Well, if Hollywood legend and Fact Fiend are to be believed, it's due to a guy named Michael Ovitz.
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| We're talking about the Hollywood machine, but rest assured, this applies to writers as well. |
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The Myth of The Kingmaker
If you've never heard of Michael Ovitz, it's probably because you're not the sort of person who pays attention to the doings in Hollywood. However, with a roster consisting of a real who's-who of actors, directors, etc., Ovitz was thought of by many as a super agent. He had a real talent for finding people, and turning them into stars that dominated the box office.
And according to the stories told about Mr. Seagal, Ovitz is the reason he had a movie career at all.
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| Because we're about to get into a story of ego, power, and influence. |
As the stories go, Mr. Ovitz had quite a high opinion of himself, and his abilities. An opinion backed up by results, but a high opinion all the same. He even went so far as to boast that he could make anyone a star. No matter how unpleasant, how unlikable, or how uncharismatic they were, he could make it happen. This supposedly got a little out-of-hand, and someone bet him to prove it.
And it just so happened that at the time, Seagal was Ovitz's personal trainer, as well as being one of the more uninteresting and unlikable people he knew.
In Seagal's own words, he had no real interest in acting at the time Ovitz picked him to use in this bet. But Ovitz made him the offer, laid out a handful of scripts, and told him whatever one he picked they would get made, and he would be the star. And this led to Seagal starring in the film Above The Law. Which, if you've seen it, does not scream "new action hero of a generation".
Seagal did become famous though. Film after film came out with his name on them (also due mostly to the influence of his agent), and even to this day he produces tons of direct-to-DVD garbage. This illustrates an important point. In short, even if someone has no talent, no charisma, and the work they produce is drek, if you put someone's name in front of an audience's eyes enough times, they're almost bound to succeed... sometimes even despite themselves.
What This Has To Do With Authors
Now, as I said, the above account of events is a long-time Hollywood rumor. However, it also illustrates a very important point when it comes to being an author. Namely that it doesn't matter how much talent, drive, dedication, skill, or charisma you do or don't have, if no one knows your name, and your work doesn't get pushed into the spotlight somehow.
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| Numbers... it all comes back to numbers... |
Consider, for a moment, the sheer amount of pull, power, and influence that having a big-name publisher at your back can have. Because if your company decides they're going to make you famous, they could pick up the phone and get you on TV shows, popular podcasts, talk radio, and a variety of other venues. They can put commercials for your book on TV, they can reach out to reviewers at important publications, and they can make deals with bookstores to ensure that you are front-and-center in their store setup.
They can make it all but impossible for you to fail, in terms of sales figures and return on investment.
Even if your book is middle of the road, or outright bad, that amount of hype is going to draw people to it. And there are going to be people in that audience who like it, and become fans of yours. If the numbers get big enough, you may even get a movie, TV, or streaming deal out of it. But don't forget that your sales numbers are not a reflection of your skill, craft, or story. Sure, all of those things help, but how well you sell is (more often than not) a reflection of the amount of resources put into promoting you.
And that is why when you're a self-published author, or you're published by a small company, you basically have to depend on social media, creative marketing, and the support of your audience.
It's All Up To You, The Readers
I know this is a soap box I climb up onto in most of my blog entries, but it's a message that not a lot of people seem to understand. Because most of us as authors aren't going to be lucky enough for a super agent, or a huge publisher, to pluck us up and decide to make us into the next big thing. As such, we need people to all combine their voices, and help us claw our way up onto that kind of platform so that people can find out about our work, and we can keep doing what we do.
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| As an example... |
Take my novel Old Soldiers. Novus Mundi is a relatively small press, so they can't exactly act as a kingmaker, even if they did give me a great new cover, and a snazzy blurb to re-invigorate my novel's second release. However, of the folks on my social media lists who've seen it, let's say that even 500 of them got copies. E-books or paperback, both are equally acceptable for this example. Now, that's not a lot of sales when compared to what big publishers can manage (though it would be a lot for me), but let's say that each of those people also left me an Amazon review, and shared it on their social media platform of choice.
That would be colossal in terms of giving me a boost. Not only would that mean I'd have a pretty sizable royalty check (likely the biggest I've ever received), but Amazon starts promoting your book when it hits 50 reviews... so if it had 500 reviews, that would kick the algorithm into gear, and make sure my book started showing up on all kinds of people's shopping pages. At that point the rolling stone could potentially cause an avalanche as more people check it out, tell their friends and family members about it, and so on, and so forth.
A lot of small actions, if they happen close together, can be the boost we need. Just something to keep in mind.
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That's all for this week's Business of Writing!
If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects! You can also check out my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary for free audio dramas!
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