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Going Viral

7/29/2011

8 Comments

 
For the majority of authors, selling their books will be a slow uphill climb that will take many years and regardless of all this effort many authors will not sell well at all. There are no magic formulas or shortcuts. There are things you can do to increase your sales, but most of the time their effect will be incremental; don't expect anything dramatic to happen overnight. I have read advice that we should face this process like we would run a marathon; the trick is not speed but rather consistency, perseverance, and dedication. However, every now and then an unexpected break will come to some writers.

Some authors have had their sales boosted by a comment made by a celebrity. For example back in 1984 novelist Tom Clancy had published his classic "The Hunt for Red October" and president Ronal Reagan casually mentioned at a press conference that he liked the book. This guaranteed the book's success and helped launch Clancy's career. But this was way before the modern internet culture took off. Today, the interconnectness of people instantly communicating over the World Wide Web creates the potential for a given, story, book, or video to go "viral".

A recent example is the children's book for adults "Go the F*** to Sleep" by author Adam Mansbach. The author sent a PDF to several booksellers before the publication of the book on Amazon. Somebody forwarded the PDF out into the world and it went viral. Initially the author and his publisher, not yet savvy in the ways of the web, tried to contain the beast but then it dawned on them that this illegal spread of the book was helping their sales. "Go the F*** to Sleep" became an overnight success and went straight to the number one position.

Mansbach's case was more of an accident but there is the author John Locke who wrote a very particular piece in his blog and promoted it to a well-defined audience, which made it go viral. He describes what he did in his book "How I sold 1 Million e-Books in 5 Months", that I have reviewed here in my blog. However, although I agree with the merits of following this approach, and I believe it can help book sales, I don't think the viral power of the internet can be harnessed so easily.

It is extremely difficult to predict what will capture the attention of people in social media so that they share a given content or link with thousands of others. Of course, it doesn't hurt to try, and some people will be successful, but I think most of us will get stuck running the marathon rather than catching the virus.

What do you think? Do you have any tips for going viral you would like to share here?


8 Comments
Mary Yuhas
7/29/2011 10:21:00 pm

Very interesting. I'll share this on Twitter. There's so much marketing work to do, it's hard to find time to write.

Reply
Adriene link
8/6/2011 09:11:13 pm

I think that going viral is truly an organic phenomenon. It's those unexpected set of circumstances that come together at the right time and it just explodes. Maybe there's a way to increase the chances of going viral, but I doubt it. Creating something with hope of going viral probably will fall flat! ;-)

Reply
phantomimic link
8/7/2011 10:10:45 am

Good point Adriene, but there are different levels of viral. They can range from the spread among hundreds of persons to that among millions. I think the more modest versions are more probable (and achievable) than the more grandiose ones.

Reply
cath link
8/8/2011 09:32:42 pm

I agree with both of you in theory. I think it is being in the right place at the right time, and having something unique enough that people feel compelled to share it, tweet it, stumble it, etc. The combination is hard to attain.

I still think celebrity endorsement is a good one. Look at what Oprah has done for scores of writers!

Very interesting post Phanto. Food for thought.
~cath
<a href="http://twitter.com/jonesbabie">@jonesbabie on Twitter</a>

Reply
phantomimic link
8/9/2011 10:16:56 am

True Cath, there is always an element of luck involved, otherwise everyone would be using the same formula. Oprah is probably booked for years by now! : ^ (

Reply
Lisa Martino link
9/2/2011 10:40:34 pm

Sorry, fingers slipped and previous comment posted before I wrote anything. Guess I need more coffee.

I checked out John Locke's ebook. Thank you for the info. I can't wait to read it. Being a newbie, I seek out success and learn from it.

BTW, love the blog!

Lisa

Reply
Matthew Rowe link
1/18/2012 09:29:37 pm

Interesting as always. I think going viral relies on being able to predict what people will want and need a few days from now. I have always been bad at this which is why I'm not famous. I'm trying to predict the next big thing after wizards (thanks to Harry Potter) so that I can write it before someone else does.

Reply
Rolando link
1/19/2012 08:01:22 am

Alas, it's harder than professor Trelawney uttering a correct prophesy! : ^ )

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