Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Secrets of A Book Smash

I'm learning as I go, and so articles such as this one are of immense interest. (Via Claire King. ) More HERE.
The Wall Street Journal looked into the recent surprise hit by science journalist Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, to divine how the book went from zero—kicking around a number of houses and editors—to the top of the charts when her publisher, Crown, had to reprint 100,000 copies to keep up with demand created after it sat in the top 25 at Amazon (AMZN) for weeks.
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4 comments:

Karin B (Looking for Ballast) said...

That's a really inspiring story and the book sounds *really* good. I kept thinking about Malcolm Gladwell's principles in the book The Tipping Point as I was reading, too.

Here's to your finding your own trifecta of book success!!

elena maria vidal said...

Thanks, Karin, for your good wishes and for mentioning Malcolm Gladwell. It is all quite interesting to me. Since I always seem to be swimming against the current of the zeitgeist I don't expect that same kind of success. It would not be realistic. It is intriguing, however, that so much of book marketing depends more and more on the author's own efforts. And then there is that moment of grace in which we respond to what we are called to do and let the rest happen in God's time.

Julygirl said...

You seem to be on the right track regarding promoting your book. People need to know what is 'out there'. The thing you can be proud of though is that what you write is not here today and gone tomorrow considering 'Trianon' has been selling steadily for 10 years, and continues to do so.

elena maria vidal said...

Thank you, Julygirl, that is very true. And it makes me glad.