What Does “Well-Published” Mean to You?
Back in March, when I was still awaiting the pub date for my new novel, Last Bets, a good friend sent me a link from Seth Godin’s blog. The title was “How to Be Well-Published.” I admire Godin’s work and it was perfect timing to receive this post, because I did and do want to be well-published. To me, that means some measure of success out in the world, right?
Godin had a very different take on it.
Publishing has nothing to do with printing. It’s the act of taking risks to bring a new idea to people who want to embrace it.
It’s the head of the lab who works behind the scenes to be sure the talented scientist gets a gig at the right conference. Her talk propels the work forward.
It’s Bill Graham ‘publishing’ the Grateful Dead on stage at the Fillmore.
It’s Jean Feiwel orchestrating the bookstore success of Harry Potter…
Godin’s definition of being well-published was refreshing. To me, it acknowledges the absolute lack of control we authors have over what happens to our creative work once it’s out in the world.
We try our very best to control this: where the book goes, how it’s reviewed, who sees it first. We want to control how our baby enters the cold, cruel world; we want to nurture its transition from our love to whatever awaits it out there.
But, truthfully, there’s not much we can do after a certain point.
I’ve had my own nightmare experiences with what I assumed would be “good publishing” by presses small and large. What I assumed would be fair and enthusiastic representation by agents I signed with. What I assumed would be just reviews. I do my best for each book, but in the end, it’s not in my hands at all.
And I’ve had plenty of those small miracles you also don’t expect as an author, like when pre-orders shot both of my recent novels to bestseller status on Amazon. Who could expect that? One would hope for such gifts, of course, but never assume.
Godin puts all that in the right place. I encourage you to read the entire post—it’s short. And check out whatever else interests you on his blog.
What does it take to rise above the crowd with your book? I am learning this, slowly, and I’ve gathered a few good tools to help me along. But I wanted to share some very funny things that happened on the way. Stuff that proves, to me at least, that bestseller status isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Becoming a bestseller
There’s a lot of mythology around bestseller status in the publishing world, as discussed in this Kirkus Reviews article. I also liked this from Medium, about the various other myths that abound in publishing. Both are worth a read if you harbor, as we all do, any fantasies about what it means to be published. (We writers are often hopeful dreamers; we hear about the successes of others and dream even higher!)
But I had the whole bestseller myth hammered home again when Last Bets went into pre-orders in January. Because of a curious mistake in Amazon’s assigning of categories.
Categories are all-important on Amazon. A publisher creates them, then Amazon’s machine posts them. What if the second step goes wrong, though? A writer or publisher may not find out for a while, and in the meantime, some very interesting things can happen!
Setting up a surge of interest—the buzz
I coordinated my pre-order date for this new novel with three other key publicity events, to create enough buzz, enough surge of reader attention, to hopefully make s splash with those Amazon categories. If a surge of pre-orders happened within the surge of publicity, it might help Last Bets rise in the rankings for a few hours, days, or weeks. My last novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue, published in October, clearly benefited from this strategy: it became a #2 on several of Amazon’s bestseller lists and a Hot New Release for many weeks after pre-order.
So I repeated the strategy for Last Bets in January.
A cover reveal tour on Instagram: 18 bookstagrammers announced my book to their followers on pre-order day.
I sent an email to friends and family announcing my new book and asking them to pre-order.
I wrote about it in my weekly Substack newsletter and shared the pre-order link with you readers.
The next day, it happened. A friend texted me: you have the orange #1 bestseller flag! I looked on the Amazon page for my new novel and there it was. In two categories!! It seemed too good to be true.
It was.
After the first moment of thrill, I looked closer. I had to laugh. The categories were all wrong!
Here’s one of them: Art Portraits.
Art Portraits—well, yes, I could see how the algorithm chose that. Apparently, it searches for key words in the description, and Last Bets is about a portrait artist with second sight. The BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) choices via my publisher weren’t anywhere near it, though.
The next day I got another orange flag, #1 bestseller. I was over the moon! Another one of those coveted bestseller markers—how could I be so lucky!
But again, I looked closely at this category. It read: Atmospheric Sciences.
Huh? Amazon’s algorithm had done it again. Somehow, it pulled the island location (and women in trouble on that island) and chose this nonfiction science book category.
Before I went into my Amazon author’s central account to correct this craziness, I shared the joke with my book-launch coach,
Dan Blank
, and he sent me this photo.
We writers long for this kind of acknowledgement. But the universe was having a joke on my particular longing.
What does “well-published” mean to you?
Now we are a few weeks after publication. The categories are changed to something more reasonable. I’m happy to say that Last Bets is still getting that #1 orange bestseller flag, and I feel comfortable about celebrating that authentically now.
There’s a considerable time lag with calculating book sales. So just a few weeks after publication, it is nearly impossible for me to tell if those earlier, mis-assigned categories made any difference. I have to hope the stellar reviews made the real difference, or the fact that the novel was selected as an Editor’s Pick by a major trade reviewer. Or that I am still receiving emails, messages, and texts from satisfied readers all over the world.
So, even if I don’t have hard data yet, I have to say: This book feels “well-published.”
Here’s why:
I worked much smarter (not exhaustingly harder) on the promotion, using what I’d learned from my second novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue, that was released last year. I came through stronger and healthier than even I expected.
My launch team supported me hugely and I felt a lot of love for the book from them.
My virtual launch was beautifully attended and great fun—everything I would’ve dreamed of, thanks to huge support here as well.
I have many, many podcasts booked for the next few months, where I will share more about my book and what it was like to write it—the journey isn’t over!
When I look at the cover, read through the chapters again, think of it anytime, I feel very satisfied and content.
“Authenticity” in publishing
Authentic is a word that’s used a lot these days. What does it actually mean, when it comes to releasing a book? To me, it means aligned with who I am, which includes my preference for honesty and good ethics. I don’t like to cheat to get what looks like success.
So if I were to look back, I could say honestly that I’ve had several “authentic” bestseller experiences in my fairly long publishing career. My first book (1988) was the top seller for its publisher that year and it won a major award. Another of my nonfiction books also sold a hefty number of copies, as I found out from the publisher a few years after its release. And as I mentioned above, my second novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue, reached bestseller status again and again on Amazon during its pre-launch months.
After all the false highs for Last Bets, with those inauthentic bestseller rankings, they got corrected. And now it has reached just as high, which is a very good feeling.
Amazon is on the same page—which also felt right. When I went into my Amazon’s “author’s central” account and requested a change in my book’s categories, it was granted immediately. I wasn’t about to mislead serious science readers that Last Bets would teach them more about the atmosphere—other than what happens on a tropical island among a small group of troublesome characters trapped there during a hurricane.
My early “bestseller” status is now logged in my publishing history as a good lesson in what I really want from this often-crazy journey. It’s a funny anecdote to share with you this week. But also to remind myself how unsubstantial all of this is.
Really, it is. If I take it too seriously, I definitely should wear that t-shirt (see above).
How often life conspires to humble us and make us laugh. Right?
Your Weekly Writing Exercise
Read Seth Godin’s article. Consider how you feel about his ideas of what it means to succeed as an author or creative person.
Take fifteen minutes and jot down three things that would make you feel “well-published” when your book or other creative project goes out into the world.