Market Schmarket

Even though we probably don’t think about it that often, there’s actually a lot of marketing that goes into making a book successful.  As I remember once hearing in a nice little movie called Cheaper by the Dozen, “If there’s no book tour, there’s no book.” Recently, I’ve noticed that there is actually a lot of publicity going into a book before, during, and after its release. I guess it’s pretty much like any other product.  Books always seem to sell themselves though. It’s almost as though the author comes up with some brilliant idea, gets a book published, gets it on a shelf, and then waits for the money to start rolling in. But in reality, there’s a lot more work than just sitting around and waiting for their book to do the work for them.

Surprisingly, I came to this realization through Twitter. I was following Russell Brand, famous for his roles in movies such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and newly wed to Katy Perry. He released his second novel a couple of months ago which was titled, “My Booky Wook 2”. His first book did really well so I assumed that when he first mentioned a sequel’s release, he’d maybe do a book signing or two and call it a day. WRONG. He was promoting his book for over a month through tweets. But promoting didn’t just mean mentioning the book.  It meant mentioning the dozens and dozens of signings that he was holding over the span of months at bookstores located around the WORLD, not just North America where he currently resides. Books are kind of a big deal.  And sometimes he’d take pictures at these book signings and it’s absolute pandemonium at them sometimes. People are hoarding around him, books pushed into his face. Of course, not every book signing is going to be this chaotic because obviously not everyone is a celebrity/comedian/actor/married to Katty Perry who decides to write a book. But the fact still holds that something as humble as a book has extreme marketing tactics around it. To sell a book, you need events and exposure like this.

Another thing worth noting about books is that when it does get to the point where it can sell itself based on a good story, usually after generating enough buzz by being a New York Times #1 Bestseller, it becomes trendy to recruit that book to be made into a movie. Sometimes, even into multiple different versions. The book I’m specifically talking about is “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” which I’m reading right now (it’s SOOO GOOOD by the way. I’m only 121 pages in right now but it’s already addictive!! Cheers to failing my finals because of the Millennium Trilogy! Jokes. Hopefully).  If you already don’t know, all 3 books have already been made into 3 very successful films in Sweden. But that’s not where they’re stopping. American versions of the movies are now in production and are scheduled to be released in 2011.  I know this all seems kind of irrelevant but the fact is that filmmakers wouldn’t have even know about this book if it weren’t for very good marketing on the book’s publisher’s part. And of course the success of the Swedish films were a major contributor to the Americans’ decision to create their own version of the movie. I haven’t seen the Swedish version of the movie yet but I’ve heard a lot about it which reveals, again, good marketing. When it was first released, Blockbuster promoted the film as one of their “Hidden Gems” and every visitor to the store is greeted with an ominous image of Lisbeth Salander upon first entering. The successful marketing of the Swedish version of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” in North America has undoubtedly contributed to the hype around the work-in-progress American version. It is already a highly anticipated project and I personally can’t wait for it to come out next year. After I finish reading all 3 books.