A lot, I think.
I’ve been reading lately about success and failure. The Sunday New York Times had a three page article on Amanda Hocking, while on Saturday Anny Cook wrote a very touching post entitled The Rush all about the unanticipated perils of today’s publishing world. She should know - I consider Anny a voice of wisdom and experience when it comes to indie publishing. She never pulls her punches and she’s been in the paranormal romance world a whole lot longer than me.
I wonder why some books sell and others don’t. If I said otherwise, I’d be lying. Isn’t that the question we all ask ourselves? What makes a book sell? Is it hard work? Is it promo, paid advertising, platform building? Is it writing a damn good book? I’ve read some damn good books that don’t sell.
Or is it none of the above? Yesterday a friend told me luck may be a big component in every success. I agree. Sometimes it’s writing the right story at the right time for the right audience, or coming up with the right concept at the right time for the right audience. There’s truth in the old adage about being in the right place at the right time.
The concept of luck affecting an outcome looms large in Ringworld, by Larry Niven. The character, Teela Brown, is recruited by Puppeteer Nessus, for the voyage to Ringworld. Her sole qualification is that she’s a sixth generation human bred for luck. The notion is that luck is a genetic trait that can be selectively bred into humans. She’s included among the crew in the hopes that her ‘luck’ will bring the mission success.
Unfortunately I can’t claim to have been bred for luck. Wait a minute…let me think…considering the calamities my ancestors managed to avoid over the centuries, I may be mistaken.
In any case…what do you think?
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I believe it’s the right story at the right time.
I think that there is luck, or maybe the word is serendipity-a confluence of luck, situation and attraction. In other words, the cosmos align and that alignment lands on a book. But, on the other hand, it has to strike a chord with readers. Amanda worked really hard on her writing and on marketing and promotion. She was writing in the high volume YA genre but with enough edge to appeal to adults.
I AlSO believe that SHOWING VS TELLING is an important feature. When you read very successful CONTEMPORARY work there is not a lot of telling us what’s going on. Instead, we experience the events, plot, emotions through the characters in realistic dialogue and through the actions of the characters. Of course you have to tell somethings, but I see a lot of work that hasn’t gotten over the hump yet.
Paranormal romance and erotica writers also, in my opinion make their work too short. I want something that looks like a normal paperback or trade paperback. Short books look like pamphlets or those scholastic readers popular when I was in school.
I would say erotica is a harder sell, but I think I read something recently that said erotica was the most popular genre.
And, the Indy presses like Samhain, and the others which names escape me do not have the marketing strength needed, or they intend to make their profit on volume of titles to sell but smaller runs. That way they don’t put a lot of eggs in one basket but they have a lot of eggs and hope one is the golden egg.
By having short, fast reading books, writers and pubs limit themselves to a maximum price people will pay. Erotica may be popular based on quantity of titles sold b/c they tend to be inexpensive and they sell many pieces but noit necessarily the same book. THe press is selling a bunch of books but the writer is not selling as many as she would like.
Present company excluded, as one who partakes of PNR and E, I find that erotica in general is low on the quality scale, characters tend to be stock as do plots. Sex tends to progress in certain ways (manual, oral, intercourse) and the books take a couple of hours to read. I think if a real effort were made to improve the PNRandE indy press titles’ quality we would see a corresponding spike. Turning one or two longer books instead of seven to ten shorts per year is probably important too. Build interesting and realistic characters, the female characters especially, Make the books more about plot and less about penetration. If you are going to write novella, do them as anthologies.
AS A READER AND reviewer, I am just saying these are my thoughts on the subject.
Amanda was all over the internet marketing last summer. I found her b/c I queried readers on which book I should read. I had downloaded a freebie of hers and then she wrote me saying she thought I should read her book.
Whether she was searching on her name or what I can’t tell you , but by the end of the weekend I had read the free book and the next two I paid for. She was everywhere I looked it seemed and now she really is everywhere and probably soon in a theatre near you!
