How to Sell Books Without Selling Books
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I deal with a lot of authors in my line of work.
Most of them are talented to a certain degree, but they almost all suck at one thing: providing me with one good reason why I should read their book. That’s why I don’t accept all that many books from up and comers anymore and that’s why Janet from Madison, Wisconsin reaches over the copy of your thriller to grab the latest Camilla Läckberg at her local Barnes & Nobles. Janet and I couldn’t be any more different, but we have one thing in common: we don’t know you and we don’t know why you’re special.
Being a marketing professional in the day job, I wanted to tell you about one secret of the trade: the power of personal branding or how to give someone who doesn’t know you a reason to read your book.
How Book Shopping Works
Writing the best book you’re capable of writing is awesome, but it only can get you so far. Although you probably wrote the book you’ve always wanted to read, not everyone walks into a Barnes & Nobles looking for the best novel they can find. In fact, very little do.
There are three main types of book shoppers domineering over the fiction retail market:
1) Greg, who walks into the store in order to buy the book everybody’s talking about. Whether it’s Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck or George R.R Martin’s latest fat brick because he’s going to Acapulco soon and he wants something to read for the beach.
2) Ginny, who’s looking for names and faces she can recognize. Ginny will buy Kim Kardashian’s book because she either wants to bitch about her or she’s genuinely interested in whatever KK has to say. In front of the fucking sea of names and choices, she will latch on to familiarity. Which is cool. Don't judge. This is why publishing companies give Tom Hanks, Snooky or whoever million dollar deals
3) Gunnar, who doesn’t give a fuck about you if you’re still breathing. Gunnar is exclusively interested in writers who kicked the bucket already. He hasn’t started reading Don DeLillo’s books yet, but he’s eagerly waiting for the day he expires because it looks fucking awesome to him.
I can already hear your question: how the fuck can I compete for the casual book shopper’s attention and make a living doing what I love? Well, the answer is this: don’t sell the fucking book, sell yourself. If people learn to know you, that you display expertise at storytelling on a consistent basis and that you’re not like the others, they will buy your book for the same reason that Greg or Ginny will buy your book.
Because they’ll know you and they’ll know you because everybody will be talking about you. Gunnar doesn’t matter. He’s going to read you, but only when you’re dead.
The Chuck Wendig case study
Ugh.
I don’t like that guy very much, but he built a very successful writing career using personal branding to leverage his offer. So we need to talk about Chuck Wendig.
Wendig is a good writer. He’s not a GREAT writer, but he’s a decent storyteller and he’s read enough comic books to think outside the confines of standard literature and come up with original ideas. Lots of writers have a similar profile and don’t sell shit, though. They don’t even get published. Chuck Wendig has written over a dozen original novels, Star Wars tie-ins, comic books and more. So why him, right?
Here’s the thing about Wendig: he started a blog called Terrible Minds I believe somewhere around 2007 or 2008 (don’t have the exact year), when transitioning from freelance role-playing game writing to straight up novels and short stories. What made that blog stand out from the multitudes of boring writer blogs out there is that he often dished very basic writing advice in a fun, foul-mouthed style that people related to.
We all love our friend who swears a lot, right? Right.
That worked to his advantage in two ways: 1) the fact that he blogged frequently to answer common questions about writing drove people to his page a lot. He was never an authority on writing well, but his site looked professional and his approach friendly and uninstitutional. So people naturally trusted him. After all, why wouldn’t they? He was not mean and he was not lying. You could find his advice everywhere, but it was not delivered in the same friendly way. 2) When enough people were roped in, he released a self-published short story collection called Irregular Creatures, which is still available today if you’re curious.
So, not only Wendig engineered his own audience, but he proved to everyone BEFORE THEY EVEN ASKED that it was profitable. Once again, this is neither morally good or bad. But this is a man who really fucking understands the business aspect of publishing.
Here’s what he did:
He built a public identity by providing for free what you usually needed to shed a couple dollars on a writing book for. He was the cool substitute teacher to Robert McKee.
He monetized that audience by self-publishing his own short stories and books about writing.
He parlayed that proof of profitability in exchange for book deals.
That’s why he has a career and you don’t. I’ve chosen him for example because his writing is good without being special. What he did was to position himself in the life of people who were susceptible to buy his novels. He gave them a clear reason to care. Today, Terrible Minds is mostly comprised of promotional announcements, guest posts and more conventional (less interesting) blog entries, but it doesn’t matter. The relationship is established. Wendig has 183 000 followers who care about him and listen to what he has to say on Twitter. He won already.
Now, if you wrote a great novel that attracts the right people to your cause… you probably won’t need to do that. Max Booth III has been on a tear of great writing lately and that got him in touch with Hollywood producers and whatnot. Business people who will help him take care of that aspect of his career for as long as he writes great novels. But Max is exceptional. Chuck Wendig isn’t and you’re probably not either.
Now don’t BE Chuck Wendig because he’s a morally questionable person who surfs social justice issues for his own gain on social media and uses his audience to bully people, but you can learn from him. He’s done good for himself because he navigated the business side of publishing better than most. You gotta respect that.
Find who you are, what you can bring to people’s lives and sell them that in order to sell your books.
