It Takes More than Money

I read an interesting blog post by suspense author Brandilyn Collins. Before you read this post, hop on over there and take a gander. The gist: a big ol' publisher falls in love with a new book by a new author. They spend a bajillion dollars to market the thing. But another similar book with far fewer marketing dollars ends up winning the lottery by attracting word of mouth and readers. Hmmm. So what does this mean for us? Read on...

The book that stood out, The Thirteenth Tale, caught readers. Captured them. It goes to show that excellent storytelling and great writing can produce great sales. This is something I'm banking on, folks. I want to write each book better than the last. I want to craft clever stories with amazing prose. I may never sell millions, but I pray I am capturing readers.

No matter how much you market, no matter how much a publisher spends, if your book is boring or poorly written or a regurgitation of what's already been written, then why would people want to buy it? This week I posted on my blog about how sick-sick-sick I am of Christian books that say nothing compelling. You can read that post here.

We have a privilege to represent our Creative God to the marketplace. What kind of representation are we showing if we never dig deep within ourselves for hard-won words. Through the crucible of pain and success and worry, as we lean into Jesus, our words morph from trite and cliche to tantalizing and captivating. As we hone our craft, not despising our editors but thanking them, we will begin to see others take notice. It may not happen overnight. But it could.

The best marketing you can do is to write the most honest, authentic, well-written book you can. Those are the words that captivate a nation. And no money can buy that.

Comments

[Tami Boesiger]

Amen, Mary!!

[Susan Meissner]

Wow. For some reason your post fills me with such hope! . . .

Silly me. I know the reason.

Not many of us will have makreting money in the millions thrown behind our work. That's not an opportunity we can count on. But we DO have the opporunity to write the absolute best pages we posssibly can.

When do we have that opportunity?

Everytime we sit down to write.

Such a wonderful thought. . .

[Heather Goodman]

This also means responsibility. If money can't buy me love, then I have to work hard. I suppose that's a good thing, especially when you love your work.

[relevantgirl]

That's true. I do love my work, Heather. I love words too.

Susan, it makes me smile that I offered my dear friend hope.

[David Brollier]

This is great news. As someone who isn't a salesman, but works hard to be a good writer, I find this very encouraging. My first book has been received well by those who've read it. The unfortunate fact is most people don't know who I am, so the going is slow. Did you try MySpace? I've found that things started picking up when I began networking on there, as well as joining some Yahoo groups.

[relevantgirl]

I've heard positives and negatives about My Space. Anyone out there in the CAN blogosphere have any stories to tell about it?