More Truth about Book Marketing: 5 Publishing Myths

In this post-show supporter episode, we continue our conversation about misconceptions around book marketing. 

We bust five stubborn publishing myths that pressure authors into chasing perfection, speed, and “rule-following” instead of craft and strategy. We talk tropes, reader expectations, and KU vs wide. 

• tropes as recognizable patterns that help readers choose what they want 
• twisting and breaking tropes as a deliberate craft move 
• why a first book does not have to be perfect and most career missteps are recoverable 
• rejecting “write every day” as a requirement and recognising invisible writing time 
• growth beyond rapid release, including backlist advantages and backlist maintenance costs 

Thank you guys for supporting us!  We really appreciate it. And if you have questions, issues, topics you want us to discuss, please let us know. 

Tap the “Text the show” link  and let us know your thoughts and questions. We’d love to hear from you! ⬇️

Links:

• Melanie Harlow interview:  https://open.substack.com/pub/wishidknownthenpodcast/p/melanie-harlow-lessons-learned-on-e1c?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

🚀 Jami’s Consulting and Workshops: https://www.jamialbright.com/authorworkshops

❤️ Jami’s books https://amzn.to/3wSraA5

🔎 Sara’s books https://www.sararosett.com/bibliography/

📚 Sara’s How to Write a Series book and audiobook: https://www.sararosett.com/how-to-write-a-series/

The Big List of Craft and marketing books mentioned on WIKT podcast episodes https://bookshop.org/lists/recommenced-resources-for-writers-from-the-wish-i-d-known-then-podcast

Transcript

Welcome Back And Setup

Sara 0:00

Hi, everybody. We're back. We're doing part two of the Mythbusters episode about myths people have about whether they're true or not for authors and publishing. And the first five are on the public-facing feed, the RSS feed, and these will be the supporter ones. So yeah. That's all we need to say, right? Do we need to mention anything else? Okay. All right. So number six myth is tropes are formulaic and readers hate them when you break them. And I would say no and no.

unknown 0:32

Yeah.

Jami 0:32

They don't hate them.

Sara 0:34

Go ahead.

Jami 0:35

They may hate it when you break them, but I don't, and but I don't think I think hate is a really strong word. I think that you can if you break them, you need to know the rule of them first. It's that whole thing, you gotta know the rules to break the rules. But yeah, I don't.

Sara 0:51

I don't tropes are formulaic. They are a formula. There, there is a pattern to them.

Jami 0:57

Right.

Sara 0:58

But is that bad? No. I think that's the undertone of the question is that because they're in a there, there's something that's recognizable, it's bad. Yeah. And only something that's unrecognizable would be good and interesting. And that's just not true because readers love to know what they're. As a reader, I love to know what I'm getting. Right. And I think most readers want to know, especially if they're going to buy a book, if they're checking out from the library, but that's one thing. But if they're going to buy a book or an audiobook, they want to know what they're getting. So I think that's a good thing.

Jami 1:28

It is a good thing. And I think that readers want like readers, genre fiction readers read for because they know what they're going to get. You can put a spin on a trope.

Sara 1:40

You can take a trope and do it in a new way. Jennifer Hilt had a good example in the trope book that we did for Mystery and Thriller. And she said, you take the amnesia trope, and normally it's done in a way where amnesia is something that happens to somebody. They have no control over it. They just wake up and they're like, I don't know what's happened. And they have this blank slate. And she used, I believe it was severance as an example, where people are choosing amnesia because you know they don't want to remember certain things. So they choose amnesia. And then that gives you a whole different way to explore it. So that's a twist on a trope, right?

Jami 2:19

On a trope, yeah.

Sara 2:20

Yeah. I think tropes are getting more well or certain story situations are getting more so well defined and used over and over again that they're big that they get a trope name. Because like I had never heard of a grumpy sunshine, even though that's I know what it is now, but the first time I heard it, I was like, huh. Oh, I think I know what that is. Yeah, I've seen it, but I just didn't know it had that term, that name.

Jami 2:46

Yeah, I didn't even heard it.

Sara 2:48

Yeah. So yeah, I don't think that that formulaic is the right word for tropes. I think that it just has a sort of a negative connotation. But yeah, and I don't think readers hate it when you break them. If you have set up a friends to lovers and given that expectation and you don't give the friends to lovers, yes, they're gonna be mad. But if what came to mind when I read that was the twist that sometimes you or the tropes that are twisted or changed in mystery, like murder on the Orient Express, that one you would expect to have a solution of one, maybe two murders, but no, it's different from that. Right. And I think that when you can do it well, that's when readers talk about your book, like Gone Girl, and Then There Were None. I'm trying to think of other can you think of anything in romance that has made people talk about it because it it wasn't quite what they thought it was going to be, or is that more a mystery thriller thing?

