Do We Need Celebrity-Branded Books?
And other publishing stories that caught my attention
It’s been a week! I spent part of Mother’s Day at urgent care with a broken finger (my right pointer!), and I’ve been a bad patient. I’m supposed to wear a splint, but I keep removing it so I can type. I received a B on my final linguistics paper for grad school, which made me feel like I was getting a B in life. My 17-year-old daughter finished her AP exams and promptly came down with a terrible virus (she’ll be fine). As you can tell, I need some downtime this weekend, so Book Therapy will return next Friday for paid subscribers.
Today’s newsletter is a buffet of publishing news. Mentioned in this edition: Reese Witherspoon, Harlan Coben, Grand Central Publishing, 8th Note Press, TikTok, Mr. Beast, James Patterson, Bill Belichick, and more.
Do We Need Celebrity-Branded Books?
This week, Grand Central Publishing (an imprint of Hachette Book Group) announced it was publishing “Gone Before Goodbye.” The authors? Harlan Coben and Reese Witherspoon. Before that, HarperCollins announced it was publishing a thriller by James Patterson and YouTube star Mr. Beast. Patterson is not new to celebrity collaborations. He’s previously partnered with former President Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton. Louise Penny has collaborated with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The list goes on. One might even say that celebrity collaborations with thriller authors are a trend.
I could see partnering celebrities with authors who need a boost. Still, when publishers jump on collaborations between huge bestselling authors and celebrities, all I think about is how those books require seven to eight-figure advances, large marketing budgets, and help the company’s bottom line. Let’s use the Reese Witherspoon x Harlan Coben collaboration as an example. There’s no denying that Witherspoon has been a champion of books, but did she need her name on a thriller with a bestselling author? No, she didn’t. She is a brand, just as Coben is. Is she writing any of the book? Doubtful. Is she optioning the book for a series? I bet she is. Hachette’s press release calls “Gone Before Goodbye” Witherspoon’s “debut novel.” Unless she is penning the entire book herself, that’s a stretch. The publicity and marketing for the book are likely to utilize resources that could have benefited lesser-known authors, and within that lies the problem in book publishing.
We know the big books help pay for the smaller books. We also know that a publisher’s backlist funds its frontlist. This means that the revenue generated from bestselling books and older books that continue to sell allows publishers to acquire books that aren’t guaranteed to be successful. That said, I’m not even sure that big publishers are willing to acquire many books by authors who don’t have a platform or a solid network to help promote their work these days. From my perspective, I can tell you that it is much harder to secure publicity when authors lack a platform, which is why it would be interesting to see a big publisher facilitate a collaboration between a debut author and a celebrity (and I am not talking about the book being a celebrity book club pick).
I admire Sarah Jessica Parker’s commitment to literature. She has an imprint at Zando called SJP Lit, and she actively promotes the books she publishes. She’s smart enough to know she’s a brand that matters without overshadowing the authors she supports. Books also align with her alternate ego, Carrie Bradshaw, who was rarely seen without books on Sex & the City, and now, in Just Like That. In this way, she has put her stamp of approval on particular books without a cover burst.
It’s a no-brainer that the Reese Witherspoon x Harlan Coben book will be a bestseller. I’m sure Mr. Beast x James Patterson will have the same fate. The question is, at what cost to other authors?
In Other News:
Jane Friedman wrote a great piece about TikTok’s book publishing venture, 8th Note Press. I’m not kidding when I say I was flummoxed that TikTok doesn’t seem to be employing any BookTok strategy for 8th Note titles, but then I gave it some more thought, and I looked at the TikTok accounts of each of their current authors and searched each of their titles. I was surprised by the modest following of each author and the difficulty I had finding all but two of 8th Note’s titles. It then made sense to me why they partnered with Zando: these are books that require a brick-and-mortar retail presence, especially since most of the audience for each title skews younger (meaning Gen Z and Millennials), and they prefer shopping in-store. If you’ve worked with book influencers, you know that they prefer printed books over ebooks, so it’s interesting that 8th Note didn’t consider print editions from the start. They probably had access to a vast amount of data! This is just my observation. Time will tell if they create a sustainable publishing program.
Bill Belichick is now a New York Times best-selling author. The Art of Winning debuted at #5 on the Advice, How-To & Misc. bestseller list with no indication of bulk sales. Coach was interviewed by Michael Strahan on Good Morning America today, and it is abundantly clear he is most comfortable talking to another football guy. They probably should have just booked him on GMA with Strahan from the beginning, but today’s interview showed Coach Belichick in his familiar post-Patriots mode. I’ll leave coverage of Jordan Husdon’s participation in the Miss Maine pageant to the professionals like .
