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Inside the Cover Book Review Review by Jenna Glatzer
The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories from Authors and the Editors, Agents, and Booksellers Behind Them By Brian Hill and Dee Power Dearborn Trade March, 2005 272 pages Amazon.com price: $13.57
I think what I liked best about this book is that it isn’t a how-to book. I expected to open it and find all sort of “steps” to take to become a best-selling author-- something like Damn! Why Didn’t I Write That?, which analyzes which topics have historically sold best and tries to come up with winning formulas.
Instead, this book has an overriding theme: There’s no way to guarantee a best-seller. Publishers try, authors try, and yet, no one seems to know exactly how a best-seller ends up that way. Does the cream rise to the top? Is it a result of advertising dollars, ingenious marketing plans, an author’s platform, the author’s slow and steady build?
You won’t find any quick, pat answers here. Sometimes that’s frustrating, because of course we all want the magic key. But the real value of this book is that it provides an opportunity to sit in with some of the most successful authors, agents, editors, book club directors, book review editors, and booksellers in the industry today for a candid group session about how books are sold and how success blossoms. It’s philosophical, it’s enlightening, and all in all, it’s a fascinating conversation.
In the screenwriting world, you’ll often hear a script described as plot-driven or character-driven. The plot-driven stories are easier to sum up in a few sentences. The character-driven stories may not have as much action; may not have an easily defined beginning, middle, and end; and may not have simple conclusions. If this book were a script, it would definitely be character-driven.
How do you build up word of mouth? How is The New York Times best-seller list compiled? How do authors get publishers to send them on tour? How many galleys should a publicist send? What do booksellers look for in a publisher’s catalog to determine whether or not to order books? All of these are covered, yet not in a simplified manner that cheats the reader out of the reality of the business-- which is, “There’s just no magic formula.”
The book is slanted a bit more toward novelists than nonfiction authors, but is a fascinating read for both camps. It is the type of book that you’ll want to read more than once, picking up different snippets of wisdom each time.
Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of AbsoluteWrite.com and the author of 14 books. Read about her work at www.jennaglatzer.com and pick up a free editors’ e-mail cheat sheet while you’re there!
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