man reading a book

Word-of-Mouth: Good Books or Just Great Books?

In Discussion by Edward Nawotka

Don’t be satisfied with the merely good.

By Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief

man reading a bookIn our feature story today Overturning The Lemonade-stand Culture of Literature, Eric Obenauf, founder, Two Dollar Radio paraphrases the writer Stephen Elliot as once saying that nobody recommends good books to their friends — they only recommend great books.

Word-of-mouth marketing is the holy grail of the book business. But it is elusive. And if what Elliot says is true, publishers would be much better off putting their efforts into producing the best possible books they can — great books — instead of being satisfied with the merely good.

As with all questions regarding the book business, the answer to always comes back to the books. The question of how to sell more books to people is easily answered: produce great books, and people will recommend and buy them.

Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think in the comments.

About the Author

Edward Nawotka

A widely published critic and essayist, Edward Nawotka serves as a speaker, educator and consultant for institutions and businesses involved in the global publishing and content industries. He was also editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives since the launch of the publication in 2009 until January 2016.