The Debate

I've been having this friendly discussion with a writer friend of mine. We're both pretty much on the same page about the issue, so I'm bringing it to the peoples. It pertains to successful commercial products, specifically music, movies and books.

In general, does a book/movie/CD succeed because of backing from the distributor (publisher, label, studio) despite how good or bad the product is?

-OR-

Do distributors only put the most money behind "quality" products and thus they succeed?

-AND-

Can an author emerge from their "status" in the publishing foodchain on their own without that promo/ad/marketing backing?

I believe that singers can. I've seen singers start out small, minimal promo support from the label but then their song just catches on. Next thing you know, the label is pushing it, but only after the people tapped it as a favorite.

And actors, when put in the right vehicle can experience break out success after languishing in bit roles or supporting roles.

But those things are different. Music and movies have a visual outlet to help their success.

It's not the same for books.

Terri McMillian is a good example of why I believe it's the distributor's backing not the product's quality that determines how "big" a success a product has.

McMillian's break-out novel was her third. After that break out success, her publisher really put the money into her marketing. You would have thought Terri McMillan invited fiction with female black characters in it. That's how much hype they began giving her books. But, prior to that, obviously they weren't...it's why few know Waiting To Exhale was her third, not her first book.

So I'm not saying an author languishes in mid-list land forever and can't move up the chain. I'm saying when it happens, it's typically because they're getting more promo support than they did for previous projects.

As often as I've heard people say, "Oh just write a good book, the rest will follow," I'm not sure I believe that. Okay, let me stop being polite - I know I don't believe that!

And I don't believe it because 1) I've been in PR my entire career and I know promotions and advertising works and 2) There are lots of good books, movies and CDs out here that don't experience monster success.

First of all, writing a good book is my job as a writer. Trust me when I say that no one is going to be harder on me than me. So, I'm not going to churn out slop and promote it as the great American novel.

So assuming that any mainstream product defined "good" by someone in society - maybe it's only a small slice of society, but still, "good" means a bunch of someones, out there liked it- are the products that actually get made, isn't the true X-factor in a product's success the level of hype/promotion/marketing dollars put behind it?

There may be some who dislike that train of thought because it seems to de-value the work put into the book/CD etc... They don't want to believe that it's the hype behind it that made it a success.

But if a product requires Distribution, Awareness and Promotion to succeed (and they do) then it's no secret the promotion is what helps awareness. So, I'm honestly not trying to devalue the amount of work that goes into creating the finished product. Not at all.

And I'm open to hearing from an author experiencing "success" (let's define it as significant sales, multiple print runs and the like) who wants to take the side of "Promo and ads do not account for a significant level of my success. My product speaks for itself."

But my side of the debate is - it is very difficult (if not impossible) for an author to rise above their station in the publishing foodchain without significant financial backing from their publisher.

Fact is, few of us bother to chase the elusive front list designation that will bring us increased promotion and awareness. We write and write and if the publisher taps our book as the front list title, it's icing on the cake.

But what do you think?