Jami 3:51

It may be a mystery thriller thing, but I can see that the the romance authors who doing really well they're either doing the trope really well or they're putting a little spin on it. I think that that's yeah.

Sara 4:07

And sometimes I think it's the marketing that makes people either very happy or very upset. Do you remember the 500 Days of Summer when that the movie was that the movie where I don't remember. Okay, I don't know. I may have to take this out, but I'll look it up. But uh there was a movie where you think it's a rom-com and then you get to the end and she dies. Um, yeah.

Jami 4:33

So I think I don't know if it's that book, but yeah, yeah. I don't remember I know there is one, but yeah, there's probably more than one. Any Nicholas Sparks book.

Sara 4:43

Let me just check real quick. This is Sarah popping back in while I'm editing. I found the name of the movie. It was called One Day and had Anne Hathaway in it. And I think that they've also remade it into a Netflix limited series. And there's books and movies where the setup is the person is terminally ill or there's enough foreshadowing that you know something's gonna go wrong. But if you set up something that readers think is a happily ever after type thing, happy for now, and then you don't give them that, yes, I think they're gonna be very upset. It would be like me not revealing who the murderer was. It's like, eh, never mind. We're just there's no mystery here at all. Forget it. That's would not go over well. I think you're right. Okay, so that one tropes are formulated and readers hate it when you break them. There's, I would say, I don't agree with the wording of the myth about the formulaic, and then readers may be intrigued when you break them, they may be upset. So it's a risk.

Jami 5:44

It is, but it's also what could set your book apart from everybody else. You just have to do it well, yes, like everything else.

Your First Book Does Not Define You

Sara 5:52

Yeah, that's the trick. Yeah. Okay, myth number seven: your first book has to be perfect, or you'll ruin your career. So perfection is not something that is ever good to shoot for because we're not ever gonna make it, right?

Jami 6:07

No, that's never gonna happen. And I know lots of people whose first books aren't their best, and their second books and on are their best. And yeah, it makes it trickier because that first book, but they still do or they can come back and do another series and it's great. And I I think that used to that might have been more true than it is now, but I don't think that's true now.

Sara 6:31

I think that you can there's very little that isn't recoverable from and I don't the term the phrasing you'll ruin your career, I don't think anything is in stone anymore.

Jami 6:44

Or even in a case scenario, you start a pen name.

Sara 6:46

Even in traditional publishing, you just choose a different name and go forward. Yeah, and you can do that as an indie, you can go back and change the book. You do have a situation where if you write a long series and it's very successful and your first book isn't very strong, yeah, that can hurt you a little bit. But if your series is successful, there's something that the readers like and they're sticking with you. It can be a challenge, and you but like you said, you can go back and edit it. It's not right the end of the world. No, the longer we write, the more we get better in our practice, you just do get better with practice. The thing I think we have to be careful with is as we the longer we write, we have a tendency to leave some of the things that maybe attracted readers to us in the first place. We may feel like, oh, I've already written about that, or I've already explored this. But if your first book is about a treasure hunt, and then you write a couple of books that have some element of that in them, and then you stop doing that, you may be tired of it, or you may think, I've already done that, but your readers, that may be why they're with you. They love that.

Jami 7:53

That's what Melanie Harlow talks about. Don't give them spaghetti when they want cake. But then it that's up to you. Do you want to do that as an author? And if you don't, then you have to know that you take that risk of possibly losing some readers, but then there are always other readers you can find. Yeah.

unknown 8:12

Yeah.

Sara 8:12

Yeah. So if you like the if you want to keep all your readers and stay on that same path, maybe you find a new way to write about treasure hunts that are not the same way, but you still have that same hint of that in there. So that was a number seven. Your first book has to be perfect, or you'll ruin your career, where that's definitely busted.

Jami 8:30

Yeah.

Going Wide Versus KU Reality

Sara 8:32

Number eight, going wide means you'll lose all your KU income overnight. I don't know that I've heard this. Have you heard this? People worry about this.

Jami 8:40

I think that's the assumption, but that's not true because anybody that's gotten your book in KU and haven't read it, then they're gonna still keep reading it. So it won't be like overnight. But it is there's a difference. There's a difference between wide income and KU income, especially at the beginning.

Sara 8:58

Yeah, yeah, and wide, it really is definitely the long game because you build those relationships with the platform and the people who the merchandisers on the other platforms, yeah, and then and you do promos and stuff with them, and it just takes longer to get it going. Yeah, and I think a lot of people dip in, they try it, and it's not successful right away, and so they pull back out.

Jami 9:22

And they dip out pretty fast, yeah.

Sara 9:25

Yeah. And really to be successful, you have to really have a whole different approach. Right. Yeah. But yeah, I even I did experiment with KU. I went in for one term, I think, and I just decided it wasn't for me. But every once in a while I get a page read, and that's been probably five or six years ago, maybe seven. Yeah. Or they I guess they maybe downloaded it then, and then they go back to it later and look at it, or maybe try again.

