Charlie Anders at io9 recently posted a rant about the segmentation of the science fiction genre, specifically how everyone’s seen the same movies, but it’s hard to find a handful of SF fans who have recently read the same book.
Anders asks:
“So how do you start making particular books into “must reads” for all science fiction readers, regardless of their individual tastes? How do you fashion a “book club” out of the mass of science fiction readers?”
At face value, this seems like a noble goal. The increase in content being generated will continue to grow, but time remains finite. People can only consume so much in a day, but their choices for what, when, and how to consume content continue to grow. Further segmentation of attention and asynchronous niche consumption of content is inevitable.
Anders final comment (“it’s up to us, as readers, to help move the books that move us.”) takes a downstream, grass-roots approach to his question. It’s true, and it’s a great idea.
But isn’t this already happening? Don’t people already talk about what they like with their friends? Don’t people check out Amazon for reviews (and post their own)? Don’t people discuss things online already? Isn’t that why Facebook is working to better integrate personal recommendations to bolster its online network (and trounce Google in the process)? Hasn’t the conversations around certain books simply moved online?
If increasing face-to-face discussions of a particular book is the goal, however, a better and more effective way is likely to come upstream from authors and publishers.
You want to have your novel stand out from the rest and gain simultaneous readership? Here are four good places to start:
1) Write a GOOD novel. Not a decent novel, a good one.
2) Do something different that separates your novel from the others crammed on the same shelf.
3) Give your readers a reason to engage with the book besides reading it and talking about it.
4) Make the book available to as broad a market as possible (consider offering free digital copies).
If authors and publishers did these four things, the fans will take care of the rest – both offline and online.