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The Surprising Way Publishing is Just Like Physics: Objects in Motion Tend to Stay in Motion, Objects at Rest Tend to Stay at Rest


As an author I tend to spend a lot of my time thinking about books. Writing them. Revising them. Querying them. And yes, marketing them.  All that thinking can be a truly dangerous activity since sometimes my anxiety gets the better of me, and I think about giving up, but mostly it's thinking about getting better. Writing better books is certainly one of the goals, but also getting better at finding the readers for those books. 


To be honest, finding those readers has been a struggle for me. As a small press author, I get less marketing support than I would get with a bigger publisher, and that's been hard on me as an introvert and self diagnosed neurodivergent person. It means I have to do a lot of the work involved in selling my book and I have a hard time putting myself out there. It's scary and I don't really know to do. The end result of that is that often even when I try my hardest it still feels like I’m just not making a lot of progress.


Something that occurred to me recently, and which truly made me feel better about the whole thing, is how much publishing is like physics. I know that may not exactly seem to make sense right away, so let me explain. 


One of the foundational ideas that people tend to know about physics is this: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. If you roll a ball it will continue to roll unless acted upon by another force, like friction or gravity. What I didn't realize until recently is the same is true in publishing. As goes the ball, so, too, goes the popularity of books and authors. When they get a push (good marketing, author socials, etc.) they start to roll. The more people talk about them from that first push, the more attention they get. That helps them gain more attention. They are added to most anticipated books lists, are nominated for awards, win those awards, get added to best book of the year lists, and more . All of this gives the author and publisher natural ways to bring the book up on social media, where people see all that attention and think the book is good.


They buy the book and talk about it. This causes the book to get more readers and more attention, and so the cycle goes on. At least for a while. There are forces that can slow it down. Like when our ball is acted on by friction and gravity, our book is acted on by time and new books coming along to take some of that attention away. Still, with enough force at the beginning and some luck, it can go quite far, especially if there is a good long term marketing strategy to give it extra energy along the way. 


On the other hand, objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Without a good push or with a push that doesn't reach the right audience, a book can fail to launch at all. Without the attention of the readers most likely to be exited about it, a book never gets the good reviews and doesn't make the lists that might have helped it start to gather the important word of mouth. The author has to work harder to connect to readers in social media, because there are fewer natural opportunities to discuss the book when those awards and exciting lists aren't a factor. To gain momentum, the author or publisher must more depends on ads or other manufactured sources of engagement to get reader attention, and the whole thing can fall apart before it begins. 


For me this realization has done a few things:


  1. Made me realize more than ever how important it is to do good promo leading up to a book’s launch. ARCs and street trams are so valuable because they help give a book that initial push.

  2. Helped me understand that my books not being incredibly successful so far is probably more to do with not having a firm grasp of marketing than it does with me being destined to fail.

  3. Gave me so much hope! I know now that I can learn more about marketing and give my books a new push at any time, so it's not too late for me to try to get my books’ ball rolling. I can always start where I am and try new tactics. 


This is probably not revolutionary thinking to many of you, but as someone without a strong business/marketing background, I've struggled with these concepts. I think for many writers like me, there is a hope that simply writing a good book would be enough to put us on a path to success. Viewing things this way has made it possible for me to approach my writing in a more practical way. It's helpful to look at both book marketing and my author career as a whole, as things that I can invest in, but which are in some ways dependent on forces outside my control. Knowing that I can do only so much to roll the ball, and the rest depends on what others do when they read it, has been really freeing!


It also gives me a very clear way to answer when someone asks what they can do to support authors they love. If you love a book, talk about it! Tell your friends, request it from the library, make videos or social media posts! All of these things give our books a little push and help to keep them in motion!


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