Write That Book Already!: The Tough Love You Need To Get Published Now (21 page)

If there’s a small or nonexistent crowd, you’ll want to be charming and chat with the bookseller. Sign some copies for the store and don’t forget to say thank you. Although conventional wisdom suggests that signed copies cannot be returned, in many cases this is no longer true—or at least no longer consistent or police-able. However, if you sign extra copies for a bookseller, there is a good chance that an autographed-by-the-author sticker will be slapped on the cover, and the book may even be displayed more prominently.

BOOK GROUPS

Book groups (also called book clubs or reading groups) are becoming an increasingly important part of the publishing landscape. Book groups have been around for a very long time, but have recently become kind of a hot new thing with publishers’ marketing departments, who have begun packaging certain books so that they will appeal to these groups. It’s not unusual to find group discussion questions (or reading group guides) inserted as appendices to novels. Sometimes local newspapers will coordinate reading groups and provide or suggest titles to read.

Famous book clubs like Oprah’s (well, there’s nothing really
like
Oprah’s except Oprah’s) can make a world of difference for an author, and the One City, One Book (or One Book, One City) community reading programs can also make a big difference. Led by libraries or other civic or civic-minded organizations, these programs encourage everyone in the community to read the same book. But even smaller—way smaller—groups can have an effect. The magic ingredient is word of mouth; one group loves a book and spreads the word to friends in other groups, and before you know it you have a national bestseller like
The Red Tent
or
The Kite Runner.
Both of those books caught fire sometime after their original publication, due to book group interest.

TRUE-LIFE ACCOUNTS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOK GROUPS

Kathy Patrick’s Pulpwood Queens book club has grown to include hundreds of chapters, mostly in the South and Southeast. Kathy hosts an annual “Girlfriend Weekend” for authors and chapter members in her hometown of Jefferson, Texas—and we know it’s a great event because we’ve been there. Here are a few words from Kathy herself, about the importance of book groups:

“I never knew just how important being a part of a book group was until I started The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas. Six women arrived for that first meeting who were, seriously, virtual strangers. These women grew to be really more than just great friends; they have become my book family. As chapters sprang up all over the country and the world, my world has been expanded beyond my belief. Before I started my book club, The Pulpwood Queens—now the largest ‘meeting and discussing’ book club in the world—my life’s focus was on my family and work, period.

“The difference between life with or without a book club is the difference between cornbread and a sublime and decadent cake. Cornbread is good and sustaining but we want our cake and to eat it too! The fact that new places, cultures, and worlds have opened our eyes to the splendor of our imaginations both on and off the page through our own life’s experiences, has made reading as important in our lives as the basic needs of air, water, and shelter. And I haven’t even mentioned all the wonderful authors with whom we have met and shared our book club meetings and festivals. The community of shared reading has given us all the tools we need to not only have a productive life but one that is truly valuable, a life that is a true celebration of living.”—Kathy L. Patrick, founder of The Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs and author of
The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life

Ann Kent’s Book Group Expo has hosted hundreds of authors and thousands of eager readers and book group members at an annual event in San Jose, California, as well as smaller satellite events all over the San Francisco Bay Area. A successful businesswoman, Ann started BGE (
www.bookgroupexpo.com
) because she loved her own book group and wanted to forge a connection with other groups to find out what they were reading. Here’s Ann, on the importance of book groups:

“For many, reading is a solitary experience, as is the writing that produced the book that is being read. Poetic justice is served when book groups and authors connect. They need each other. Book clubs and reading groups are all about community and conversation. When authors connect directly—in person, via the telephone, or on a blog—their writing is enriched, and so is the world of books.

“We know the influence of book groups—Amy Tan, Khaled Hosseini, Elizabeth Gilbert, and others will certainly attest to their importance! But an author’s connections to book groups aren’t just about creating a bestseller. I know that is a great consequence, but the connection is more intrinsic than that. Readers can ask questions about the protagonist. Authors can talk about the characters they’ve brought to life on the page. It’s a conversation. It’s a community. And it’s one of the many reasons that authors and book groups connecting makes reading—and writing—not such a solitary experience.”

Here’s another perspective from Susanne Pari, Book Group Expo’s program director, and author of a novel,
The Fortune Catcher
.

“Book groups are the perfect environment in which to show off—your house, your crystal, your yappy dogs, your lemon meringue pie, your colorful muumuu, and maybe your husband who still has most of his hair.

“A plethora of recent medical studies show that if you want to live a long good-quality life, social interaction and intellectual stimulation are essential. The first alleviates depression, the second confusion. Ergo, book groups will make you happy and keep you smart.

“Authors, book group members will actually read your work after buying it. (Only about 50 percent of book buyers read the books they buy.) So book group readers are more apt, obviously, to recommend your book to others. And since word-of-mouth is still (see Torah, Bible, and Qoran), the best publicity, reaching out to book group readers should be at the top of your marketing list.

