How Debut Author Became A Bestseller On Publication Day

Wow! I just read the most fascinating step-by-step account of exactly how The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides shot to the top of the bestseller charts earlier this year. Aspiring authors: Listen up. There’s a lesson to be learned here.

Like A.J. Finn of Woman in the Window fame before him, Michaelides achieved his success with his very first novel on publication day. It should be pointed out that neither author was a newbie exactly : Finn aka Dan Mallory was an editor for the publishing company that bought WITW, and Michaelides was a screenwriter who had produced screenplays for Uma Thurman and Rosamund Pike.

Publication Day Bestseller

Nevertheless, Finn set the bar high in 2018 when he became the first debut novelist in 12 years to make it straight to the top of the bestseller charts alongside longtime stalwarts like James Patterson.

I posted two blogs about Finn’s success, and how the buzz started — and grew — over his first thriller when he scored endorsements from bestselling authors like Gillian Flynn, Stephen King and Val McDermid  — followed by positive reviews in almost every major mainstream newspaper and magazine.

I was surprised therefore to discover, when Michaelides hit the bestseller charts, that his debut novel was barely mentioned by the mainstream press. All has now been revealed however.

Buzzworthy

An article in the Blogs section of the Goodreads website describes how Michaelides’s publisher, Celadon Books achieved an unprecedented level of buzz virtually without the help of the mainstream media (a Google search found reviews only in the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times) — and something of a negative review in Kirkus Reviews.

The Goodreads Blog is long, and packed with detail. But here are some of the highlights of how Celadon Books got “everyone talking about The Silent Patient.”  It’s a strategy that relied heavily on (wait for it!) Goodreads and its editors and members.

Blurbs First

The publisher’s strategy started like A.J. Finn’s did about a year before publication date with a concerted effort to get blurbs/reviews from popular authors in the same genre. So, Lee Child, David Baldacci, Blake Crouch and A.J. Finn jumped on board, and their blurbs appeared on the cover of advance review copies (ARCs) sent to a “small list of librarians and booksellers.”

In May 2018, the publishers handed out 200 ARCs to librarians at BookExpo America. Soon after these librarians and booksellers were sharing their 5-star reviews on the Goodreads website. By the end of June, 229 Goodreads readers checked the title as a “Want To Read.”

Want To Read

Then, the publisher offered 100 copies as giveaways on the website. Almost 3,000 readers entered their names (that’s all you have to do for a GR giveaway) for a chance to get one of the 100 free copies.

Now, here is the beauty of that move according to the GR blog: “Everyone who enters a giveaway customarily has the book added to their “Want To Read” bookshelf” which creates an announcement in their newsfeed which goes out to all their friends and followers.

As the publisher acknowledges, “we didn’t see one big breakout review, instead there was a steady drumbeat.” That came from some of Goodreads top reviewers who requested free digital ARCs. By the end of the year, a month before publication, there were 989 reviews with an average 4.17 rating (out of 5.)

Jaw-Dropping Reviews

Many of those reviews mentioned a huge, jaw-dropping twist without specifying what it was. Incidentally, this was something that spoiled the book for me when I actually got my hands on it — but which, obviously made me all the more impatient to buy it.

Indeed, by the end of the year the “Want To Read” shelvings spiked to 12,065 in number which in turn guaranteed inclusion in GR articles such as “The 43 Most Anticipated Books of 2019” which then, potentially, reached 37 million readers through a Goodreads general newsletter. By publication day, The Silent Patient was on the “Want To Read” shelves of 54,022 members, and Goodreads sent out an email to all such members advising them that the novel was now available for purchase.

For Self-Published Authors, Too

Nicely done. And, the lesson to be learned here is that even self-published authors can adopt the strategy as one of my favorite authors J.D. Barker did before he became traditionally published with The Fourth Monkey. As I wrote in the blog based on an interview with Barker, his first novel, Forsaken sold more than 250,000 copies after he had 1,000 ARCs printed and sent to book bloggers — who also post on Goodreads– and whom he queried about reviewing his novel. He also wrote to favorite authors, like Jeffery Deaver, asking them to review the book and provide a blurb.

It goes almost without saying that any author, — published, unpublished, self-published — who does not see the potential of building buzz on a website which boasts 90 million readers as members should have his/her head examined. And, here is my page on Goodreads. If you are a reader and are not signed up as a Goodreads member, I strongly recommend looking at this website. If you do have a Goodreads account, please click on my page, and please follow me.

Note to my regular subscribers: As of today, I will be posting my blog regularly on a Monday morning for the rest of the summer instead of on Saturday — unless, of course, there’s a HUGE protest over the new time!!!!!