Famous Books Are Not Always Good Books: What Being a Debut Author Taught Me About Reading - Guest Post By Jaye Viner
I’ve always been a voracious reader, but now that I’m about to have a debut novel published, I see books as an author’s creation rather than just a story I consume, and enjoy, and feel things about. I know more about the work and hardship that most likely happened for the book to be in my hands. For me to have even heard of it in the first place now feels like a small miracle because so many good books aren’t widely known, and thus aren’t read.
Today, I’d like to share some of my new knowledge with the hope that we as readers can use our phenomenal cosmic powers to give debut authors like me more access to the possibility of viable publishing careers.
How a Book Becomes ‘Famous’
In my younger days (as in, every year of my life until last year), I thought that books became famous because they were good books. Now, I know that books become famous because people talk about them. Not all talk is equal. Obviously, coverage in the New York Times means more than coverage in your local newspaper. But with the Internet, the possibility of coverage has become more democratic. A review by the right influencer on social media can land a book on the bestseller list. But both New York Times coverage and influencer reviews are things that not every author has access to. It isn’t about how good the book is, its about the author’s reputation, the conversation around the book (is it trendy in some way?), and sometimes its about having the right publisher, publicist, or even having money to pay the entry fee to be considered for a review. For debut author’s this coverage is incredibly difficult.
Coverage like this—what I call ‘trendy’ coverage—is why you get online and all of a sudden everyone seems to be talking about the same book. When I used to see this happen I would think, wow that must be a great book. Now I think, wow, someone powerful knew how to work the system.
This knowledge has helped me understand why its so important to read beyond what people are talking about. So, how do we find the books that aren’t getting coverage?
The Strategic Search
Start with something you know you like and use the power of Amazon to see what books it pairs with. Often this will get you other famous books, but sometimes you will get lucky and it will lead you to a new world, or at least a new author.
Scan through the books on the profile displays of your public library and intentionally pick something you have not heard about but you like the possibility based on the jacket blurb. I did this as a pre-internet child. Surprise! It still works.
Follow an independent bookstore or small press on social media. This year, I have been trying to read at least ten books published by small and independent presses. If you don’t know where to start, googling best of 2020 small press books gives you some lists from last year. If that seems too prosaic, you can pre-order my book, which is out from Red Hen Press and follow them on social media.
Diverse Books
You can also use these strategies to expand the kinds of stories you encounter. Those big famous books tend be written by a small group of authors, which leaves out a lot of diverse perspectives. Every other book I read (so, half of them) I want them to be written by someone who is different than me in some way—their race, economic background, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality, and the way their body interacts with the world.
If you can afford it, purchasing books written by people from marginalized identities helps support them and also signals to the publishing industry that these voices matter because the traditional narrative is that no one can identify with, for example, a queer disabled fat woman, so that book won’t sell, thus it doesn’t ever get sold.
Or maybe that first book comes out from a small press, but no one hears about it, so no one reads it, and then that author can’t get anyone to publish her second book. Have you ever read a book by a queer disabled fat woman? They exist. Their stories matter as much as anyone else’s. Their chance to have their art appreciated isn’t an equal chance because gatekeepers at every level of the industry believe we don’t want her stories. If you need a starting place, Electric Lit has lists for books about almost everything.
Debut Authors
If you specifically want to support debut authors a great place to start is this IG profile, or follow the hashtag #2021Debuts on Twitter. Note that books, just like movies, are often judged by pre-sales. If you are the buying book sort, when you see a book on pre-order (like mine is right now) don’t put off buying it until its launched. Pre-order it and enjoy a nice surprise when it shows up at your door. If you’re not the buying sort, most library systems will take requests from patrons for the books they buy. My library has a really easy online from where I can request they purchase a book even if its not released yet.
When you encounter a book that you love that no one is talking about, the best, most important thing you can do is talk about it. Books sell on buzz. That very old-fashioned word of mouth thing is still a thing! Tell your friends, write reviews on Goodreads. If you really really loved something, take the time to send the author a message. This thing called publishing is so so hard, and most often the only the thing that keeps an author going is the hope that someday their stories will find readers. It means the world to hear from you.
