A Tip from Andy Weir: Build a Following
Andy Weir�s
The Martian
is an adventure both in and outside its pages. In the story, an astronaut abandoned on Mars struggles to survive in a deadly environment. In the real world, its author struggles to survive in a hostile publishing environment.
In the real world, of course, the author prevails. (To find out if the astronaut enjoys a similar triumph, you�ll have to read the book).
One of the keys to Andy Weir�s success is that he built an audience over many years, starting with cartoons and short stories posted on his website. One story in particular� The Egg �has been so popular, that fans have now translated it into dozens of languages.
�I had accumulated a few thousand readers to start with, before I�d written The Martian. And that gives you kind of a critical mass for word of mouth,� he tells me on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
He wrote and posted The Martian in installments on his site. It was only when some of his fans said they were having trouble downloading the The Martian (which he eventually compiled into a single book) to their Kindle that he decided to self-publish the entire manuscript on Amazon in 2012.
�I charged people 99 cents, which was the minimum [Amazon allowed], and I told people if you want it for free you can download it from my website. If you want to pay a buck to have Amazon put it on your Kindle, then here you go. And more people bought it then downloaded it for free because that�s just how much reach into the readership market that Amazon has. More people heard about it through Amazon than had heard about it from my site or my readers. So it started to sell really well and climb up the bestseller lists and that got the attention of the print publisher Crown.�
The Martian clearly has broad appeal. But one of the keys to its success has to do with all the hard work Weir put into building his fan base. This was not something he did in a calculated way; it happened naturally as his creative output�which until The Martian�s success was basically a hobby�slowly attracted more and more followers.
It�s a great story of a writer doing what he enjoys, giving pleasure to a readership he�s built through his own hard work; and the readership helping the writer, providing critical mass to launch him into the publishing stratosphere.
Astronaut Mark Watney is smart enough to survive on the unforgiving surface
of Mars, but my copy of The Martian is no match for Mr. Catfish.
is an adventure both in and outside its pages. In the story, an astronaut abandoned on Mars struggles to survive in a deadly environment. In the real world, its author struggles to survive in a hostile publishing environment.In the real world, of course, the author prevails. (To find out if the astronaut enjoys a similar triumph, you�ll have to read the book).
One of the keys to Andy Weir�s success is that he built an audience over many years, starting with cartoons and short stories posted on his website. One story in particular� The Egg �has been so popular, that fans have now translated it into dozens of languages.
�I had accumulated a few thousand readers to start with, before I�d written The Martian. And that gives you kind of a critical mass for word of mouth,� he tells me on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
He wrote and posted The Martian in installments on his site. It was only when some of his fans said they were having trouble downloading the The Martian (which he eventually compiled into a single book) to their Kindle that he decided to self-publish the entire manuscript on Amazon in 2012.
�I charged people 99 cents, which was the minimum [Amazon allowed], and I told people if you want it for free you can download it from my website. If you want to pay a buck to have Amazon put it on your Kindle, then here you go. And more people bought it then downloaded it for free because that�s just how much reach into the readership market that Amazon has. More people heard about it through Amazon than had heard about it from my site or my readers. So it started to sell really well and climb up the bestseller lists and that got the attention of the print publisher Crown.�
The Martian clearly has broad appeal. But one of the keys to its success has to do with all the hard work Weir put into building his fan base. This was not something he did in a calculated way; it happened naturally as his creative output�which until The Martian�s success was basically a hobby�slowly attracted more and more followers.
It�s a great story of a writer doing what he enjoys, giving pleasure to a readership he�s built through his own hard work; and the readership helping the writer, providing critical mass to launch him into the publishing stratosphere.
Astronaut Mark Watney is smart enough to survive on the unforgiving surface
of Mars, but my copy of The Martian is no match for Mr. Catfish.
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