What Bubble

I’ve been noticing a certain trend in the publishing articles I’ve been reading lately. There’s a lot of talk about the epublishing bubble. A recent article at the Guardian suggests that authors on Facebook and Twitter are wasting their time because there is no correlation between sales and say twitter followers.

The article goes on to say that people don’t want to be sold to, they want to be treated like a real person. So authors who get on Facebook and Twitter and only talk about their books aren’t achieving the desired effect anyway.

But what if there is something to the Guardian’s article. What if all the twitter and facebook in the world doesn’t equal a single sale. Is the author wasting their time?

I say no. And here’s why.

I was talking with an agent friend of mine who remarked about how Twitter has broken up some of the cliques that have been present at RWA in the past. Now as a relative RWA newbie (I’ve been to 3 conferences) I have no point of reference. But I can tell you that Twitter has paid huge dividends for me as far as making conversation. I (hope) I was able to have relatively competent and coherent conversations at RWA about publishing and the industry because I paid attention to the latest news in the publishing world.


So while that did not necessarily translate into sales, I definitely got something out of my time on Twitter.

But when we maybe we’re not talking about the social networks and the amount of time people spend on it. Maybe we’re talking about what makes books take off and why this book sparks and that one doesn’t. Why *did* 50 Shades of Grey go viral when others did not. Why is the USA Today chart burning up with books that were NOT produced by New York.

One editor I spoke to at RWA suggested that people no longer care about quality. That the glut of badly written books has simply lowered expectations. If readers no longer care, why should New York?

Maybe the rush to chase the tail of the dragon, that magic formula if you will, should not be about why this goes viral or that goes viral. Maybe the e publishing phenomenon is about trying to beat the Walmart of the Internet. No one has a better pulse on what readers are BUYING than Amazon. Not Facebook, not BN. Amazon.

And yet, a book hitting the Amazon bestseller list may not crack any lists any other place. Why not?

Maybe the way that publishing beats WalMart and beats the race to the bottom of cheap crap is by publishing quality. Maybe they can speed up their processes a little bit.

Or maybe the buyer of the $.99 erotica novel is NOT the market for the $7.99 paperback. Maybe, instead of trying to out Walmart Walmart, publishing needs to think outside the box. Look at what is working for epublished authors. Figure out how to get books to market faster. Figure out how to engage – really engage – with readers.

Maybe there is a social bubble and maybe there isn’t. But publishers and authors need to figure out how to build relationships. Because at the end of the day, THAT is the only reason to be on these networks. If you’re not there for that reason, people will know. Maybe that’s why we tweet about our cats. Or in my case, our hamsters.