Jami 9:54

But I would also say the same thing is true of KU. You can't just dip in and dip out and see the results that other people see. I don't think.

You Do Not Need Daily Writing

Sara 10:06

Yeah, because there's a whole different you've got to use your you can use your promotional days and all that, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's not just a set it and forget it either. No, I wish, but no. All right. Myth number nine. You have to write every day to be a real author.

Jami 10:24

Okay, we know that's not true.

Sara 10:25

Yeah, we need a big buzzer sound right here because that's just not true.

Jami 10:31

That's just not how people we know now that's not how everybody's brain. I wouldn't say that either you or I on days we're not actually at the computer writing, that we're not writing. We're just not putting words on the page. That is so true.

Sara 10:47

Our little brains are just chugging away. Like there's like little computer in there, just never shuts up. Yeah, that's true. And a lot of times Becca talks about Becca Syme talks about how some people write books and she calls them the bread machine. You put all the stuff in the bread machine and it has to sit there and churn and mix and rise and fall. And it takes a long time to be ready for to have output.

Jami 11:12

Yeah.

Sara 11:12

So that's totally fine. Yeah.

Jami 11:15

If you're not that writer, be really grateful.

Sara 11:21

I don't know what the other equivalent is.

Jami 11:23

Like the people that can just I don't think there's a metaphor, they can just write a book.

Sara 11:29

They're like the instant cookie thing, the cookie dough, the refrigerated cookie dough that you slice up and put in the oven. Boom, it's done.

Jami 11:35

And it they're delicious.

Sara 11:36

I know, I love those.

Jami 11:38

Yeah.

Growth Beyond Rapid Release

Sara 11:38

So that one, I don't know that we really need to spend time on this because we've talked about this on podcasts so much. And I feel like the author community has come around to saying you must write every day is a little unhealthy. Yeah. Because it's stress. All right. Myth number 10 the only way to grow is to release more books faster. This is very similar to the rapid release. I think the more books you have, the easier it is for you to be discovered because you have more content out there. And then when people find you, there's plenty for them to read.

unknown 12:13

Right.

Sara 12:13

And you can have a stronger sell-through rate. You can have more income from your backlit.

Jami 12:18

And it makes more sense than with running ads, you don't maybe have to be so pr precise because of read-through. You might have a little more wiggle room on the spin side because you have more books and therefore more read-through. You make more money on the read-throughs.

Sara 12:36

I think even there we know people that release just occasionally. I said we know people. That's right. We don't full stop.

Jami 12:47

Yeah.

Sara 12:47

But there are people that write. Look at Andy Weir. Yeah. He's written two fiction books, right? Has he written others that I don't know about?

Jami 12:56

Yeah, he's written others. At least three, but I think he's had more than that, but three for sure that have been published.

Sara 13:02

Yeah. But he's not releasing a book every six months. Yeah. And he's doing fine. He's an anomaly. I understand that.

Jami 13:10

Yes. But with the Martian, he was releasing that every week or a couple of times chapters every week and stuff. That's how it started as a blog. But yeah. But yeah, there are lots of there are lots of authors who don't. But I I have seen recently some authors that they just have a big backlist. And it is a cushion. It is really nice to have all those books. You don't have to put so much pressure on every book. And when you don't have a big backlist, that's the problem.

Sara 13:43

Every book has to carry its weight. And when you have a big backlist, it gives you more options for special editions that you can go back and pull out. Yeah. You can do anniversary editions, like this is the first book that came out. So here's a special anniversary edition, and you can do bundling and different things. So you have options. If you have several series, you can bundle together book one and have a series bundle starter bundle. So there's things you can do that's difficult to do if you only have maybe three, two or three books out. But yeah, so there are some advantages. The disadvantage to having a big back catalog is you have to maintain it, you have to keep up with it, keep the keywords relevant because things always change. And you know, you can go optimize. And if you have two books, it's easy. If you have 25 to some people, we know have 50 or 100. Yeah, then, or if you want to recover something, that's a nightmare. Yeah. So anyway.

Jami 14:41

And if you're yeah, that's just that there are downshows too, but pros and cons. Pros and cons, but I would rather have a big backlash.

Thanks Supporters And Send Topics

Sara 14:50

Yeah, it's a problem we all want to have, right? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. That was number 10. So great. We have quite a few that we busted and some that we just thought were poorly worded. Yeah. All right. I guess that's it for the supporter episode. Thank you guys for supporting us. We really appreciate it. And if you have questions, issues, topics you want us to discuss, please let us know. They have changed the text to show note link, and anybody could text us now and we can reply back. So let us know if you have information that you want to share, have ideas or topics, we would love to hear it.

Jami 15:30

All right. Yes. Thanks y'all. We appreciate it.

unknown 15:34

Yeah.

Sara 15:35

All right. See y'all next time. Bye.