How to make a bestseller: insiders reveal the tricks of the book trade
F-shaped blurbs, seducing chatbots, nicking quotes off GoodReads and paying BookTokers: in today's Guardian I investigated the book world's tricks of the trade.
John Self16If you subscribe to the Guardian's Inside Saturday newsletter, there are bits in that I didn't have room for, eg the crime blurb writer who was told by the publisher he had to mention a murder (even though it didn't happen until the end and spoiled the plot) because "we need to sell 300,000 copies".
Marie Le Conte13oh I'm going to hate reading this I can tell, thank you
Longbarrow Press5A fine piece about a depressing state of affairs. Amused to read this, towards the end of the feature: "What came across time and again from the people I spoke to is how authenticity is key."
Rónán Hession3Loved this. Make it a weekly column please.
David Lewis3I love your pieces about the industry and yet they invariably fill me with hopeless despair.
Keith2One thing about 'no such thing as bad publicity'. The only reason sales of the Salt Path went up in our store at the time, was people who had seen the film and were completely unaware of the issues. We've not sold copies in over a year. It's right, but there is a limit on what people swallow.
Ray Newman5This is interesting. My other half gets all her book recommendations by asking people in real life if they've ”Read anything good lately?” and keeps a list on her phone, perhaps partly to bypass all of this jiggery pokery.
J.A. Jablonski | Resolute Death out this fall!4No wonder indie & self-publishing authors can feel overwhelmed. 📚💙
Stephanie Campisi3All painfully familiar 😭 (If you're wondering why I spent yesterday evening bedazzling my new book, it's because your eyeballs are everything)
Jan Carson3This is a great, but totally depressing, read.
Richard James Foster3This is an extremely good and interesting article and I’m probably not going to have done anything right when my new one comes out!
Daniel Benneworth-Gray3This is a GREAT read. I should probably know all of this because, you know, my job, but I learnt a thing or two.
How to make a bestseller: insiders reveal the tricks of the book trade
Rennie Petersen3It all seems so depressing, the actual quality of the writing and the quality of the story is irrelevant. It's all about marketing, influencers, cover design, sellers focused on payback. I've written 8 books, nobody buys them, I've given up trying to sell them, but I keep at it as my hobby.
Chris at BOTR1Interesting to see Ch4 taking a pot at fiction publishing & the emphasis on 'crime' & 'romance.' There was a times when fiction made its contribution to 'thinking' in addition to entertainment, but too many publishers were recruited into the 1980's neo-liberal emphasis on dumbing down.
Linda Daunter6As a writer my biggest fear is that I might accidentally copy another writer's plot/ character/ style. As a reader I love finding something different/ unlike anything else I've read. This article only makes me more determined to get my novel accepted by an #IndiePublisher ! #booksky #Writesky
J.S. Watts5An insight into the tricks of the trade. Apparently Romantasy and Cosy Crime are the current thing. That's my booksales down, then.
Steven Seggie3Write a book that loads of people buy?
This is fun and illuminating about how books are marketed. But it's worth remembering that rather few books even get this treatment, because the marketing department has selected them for a big push. /1 www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...
Philip Ball4It's mostly about fiction, but the cycle of trends happens in nonfiction too. Some years ago, publishers were all looking for the next "big history" Sapiens. Before that, the next historical microhistory Longitude. /2
John Tweedie1On customers overhearing a recommendation: “Three or four people will come to the till in the next five minutes with that book.” Reminds me of the High Fidelity film - "I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band." www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_OM...
John Tweedie1I hate it when I go into Waterstones and it's the same books that face out at me from the shelves or prominently placed on tables for months on end. Some new books never make it on to the new books shelves and you have to go hunting for them.