I like that word serendipity. Actually, there just isn’t any one true way. For every author who has done everything right and sunk to the bottom, there are half a dozen who’ve been successes with shoddy writing and hopeless plots-but they caught the eyes of several someones who loudly proclaimed their worth.
As for erotica, I suspect there is a steady market for it. I have yet to meet a person who admits they read it regardless of lack of plot, but obviously someone does. Otherwise, it wouldn’t sell…
I believe hard work and dedication is the most important part. Then luck can play it’s roll.
Hi all. I think there are a lot of factors. I think luck is a big one. That and right place right time, and I guess that’s luck. So I’m kinda with Amber on this one.
Steph, I know Amanda worked her ass off marketing - she earned her way to the top, but I also think there is a component of luck or fate or karma. Call it what you will. I know people who are great writers/storytellers who also work their asses off and go nowhere. Did their message reach the wrong people? Did they write in a genre not popular at this moment in time? Did they use the wrong medium to spread their message in the first place? I simply believe there is an element of chance to all this.
Ciara - I think hard work and dedication are essential in anything we do. We must make that commitment, but then yeah, a lot of what happens next is luck.
My parents used to say it’s not what you know it’s who you know. Since we didn’t know anyone I figured we were effed, BUt, who you know is usually luck which is sometimes precipitated by social standing (also luck- as in to whom one is born.).
If your family owns a publishing company I suspect the probability is higher that you could write anything and get published.
I think being in the right place at the right time is essential, and that’s luck.
Humans are far more connected as an organism than we realize. Biochemist Rupert Sheldrake claims there is a “Morphic Field” surrounding all living things that keeps them coherent as a species. He also believes that during dream time the human race is connected as a single interacting unit, which keeps us thinking as a group. He claims that’s why so many scientific breakthroughs happen at the same time by unconnected people. Everyone wants to believe in their sovereign individuality but we typically respond as a group to a single message at a single moment in time. I think luck has something to do with a soul’s contract to the group. Some people have the right message at the right time. We dreamed them up to confirm what we already know.
XXOO Kat
The work and effort you put into the book also helps..I don’t know if it is luck or just the time comes for the person to have their turn with their book…
Savannah - work, effort, luck - a combination of a number of factors I think.
So Kat, it’s like Carl Jung’s Collective Unconsciousness.
I agree, Sandy - luck has a great deal to do with being in the right place at the right time - or is it fate?
Yeah, Steph, my family knew nobody. Just worked hard and scraped by.
Stephanie, it’s all luck. I know indie writers who’ve worked just as hard if not harder, than ms. Hocking-for decades longer than her-and gotten diddly squat for their efforts. Are they bad writers? Do they write stock characters? *shakes head* In my opinion, no. In fact, some of them write better than the stuff that hits the best seller lists, if you ask me. They take chances, they don’t follow the stock hot crowd-pleasers, they write what their heart tells them, and they worry about their dotted I’s and crossed “T’s” instead of worry about how Janie next door’s writing her book, and whether or not they should parrot this month’s hot topic. So why don’t they sell? Well maybe their niche is too small for us to notice (does that make them less worthy? I don’t think so-and no, I am not talking about erotic romance, erotica or even romance in general). Maybe they haven’t tried the traditional route. Or they tried it and didn’t care for it. Or maybe they just didn’t “come across the desk of the right person at the right time” <-my stock definition of luck. Does a longer manuscript equal a better book? Big emphatic, no. Especially these days with e-readers, I think the deifinition of a book is likely to change. Not many people have the patience for a 500+ page novel anymore, sad but it seems that's the way things have gone. Like you, I've reviewed lots of stuff, by companies I shall not name, whose big traditional-sized books, in my opinion, weren't good enough to be a doorstop, let alone justify all the trees killed for them; and I've read some 50-100 page stories that I'd kill to get more of. It's just luck, and opinion, and timing. You can up your chances by learning to tell a story well, but with the way it all looks in the end, getting that big contract is really nothing more than a crap shoot. I wish you all luck when you toss those dice!
