Cargo cults are a kind of sympathetic magic, particularly associated with the South Pacific during and after World War II, when military forces brought massive amounts of equipment and supplies to remote islands. The deliveries stopped when the war ended, and in an effort to bring about a return of the deliveries, local people sometimes built fake landing strips, piers, replica ships and airplanes, and so on. Such structures had brought riches before, why not again? (This Smithsonian Magazine article discusses cargo cults in general and a particular cult that persists.)
Wikipedia offers this: “From time to time, the term “cargo cult” is invoked as an English language idiom to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance.” And this: “…the term “cargo cult” also is used in business and science to refer to a particular type of fallacy whereby ill-considered effort and ceremony take place but go unrewarded due to flawed models of causation…”
I think this happens in publishing, especially in self-promotion done by authors. I keep running into authors who do things — make book videos, do blog tours, hand out a million bookmarks, sign stock at every store within a three-state region — because these are the things that you do. All the lists of things you can do to promote your book say to do these things. Everybody does them, in the hopes that they will bring forth riches.
And yet, where’s the evidence — the direct, causal evidence — that any of it works? There isn’t any. Maybe something worked really well for one person, so everyone else goes through the motions in the hopes that it will work for them, too. There’s a lot of hope involved in self promotion.
A specific example of a promotional cargo cult is the blog. Authors like Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, and Neil Gaiman have generated huge readerships through their online journals. They’ve been blogging for 10+ years, before anyone else was doing it, and have spent a lot of time and experience building communities out of their online presences. People point to them and say, “Look, blogging will bring you readers, you have to blog!” Setting up a blog has become something like building a fake runway in the hopes that a magical cargo plane will swoop in for a landing. However, the simple act of blogging is not going to turn you into the next Neil Gaiman. That ship has sailed, and it’s way too late to spend ten years developing an online audience that you can use to promote your writing career. Move on. Blog if you enjoy it — not because you think it will magically make you a bestseller.
Unfortunately, lots of people buy into the magical thinking, because you have to do something to promote yourself, right? Blogging works for lots of other people, why not you? But if you start blogging without a real understanding of how it’s worked for other authors, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Same thing with book trailers, “viral” marketing (which almost by definition can’t be done purposefully), convention appearances, paying for your own publicist, and so on.
I have a test for what promotional strategies are worthwhile: Has it ever worked on me, as a reader? Have I ever heard of the author using that strategy, apart from the fact that they’ve used that strategy? Have I ever actually bought the book advertised on a promotional bookmark? (The answer is yes, once — because I also heard the author speak and I picked up his bookmark to remind me to buy the book.) If an author has paid thousands out of their own pocket to hire a publicist, and I’ve never heard of them apart from the fact that they’ve hired a publicist, I would argue that perhaps the publicist isn’t helping.
Too much self-promotion can be a bad thing if instead of getting people interested in your book, you’re annoying the hell out of people with your incessant e-mailing and Facebooking and Tweeting and so on. It can also be destructive if it keeps you from writing your next book in a timely manner. The best promotion you can do for your book? Write the next book. (YA author Maureen Johnson’s manifesto on the topic of internet promotion is well worth reading.)
True story: I hate, hate, hate going into a store cold to sign stock, which is one of the things you’re supposed to do to promote yourself. I only do it when someone drags me, or I’m with another author who’s doing it. So, I generally don’t do it. I buy books from the local stores all the time and I’ve never told them they’ve got my own books in stock. That kind of interaction really stresses me out, so I avoid it. And I still manage to sell books. Go figure.
A couple of things I know worked because readers came back to me and said they worked: my publisher gave away copies of my first book at several conventions and conferences, and dozens of readers have said that freebee hooked them on the series. The other thing that works: word of mouth. All the readers who’ve said they read the book because someone told them to, or said that they’ve given the book to ten other friends to read. But you can’t buy word of mouth. That’s the frustrating thing. Wouldn’t it be nice if all we had to do was throw lots and lots of money into publicity or jump through a certain number of specific hoops to guarantee that tens of thousands of people would love our books?
