The publishing world seems fixated on Gone Girl comparisons to market books! Have you noticed? Invariably however, at least for me, the comparison to the blockbuster novel by Gillian Flynn always ends in disappointment.
My latest experience with the Gone Girl marketing ploy was The Dinner by Herman Koch, a NY Times best selling novel that was recently made into a movie. Positioned as "A European Gone Girl ...", I finished the book this morning feeling, "so what is the big deal? Gone Girl this ain't!" Don't get me wrong, The Dinner is an interesting read, laced with darkness, a warped sense of mortality and an incessant undercurrent of mental illness, but far from extraordinary that is Gone Girl. Using Gone Girl as a branding mechanism raises expectations but in this case, The Dinner underdelivered relative to my heightened expectations. I think this marketing strategy hurts rather than helps an author.
Which brings me around to my thought about literary branding, merchandising and marketing. What do you find the most effective way to position your books in the marketplace? Do you think about your brand? Do you have a brand? Is marketing a consideration at all?
Marketing is always a consideration. The branding technique you are talking about has been used by publishers for years. I have never been impressed with it. It is their attempt to sell as many books as they can. Never felt that is was something I wanted to do.
ReplyDeleteI think it sets some pretty high reader expectations that, right or wrong, are rarely met, at least for me. Thereafter I feel let done by the author despite that fact that in all likelihood the author has little input into the marketing strategy.
ReplyDeleteI think most authors should create there own brand identity and stay clear of the coat tails of other literary successes. The "Gone Girl" branding is so overused. There can be only one Gone Girl! It was a great book BTW!
I would be horrified by something like that, because every writer wants to be recognized for their own unique work, not as a kite tail to someone else's work! Maybe it sells books, but it also makes the author look bad and leaves a bad taste in reader's mouths when the book doesn't meet expectations- it's the author's name people see most prominently on the book, not the publisher's name.
ReplyDeleteSusan I agree with you.
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