A few years ago I was invited to be on a panel at the national Book Expo with two other publishers. We were sitting backstage before our session, and one of the other panelists proudly showed us an advance copy of his newest book. “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” The cover boasted a gruesome drawing of a Romantic heroine turning into a skeleton.
That will never work! I thought. I might have even said it out loud. Fans of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy don’t want corpses risen from the dead invading Pemberley!
The book went on to become an international bestseller, launched a bestselling series, and was made into a major motion picture. Go figure.
I had a similar experience last week: A new book was released about the 2020 election entitled “Frankly, We Did Win The Election.” What’s this, I thought, someone has written a book proving that Donald Trump actually won? Nope. The book is about how Trump lost!
What a terrible title! I thought. This breaks more than one of my cardinal rules about titles: Never confuse your reader. Say what you mean; don’t get clever and wind up making them feel foolish or stupid. And don’t attempt sarcasm in a title – most of the world won’t get it, and will simply think you actually meant what you said.
The book sold 19,500 copies in its first week. Ranking 4th among all nonfiction hardcover titles for the week. Good grief.
What am I to make of this? Everyone makes mistakes? Ok, sure, but… The exception proves the rule? Nice try, but nope.
What unites these two stories, and what I am forced to admit about both cases, is that the market will tell you what they want, even if it’s not what you expect. And listening to your market, in the end, is the key to successful book publishing (and successful marketing in general, to be honest).
Lovers of Jane Austen novels may not all attend Comic-Con, but there is clearly a big enough overlap in the Ven diagram between Austen fans and lovers of zombie thrillers to sustain a massive franchise. I made the mistake of assuming I represented the entire market.
As my late husband used to say: never trust a focus group of one, especially if the “one” is you.
I made a similar mistake in my prediction for the election book. I looked at the title from my own standpoint, someone who voted for Trump and is genuinely worried about election fraud and voting integrity. But the market for this book were people who had ridiculed and roasted Trump ceaselessly for claiming that he won. They had been immersed in a media narrative that surfaced his quote over and over and over again, so that when they saw it in a book title, they immediately understood that the proper response was to roll their eyes and poke fun. Which was exactly the point of the title.
My consolation is the confirmation that everything starts with understanding your reader. I am working with a client right now on an excellent book about branding which talks extensively about how to get inside the customer mindset. The author explains her proven system for building hypotheses about what customers really want… and then testing, verifying, and embracing what you discover. Her clients are tech companies, health care companies, fortune 500 firms, finance giants. But every single one of them must start by embracing the customer mindset.
Same goes for authors and publishers. Just don’t ask me to read about vampires.