For Writers by Hugh Howey

Discoverability and Donald Rumsfeld

The first thing I’ve observed is that writing within a genre is a huge first step in becoming discovered. No one is looking for you or your particular book. You are both unknown unknowns. So you better write a book that’s near a specific book. You can either change your name to L.E. James or you can start writing billionaire erotica. Of the two, I’d go with the latter. Science fiction, romance, new adult, erotica, fantasy, crime, all sell better than literary fiction. Why? Because people are looking for genre work. Very few people set out to find a story about a man whose divorced parents both suffer from dementia and have moved back in with him, thereby fulfilling his childhood fantasy of seeing his parents reunited and no longer squabbling, but only because they have no memory of one another (copyrighted).

It might be a great story, and you may enjoy reading it, but how do you find it? You won’t. You can’t. But say you want a story that involves magic and dragons. Plenty of those to wade through, and you have a fair expectation of what you’ll get. Random fantasy books sell better than random randomness. You’ve written and published a known unknown. You’re halfway there.

I should point out here that if you want to write for the joy of it, as I did, write whatever you want. But this response is for people emailing me asking for advice in getting their book discovered. And so I say that you should write in a well-selling genre. I used to belong to a writing group in Boone, and most everyone there was writing a memoir. Nothing wrong with that. I was writing science fiction. We were both writing what we felt inspired to write. But when that group wonders why my books took off and theirs didn’t, it’s not the quality of the writing. It’s the dumb luck that I happened to enjoy writing what more readers are looking for. So let’s assume, since you want to be discovered, that you’ve written in a well-selling genre. Fine choice. Let’s also assume you’ve written a book that will please your audience (a well-written book, whatever that means, and the subject of a quite different blog post). Also a good plan. You’ve slapped the best cover art you can make or afford on there. Excellent. The blurb is engaging; it makes you really, really want to read the book . . .

Wait. Hold on. Your blurb doesn’t kick ass? It should. You’re a writer. Look, if you can’t write a Tweet a day that makes someone laugh or tear up or click on a link, you’re in trouble. What chance does your book have? And yes, this is coming from someone who sucks at writing blurbs and puts almost no time into it. Don’t do as I do. I’m telling you, you need to be able to put together a blog post, a Facebook update, an email, anything that keeps people reading. If you can’t, there’s a chance your book doesn’t either. (And yes, this is coming from someone who has already lost 75% of the people who started reading this silly blog post). Examine your talent for writing and engaging people in small doses. This is an indicator of what you can expect out of your books. If your “like” buttons on Facebook are developing a rash, that’s a good sign. If your forum posts are oft-quoted, excellent. If none of these things are true, keep trying! But perhaps lower your expectations for your book. (Incidentally, this is why I beg some of my more entertaining and hilarious Facebook friends to write a book. I would pay money to read more of their thoughts. It seems unfair that we derive so much entertainment from these people for free!)

Okay, assuming you’ve got a great book that is packaged well, how do you get it discovered? Now, I’m not bullshitting you here. I’m telling you the truth, as someone who was in this position and fully believed in what I did next. With my father telling me I should be promoting the hell out of that debut novel, I proceeded to . . . write my next book.

Stick with me. This is important. You’ve got that great book under your belt. Well guess what? You’ll look back one day and realize it wasn’t your best work. Not by far. And not only because it was your first but because of the small sample size. You need to get a few books out to find out which one is your best, and that means writing more.