What The Heck Do They WANT?
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 6:00AM in J.D. Rhoades by J.D. Rhoades
A few days ago, a tweet (or maybe it was a blog post) from the extremely cool and uber-talented paranormal suspense writer Kat Richardson pointed me at this cartoon from fantasy writer Jim C. Hines:
It was one of those observations that's been, in the words of Jimmy Buffett, "so simple it plumb evaded me."
Sometimes the discussion on book blogs can get a little, as they say, "inside baseball". Some of us talk about e-publishing and platforms, royalty rates and market shares of various formats. Some of us talk about process and outlining and marketing, and we make predictions and projections and pontifications about the future of publishing. It's interesting to writers, both currently published and pre-published, because knowing about and discussing this stuff is part of our business. It's interesting to some readers, because they like seeing how the business works (or sometimes how it doesn't work).
But I get the feeling that there is a larger mass of readers out there--Hines' "average readers"-- who couldn't really care less about why Amanda Hocking went with St. Martin's or whether Barry Eisler made the right decision to self-pub or whether Joe Konrath is the Antichrist (answer: probably not). They may not even read book blogs, and it's highly doubtful they read Publisher's Weekly or Galleycat. They're the equivalent of Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority": the "real' Non-"elite" folks who every politician of every stripe claims they represent.
Which leads us to the question: as authors, how do we reach these people? And what the heck do they want?
The knee-jerk response "they want a good book" is glib but empty, because no one agrees what consitutes a "good book," at least until enough people like something enough that it sells a great number of copies. In that case, however, there'll probably be a considerable number of people who'll tell you that no, that top-ten bestseller is not a good book; it is, in fact, absolute crap, while this book over here that sold less than a thousand copies is, actually, the best book ever written.
It gets even more confusing when you begin to realize that the people whose job it is to determine what that great silent-but-hungry mass of consumers wants often don't really know either. We've all heard the multitude of stories about writers rejected by dozens of publishers who went on to become bestsellers. And how many times have we seen the author that was supposed to be the Next Big Thing in publishing turn out to be the literary equivalent of the Segway? (You remember the Segway. It was supposed to be the future of personal transportation, "transforming the way you work, play and live," according to the company's website. So, do you own one?)
Even some of the things you'd think would be reliable predictors of popular success sometimes fail us. Our Alex has brilliantly explained the idea of "high concept": those ideas that have already staked out a place in our "mental real estate" so that when you see one, you go "Yes. That. Want that."
As an example, she uses PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. Because everyone knows pirates, right? They're cool. Everyone wants to see a movie about pirates. So explain to me why POTC became a franchise while 1985's CUTTHROAT ISLAND bombed so badly that it took Carolco Studios down with it.
It even has a monkey, for Chrissakes!
Likewise, one series of YA books about young wizards at a magical academy spawned multiple sequels and made its author one of the richest women in the world; another, earlier one...well, they're doing okay, but they didn't make Diane Duane a millionaire, more's the pity.
Yes, that "average reader" (or viewer) is an enigmatic critter. They want something just like something else, only different, and every now and then they want something really different. The only way they speak is with their cash or plastic, and they seem to be saying something different all the time.
So, since no one really knows what's going to be big and what's going to bomb, what are we to do? Why, whatever makes us happy and gives us pleasure to write. Unless you can tell me what readers really want....
Reader Comments (38)
I think pretty much every book a publisher takes on they believe has the potential to be a best seller - they just don't know which ones are going to make it and which ones aren't!
An Aussie publicist recently told me that even after 20 years in the business she has no idea why one book makes it while another (which is 'better') doesn't. Scary stuff!
Sometimes I think writing a book is like buying a lottery ticket - you might get nothing (or virtually nothing) or you might strike it rich!
I hear this a lot, too. And I've had to bite my tongue to keep form saying "so WTF are they paying YOU for?"
"the average reader knows what they like and what they don't and no amount of marketing is going to make them change their mind."
Grace, agreed. I keep coming back to the example of John Twelve Hawks. A few years ago he was going to be the next Dan Brown. They hyped the hell out of him Now I get blank looks when I mention his name.
First, I know Jim Hines, he's a great guy and a terrific writer, and if you haven't read any of his books, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????
Second, there are definitely times when writers like myself and y'all here get going on something (like, say, e-books) where we seem an awful lot like a bunch of bees trapped in a glass jar.
Third and finally, when we talk about a "good book" I'm reminded of a line from Peter Lefcourt's hilarious novel about the film industry "The Deal" in which a studio reader asks the main character, B movie director Charlie Bern, if he honestly thinks the script he's peddling is good. And he responds by asking her what's a good script? As far as he's concerned, he says, a good script is one that gets made into a movie.
