What’s More Important, the Author or the Book?
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If your favorite authors became tabloid darlings, would you care? Would you even bat an eye? Sensational exploits of public figures have been thrown in our faces for as long as Aunt Beulah’s been telling Marvel about Billy Dwyer spending the last three nights singing show tunes in his pig shed. It’s entertainment. It’s how we humans pass the time. But when you’re a brand, the way many authors are, could headlines like these become your reality?
Athletics come to mind. Like Hollywood celebrities, pro athletes are almost deified despite some pretty shocking personal problems. For some reason we choose to ignore their past transgressions, again and again, and welcome them back into the fold like lovable, but misguided members of the family. The message here being that fans don’t care about what goes on in a star’s private life as long as they entertain us. That’s fine when the athlete’s only responsibility is to make “x” number of jumpers or peddle some cornflakes, but should the same standards apply to the author/reader relationship?
On the surface this may seem like a no-brainer, even a non-issue, but from a business perspective trust between authors and their fans is essential. Authors don’t get the same exposure as pro athletes, there’s no, “Tonight, New Hampshire’s own Dan Brown goes head to head against Maryland’s Nora Roberts in a write-off to end all write-offs!” We don’t get constant television coverage over the course of a season or stadiums filled with hundreds if not thousands of people coming out because we’re part of their team. When it comes to book publicity, we authors are pretty much on our own. We have to develop and maintain our own relationships with readers if we want to write for a living. We have to not only write in our own blogs, but guest on those of other authors. We have to speak on panels, attend conferences, write newsletters and go on book tours just to keep our name in the public eye, don’t we? Well, don’t we?
That is the $64,000 question. Back in the day, authors accepted that once they wrote a book they’d soon be taking it on tour, but now many authors don’t even bother citing too small a return on their investment. I find this kind of defeatism fascinating. It’s like putting your book on Amazon without telling anyone it’s there and leaving it to chance that the right people will find it. No serious publishing professional would be satisfied with that. It all comes back to relationships: how far are you willing to go to develop a fan base?
An author’s brand is his/her reputation. It’s a promise you make to your readers and your ability to deliver. Based on the quality of your character (integrity, honesty and humility) and competency (talent, results, ability to remain relevant), you begin to generate trust. And people like trusting their favorite authors. When readers trust, they buy more of the same: they feel like they know what they’re getting and that makes them happy. Increased sales, being held in high esteem by a bunch of people with similar interests who will likely recommend your work to others: can you really afford to not invest in that?
What happens though if authors do start blogs or make personal appearances and people don’t show up to the party? For many people, attending book signings and trolling for websites just isn’t their thing. Some people may want to enjoy your book and be left alone. Does that mean any effort past writing the book itself is a waste of time? Not necessarily; it depends on the author’s expectations. Communication is a wonderful thing. If nothing else, having a blog or a Twitter account can be a great tool should you need to do damage control. If, for example, your third book in a highly anticipated series is going to be delayed, you can address that to your fans directly and minimize the hate. There’s nothing worse for a career than pissing off the fans. Or say you took a red eye flight to get to a speaking engagement and the effects of your sleeping pill haven’t worn off so you end up looking like a cheap booze hound- you might want to float an apology, I’m just putting that out there. To communicate or not is the author’s choice, but those who don’t are more likely to get stamped with Page Six gossip than those who do. Isn’t it better to influence things said about you as they come up rather than defend it later? Or perhaps you believe in the “Any publicity is good publicity,” school of thought?
Many an agent will tell authors that the most important thing in publishing is writing a high quality book. Full stop. Look no further. You’re done. Yes, it is all about the book in that you need to have a product to sell, but books aren’t sold in a vacuum. They need support; a personality, a hook that gives people a reason to buy that product from a host of thousands of others that are sharing the same shelf space. The author is the world’s expert on that book, not the publisher or the bookseller, the author. I’ve been to readings where the book in question seemed like the dullest thing ever written and nothing I’d want to touch, but when the author got up to talk about it, my opinion shifted. Books don’t change, but when they’re discussed and brought to life, people can. All the advertising in the world can’t sell something that people don’t have a reason to buy. Brand trust is a big factor in purchasing decisions and strong relationships are economic gold. Authors, we can drive that gold directly into our own pockets or let it slip through our fingers without a second thought. Isn’t your success worth a second thought?
Hey, you wrote a book? Good for you! Now what are you going to do with it?