How much time do you think it takes to gain noticeable popularity?

Kindness · Feb 26, 2010

I've been away for a short while

Too long D:

Now, my question: how much time do you think it normally takes for a novel to become popular? Okay, there's no such thing as 'normally' when it comes to books, and everything really DOES depend on the book, but still... Would a good book become popular after 6 months, or would it take 1/2 years? Or more?

What do you think?

AryaT92 · Feb 26, 2010

It is pretty much impossible to say.

I would say either before 6 months but some books don't get picked up until a year or two in.

gothicangel · Feb 26, 2010

Depends who you piss-off.

Do a Dan Brown or JKR and the Catholic Church will have you on the bestseller list in weeks.

ether · Feb 26, 2010

gothicangel said:
Depends who you piss-off.

Do a Dan Brown or JKR and the Catholic Church will have you on the bestseller list in weeks.

I giggled.

veinglory · Feb 26, 2010

In most cases I think the book either finds a market right away, or it doesn't. Sure, there are exceptions but commerically published fiction doesn't stay out there forever--if people don't start buying it it goes out of print.

AryaT92 · Feb 26, 2010

Can you tell me what you mean by who you piss-off? Does that mean if it's controversial it will sell well?

Phaeal · Feb 26, 2010

Yep. Controversy is golden, for the most part. You just have to attack or affront an institution that enough people enjoy seeing dissed.

jana13k · Feb 26, 2010

Most books by new or mid-list authors get a shelf life of 30-60 days in bookstores and 30-45 days in Walmart, grocery stores, etc. If it doesn't sell, it often goes back. That's why it's so difficult, without a big marketing push from your publisher, for mid-list authors to even break out. You can build slowly over time, but with the current economic climate, it's literally crawling for most of the authors I know, except for a few break-outs.

And then there's your definition of popularity. Do you mean advertising - that's up to your publisher. Do you mean sell-through? That is a better indication that people have read one of your books, liked it and came looking for others, especially if your book is not always in their face when shopping.

Cathy C · Feb 26, 2010

If the book is still on the shelf after six months, it's already popular. That's the real struggle with ANY book right now. Groceries and discount stores reshelve every week to two weeks and the sheer volume of influx into brick and mortar stores requires constant reshuffling. If you don't already have some popularity by word of mouth and sales after a few months, it might struggle to stay available for anyone to find it.

Kindness · Feb 26, 2010

Aah okay! I meant sell-through popularity -- that's terrifying! I mean, that you only get such a small window for your book to succeed or fail...!

Libbie · Feb 26, 2010

This is why I have a secret promotion plan to suggest to my publisher (if I ever get published).

jana13k · Feb 26, 2010

Yes, and these days you usually get two books, maybe three before you're dropped. It used to be much higher.

I developed a "readership" with my first book, but not a huge one. But consider this - my first shipout was great for a first-time novel and my sell-through was 67%. Ship-out for my third book was dismal as the economy had crashed and it shipped 50% less than the first book, so the assumption would be that it sells less than half, right? Actually, I was very pleased to find that apparently people are looking for that one darn copy of my book that stores bought and they're ordering more. So sell-through on my third book is currently at 89% and the orders keep coming in.

The reality for anyone else or even the next book I write - who knows?

Jamesaritchie · Feb 26, 2010

There is no average. Some books gain popularity over many months, others hit number one on the NYT list before they're even published.

The average paperback gets three weeks of shelf life, and the average hardcover gets about two months. This is true everywhere, including the chain bookstores. There's no choice in the matter. Four million new books are released every montyh, far, far more than should be, and room has to be made for those books, so any book not selling well must go.

Fortunately, pre-release sales matter more than ever, books do not drop off such places as Amazon, and libraries, if you have a hardcover, can hook readers months or years down the line.

Marzipan · Feb 26, 2010

Do a Dan Brown or JKR and the Catholic Church will have you on the bestseller list in weeks.

Now that you mention it, I think my book may do to YA what Dan Brown did to Adult lit.