I'm inclined to think sometimes we'd be better off recognizing that a "good book" is one that gets read and leave it at that.
As to the pirate movies... having been around since when CUTTHROAT ISLAND was coming out, I read the script and knew it was a dog. Take a dead genre and try to make it new by making the hero a woman without bringing in the actual woman's perspective that made ROMANCING THE STONE a huge hit. Didn't work. Two decades later, look at a dead genre, recognize that fantasy is becoming huge, decide to make a movie that has cursed ghost pirates. Huge hit. POTC also recognized the modern notion of pirates as fighting against the powers that be, but made them rapscallions having a hell of a lot of fun doing it rather than dour and noble.
I do think there is a fair amount of inability to predict what will be good and what won't. But there is also a great deal of willful blindness, and a strong tendency towards groupthink.
As a long-time fan of Diane Duane's work, who bought her last few books while at college... Thank You.
As a writer, I've decided to go straight to e-books, even though I know i won't make any money. Part of this is because I'm not likely to make any money publishing traditionally (not enough to make it worth the BS that goes along with it), and partly for the reason JD notes in his reply to PD's comment: why should I pay (if indirectly) people who don;lt appear to know any more about what will sell than I do?
Musicians have been hip to this for a long time. Leonard Bernstein had enormous respect for those who wrote hits, said he'd always wanted to but lack the gift. Not that he lacked for musical gifts, but there's something indescribable required to writing a hot, and you either have it, or you don't. You might have it and it never sees the light of day because you lack the other talents to make it work (like being able to play an instrument or sing well enough) but it probably can't be taught, only refined.
I don't even know why *I* like what I like let alone have someone else determine it for me. I love historical mysteries and I think there are some authors out there are the best-est ever. I know a heckuva lot of people who detest that sub-genre. I don't care for noir or the darker side of of crime fiction but I know there are authors considered to be the cream of the crop that I wouldn't go near because my reading time is valuable to me. This isn't The Lord of the Rings: there cannot be only One. (or was that HIghlander?) I suppose the best one can hope for is to have gatekeepers to weed out what is truly dreck. But still, in crime fiction alone, each month there are between 50 and 100 new releases published. Somebody likes them. But they've got to let go of the blockbuster mentality.
It's an impossible task set for people who cannot know how to truly go about it except by stumbling around in the dark. But please keep doing it because I'm a book addict and need more product.
CI had Geena Davis, though, and she ain't exactly chopped liver.
And that iconoclast view is probably reflected in my choice of books, too, no matter what the format is.
Work on a novel, a story, a script.
There's a bitchy little life lesson in there somewhere, I suppose. Creativity exists to ward off the demons. The demons who seem to animate so much of life: anxiety, dread, the relentless quest for money, success, prestige.
Maybe writing is just a kind of constructive form of daydreaming, of denial. Or I tell myself it's constructive. I know what will happen if I stop, and it ain't pretty.
How does that link to readers? If I only knew.
That said, good is still a matter of opinion. Somebody I know with a Masters in English and a Ph.D. in comparitive studies, couldn't stand a popular series because he knew the author to be well read and informed and he felt that said author could have done so much more with the series.
So what have I wasted all this time saying? Write what you want, publish in the format that's right for you and if you figure out anything along the way, remember that we like new things, we enjoy them for a while, then we get bored and...want new things. So forget what you figured out, and Write what you want! <grin>
I think a lot of it may have to do with perceived polish. Think of it this way: I never saw "Cutthroat Island", because I saw the trailer and it looked terrible. But I saw a Tommy Lee Jones film called "Nate and Hayes" that, while not the level of epic that POTC was, still featured a fun and energetic storyline. Thing is, if I'd seen a trailer between it and "Cutthroat Island", I would have said no way to BOTH. I saw N&H when I was 16 and bored over the weekend during the school year. Neither film looks as "polished" as POTC, and that's because POTC has the budget behind it. Plus, there are a hell of a lot more people (coughmostlywomenlikemywifecoughcough) who are enamored with Johnny Depp than ever have been with TLJ, or guys with Kiera Knightly than ever have been with Gina Davis. It sucks, but in many cases the book buying public goes for whatever appears to be the BIGGEST and BADDEST, and by the time they find out later that that appearance was wrong, they've already spent their money, which has helped to take it to bestseller status, which then shows up on the next run's cover to convince someone else to buy it instead of the much better book sitting next to it by a writer that they haven't heard as much about because he/she/they don't have as much backing.
