Digital Book World 2017 was revamped this year into four different tracks: Editorial Acquisitions and Development, Production and Distribution, Marketing and Sales, and Data Analysis and Reporting. While I spent most of my day in sessions on the Editorial Track, many of DBW’s day one sessions overall seemed geared toward finding out what people at different ends of the industry – the readers and the gatekeepers – want out of their reading material.
Literary Agent Laura Dail, captain of the Editorial track, introduced her panels for the day by addressing the rise of mobile and audio, as well as the looming culture war. Then she introduced a panel of publishers to discuss “What’s Working and What’s Not”: Deb Futter of Grand Central, Jennifer Levesque of Rodale, Amy Einhorn of Flatiron, and Sara Nelson of Harper. The 70 minute panel covered many different editorial topics, but some notable moments concerned how they conceptualize trends, what they like in an author, and what speaks to them. Overall the panelists felt it’s not useful to chase trends as an editor: “I find the trend thing isn’t applicable to me,” said Futter, agreeing with Nelson’s comment that “the minute you know what the trend is, it’s over.” So what kind of things do these editors look for? Strong commitment from the author, for one. Levesque commented that reality tv celebrity Kristin Cavallari’s book was so successful because she went above and beyond in promoting it. But really, at the most basic level, these editors just want a good book that clicks for them. Each publisher echoed that sentiment in some way or another, as well as a desire to connect with readers.
In the next session, titled “Listen Before Publishing” the focus shifted toward discerning what readers want. Rick Joyce and Jamie Callaway — both at one time in marketing at Perseus (Joyce has since left) — showed attendees how to use social listening tools to see how a potential title might or might not be successful. Joyce made the caveat that these tools are typically more useful with non-fiction, but that there are services out there, some paid and some free, that allow users to “listen in” on social media to find out what’s being discussed, what kind of person is discussing it, where they are discussing it, and who they’re discussing it with. Joyce and Callaway stressed that this is not only helpful to find out what potential readers are interested in, but why a certain book suddenly starts doing well, using their 2013 title You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero as an example. It had always sold decently, but almost immediately after the author did an event with multi-level marketing group Beach Body, the Beach Body community embraced it; it hit the New York Times bestseller list in 2015 and has been on and off ever since. Joyce and Callaway showed that publishers can learn what want if they have the right tools to listen.
The next exploration into what readers really want came from “Old Models Made New” which showed attendees that readers like shorter format reading as well as reading in print. Maris Kreizman, editorial director of the revamped Book of the Month Club, reported that their subscriber base is 90% female, and 70% of their subscribers are in their 20s or 30s. “Young, tech-savvy women are reading in print,” she said. While BOMC originally launched in 1926, they rebooted last year, and are clearly having success reaching a millennial audience, as noted by the enthusiastic readers sharing their monthly picks online. Two editors from James Patterson’s BookShots program, Trish Daly and Laura Fauzio, talked about how successful their 150 page or less books with low price points have been. It was a simple idea, but it took some explaining. Daly and Fauzio said they had to do a big publicity push when the program launched to ensure they reached people who weren’t reading anymore because they didn’t have the time. But something must be working; they’ve published 18 thrillers and 10 romances in print with a combined 2 million plus copies sold.
Next up was a different set of industry gatekeepers: literary agents. Agent Regina Brooks said, “I found I have to be a crisis manager…I’m agent as producer and agent as manager,” explaining the additional tasks literary agents must do to keep their clients’ careers on the move. Agent for Curtis Brown Ltd., Ginger Clark noted that there are a lot more “beauty contests” in agenting now because several agents often end up competing for the same talented author. What it comes down to, she said, is sometimes what each agency offers. For instance, a larger agency like Curtis Brown Ltd. has its own accounting team and a dedicated contracts person, while a smaller agency of one or two might offer much more personalized, hands-on attention for clients. But at the end of the day, what are agents looking for in a new client? “95% of the time it comes down to ‘how compelling is the material?’” said agent Brian DeFiore. “It has to be the right material that makes the right transition to book.”
My day at DBW day one ended with Wattpad. Wattpad takes a slightly different approach to seeing what readers want, simply by seeing what they read, or, in some cases, write. Ashleigh Gardner, Head of Content Publishing for Wattpad, said that last month alone, users spent 15 billion minutes reading on the site; those users spend over 30 minutes per reading session on average. So for Wattpad, it’s easy to see what readers like: they just pay attention to what users are reading. “We don’t look at what’s good…it’s about following the attention,” noted Gardner. Wattpad employees simply track which authors, stories, and genres are popular. Some of these popular stories and authors see traditional publishing success. While many know that international bestselling author Anna Todd came from Wattpad, there are also other bestselling stories, such as The Cellar by Natasha Preston, which was ultimately published in print by Sourcebooks Fire and currently has a spot on the New York Times Bestseller list. Gardiner said that two rising trends on their platform are “puppet horror” and “dark mermaids.”
In a way, the day could be looked at as a competing set of wishlists for what each of these important cogs in the industry wheel want: a manuscript that just speaks to the right editor, a backlist title that connects so deeply with a group that it finds new life, an idea that makes an agent excited, or some very specific genre fiction. Digital Book World offered a useful reminder that it takes both readers and publishing professionals to define what makes the industry work.
