Hey,

Confession time: I've always hated the phrase "word of mouth."

Now, even a hater like me will admit that it captures something important and true - I'm not suggesting otherwise.

I'll go further again and say that "word of mouth" sells more books than anything else. Indeed, you could argue that it's the only thing which really sells books, if you look at this business from a certain angle.

But we don't really understand "word of mouth" - which is only the beginning of my objections.

My real issue is more fundamental. The whole concept is so squishy that we can't really exploit it. We know that positive "word of mouth" can propel a book to the top of the charts, and keep it there.

If this phenomenon occurs with an unlikely book or unheralded author, we might refer to it as a "sleeper hit."

And if this is happens with a book before it's even published we will likely call it "buzz."

The publishing industry loves these kinds of phrases - squishy, nebulous, vague. If I was feeling grouchy, I might suggest that's because these kinds of concepts are completely free of accountability.

However, to be fair, I should note that other creative industries love these types of phrases too; it must come with the territory, and perhaps the inherent unpredictability of any creative project.

Doesn't matter if it's a $10m album, $100m movie, a $1bn video game, you never know just how the market will respond until you put it out there.

Of course, this (seeming) element of chance means that good authors and good books can fail - and do with disheartening regularity.

But, again for balance, I must note that once you are around the industry for long enough, you might well have had a hit or two yourself - perhaps for reasons that are equally baffling.

I understand that phrases like "word of mouth" might provide some solace in an often counter-intuitive or unjust business; I get that part, I really do.

However, I also feel very strongly that intangible ideas like "word of mouth" can remove your agency - remove your power.

"Word of mouth," is impossible to measure. You might want to encourage it or tap into it or even turn it up to 11 - but there's no clear path to achieving this.

Ultimately, I think squishy phraseology like this is unhelpful - certainly in practical terms. And by that I mean when you want to get a firm grip of your situation.

When you want to be a proactive partner in your book's success, instead of leaving matters in the hands of Lady Luck or some other capricious deity.

So... I prefer looking at book marketing in more prosaic terms. This might come across as unromantic but these are things you can hang yer hat on: CTR, CPC, opens, conversion, impressions, sales, reads, dollars, reach - all that "soulless" stuff.

And once your concepts have defined borders, you can grasp them, and impact them too. My view of the world might be limited - I am totally open to that idea - but it's a view of things I can affect.

Perhaps this is reductive - perhaps! - but when you look at things in more prosaic tewrms you can reduce success to a simple-looking formula: product, promotion, and platform.

A book will be successful if you can get each of things into good shape - you don't need to excel at absolutely everything, I hope you are noting that part.

I'm not saying achieving this is easy, but I am saying this is doable without slaughtering goats or tapping into mystical forces.

The product consists of the book, of course, but also its positioning - or packaging if you prefer. Your book might be a wild ride through the reigning tropes in your genre, but if the wrapper doesn't automatically attract fans of that genre then you might be in trouble.

In terms of the promotion, every book needs something to cut through the noise, whether its you driving that train or someone else entirely (like Amazon).

And then the platform can help readers discover your books too but that is not its job for most mortals. The truly valuable role a platform plays for most writers is in making readers remember who the hell you are when the next book drops.

Product, promotion, platform - pay attention to all three, get each in decent shape, and you'll do just fine.

That's what this tricksy thing we call a writing career really is - rolling the dice and taking chances, yes. Working hard and being persistent, absolutely yes. But also engaging in cold-eyed analysis, and improving the weaker parts of our operation, even if some of that toil isn't quite the romantic vision we had of the writerly life.

Things can get so complicated as a self-publisher that I think it's useful to pare things back sometimes and remember the fundamentals.

Enjoy your weekend,

Dave

P. S. Writing music this week is Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes with Home.