Why does an author's brand matter more than her book?

A few questions for publishers on behalf of authors who just want to write fiction.

Hello, publishers.

We’ve known each other for awhile. It’s kind of a parasocial relationship, seeing as my livelihood as a mid-list author is dependent on you but you barely know I exist. (Well, you do, but you pretend you don’t. When you were under oath, you admitted mid-lister basically means “author with crap sales.”)

I know you’d be more interested in my books if I had a bigger online presence. I know I should be selling my soul to the cringe gods of BookTok. I know if I just had more followers and likes and shares and a big fat juicy BRAND, you’d be able to “break me out.” Right? That’s what you’ve been telling me and my fellow authors for the last decade.

But I’m kind of ignorant when it comes to marketing. Would you mind answering a few questions for me first?

• How can we create a fanbase for a product that doesn’t exist yet? Asking on behalf of hopeful debut authors. They’re working hard on their first novels and they know they’ll be stuck on the query-go-round forever if they don’t have that all-important platform you keep recommending. But how is this supposed to work? Those aspiring authors might very well get a following by sharing their writing journey online, but even then, odds are most of those followers are more into the writing process content, not so much the type of fiction that creator is writing. And anyway, that novel doesn’t exist yet. You’re asking these aspiring authors to create a devoted audience of thousands (let’s be real, hundreds of thousands if it’s going to get your attention), who will show up to spend $20 on a hardcover in big enough numbers to justify the advance you *might* give them. Does anyone on your team with a degree and/or actual experience in marketing know how to do this? Because it seems like a big ask to me, especially of a new author with no education in marketing.

• Isn’t it enough that authors create the actual product you profit off of? I’m not being facetious. The pressure you’re putting on us to become branded marketing experts is working: some of us are doing it (at the cost of actually writing), the rest are quitting writing altogether. This burnout is happening with authors, musicians, and in many other industries. Do you want us to be influencers, or novelists?

• Have you considered that authors, like all humans, have the right to privacy? I only ask because based on your actions, a huge part of that all-important branding you look for has led to authors experiencing pressure to out themselves as queer or trans, only write about traumas they have gone through as part of their race, orientation, religion, etc, show receipts that like their characters, they too are survivors of assault, have a specific disability, have lived with a certain mental illness, and so on, all for the sake of that elusive book deal. “Opening up” online might be doing more harm than good. It should be a choice, not a mandate. Besides, sometimes we don’t WANT to write about our trauma for your profit, much less “open up” to the world about it. Sometimes we just want to write about dragons and shit, you know?

• Do you think there’s long-term value to the whole BookTok strategy? Yes, we see the incredible sales boost BookTok has given to a very, very, VERY small percentage of novels. It’s really phenomenal, and it’s awesome to see a community of passionate readers making such a huge difference. That said…

  • Can you count on more than one hand the number of AUTHORS who successfully leveraged BookTok in a way that led directly to massive sales of their book? It’s a reader-first community (and it should remain that way).

  • You heard TikTok launched its own publishing house, right? Any bets as to which books their algorithm is going to be focused on promoting? (Hint: not yours!)

  • The biggest of the Big Five has 64k followers on TikTok and gets a few thousand views per video. If a publishing house worth 3 billion can’t “break out” on BookTok, how are we supposed to do it?

  • You’re probably aware of all the proposed TikTok bans in the U.S. While they may not all (if any) be successful, the national and private security threats are real, and we really don’t know how this is going to go over the next few years.

  • That aside, all social media platforms come and go. Twitter as we knew it a few years ago doesn’t exist anymore in name or function. Is putting all your eggs in the TikTok basket the smartest marketing strategy? Keep in mind, authors working on novels right now would see publication, at the absolute earliest, in late 2025…

• How much cash runway do you have? I’m no business expert, but I looked this concept up—basically, it means how long could your business run as-is with zero sales? I ask because the businesses who thrived during the pandemic did so because they had this whole runway thing figured out. And I was confused because the thing is, the pandemic gave book sales a boost, yet you laid off a bunch of editorial, marketing, and publicity staff. Have you considered that perhaps your business would run more effectively and profitably if you thought a little bit more long-term than short-term? Here’s a cash runway calculator if you need it.

• Have you considered that product quality might be the best way to improve sales? Books. Really, really good books. Maybe invest in that? Simple things like offering fair advances to authors (especially the aforementioned authors who write and “open up” about their experiences as part of a marginalized community, and who, despite your insistence that you want to “uplift their voices,” you’ve not really shown up for financially), and offering livable wages to the editorial, marketing, sales, and publicity staff, many of whom are required to live in the U.S.’s most expensive city in order to work for you, rather than waiting for them to strike, letting them continue to strike over the holidays, and then doing just enough to get them back to work…treating and paying those folks fairly would lead to better books, wouldn’t it? In short: if you pay those who conceptualize, create, and finalize the product you sell well, thereby attracting more and more qualified and talent workers in the future, you might see improved (and more consistent) profit in the long term! It’s got to be better than your current “who’s the next Colleen Hoover” throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks strategy…

• Not a question, just a word of advice: never kowtow to those who advocate book banning again. They don’t want your product to be widely available. They’d prefer to burn your product. It’s kind of their whole thing. They aren’t your friend and you can’t appease them. Period. (Also, I cannot tell you how demoralized that action made your authors feel.)

Look, we authors know that writing isn’t the only skill we need to have if we want a career in publishing. We have a role to play in marketing and publicity—and with your support, most of us are happy to do it. But you’re asking us to be the experts, to use our own time, our own resources, our own money, to promote the books we wrote that you’re publishing and profiting from. It’s making a lot of us wonder…what’s the point of you? We chose this route instead of self-publishing because we didn’t have the means or the will to swap our author hats for marketing/publicity/publisher hats. But if you can explain it to me, really make me understand your side of things, I’ll gladly break out my dancing shoes and hop on BookTok.

Yours,

An exhausted mid-list author