Sell More Books, Part 7: Fame and Fortune
7. Fame and Fortune
Nothing sells books like being famous, or having a fortune to spend. In fact, writing has little to do with any of it, except if you happen to be a famous author. Well, you can probably count that number on one hand.
The alternative is easy. Get really, really good at something else… hmm, like spelunking, as an example. Get really, really famous… and then write a book. Oddly, in this case, you need not write about caves. Any book will suffice, even a cook book. Given enough notoriety, it will surely top the best-seller list. In fact, it’s not necessary to write at all. You can pay someone else using your fortune.
By no means am I advocating infamy here, say, embezzling, or becoming a serial killer; though it works pretty much the same way. The major difference being, you may have to learn to write with a crayon from a prison cell.
It might be helpful to differentiate between infamy and fame at this point. I’ve often wondered if there’s a difference between “infamously famous” or “famously infamous.” If there is a difference, it’s exquisitely subtle. Nonetheless infamy is in itself a kind of fame. We might ask: How many books are written about Frank the Ripper?
Nothing on this earth attracts such numbers, like a moth to a flame— I mean to say fame, not murder. It’s like having built-in PR, a ready-made fan base, free advertising. Your every action in life, from having a cup of coffee in the morning to what you eat for dinner, becomes an endless source of fascination. Depending on your level of notoriety, there is a good possibility that you can cheat death itself. That is, unbeknownst to you, your fortune will wane but name may live eternally.
It’s important to remember fame is not like an on/off switch. People don’t usually go to bed in obscurity and wake up the next day to fame and fortune. Patience is one requirement. It’s also important to understand fame is a continuum, as in some are more famous than others. On one end, you might have someone like Beyonce, and on the other end, there’s Frank who is only famous for getting drunk at parties. People on one side of the spectrum usually sell more books than those on the other.
And fame comes in many different flavors: historically fame, political, Bollywood, or sports fame, fleeting fame, and internet-famous, to name but a few. In this modern era and thanks to Mr Warhol, every citizen is guaranteed fifteen minutes in the limelight. Use it wisely.
To cite a personal experience: not long ago a tweet of mine was picked up and broadcast by CNN. What luck! I got thousands upon thousands of views and sold two books.
If you are not famous, there’s still hope. Ghostwriters can earn a good living, especially when their clients posses a fortune. And basking in the reflected glow of fame can boost sales as well. What? Consider writing about a famous person (in an unauthorized sense). Or, if you write fiction, you might base your characters on famous people (lawyers take note). This strategy works best on long-since dead famous people who have no living descendants. Legal difficulties aside, you can easily use famous settings in your work: Mount Rushmore, the Aral Sea or downtown Schenectady. Famous events are also a draw, a fortunate backdrop to your story. All such strategies can boost sales.
On to fortune. To foster a greater understanding of how this works, it is necessary to separate fame from fortune. The latter can be measured in bullion; the former in duration and intensity. While fame and fortune are not always synonymous, they are directly correlated. Rich people need not be famous but famous people are often rich. Who’s ever heard of famous poor person? And most importantly, with a fortune, you can spend your way to the best seller list.
next week: stalking
Nothing sells books like being famous, or having a fortune to spend. In fact, writing has little to do with any of it, except if you happen to be a famous author. Well, you can probably count that number on one hand.
The alternative is easy. Get really, really good at something else… hmm, like spelunking, as an example. Get really, really famous… and then write a book. Oddly, in this case, you need not write about caves. Any book will suffice, even a cook book. Given enough notoriety, it will surely top the best-seller list. In fact, it’s not necessary to write at all. You can pay someone else using your fortune.
By no means am I advocating infamy here, say, embezzling, or becoming a serial killer; though it works pretty much the same way. The major difference being, you may have to learn to write with a crayon from a prison cell.
It might be helpful to differentiate between infamy and fame at this point. I’ve often wondered if there’s a difference between “infamously famous” or “famously infamous.” If there is a difference, it’s exquisitely subtle. Nonetheless infamy is in itself a kind of fame. We might ask: How many books are written about Frank the Ripper?
Nothing on this earth attracts such numbers, like a moth to a flame— I mean to say fame, not murder. It’s like having built-in PR, a ready-made fan base, free advertising. Your every action in life, from having a cup of coffee in the morning to what you eat for dinner, becomes an endless source of fascination. Depending on your level of notoriety, there is a good possibility that you can cheat death itself. That is, unbeknownst to you, your fortune will wane but name may live eternally.
It’s important to remember fame is not like an on/off switch. People don’t usually go to bed in obscurity and wake up the next day to fame and fortune. Patience is one requirement. It’s also important to understand fame is a continuum, as in some are more famous than others. On one end, you might have someone like Beyonce, and on the other end, there’s Frank who is only famous for getting drunk at parties. People on one side of the spectrum usually sell more books than those on the other.
And fame comes in many different flavors: historically fame, political, Bollywood, or sports fame, fleeting fame, and internet-famous, to name but a few. In this modern era and thanks to Mr Warhol, every citizen is guaranteed fifteen minutes in the limelight. Use it wisely.
To cite a personal experience: not long ago a tweet of mine was picked up and broadcast by CNN. What luck! I got thousands upon thousands of views and sold two books.
If you are not famous, there’s still hope. Ghostwriters can earn a good living, especially when their clients posses a fortune. And basking in the reflected glow of fame can boost sales as well. What? Consider writing about a famous person (in an unauthorized sense). Or, if you write fiction, you might base your characters on famous people (lawyers take note). This strategy works best on long-since dead famous people who have no living descendants. Legal difficulties aside, you can easily use famous settings in your work: Mount Rushmore, the Aral Sea or downtown Schenectady. Famous events are also a draw, a fortunate backdrop to your story. All such strategies can boost sales.
On to fortune. To foster a greater understanding of how this works, it is necessary to separate fame from fortune. The latter can be measured in bullion; the former in duration and intensity. While fame and fortune are not always synonymous, they are directly correlated. Rich people need not be famous but famous people are often rich. Who’s ever heard of famous poor person? And most importantly, with a fortune, you can spend your way to the best seller list.
next week: stalking
No comments have been added yet.