When Book Groups Fall In Love

Every author’s dream is to have a book that becomes wildly popular through word of mouth. We are embarrassed to admit that we are hoping that happens with this book. Here are a few examples of very popular titles that reached the “tipping point” because of the special word-of-mouth contagion that can happen when book groups fall in love:

•
The Kite Runner by
Khaled Hosseini

•
The Red Tent
by Anita Diamant

•
The Deep End of the Ocean
by Jacqueline Mitchard

•
Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

•
Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen

•
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery and Alison Anderson

•
Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

•
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
by Kim Edwards

•
The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

We need to add a shout out to
The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell. We don’t know that this book was driven by book groups, but it sure did take fire, and of course it popularized the term “tipping point.” ‹«

“While there are as many different kinds of book groups as there are different kinds of social groups, one uniform characteristic of book group readers is their passion for books. Sure, there are book groups that seem to care more about the dinner or the wine or the gossip than about the literary discussion, but remember that the chosen book is why the get-together is happening at all. And that’s because reading—especially reading fiction and non-narrative fiction—is (or becomes) a steady part of these (mostly women’s) lives. Whatever happens during the meeting—and often nothing is sacred: arguments, confessions, rants, tears, uncontrollable laughter—it will be that particular month’s book that will always be remembered as the catalyst. It’s the discussion of a book that gives it the best chance to thrive in the world. Simply, word-of-mouth.”

Many bookstores sponsor reading groups and offer discounts to group members. Other groups will only agree to read books that have been published in paperback or are readily available at the public library. There are virtual book groups, national-media book groups, and neighborhood book groups. There are book groups made up primarily of vegetarian bartenders. Some are highly organized endeavors with trained book group leaders; others are as much an excuse to get together, gossip, and drink a lot of wine as they are about reading. There are hundreds of thousands of these reading communities in the United States, most reading one book a month or more. You can see why a reading guide is an important feature in attracting these groups to your book—it enhances the group experience.

Even if a book group is small, it can be worthwhile—not to mention a lot of fun—to set aside some time to visit a few as an author. Writing is a solitary experience, and speaking to these groups can help you to become a better writer, as you meet the audience for your work and make connections with your readers.

BOTTOM LINE

Think creatively about sales opportunities that will work for your unique situation. These days, books sell in a wide variety of venues and locations, and you can work with your publisher to find outlets and opportunities that will enhance your sales.

You became an author because you wanted to see your name in lights. By now you have probably realized that television and movies might have better lighting, but then, if you are still reading, you are probably a dedicated writer. So—now that you have finished the formal part of promoting your first book, what do you do to keep your writing career going?

EXTENDING YOUR WRITING CAREER BEYOND THE FIRST BOOK

There is no one simple answer to this question, because there are as many paths to a successful writing career as there are authors. For instance, if you are an academic or self-help guru or a religious or business leader, you might want to take some time off from writing to nurture your career and audience (platform), which are the basis of your writing career. But more likely, if your book has been even a modest success, you and your agent will want to strike while the iron is hot to get another book deal. If you are a literary novelist it might take you longer to come up with the next book than, say, a science fiction writer, who may be creating a series and thus already knows the next step.

THE PUBLISHER’S PERSPECTIVE: FRONTLIST AND BACKLIST

One way to think about this is to look at it from the publisher’s point of view. Getting out of yourself and understanding this perspective can help you chart your path to success. Broadly speaking, there are two ways a publisher can recoup the initial investment and make money on a book: a book can hit it big when it first comes out—when it is
frontlist
—or sales can grow over time as the book continues to sell without much effort or expense on the publisher’s part, when the book is classified as
backlist.
These practices may vary from publisher to publisher, but in general, from a business perspective backlist means that a book isn’t part of the current year’s budget, whereas frontlist titles are the titles that are being published in the current fiscal year. If, for example, the publisher’s budget follows the calendar year, from an accounting perspective a book published November 22 will be frontlist only until the end of the year, becoming backlist in January. The sales people, on the other hand, don’t think of a book as backlist for a longer time—generally a year. And when the book is released in paperback, that edition is viewed as frontlist in the same way.

What does this mean for your book? You want your book to succeed (unless you were Emily Dickinson, who was
such
a tease, that little minx). Publishers will keep printing the book as long as there is demand. This means you want your book to stick around long enough to become backlist. However, publishers put the vast majority of their marketing and publicity energy into promoting their frontlist. It’s a dilemma. But not really. Publishers love their back-list, which are the books that keep them afloat, and they will buy new books from an author whose backlist is strong and promote both. Think of it this way: backlist titles are the books that succeeded, the ones that sold and are still selling in meaningful quantities. That’s why they are still in print. That’s why they are backlist.