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Saturday, January 05, 2008

The Cost of Being Unremarkable

I've debated whether or not to post this article from ChurchRelevance, fearing I might be misunderstood. But something about this keeps me to my original plan to share this on Novel Journey. I'll let you read Kent Shaffer's post first, then comment at the end.

According to Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad,


--Marketing is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.

In this context, I believe that by marketing Robert means promotion - that is advertising, direct marketing, interactive marketing, personal sales, sales promotion, and public relations. Unfortunately, marketing has become synonymous with advertising and other promotional elements. By its true definition, marketing encompasses product, price, place (distribution), and promotion, and this is commonly referred to as the 4 P’s of marketing.

It is still a great quote, but consider it this way:

--Marketing promotions is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.

Remarkable products and services promote themselves through word of mouth.

Typically, remarkable organizations earn their remarkability by having a great product or service. However, an organization can also become remarkable through the other three P’s of marketing. For price, think of Wal-Mart’s low cost or Giffen goods. For place, think of Wal-Mart’s distribution or LifeChurch.tv’s Internet campus. And for promotion, think of Apple and Nike.

There are a few lessons to be learned here:

  • If your organization is unremarkable, you will have to compensate by spending more money on marketing promotions to be successful.
  • If your organization is remarkable, marketing promotions will only amplify your success.

  • If you can only be remarkable in one area, have a remarkable product or service because it will keep people coming back for more as well as generate word of mouth.
So there's the article. We all know the best way for a book to grow is through word of mouth. Basically, the reading experience was so remarkable that someone couldn't help but tell their friend. The idea behind marketing and publicity for such a novel serves the purpose of getting the snowball to start the avalanche rolling.

In contrast to a self-generating novel, an unremarkable one won't "amplify the success," but rather rely on what advertisements and attention it can garner during its brief twelve weeks on the shelf.

This summer, one of the big New York presses released a book which was advertised in all the right places, with the best graphic work, and great website. It caught my eye, but my budget for books doesn't often include hardbacks, and I wasn't quite willing to risk the price on an author unknown. This Christmas season, I saw the novel clearanced low enough even for my budget. Only now, I had no desire to read the book. As I looked at the $3.00 hardback, I figured if it had been worth the read, its sales would have shot up with all that marketing, not gone steadily down.


Luckily, as writers, we've got the best opportunity right now. We can first invest in writing remarkable books which will "keep people coming back for more." (And then spend the money on publicity and marketing.)

(Check out ChurchRelevance for more on marketing and being relevant to culture.)

7 comments:

  1. As writers, we must remember that it's not just one thing that makes a book a "seller" or "shelf-sitter". It starts with writing quality, rides on "buzz" and hopefully ends with lives touched by the words we've written.

    And each step that we take is all part of the journey that God has purposed for us to endure...no matter where it leads.

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  2. I remember, reading two different articles, one by Linda Howard and another by Jennifer Crusie, and their fundamental point was, the very best thing you can do for marketing, selling...anything to do with the success of your book, is write the best book you know how to write.
    That's fundmental. There are so many distractions and deadlines and pressure both before and after you're published but you've got to protect your work. Write a good book. Then you'll have something remarkable.
    Very interesting, challenging post, Jessica

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  3. This is interesting stuff, Jess. Don't all books start as "unremarkable"? Dean Koontz's first book was not "a self-generating novel." Nor was John Grisham's or Karen Kingsbury's or Stephen King's. It was a combination of craft, marketability and risk that made them, eventually, "self-generating." My guess is that there are many "remarkable" novelists that will remain "unremarkable" unless those planets (did you call them the four P's?) align properly.

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  4. Mike, I can't agree that all books start as unremarkable.

    I think that quality is found in the book alone. Whether To Kill a Mockingbird ever sold in high numbers or not, it's still To Kill a Mockingbird.

    There's probably a pretty good reason no one remembers the title of John Grisham's first novel was A Time to Kill and only sold 1,000 copies while his second book The Firm skyrocketed his career.

    I suppose my thoughts lie more in the directions that it's not okay to write an "okay" book and then rely on marketing and publicity opportunites to sell it. It's akin writing to market instead of to voice. If the product isn't worthy to start an avalanche, why not wait for the product that will?

    And while I agree that not every quality book will make it, we've seen a well-written book, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, sell regardless of the lack of marketing . . . and look how far it went once marketing figured out what they had on their hands and got behind it.

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  5. Jessica's comment regarding her book budget caught my eye. My own budget is tight, and I squeeze as many books out of it as possible.

    Books, like everything else, have skyrocketed in price. Gone are the days of the $7.95 hardback. It's cutting a lot of us out of the market. We end up waiting for sales, clearances, borrowing from friends, used books -- you get the idea.

    It may not have a single thing to do with the quality of the book, the author, or the marketing. If I don't have the money, I'll have to pass.

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  6. So basically you're saying if you want to sell books... don't suck:)

    Sorry bout that:) Personally, I think it makes total sense. In fact almost everything I read, I read because I have heard testimonies from people who read and loved the book. Other reasons I read a book? Intriguing back cover synopsis and a first page that I fall in love with.

    The fact is a so-so book might do well because of really good publicity, but who would buy the next book? In the end, all that matters is really good writing of a really good story.

    By the way, Jess. You'll have to read my devotion tomorrow. I'm quoting you:)

    Also, I loved A Time to Kill and remember it fondly as the book that made me fall in love with John Grisham...

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  7. Gosh, no kidding about the cost of hardbacks, Anna. Some of them are up near thirty dollars.

    Janet, I thought you made a good point that even if you read a book because of hype, if you won't purchase the author's next book, what's the long run point? Which leads me to ask, has anyone here ever given an author a second chance?

    I have, but only because a writer I really respected told me to give this author another try. It's outside the norm for me to read a less than satisfactory book and then read the author again.

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