Birol · Feb 26, 2010

It takes twenty years to become an overnight success.

Polenth · Feb 26, 2010

Libbie said:
This is why I have a secret promotion plan to suggest to my publisher (if I ever get published).

You're going to chain yourself to a public monument?

Maxinquaye · Feb 26, 2010

Libbie said:
This is why I have a secret promotion plan to suggest to my publisher (if I ever get published).

It doesn't have anything to do with getting into an argument with a celebrity using sexual undertones that will stoke the fires of the tabloids for about six months and drive sales does it?

Hands off!

<trademarks idea>

blacbird · Feb 26, 2010

How long ago was the Ordovician? I can't remember.

caw

shaldna · Feb 28, 2010

It can take weeks, or months, or years. It can take one book or 10.

For instance, Twilight was first published in 2005 and was something of a flop.

However, the publisher had spent a ridiculous amount of money on it and so a revamp of the cover and a real push in marketing saw it reach the public consiousness around 2007.

However, this was a bit of an extreme case, and i think that had the publisher not poured so much money into it already, that it would have just been written off and we would never have heard another word from Stephenie Meyer, which would have made the world a much better place IMHO.

However, I digress. The truth of the matter is that there is no way to know.

scope · Feb 28, 2010

"Popular" -- not necessarily good! Even so, very subjective term. I'd say long term popularity (as it is today) means something like the book being on shelves one year after initial publication and at least a second print run.

Kindness · Feb 28, 2010

Hahaha, you really don't like Twilight do you!

Thanks everyone! I feel slightly more knowledgeable about this whole fame thing

I'm hoping that I manage to build some kind of fanbase with my book if I get it published -- because everyone loves fans

*sits and daydreams*

DeleyanLee · Feb 28, 2010

And then there's the classic extreme of LOTR.

Published originally in 1954-55, it didn't start becoming popular until the early-to-mid 1970's. It suddenly took off and quickly became a "modern classic" and the "defining work of Genre Fantasy" and was on every "best book of the 20th century" list, often coming in at #1.

It's highly doubtful in today's publishing market, it would have been available decades later to obtain that original cult following and make its mark.

Kindness · Feb 28, 2010

That's true! xD That kind of brings in the whole luck factor. Wish there was a sign that said: 'the best agent is [x], the best publisher is [y] and the perfect time is now!'

khalleron · Feb 28, 2010

DeleyanLee said:
And then there's the classic extreme of LOTR.

Published originally in 1954-55, it didn't start becoming popular until the early-to-mid 1970's. It suddenly took off and quickly became a "modern classic" and the "defining work of Genre Fantasy" and was on every "best book of the 20th century" list, often coming in at #1.

It's highly doubtful in today's publishing market, it would have been available decades later to obtain that original cult following and make its mark.

It's highly unlikely that in today's climate it would have been published at all. Too long, too esoteric. Even Tolkien's original publisher expected to lose money on it - it got published at a time when publishers would still publish something they felt was good, purely for the cache', not the cash.

So much baby must be getting thrown out with the bathwater because publishing is out for the blockbuster, not for the good books that will last.

Heavy sigh.

MAP · Feb 28, 2010

shaldna said:
It can take weeks, or months, or years. It can take one book or 10.

For instance, Twilight was first published in 2005 and was something of a flop.

However, the publisher had spent a ridiculous amount of money on it and so a revamp of the cover and a real push in marketing saw it reach the public consiousness around 2007.

However, this was a bit of an extreme case, and i think that had the publisher not poured so much money into it already, that it would have just been written off and we would never have heard another word from Stephenie Meyer, which would have made the world a much better place IMHO.

However, I digress. The truth of the matter is that there is no way to know.

What is your source? I thought this seemed odd, so I went to wikipedia.

Twilight was published in 2005 with a print run of 75,000 copies.[22] It debuted at #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list within a month of its release,[6] and later peaked at #1.

How much time do you think it takes to gain noticeable popularity?

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