Speaking of bestsellers, I’ve often said to colleagues that a good dog story sells, so I was intrigued by TINA by Niall Harbison, which debuted at #5 on The New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller List this week (with an indication of bulk sales…the little † doesn’t lie). What’s notable: Niall Harbison, the author, has 1.5M Instagram followers, and if you’re a dog lover like me, you’ll scroll through all of the photos. We love a heartwarming dog story.
Taylor Jenkins Reid was profiled by Time magazine. The news that she reportedly received $8 million per book in a five-book deal with Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster where I served as VP of Publicity from 2006 to 2010, made me choke on my water.
I would also like to share this little excerpt from Atria’s publisher and say that if your book sells 2k-3k copies per week, it is not “quietly succeeding.” It’s probably somewhere on a bestseller list—albeit at the bottom of said list. I agree with everything else she said:
Libby McGuire, publisher of Atria—which published Evelyn Hugo and reportedly won Reid back from Ballantine with that massive deal—emphasizes that there’s a path to success as an author without ascending to the level of a phenomenon. If you rely solely on the New York Times best-seller list, she says, you might miss books that are still selling well over time. “When I talk to my friends at other houses, everyone has these books that are quietly succeeding,” McGuire says. “It’s just that they’re selling 2,000 to 3,000 a week.” But the lack of transparency around advances and sales, combined with sensational stories like Reid’s, leads to a skewed perception of what success looks like for a typical author, McGrath says. “We lose sight of the fact that there is a workaday writer churning out a book a year or a book every couple of years, who is making a reasonable living or still has a day job.”
Then there’s this, which, well, I’m sorry, but you need to know (emphasis is mine):
An estimated 16 million unsolicited manuscripts are submitted to agents’ “slush piles” each year, according to Laura McGrath, a professor at Temple University who uses data to study literature and literary culture. To get published at all, even if you sell poorly, is a feat. “It’s just sad to me, when I talk to aspiring writers and they’ll talk about Taylor Jenkins Reid as though anyone could do this,” McGrath says.
I’m often asked what makes a great book. One of my responses is, “I know it when I read it,” but, and I’m just talking about fiction, a great book to me is usually one that is nothing like anything else I’ve ever read. It also must be written well. I think that’s why a book like last year’s “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” has stuck with me, as has “All Fours” (I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t dislike it). This is also why it’s so hard for anyone to buy me a book—except my daughter, who did an excellent job last Christmas.
When considering a figure like 16 million unsolicited manuscripts being submitted to agents’ slush piles each year, it is also essential to remember that a high percentage of those books are not publishable. They’re not commercially viable, or perhaps not well-written. In other cases, they may not be right for the current market, or the story has been done before in a different way. In my experience as an agent, it was as simple as 1) The query was bad, 2) Not within my interests, 3) Not marketable, 4) Needed too much work, and 5) Badly written. So, don’t be discouraged by that figure. Heck, I’ve tried pitching two books myself and was shot down. The first time was over twenty years ago, and I must admit, it was a flawed concept. The second time was not that long ago (maybe two years ago), and I was told I didn’t have enough proof of concept. If you don’t know, proof of concept is when you are a person others turn to for expertise. The rejection was good for me because it made me realize that I don’t want to write a book. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
END NOTES:
What I’m Watching: I’m still on a TV tear. I finished The Four Seasons on Netflix and liked it. My daughter and I watched "Deadly American Marriage" on Netflix this week, which left me with a lot of questions (it’s a true crime documentary). My husband and I are still watching The Studio and Your Friends & Neighbors on Apple+ (both are excellent). I’m currently re-watching Mad Men, and since my daughter finished Sex and the City, we're watching And Just Like That… (which I’ve already seen, but it’s fun watching with my kid). Finally, I am watching the Celtics-Knicks playoff series. I am a Celtics fan, and all I want is a game 7.
What I’m Listening To: Are You a Charlotte? with Kristin Davis is a pretty good podcast. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by it. I also dig Amy Poehler’s podcast Good Hang.
What I’m Reading: Emails. My inbox is atrocious right now.
2,000-3,000 books per week as quietly succeeding. SNORT!
I'm selling 1k/year 4.5 years out and I thought *that* was quietly succeeding.
Was there a Book Therapy thread today? Did I miss it? Had an interesting client question to share...
The 16 million stat makes me want to cry.