When a ‘bad’ book does well

Coping with ugly thoughts

Imagine you wrote a book about a magic hedgehog. It did okay. You have nice emails from parents about it. You like it; you’re proud of it. Then, a few years later, comes another book about a magic hedgehog. This one is by a big author. It’s getting posters on the tube, reviews in the media; it’s up for prizes; it’s an instant bestseller and everyone is talking about it. You buy the book. You read it. It’s meh. It’s not that original or well-written. Some of the ideas in it came from other books. Some of the central concepts are in YOUR magic hedgehog book. In fact, YOUR book was actually waaay better.

How do you feel? How do you cope with how you feel?

Here’s my two cents…

Start by acknowledging your ugly thoughts

This would be my train of ugly thoughts:

OMG I cannot believe THAT book is doing well. It’s so unfair. There’s no way that book deserves this much attention. This success is totally out of proportion with the quality of the book. AND look at that author on social media, swanning about signing huge stacks of it. I can’t bear hearing another person wang on about it. I cba with this industry. I’m just going to curl up into a ball because what is the point in writing another good quality book when books like that will just swoop in and steal all the attention.

Yep. Those are ugly thoughts. But I don’t think it’s just me who has them (please tell me it’s not). I *think* that’s a normal, human train of thought: jealousy, resentment, anger, bitterness, futility, powerlessness. So, I let myself rant. But then I try to force the logic part of my brain to engage and …

Recognise that ‘bad’ is subjective

*You* might not like that new magic hedgehog book (and it might not technically be as good as your one) but if others like it, surely that’s a valid choice? If that book is bringing joy to someone, then yay. If it is going to make a kid start reading, double yay.

Accept this is not a fair industry

Publishing is not always merit-based. It’s a commercial industry that follows trends and sells via promo puff. Yes, there are examples of brilliant books that have broken through by word of mouth but the truth is: the books that are in the shop windows, in the review columns, on the radio ARE going to do better. Because…

Books are largely reliant on marketing budget

When the publisher made you the offer, they were already imagining which channel your book would enter. In the acquisitions meeting, they discussed whether your book would be a ‘lead title’ and what they were going to put behind it in terms of marketing/publicity budget. Even if the publisher love-bombed you and told you how much they adored the book, there is a limit to what they will spend. (And it may be true that the editor loved it AND there wasn’t a big marketing budget for it– those two facts are not mutually exclusive).

If a publisher goes to, say, Waterstones and says ‘This is our lead title book. This is the book we are putting everything behind’ then Waterstones will put it on tables or in windows, and the puff will work. It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Likewise, the publisher will spend money on entering it for prizes, on paid-for chart slots, on sending the author to the big lit fests; and the book will snowball. More and more people will have heard of it and thus buy it.

These are facts. If you want to be trad published you cannot escape them (with of course a few exceptions).

So, what can we do? …

Remember that any book helps your book

I write children’s books. I want more children to read books – both altruistically so that they get joy/happiness/increased empathy/academic attainment AND selfishly because the more children that love reading, the better it is for the book industry. If children love reading, they might go on to buy my books.

In fact, if magic hedgehogs are suddenly in, maybe parents will buy YOUR magic hedgehog book. Maybe you can use the other magic hedgehog book to boost your one. Maybe if you nudge your publisher to remind their bookshop contacts that your book exists, hey this could turn into a wave we could ride.

We are all colleagues in the book industry so success for one author CAN help other authors.

The market is fickle

Because this is a trend-based industry, there is every hope that maybe your little book will be picked up sometime in the future. Remember the ‘Wonky Donkey’ book? It was a very small book until a someone filmed a Granny reading it in such hysterics she couldn’t get the words out. The clip went viral and suddenly, years after it was published, that small book became a best-seller.

If you have kept your IP (your intellectual property – ie you have a royalty, not a flat-fee deal) then you can hang onto the hope that one day your book might be found. I have author friends whose work has been made into a Netflix series years after the books came out eg Curtis Jobling wrote the Wereworld series in 2011. The books did well and were up for prizes but they weren’t everywhere. Now, 14 years later, the books are on Netflix as the animated series Wolf King. That *might* happen to you. All we can do is put our heads down, write more books, hang on to our IP and hope.

Marketing/Publicity is not your job

Your job is to write a brilliant book. The publisher’s job is to promote that book. (I know publishers want us to do social media but I’m not really convinced it hugely helps sales. All the work you do on social media would be eclipsed by your publisher getting your book into Asda.)

So, if your book is not a huge hit it does not mean that you did not do your job. It does not mean your book was rubbish.

Go back and look at the emails you got from parents. Kids loved your book.

You did your job, my friend.

Define what success looks like to YOU

For me, success means another year I get to write for a living and not get a proper job.

I don’t need to win prizes for that. I don’t need to have tube posters. I don’t even need loads of money. I just need enough to keep going.

Work out what success looks like for you, write it down and stick it above your desk.

Remember the joy

Remind yourself what you love about writing. It could be the craft; it could be the freedom and flexibility it gives you; it could be the friends you’ve made along the way. Those are the things to hold on to. You chose this job. You entered a commercial industry. If you don’t enjoy writing, don’t do it. If you want a non-promo-based job, go and find one and then just write for fun.

Stop looking at other people, and listen to Ursula

I have Ursula Le Guin’s quote above my desk to remind me:

‘Go on and do your work. Do it well. It is all you can do’

She is ever-wise.