Are there outliers? Of course. But they don't happen as much, which is why they are called outliers.
Look at it this way - why do you think there are so many Yankee fans, or (now) Patriot fans, or Laker fans, or Carolina fans? Because as much as I despise Colin Cowherd, he's right. The majority of the consumers in this country are mindless bandwagoners. Does that mean all readers are stupid? No, but the people that would buy Jo Rowling's books because they are good adventures would also buy Barry Eisler's Rain books for the same reason. It's the OTHER group of "readers", the ones who have only read 5 books in their lifetime (I teach a shit-ton of these) and 4 of them are from the Twilight series. THOSE are the ones who push one to bestseller status while another equally good series gets 'meh' results. My wife and I read them together, and I actually don't mind the Twilight books. But I teach scores of little teen girls and guys who are such fanboys/fangirls that they latch onto one and defend it to the death against a 'rival' series that is wonderful, but they wouldn't know because they've never read it. And if you think only kids are like this, I direct you to the 'Twilight Moms'. 'Nuff said?
Addiction's a bitch, ain't it?
Hi. My name is David. And I'm a writer-holic.
For now it's the story and the writing that matter most to me. If readers and I find each other that will be wonderful. If we don't, I'll keep writing anyway.
We would like to believe that the marketing folks in publishing houses focus on how to put specific books into the hands of readers who would enjoy them, but as already noted in the previous comments, this does not appear reliably to be the case. (That's the kindest way I can think to put it.)
And so the blind end up leading the deaf, mediocrity gets crowned as excellence, and readers get turned off by how lousy the reading experience has become -- unaware there are wonderful books to be had, maybe more than ever. But those books fail to get the traction they deserve because publishers use the supposed preferences of "readers" and "buyers" as an excuse to justify the failure of the books they've neglected to market effectively.
People outside of publishing are astonished when they learn how seemingly random the publishing industry's marketing efforts are--specifically, how they can go to all the trouble to publish a book only to abandon it. The flip side is how garishly they market books that simply aren't very good. Sooner or later, people recognize the shoddiness of the product, and wonder why the writers they love so much remain obscure or get tossed under the bus.
And yet, this has always been true. Tastemakers aren't required to have taste. And the marriage of art and commerce more often than not involves a shotgun wedding.
One of the best things about e-books (indie or from publishers) is that they'll always be in print and in stock.
I think it's best if we write for ourselves. Really. Something tells me we should write what our hearts want us to write, and not even consider what readers want.
John Vorhaus has a great quote: "Keep giving them you until you is what they want."
Stephen, I think you're right, but I have no hard evidence to back us up. I do believe that if you write with passion about something you believe in, and work hard to communicate that to the imagined reader -- however you envision him or her -- so the reader can feel it as well, you've done everything you can do. Or should do.
Simone de Beauvoir said: She who writes from the depths of her loneliness speaks to us of ourselves. If you speak honestly from the heart with all the skill you can muster, you will touch your reader. Can you make a career on that? WTFK?
But it's always a crapshoot.
Fortunately for me, my only format worries are mass market, "enhanced" mass market, trade paperback or hardcover. New or used. Signed or unsigned. It's the little things that keep me sane.
And yeah, Dusty, isn't Kat super-spiffy? She finds the most amazing things!
This is the same question all the 25 year old MIT graduates are pondering, what's the next FB or Dropbox or...
Just gotta follow that passion like they said. The future is what will be on the blank page. Doing is part of the prediction.
And I agree that Johnny Depp over the Monkees any day.
Yes, I do think it's that simple. And that difficult. Often, damn near impossible.
I'm tempted to say something about voice here, but not all "good" writers have a distinctive voice. I think what they do have is a kind of confidence. Mastery of not just language but also story. It's the difference between a competent musician who can hit all the right notes at the right time, yet makes you yawn and wish the song would end already, and the virtuoso who hits those same notes but infuses the piece with life and passion and makes you feel it. Both performances require practice and time and endless repetition, but the virtuoso understands and has an empathy for the emotions being evoked. Easier said than done. I think it's possible one could practice for a lifetime and still never quite achieve that connection. Ultimately, the audience decides.
The best we can do is to keep writing and keep giving readers choices. There will never be a book so good that I won't ever have to read another.
The bottom line for writers – keep writing. Keep hoping. Keep producing the highest quality story and product you can. Never give up the dream.
Because one day the readers will find us. It is then our futures will be determined.
I think mystery author Sam Reaves said it best: "The reader is the final arbiter."