Think about your favourite reads. Okay, scratch that. Not exactly your favourite books, but the ones everyone is always talking about.
For good or for ill, books become popular for several reasons.
Books are business for authors and publishers. They’re treated with the same care and attention that Silicon Valley founders appropriate to new tech products.
For traditionally published books, marketing plays a huge role in the eventual reception and hype that a book gets. The bigger the publisher and the author, the bigger the budget. With self-published authors, while the resources and network that traditional publishing brings may be absent, the marketing requirements are no less.
For a book to become really popular, it has to be marketed really well. And, marketing isn’t cheap. From the cost of advance review copies, influencer marketing, promotional tours, branding, and digital advertising, there’s an endless line of things that gobble up funds.
While big marketing budgets don’t consistently deliver a proportionate amount of publicity, they certainly help. And, they’re one of the main reasons why you see some books all up in your face everywhere you go, compared to others.
Let’s face it. Humans are hugely sentimental. Sentiment is why many of the most evil beings in history have a fan base, even today. Call it delusion, whatever you want. It’s a fact that an author’s reputation plays a massive role in how far the book will go.
Still, it must be pointed out that building said reputation takes time, so it’s not like such hype would be totally sentimental. However, a track record for success does build you some credit in the bank, so to speak, which is why the likes of Eminem, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Rihanna, Jay Z, and Adele are guaranteed a Grammy even if they release music albums after a hiatus of a century. Even if said albums weren’t up to par. But I digress.
In recent times, renowned author of African Literature, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, released Dream Count, her first novel after twelve years. Audiences worldwide gobbled it up. A budding author serious about their career dare not try it.
As for authors like G.R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss, it’s a mark of their established reputations that, despite the groans of their fan bases about delays to Winds of Winter and Doors of Stone, it will likely be the forsworn ones that will head the queues at bookstores when the books are finally released.
Although the trend is changing, the offerings of traditional publishers are still generally more popular and successful than their indie counterparts. This gap is more pronounced with top global publishers like Tor, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette.
The biggest publishers have the biggest budgets, established networks, and pre-existing market bases to promote their books in the best possible way.
So, the next time you’re in the bookstore or are listening to readers yap about trending books, check the publisher. The chances are that they’re an established name.
Of course, indies are no slouches either. In fact, some of the most popular contemporary books are independently published, either entirely by the authors themselves or through small presses. SF/F books like The Martian, The Sword of Kaigen, Black Stone Heart, and Of Blood and Fire were all independently published and have gone on to attain varying levels of success and popularity.
Book reviews are some of the most important instruments of book promotion. The good thing about them is that books don’t necessarily have to draw rave reviews to become popular. They only need to be controversial, at the very least.
In recent times, Who Drove Nearly All Lagos Men Mad? by Ugochukwu Ugonna drew national attention for being perceived as a riposte to the similarly titled Nearly All The Men In Lagos Are Mad by Damilare Kuku. Despite the mostly negative reviews the former received, even bad publicity is publicity.
An author only needs enough people talking about a book for the work to become popular. What happens afterwards is left to them.
Romance novels have been the bestselling fiction genre for some time now, with $1.44 billion in sales in 2021, and it has changed little since.
A quick glance at the Amazon Bestseller Chart shows the dominance of genres like Romantasy, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. Other genres like Young Adult, Horror, Thriller, and Contemporary are also popular genres, while works written by BIPOC authors, such as African Literature, have enjoyed success among global reading audiences.
However, it should be noted that books, much like any product, are subject to trends. The minute the trend shifts, you can expect to see works of another genre dominating the shelves.
One, less talked-about, yet crucial determinant of the success and popularity of books, especially in traditional publishing, is a perceived industry bias for certain authors and plot narratives.
These biases, with many of a political and racial nature, continue to be spoken against in the broader publishing industry. Whether it’s the UK North-South writer bias, systemic colorism, or even biases in editorial decision–making, it’s definitely a topic that needs to be talked about more.
These biases affect every aspect of publishing, from the manuscripts gambled upon by literary agents, publishing decisions, literary awards, and even the reading preferences of book influencers.
So, the next time you come across a book whose cover you’ve seen on virtually every platform from Instagram to Pluto, it might just be because it conformed to the conditions for some bias you had no idea was ongoing.
A lot of the time, books become popular simply because the work is brilliant. However, no book will go far without at least one of solid marketing and publishing, book reviews, an established author reputation, or perhaps, a teeny weensy bit of favouritism.
What other reasons do you think contribute to the popularity and success of books? Let me know in the comments!
