The Tipping Point
Everybody seems to be talking about marketing these days. As a programmer, we always took Dilbert's "Welcome to Marketing: Two Drink Minimum" attitude about marketers as a breed, but I've run across at least two gurus of the art that make it seem not only credible as vocation, but interesting, entertaining and potentially profitable. Seth Godin is one, and Malcolm Gladwell, author of THE TIPPING POINT, is the other.1
Malcolm Gladwell's head resembles nothing as much as a tiny black-powder explosion...
The afro gives him a "crazy professor" look that is completely in keeping with his style of delivery. If you've never heard him speak, try this speech on genius or this speech on office chairs to get a feel. He's a crazy-smart guy whose main job is a staff writer for the New Yorker, and his first book THE TIPPING POINT, is the first coherent analysis of why ideas catch fire and take off in a big way. This is something we writers want desperately for our books, so I'll give a "highlight reel" as a starting point for a conversation on how and how much marketing should be done by writers.
There's an overview on the book's Wikipedia page which I'll link to instead of cutting and pasting it here. Instead, I'll focus on is how we can transfer these ideas into the writing/publishing arena.
The key thought in the book is that fads and trends function like epidemics, and in epidemics seemingly tiny events can have radical effects. If the number of people getting sick is balanced by the number of people who recover2 from a disease, the number of sick people will stay roughly constant. However, slightly alter the infection rate, or alter the time they stay sick and the disease will either catch fire and become an epidemic, or die out completely.
So what are the tiny effects that we can use to make our books become epidemics instead of going extinct? Three things:
- The Law of the Few
- Stickiness
- The Power of Context
The Law of the Few
The Law of the Few is fun to read, mainly to try and spot yourself in the mix. There are three main categories: Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors are obsessed with people: they believe a stranger is a friend they haven't met yet. Mavens are obsessed with knowledge: they develop powerful interests in topics/events/things and are driven to evangelize about them to everyone they meet. Salesmen are persuaders: their lives are devoted to convincing other people to agree with them.
In short, you need all these people on your side to get a "buzz" going about your book. You are probably one of these 3 things, which means you need to build up your "team" with the other two. Who do you know that knows everybody? It would be better if they were in the industry, but don't sell anybody short: with six degrees of separation in play, nobody is a "nobody". Who do you know that could sell refrigerators to Eskimos or vacuum cleaners door-to-door?3 You've got your Salesman.
I'm a Maven. I'm fascinated by any field that has minutia: endless details I can collect and try to put into some sort of coherent framework that I can share with people who don't have the time or obsession to do the same. This blog should be a good indicator of that. I'm not trying to make friends with this blog, or directly sell things to you, I just want to share my thoughts on things I consider important, in the hope it will be useful and interesting to you, too. Not as social as a Connector, but not as profit-oriented as a Salesman. That's me.
Stickiness
It doesn't matter how many people you talk to about your idea if it doesn't grip them enough to mention it to other people. This is a measure of the idea's "stickiness". Remember THE DA VINCI CODE? Yeah, me too, unfortunately. The book was a fast-paced thriller in a sea of other fast-paced thrillers released that year. Why did it grip the nation and the world to the tune of millions of copies? Water cooler conversations that orbited around the question "Do you think it could really be true?" Why does anyone know Paris Hilton's name? Not for her talents, clearly. It's that whiff of scandal that people latch onto.
The "elevator pitch" for my current book JUNE BETRAYALS goes like this:
4 teenagers born the same night develop strange powers and discover another girl like them is being held prisoner. Will they learn to control their powers and rescue her before they're discovered by the organization that made them what they are?
Does that intrigue you? Would you look it up in the bookstore or the library if someone mentioned it to you? Most importantly, would you mention it to someone else? If so, the idea is sticky and I've got a shot. If not, I'll get remaindered, or never published at all. Any suggestions on how to make it stickier are of course solicited. 
The Power of Context
Gladwell spends a good chunk of this section talking about DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD and its massive success. It's basically a synergy of 3 effects: the book, the author and the readers.
The book was a character-driven story about women and how they develop and maintain ties in their lives. It was, in short, a book people wanted to read. This is a given. The most buzzed book of all time (howdy, Dan Brown!) won't develop a readership if nobody can stand to read it. Make your book engaging, gripping and fun. This doesn't have to mean car crashes, espionage and gunplay, as YA-YA makes perfectly clear.
Author Rebecca Wells went on a year-long book tour and did readings everywhere that would have her. Her background in theatre meant these weren't just "person behind podium droning on" events, but a one-woman show. She talks about how the numbers swelled as she got the word out, trying to make that experience memorable. Recall now that these were free performances. Old-school salespeople believe if they dance, somebody better pay. New-school marketers like Seth Godin know that "paying forward" pays off in goodwill in the long run.
Last (we're finally coming to the context) is described as "a reading group book" because it's the sort of deep, multi-layered story that begs to be reread and discussed with others. Think how much better movies are in mixed company, when you can talk about them afterward, enriching the experience with other opinions and enthusiasm. But there was a second level to the context: readers began creating their own "Ya-Ya" groups with friends and family, seeking Wells out to sign group photos and the like. People fit the book into the very fabric of their lives. Think of how many teenagers wear t-shirts with their favorite music artists or sports figures on them? They've found a way of maintaining contact with what they love even when they can't watch or play sports or listen to music. In YASF,4 fan art and clothing is very popular for the same reasons. I doubt I'll see my wife wearing a Charlaine Harris t-shirt anytime soon, but a writer can hope.
Finding your own Tipping Point
How do we take advantage of all these ideas to make ourselves into the Next Big Thing? My first suggestion would be: stick with what feels natural. If you're a Maven, start a blog. If you're a Salesman, get out there and sell your book. If your book "can't be summed up in a sound bite" then find some aspect of it that can and use that, even if it doesn't express the full breadth and depth of your work. What about your book got you intrigued enough to write it in the first place? That may be what you need to talk about to get others intrigued enough to buy it.
But trying to work this book like a checklist is a one-way trip to phony-land. People can sense when you're doing things for mercenary or calculating reasons and they won't trust a thing you say. If you can't do it honestly, don't do it. Don't pretend to love people if you're Greta Garbo at heart. Don't try and song-and-dance your readings unless it reflects who you are as a person and an artist.
Finally, the biggest thing I took away from this book is the generosity that pervades it. Connectors love people and love making people feel good by introducing them to new people they might not have met on their own. Mavens love teaching and will talk your ear off about high-def TVs or European sedans if they find out you're in the market because it makes them feel good to help.5 Giving people something to talk about around the water cooler or a new way to look at their own lives is a generous act. Giving them a world to immerse themselves in for hours or days is, as well.
First you give... then you get.