And doesn’t that just sound wrong? I would rather people read my books because they like them, and their friends told them to read them, not because I’ve thrown money at the problem, or spent all my time building fake runways.
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Thanks for the insight, Carrie. I see so many published friends put a lot of money into promotion, but everytime I ask about the return in investment, I get a defensive response along the lines of ‘That’s the way it’s done.’
As for blogging, I look at it as (a) I read the blogs of people I find interesting, and (b) I try to write something short and interesting as a warm-up to the regular daily writing.
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I loved the link!
I agree that platform-building has gotten out of hand. Just screaming at people “BUY MY BOOK!” doesn’t work. A lot of the money shelled out doesn’t have a return.
That said, I do think that it’s important to promote your book, the right way. By connecting with readers, listening to them, and becoming part of the community. Participating in the conversation, rather than trying to dominate it.
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There are, indeed, a lot of people who think a well-followed blog will help them sell books. It doesn’t, in general. However, among the people who think it WILL are many of the agents and editors the young author is trying to get signed by. When in Rome…
While it’s true that you can’t buy word of mouth, I’m convinced that you can farm it, so to speak. There are a lot of book bloggers who will accept review copies. Not just the ones who rubber-stamp everything that crosses their desk, but respected voices that readers listen to.
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As a reader, I can tell you that I have never bought a book just because of a blog or a book review on a blog. I usually start reading an author’s blog after I’ve discovered them through word of mouth, listening to the author at a book signing and/or panel, or even through a pretty cover in a bookstore.
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I do not buy books because writers or their friends (via blogs) promote them. There has been a hysterical push lately by some blog writers who prescribe to the notion that writers need to make themselves seen, or else. What makes a book sale? I say, it’s a combination of producing a good product, a little bit of luck, and timely appeal.
Loved this blog.
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All true. Blogs, Twitter, book signings and the like are good for the ALREADY FAMOUS; if you are trying to climb that greasy pole, it won’t do you any good.
Nobody would run for president knocking on doors and meeting voters one at a time. Do they do these things? In the primaries. In tiny states. With television cameras rolling.
If you want to sell books by the millions, you need to reach millions of people at at time. On the radio. On television. In newspapers and on the series of tubes — however, only locations on the series of tubes where millions of people go.
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Oh. My.
*wince*
I did what everybody said to do, and started up with the “platform building.” I don’t yet have a book to whack people wtih, so for me its been surprisingly fun, and I consider it “building relationships” which is something I enjoy doing. I keep the blogging fun by…keeping it fun. But I agree, there’s a lot of it all out there, and it gets exhausting to keep up with, for dubious return.
Thanks for having the stones to say what we’ve all been thinking.
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Thing is, the books have to be great to begin with, and, let’s face it, most aren’t.
And not everybody is cut out for social media, and some writers probably shouldn’t go anywhere near it.
Plus you need to have something to actually say that informs, enlightens, entertains, inspires — repeatedly.
Also, platform-building requires a big-picture, holistic vision, strategy, and deep awareness of what you offer as a writer, who your audience is, and where to find them. Most writers, especially aspiring writers, haven’t figured this out yet. It also requires a new-school mentality: your goal isn’t the same as “reaching millions” through TV and radio, but to establish your niche and build your list of readers who like and trust you enough (often through your blog) to give you their email address so that you can reach them directly. This is what publishers will have to do in future — live and die by their list, basically — and the great thing is that writers can do it too.
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That’s exactly the way to go about it — “network” because you want to meet people and have conversations, not because you have an agenda. Do what you enjoy, and don’t think all these rituals are required.
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How is it that nobody, appropos of cargo cults, has yet mentioned what is probably the best novel ever written about cargo cults? Namely, Christopher Moore’s Island of the Sequined Love Nun.
Well, ok, if not the best, certainly the funniest. But it’s a damn fine book, with a surprisingly deep and thoughtful philosophical core hiding underneath the uproarious humor of it.
Anyway, go read it. For the title alone, if for nothing else.