Blank

by Zibby Owens

it’s not a vacation with kids; it’s a trip.

Sometimes it feels like it doesn’t even matter what’s inside the book. Books that aren’t well written sell millions of copies, while heartfelt, beautifully crafted stories literally languish in indie bookstores, rarely dusted off or flipped open unless someone comes in specifically looking for them. Discoverability is next to impossible. Covers have taken on an exaggerated role in bookselling as the primary marketing tool, but how can one image convey an entire book? The pressure! What even makes a bestseller?

it doesn’t even matter what we write; it’s mostly name value and marketing.

“Imagine someone just came up with the idea of reading. Like, ‘Hey, let’s launch a product with no pictures, just words and letters. To enjoy it, you have to sit in one place and stare at it for hours, and then the whole story will slowly unfold just to you inside your brain. It might take you months to find out what happens in the end. It’s a completely solitary endeavor and you can’t do anything else at the same time. Oh, and you need to purchase it up front, hoping you’ll like it. But if you don’t, there’s no refund. Sorry! And there are literally millions of other products that look basically identical—some are great and some are terrible, and there’s almost no way to know ahead of time. Good luck. Go spend thirty dollars!’”

Fantastic books go unrecognized, while others randomly sell millions. It’s often arbitrary.

It was infuriating that select executives could just decide which books would hit the list, without reader feedback and when countless other authors were biting their fingernails, hoping and praying their books would break out. It was almost predecided.