptions of a place I've never been. I was with the lonely Kya in the marshes and the forest of North Carolina, in the small fishing craft from lagoon to open sea, on the beach watching wildlife fly, swarm and survive. I enjoyed learning more about the natural mysteries of the incredible world we live in from a writer who is an expert in that field.
However ...
The five star hype, and the demand created by it, was in my opinion a bit over the top. So I asked the members in four book lovers Facebook groups I follow to share their thoughts. How did they discover the book? Why in a crowded field of so many books and authors did this particular title get so much attention? If they'd read it, what did they think?
The results of my informal poll proved interesting and eye-opening. Responses ranged from "I loved it" to "I couldn't get into it" on either end of the bell curve to the "It was good but over-hyped" hump in the middle.
So how did this book get to be the top seller of 2019? This survey said:
- Celebrity endorsement by Reese Witherspoon. The actress, producer and tastemaker like Oprah Winfrey before her launched her book club in 2017. Last September, when Reese’s Book Club picked Where the Crawdads Sing, a debut novel by the unknown 70-year-old author Delia Owens, it pulled the book out of relative obscurity and put the title on top of the New York Times bestseller list for 67 weeks, 30 weeks at number one. To date, the book has sold over 4.5 million copies.
- From social media groups to book clubs and good old-fashioned face-to-face chatter, word of mouth still wins out. More than half of the social media book group members who responded said they discovered this book through the recommendation of someone they know, either online or in person.
- New author buzz. Many readers are looking for a fresh voice and the debut novel by an unknown writer fit the bill. Never mind that Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa—Cry of the Kalahari, The Eye of the Elephant, and Secrets of the Savanna and won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing. She's new to lovers of fiction and that's what sells.
- Advance Review Copies, a free, promotional copy of a book that's in the process of being published, but has yet to be released, provided to selected readers in exchange for a written review. The publisher's use of this common promotional strategy likely resulted in the reviews my surveyed readers mentioned on major online traffic sites like Amazon.com and in high profile publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Publishers Weekly.
What did I take away from this quick lesson in marketing 101? In sales, hype is the sizzle that relies on word of mouth to sell the steak. While the popularity and staying power of "Where the Crawdads Sing" has surprised publishers with 30 years experience in an unpredictable industry, the bottom line of success rests in the quality of the work and strength of the connection between the storyteller and the readers.
That's what sells books.
A published author, Teresa has led workshops on the elements of writing fiction, the power to hook readers with the first page, and overcoming writer’s block through life experience inspiration. She lives and plans to thrive in Caledonia, Nova Scotia with her Canadian-by-choice husband, film maker John LaBella, and their three Husky fur kids.