Word of Mouth: Does it Still Sell Books? by Maggie King
Renowned agent Donald Maass is a firm believer in word of mouth: “There are only TWO things that sell books…a good book and word of mouth. Period.” If you ask mystery author and blogger Anne R. Allen how people discover books in the digital age, she’ll respond without hesitation: “The old fashioned way: word of mouth.” Word of mouth turned me into a mystery reader. Like many young girls I was a huge fan of Nancy Drew and the Dana Girls. I’ll never forget the day my mother brought home The Hidden Staircase after a trip to the P.M. Bookshop in Plainfield, New Jersey. My friends and I started swapping tales of those intrepid girl detectives like mad. But I put mysteries aside until my late twenties. A bout of flu kept me home for several days and my mother arrived on my doorstep with chicken soup and a stack of Agatha Christies. I started with Thirteen at Dinner ( British title is Lord Edgware Dies) and quickly became a Christie addict. For several years I r...