Why This Book Worked

And maybe why others didn't

Hi friends,

Have you heard the buzz about TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin? I sure had. It started with people in my feeds—Instagram and Twitter—crowing about how much they loved it, probably before it was even out. It was people I followed, people I trusted and whose taste I trusted, and I tucked that info away. This book came out in July, so I probably started hearing about in early 2022. I don’t really remember the specifics. Every time I saw someone post about it, I thought hey it’s that book. Eventually that added up.

I was aware of the author, mostly from her YA books, but this is the first I’ve read of hers. She’s written TEN BOOKS, for YA and adult. This is an adult book. People in my feed kept saying it lived up to the hype. The book hit the NYT bestseller list, probably this summer. I wasn’t paying much attention, except to the steady drip of people I knew reading it and being like YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK. Also, the cover is amazing.

This book has a million blurbs, an already-NYT bestselling author, an amazing editor, is published by Knopf, is a famous person’s bookclub pick, has all the things—and you know what got me to go out and buy it? My friends saying oh yeah this is great. (This is the secret to marketing! I’m sorry it’s almost impossible to attain on your own!)

So I went out and bought this book and finished it this week. It was sold out in the three bookstores in my neighborhood the week after Christmas. I ordered it online. And you know what? It’s a spectacular book. My friends were right. When I read the last page, I said out loud, “well, shit” because I was so disappointed it was over. The ending is wonderful and satisfying, don’t get me wrong. I just didn’t want to leave these people!!! I love them! I miss them already!

My husband and I have a fraught relationship with recommending books to each other because A: he knows exactly the kind of book I will like and is incredibly well-read and B: I am a stubborn person who does not like to be told what to do. He recommends books to me all the time and I never read them. I recommend books to him occasionally because I feel guilty recommending him books when I do not read the ones he suggests to me. We are fine. We love each other very much. But I said to him, after my usual caveats re: the above, that he would like this book and started to describe to him what it’s about. It’s about three friends who make video games. That’s not ALL it’s about but I didn’t think describing the ups and downs of what happen would sell it any better to my husband than telling him how it made me feel—which was hopeful and heartsick for these characters’ inner lives, and in love with what they are in love with. It’s not plot-less. Plenty happens. You might call this “character-driven” (I wouldn’t be surprised if others did, but I don’t read reviews) but I worry the subtext of that is often slow or plot-less. It’s neither of those things. I’d read 50-60 pages before even thinking about picking up my phone because it was so wonderful and compelling. I would have read it a single sitting if I hadn’t had to do life things. It’s 400 pages long, and every one of them is vital. I would have read a hundred more.

Also, I don’t care about video games. I think they are great! They are not a big part of my life, outside of my ten-year streak playing one friend at Words with Friends (no, really), and a childhood love of Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Punch-Out. (Notice most of those games were not made in this century?) Oh and Wordle and the NYT Spelling Bee. These are casual games. I have never played an MMORPG. THIS DOES NOT MATTER. You do not have to care at all about video games to love this book. You feel about them how the characters feel about them because Zevin does such a masterful job showing you the messy insides of these characters’ hearts. If you love video games then you probably laughed at a few more jokes than I did or picked up on some context I missed, but that’s just the reward of reading something when you know a lot about the subject matter. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything at all.

The point of this installment of Agents & Books isn’t (just) to tell you about a cool book I read (that I am not, to be clear, involved with in any way except as a fan and reader) but to show you it is a prime example of a literary novel about a not-typically-literary subject matter (i.e. video games, i.e. anything pop culture, i.e. most things Millennials care about) (love you, Millennials), with not-so-much plot, that is voice- and character-driven, and this is hugely successful. (I don’t know how many copies it’s sold. I’m sure it’s doing juuuuuuuuuuuust fine in that regard.) This is an incredibly hard needle to thread. If you are trying to write a novel¹ about a subculture of any kind, or anything where someone may have told you I don’t know if any one cares about this subject matter, the secret Zevin’s book tells you, IMHO, is that you have to show the messy hearts of your characters. And if your book is not working, that might be why (among many, many other things, but the point stands). Your reader will care about the things your characters care about because you have shown the reader why your characters care so much about that thing. There are a lot of feelings involved with that, both in knowing why your characters care about those things and why you care about those things, and I think you have to access your own messy heart to get there. (Maybe I’m talking to myself here, but still, probably not only myself.)

In the acknowledgements, Zevin says this is a work novel, and it absolutely is and that is probably why I love it so much. I love novels about work. I can see this book being used as a comp² for so many things, for work novels for sure, and especially for books about subjects not typically treated seriously by the literary establishment. Like, I don’t know, BMX bike racing or the Influencer Economy or cut-throat Etsy selling. (I’m absolutely making things up here. I do not know that there is a market for novels on those topics, though I would probably read them, lol.) This book might be a good comp for a novel like those, especially one that aims to be called "literary"³. But it is not successful because it is about video games or because it is a book about video games published by Knopf.

It’s successful because it is spectacularly, beautifully written and I would die for these characters. It’s the author’s tenth book! She knows what she’s doing! Her other books are likely also as masterful and I can’t wait to find out just how so! If this were her debut book? Holy shit. I would be losing my mind right now. But it is not and that is ok and great and those of us who are discovering her books for the first time are so lucky to have more to read.

What does this mean for you, the writer (etc) reading this newsletter? It means be careful how you use this book as a comp, in real life and in your head. Yes, this will be the Video Game Book Comp forever, but video games is not the (only) reason why this book is good. It could be about anything else and I would probably love it just as much! (Though the video games stuff throughout is also very, very excellent and I appreciated it very much.) In your head, try not to think why did my book about video games (or whatever similar thing) not get as much attention as this one?????? Was it your tenth book? (Maybe!) Have any of your other books also been NYT bestsellers? I’m not saying this to be a jerk because tbh, I am sure the answers to those questions are no for 99.9% of you. My point is, don’t focus on one thing as the reason why some other person’s book works or doesn’t (deservedly or not) or why your book works or doesn’t (deservedly or not). None of this exists in a vacuum. People like, and don’t like, books for many, many reasons. Success does not come as a result of just one thing. Marketing is a long road and sometimes a person out there buys a book six months after it comes out because all their friends like it, and not because it’s been reviewed in basically every major place since it published. Not getting all the Big Things does not doom your book. The week your book comes out is not the only time people will read, buy, or talk about your book. Don’t forget that.

What should you do with this information? Read this book, because it is wonderful. Keep writing yours. Don’t skimp on craft. Revise until you’re blue in the face. Talk about the books you like in the world. Write your weird thing. Read something on a topic that on the surface you aren’t sure you’re very interested in. Keep going.

XOXOXOXOXOXX,

Kate

1. I think this would be really different for non-fiction. Sorry.

2. A comparative title. A book mentioned when pitching another book as a point of comparison, used to suggest similar subject matter, sales potential, audiences, markets, etc.

3. There’s no hard and fast definition about what makes a book “literary.” All well-written books are not exclusively or automatically “literary.” Not all “literary” books are well-written. It’s as much about marketing as it is about author, subject, plot, writing, or perceived quality. We, in publishing, know it when we see it. You can absolutely call your book literary all you want. Or not.