BOOK REVIEW Book Review
WORD OF MOUTH No-one knows which books will sell and which won’t. No amount of marketing, advertising and good reviews can guarantee high book sales. The holy grail in the publishing world is the domino effect of word-of-mouth marketing which is unpredictable and has the ability to ring jackpot signs for any author. A few past titles/authors spring to mind - Dan Brown, J K
Rowling, Steig Larsson and the unforgettable, but probably lesser known, The Hare with Amber Eyes. These are the books that don’t need the great publicity trails of reviews, literary festivals and prizes but just work their way through circles of friends with speed and success gathering momentum as they go. In 2013, Stoner by John Williams was what you would call the
the slow-burner word of mouth success. Written in 1965 it came to everyone’s attention quite late. In the decade before 2012 it had sold less than 5,000 copies. In 2013, between June and December it sold nearly 145,000 copies - a considerable jump - and largely due to word of mouth success. It was our book club choice in January 2014 - in truth not raved about as its rather pessimistic in its subject matter and characters. However, there was unanimous agreement that its style alone made it a book worth reading and recommending to others. So what of my May/June recommendations - can I predict the successes of the future? Most unlikely but I give you 3 books which have been recommended to me and have the potential for word of mouth success. 1. Joel Dicker - The Truth about Harry Quebert. This is one of the most anticipated books in 2014. There have been ripples in the publishing press since December 2013 and has the potential to be the next ‘Steig Larsson’. Its not entirely an unknown as it has achieved success around the world but on 1 may 2014 it is officially published for the first time in English. the french thriller, set in the US, has an author as
its central character and the book has taken the world by storm and apparently has the potential to ‘trump’ Dan Brown. Will it storm ahead or fall at the first fence? The market has opened up with translations from books all
over the world and with the growing and viral power of social media which has opened up the field of self-publishing, word of mouth marketing couldn’t be more powerful. But are they great books? - not necessarily but they do have great elements - Stoner - without doubt beautifully written. Dan Brown - a gripping story if nothing else. Self publishing is often where these word of mouth successes
start and with ebooks this market has grown dramaticallay. We have our own local writer Abigail Gibbs who secured 6 figure success with harper collins following her self publishing of her book on the online writing platform Wattpad which allows writers to upload chapter by chapter as they are written. Her first novel was the dark heroine. her second vampire novel (Twilight with a distinctly British tone) Autumn Rose P/b Harper Voyager came out at the end of January and there is another one in the series due out next year. 2. Foreign translations - My recommendation and hopefully a word of mouth winner is The Hen who dreamed she
Open all year but times vary seasonally.
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by Emma Jones
could fly by Sun-Mi Huang. As the wife of a chicken farmer it’s obvious why it caught my attention but the bookseller convinced me with those magic words that it “was going to be a word of mouth bestseller.” it is essentially a fable about a hen named Sprout who no longer wanted to lay eggs. With beautiful illustrations, written by a popular Korean writer and a quick read to boot, it has been likened to Jonathan Livingston Seagull or The Alchemist with
themes of individuality and motherhood which run true in any language. 3. The Rosie Project by Graeme
Simson. Recommended highly by my embarrassingly well-read facebook group. . Quite simply a good book to curl up with! “A story about love, life and lobster every Tuesday. Quirky and with, if you like, The Curious Incident of a Dog at Night-time. Funny, endearing and wonderful escapism - The Independent.” An endearing and original love story “A
neat, dry, funny piece of writing” with some wonderful observations. But does word of mouth guarantee a good book - not
necessarily, and a good book doesn’t guarantee financial success. but the biggest question of all - how do you define a good book? Opinion is everything?
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