Wednesday, May 16, 2007

How to Make a Best Seller


Our company founder, who is now retired, found this article in this week’s NY Times to still ring true with his experience in publishing, and he sent a link that made it to me. I thought I’d share it with you.

"The Greatest Mystery: Making a Best Seller"

You may have heard it said many times that publishing is the one business that is most like gambling. No matter how hard we work to predict a success, there is just no sure way of knowing the outcome of a book’s life. It’s a fickle business. Where else can your boardroom proposal win team approval just by proclaiming, “my gut tells me this will do well”?

That’s why in my post last week I tried to emphasize how my choices for full-length fiction come down to my gut reaction. I really have to believe in the whole package (story, author, marketability, company fit, etc.) to invest my time in it and sell it to the team.

Enjoy the article.

Becky

4 comments:

Rhonda Gibson said...

Funny you should mention this article Becky. I saw it last week and printed it.

Keep doing what your gut tells you, there are awesome books coming out of the women's fiction line at Barbour.

Kristy Dykes said...

Great article. Makes you go, "Sheesh" or "Wow!" So many dynamics at play in the publishing world. Looks like you're doing a good job with the Barbour line. Lots of great books!

Becky said...

And I don't even like to gamble. GRIN

Mary Connealy said...

Writing is the closest to gambling? I thought that was farming. So now my husband, a farmer and I, a writer, are two people on a Vegas binge, only we never leave home.
I never saw my life as that exciting and dangerous, but now, well bring on Wayne Newton!!!!!!!!
Danke Schoen
(Just so you know, I spent several minutes looking up the correct spelling of Danke Schoen, on Wayne Newton's website, so If I got it wrong, blame Mr. Las Vegas NOT ME)