Julianne - I love your strong opinion. The same friend who told me he believes luck has a great deal to do with success suggested that writers must write for more than money because money is scarce for most of us in the publishing world.
We are trying to survive in a world in flux - who knows where the publishing world will be two years from now, five, ten…
Most authors I know work hard, between writing, editing and promoting - all on their own. I don’t know anyone who thinks they’ll just upload their unedited, self-pubbed memoir and magically make it big. But then, when I see the huge number of self-published works, of which mine will soon be one, I’m assuming that’s exactly what a lot of people are doing. Expecting magic.
Julia, I believe luck works in strange ways all around us, whether we notice it or not. I’m not talking about fate, because I don’t believe in that. But I’ve experienced good and bad luck in every aspect of my life, writing included, and I feel luck plays a role to some extent. There are other factors to consider-timing, genre, title, cover, price, author, publisher, connections, marketing, buying trends, blogger reviews, the economy etc.
I do feel the ‘right place right time’ dynamic plays a big role in everything-and this could be planned or total luck.
Whenever I’ve asked bookworms what compels them to buy a particular book, the response always varies-from “The cover and title were catchy” to “The blurb sold me”. Price comes up a lot too.
And on the flipside of what you said about having read some good books that don’t sell-some sell like hotcakes but it doesn’t mean the majority of the readers enjoyed them.
You’re so right, Julia. How many of us have had friends and family tell us to write their life stories will make us best sellers. sad really, because some folks do have really interesting stories. I figure there’s a reader out there for everyone.
That’s the good thing about indie publishing, the wide variety of good stuff that will be out there.
A few years ago I heard “not to write vampire or werewolf stories, they had been done to death,” but then someone writes a story about sparkling vampires and the genre takes off again.
Publishing is a fickle business.
Perhaps luck is in there some where too. *shrug*
I firmly believe in luck. But I also believe in the old adage “You make your own luck” as well. My uncle never played poker. Why? Because he never lost. No one would play against him once they knew who he was. He once won nearly $60,000 on one night at poke in a Nevada gaming club, and they wouldn’t allow him to play there ever again. He spent that $60,000 on a small business that he and his two best pals got into and lived off the proceeds for the rest of their lives.
I have never won a damn thing (except that silly jump rope at a birthday party when I was seven). But I have been in the right place at the right times often during my long life, and I learned early on the value to trying. Every job I got had a large degree of luck involved. And I know that I was brought up to never look a gift horse in the mouth. I can only say that I do believe in luck…I do believe in luck..I do…I do…
It takes PLOT to be a good writer - Perseverence/Luck/Opportunity/Talent. And I think luck is a HUGE part of the equation. I’d like just a little itty bit of it please. LOL!
Nina, I agree, it takes a lot to be a good writer. To be a financial success? That’s another question altogether.
Fran, I love this comment! You and Dorothy Gale from Kansas.
Hi Janice, thanks for stopping by. Yeah, I don’t think vampires and werewolves are going anywhere soon. Vampires are still undead and the wolves are still howling. Fickle is right!
Yes, Evie. It’s weird. I think price has a great deal to do with sales, at least with initial sales and maybe that’s the way to make your own luck.
I agree that luck is a factor but there are many, many factors. Good writing and hard work promoting might help you capitalize on luck if it smiles on you. Bad writing, bad behavior, or lack of effort might undermine your chances. But there are no guarantees regardless of how hard you work.
Charlie - isn’t that the way of life? There are no guarantees.
I don’t believe in luck. To me it’s about hard work and being yourself despite what everyone else thinks.
Hi Amarinda - I totally believe in hard work, but I think luck, however you define luck, has a great deal to do with success also.