The Rowling Experiment
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about J. K.
Rowling’s experiment in publishing a crime novel under an assumed name.
For the benefit of those who may have been in limbo and out
of touch with the news, Rowling—famous for her Harry Potter juvenile novels—decided
to publish a debut detective novel under the name Robert Galbraith, alleged to
be the married father of two and a former undercover investigator.
Though the book sold about 1,500 copies in hardback (not bad
for a debut mystery), sales didn’t really begin to soar until her cover was
blown in a newspaper article. Some have accused Rowling of engaging in
chicanery and leaking her identity to the press.
Whether you believe that or not, is of no concern here.
What is obvious, and hasn’t been stressed enough, is this
fact: Names sell.
This has always been true to a certain extent, but is even
more true today. Readers, deluged with tons of books being published each year,
must rely on certain factors to select their next book. Though reviews, a good
cover and/or advertising may have some impact, nothing sells like NAME
RECOGNITION.
And why should it not? If a reader enjoys one book, it
encourages belief the next will similarly entertain. Each reader you please
could lead to multiple recommendations. And there is no better advertising than
word of mouth.
Naturally, most of us won’t emulate Rowling or other big
names—at least not in the short term. But reader by reader, each of us CAN
build a following.
How you choose to build your name recognition is a matter of
choice. There are many methods of marketing available to us and no one is
certain which works best. What we can all do, though, is strive to improve our
product in every way possible.
Oh, and one other thing—be appreciative of your readers.
--J.R Lindermuth
Sooner Than Gold Blurb:
It’s the summer of 1898. The nation, just coming out of an
economic slump, has been at war with Spain since April. And Sylvester
Tilghman, sheriff of Arahpot, Jordan County, Pennsylvania, has a murder victim with too
many enemies.
There’s Claude Kessler, who is found standing with a knife
in his hand over the body of Willis Petry. There’s Rachel Webber, Petry’s surly
teen-aged stepdaughter, who admits an act intended to cause him harm. Then
there’s the band of gypsies who claim Petry is the goryo who stole one of their
young women.
If this isn’t enough to complicate Tilghman’s life, add in
threats to his job by McClean Ruppenthal, former town burgess; a run-in with a
female horse thief; scary predictions by a gypsy fortuneteller, and the theft
of Doc Mariner’s new motorcar.
There’s plenty of good eating, church-going and socializing
along the way. And, before all is over, Sylvester solves the crime and even
comes a little closer to his goal of finally marrying longtime girlfriend Lydia
Longlow.
BIO: The author of 12 novels, J. R. Lindermuth lives and
writes in central Pennsylvania.
A retired newspaper editor, he now serves as librarian of his county historical
society, assisting patrons with genealogy and research and finding much
material for stories in both the people he meets and the books in the stacks.
He has two children and four grandsons who try—not always successfully—to keep
him out of trouble.
Comments
Interesting article. I too wondered whether Rowlands leaked the information to the press to beef up her sales.
Cheers
Margaret
Very interesting post. I completely agree that name recognition is crucial to selling books but how far are we willing to go to get our name out there?
How often have we heard it said that any publicity is good publicity? I don't think that's necessarily true. The authors I admire (and read) are honest, genuine people with integrity. Yes, selling a lot of books is what all authors want but, if we sacrifice our own standards of conduct to achieve increased sales, what have we really gained? And, more importantly, what have we lost?
JL Greger
When I first read the breaking news story, it indicated the publisher was putting a "rush" to supply more copies for the anticipated demand. Looks like they happily explained who the author truly was. I must say that whether intentional or not, it was a great publicity stunt ~ plenty of "free" advertising, which must be assisting sales tremendously. Apparently, in less than three months since release, only 500 out of the 1500 shipped copies sold. It was nearing time for "plan B."
This only goes to show how tough it is for a debut author to break out. Rowling had it easy, she wasn't going to be rejected by her own publisher! I'm sure that an unwritten agreement existed, that if sales weren't up to par, it would somehow be revealed that she was the author, and then they'd see sales skyrocket. They had nothing to lose in their experiment; it would generate tremendous press and get a lot of conversation going.
Allegedly, an "anonymous" tweet (account later deleted) was sent to a Sunday Times London reporter about the true author's ID. He checked & learned that the publisher for The Casual Vacancy & The Cuckoo's Calling were one & the same; he also wondered how a "debut" author could warrant such attention (and a hardcover book at 464 pages, I'd wonder, too...). He did his HW, though, and sent the two books and the last Harry Potter book to computer linguistics experts, who found similarities among them; I'm surprised he just didn't call the publisher & ask for confirmation, saving a lot of time & energy :-)
J.R., you're absolutely right about name recognition, which is so true in publishing and in politics, too. It's so encouraging to see "unknown" authors who self-publish and have tremendous sales due to word-of-mouth, reviews, social media, etc. Once they reach stratospheric sales, it's amazing how major publishers suddenly gain an interest, yet wouldn't have given them time of day in the beginning.
SOONER THAN GOLD sounds intriguing. I've been a genealogy nut since taking Ethnic Studies in 11th grade ~ which I purposely chose as one of my electives b/c of the family tree project.
Some of my Irish ancestors lived in West Conshohocken (Montgomery Cty), PA, in the 1860s. I live on LI, and my mom, uncle, and I (we are the family's genealogy detectives, we've even travelled to Ireland) took a trip there to do some research a few years back.
Best wishes with Sooner Than Gold!
I thoroughly enjoy reading through archives, which give plenty of grist for the writing mill.
Thanks, Marilyn, for having JR on your blog. It's an interesting topic to discuss. BTW, yet another outstanding job you did at the Public Safety Writers Conference in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. It was terrific :-)
Marilyn
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