Writing a book is like...

Writers love metaphors

Hi friends,

I was walking through Brooklyn this weekend, BY MYSELF, which was amazing as I am the parent of a small child, and I was thinking about work. I am often thinking about work because I love it and I have a lot of it and, well, let’s just say I’m very excited about Anne Helen Peterson’s upcoming book about BURNOUT. Anyway, I passed a shop in Park Slope that’s been open for years, most of the 15 I’ve lived here at least, and I couldn’t tell you what they sell. I mean, I’ve been in there once or twice, and there are paper lanterns and fancy reading glasses and maybe scarves in the window, so it’s a gift shop, but gifts for who? There are so many empty storefronts in Park Slope right now and I was like why is this store working, and the others are not?

Of course, there’s no way to tell from the outside. I don’t know what their margins are like. I don’t know what the rent is, or if the store owner is lucky and owns the place outright. Maybe they bought it 50 years ago and the neighborhood grew up around them. Maybe everyone in a few block radius just knows that this little quirky store is where you buy that aunt you don’t know well a gift and it’s just the right amount of foot traffic they need. Maybe they have robust online sales. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You might be able to see where this is going, but THIS IS JUST LIKE SELLING A BOOK! If you’re unsure about what brand and platform and market and hook mean in relation to your writing career, this might help. That we’re talking about two retail environments in a capitalist system is not a coincidence. Selling books IS like selling scarves, because they are both, in the end, stuff people like to buy. Books are as much art as scarves. We, as a society, just value them differently. Sometimes more, sometimes less. We aren’t used to thinking of a book as the same thing as a scarf, but maybe we should, in some part, so we can better sell our scarves, I mean books.

SO! You, the writer, are a store. You have to sell something that people want to buy. That’s hard, and there isn’t a standalone resource out there that will tell you What People Buy, so you have to do your own research as best you can (aka, read books in your market). Then, you have to stock your store with that stuff (aka write the book). You have to display things attractively, and also make it easy to shop there. If you can’t open the door for all the junk on the floor, or everything’s disorganized, people are not going to come back to your store and spend money (aka sign you up as a client, give you a book deal, buy your next book). You also need some kind of theme for your store, some kind of brand identity, so that shoppers know what they’re getting when they pass by or come in. Are you the Eccentric Aunt Gift Shoppe? The Spooky Dress Emporium? The Health and Wellness Centre? You can’t just open a store and put up a sign that says GOOD THINGS FOR SALE, even if you do sell good things, because good things to whom? What kind of good things? Good things for what occasion? The people who come into your store are your market, and what you sell is part of your brand or hook.

When you think about that cute little shop you like, and how they stock their shelves to cater to their customers (you, and others), it’s a little easier to see why and how you have to at least consider your market for your book. You don’t have to target only one demographic (demographics are not the same as markets), you don’t have to say this book is only for rich white people who like smelly candles but you do have to think about your reader and what they may or may not want. And what drew you into that cute shop, anyway? Did a friend tell you about it (Word of mouth marketing!) Did you pass by and see a great window display? (Amazing cover art!) You probably didn’t see a TV or newspaper ad for them (book marketing is hard!). You very likely just knew about them because they are in your personal bubble of experiences. (This is like an author platform! Your primary market is the people who already know you!)

Once you get the customer into the store, you have to have what they want, it has to be the right price, and you need to be nice to them while you swipe their credit card. Parallels abound for this in my now overwrought book metaphor. Your book needs to comply with genre norms—if applicable! Your book should not be too long or too short! The reader should feel like they trust you as a storyteller and you’re not going to waste their time! There are gives and takes and exceptions to all of these things, like your book can be really long if it’s realllllllly good, but in the end, if you think about your writing career like opening a boutique, it might make some of these more ephemeral (market! platform! hook!) concepts more concrete.

I’m definitely going to get an email from someone who’s like how dare you equate my art with commerce and if you want to send that email, go right ahead. (Don’t send me the joke version of that email because <eyeroll>.) There is plenty of art out there that doesn’t fit in a storefront. There are some books that are so sublime that they sell themselves and the questions of market and platform and hook solve themselves. The hook? It’s so good. The platform? This author is amazing. Most books, however, cannot rely on this. The ones that can are like once in a lifetime good. Like The Secret History good. There are also books that sell very well in storefronts and are so good that they make millions of people happy! Either way, everyone can benefit from this exercise. You will never sell yourself short by thinking about the reader, aka the customer. People buy art every day. Think about the people you want to buy YOUR art.

Ok, I won’t beat this metaphor any more. Thanks for coming on this journey with me. And hello new subscribers! Welcome! There’s lots in the archive about query letters and contracts and the hard facts and tips of publishing you may have come here for. And everyone get ready: I’ve got some great stuff planned for NaNoWriMo, and why you don’t need to do NaNoWriMo (but you can if you want)!

OXOX,

Kate