The Maven, the Connector and the Salesperson
by Cindy Layton
Do you remember receiving a chain letter in the mail? They sometimes come now through email or Facebook. In the past, the lure of money was added to increase participation. Send a dollar to each person on this list and soon you’ll be a millionaire – just don’t break the chain!
Chain letters failed the test of “viralness.”
So what make something “viral”?” I’m tackling Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point to learn what factors create and amplify trends, and, more importantly, how they relate to marketing books.
For fiction writers, the marketability of the book always seems to be the last consideration, the first being how am I ever going to finish writing this beast? The second being why did I ever tell anyone I was writing a book?
If I could give a marketing lesson in six-hundred words or less I would be speaking for Malcolm Gladwell, not about him. Regardless, my thoughts so far, are thus:
Gladwell wrote his book in 2000, with one premise being that trends are started and supported by three types of people - Mavens, (early adopters and identifiers who become a source of information), Connectors, (who bring together thought leaders and influencers to spread ideas among disparate groups) and Salespeople (who persuade others to adopt ideas or products). This is before YouTube, Instagram or Facebook. Has technology made his findings obsolete?
The idea that viralness (my word) is influenced by these three types of people, seems to work in concert with technology. Technology is a device we use to spread messages. Those mediums used to be a newspaper, or a landline, or a TV. What’s different now is primarily the immediacy of the information.
Beyond that, the Mavens, Connectors, and Salespeople are still in play. We just find them in different ways, using different tools. The principals of word-of-mouth still apply whether using face to face interaction or social media.
In fact, Gladwell writes that the rise of social media and the increased complexity of our world makes these three types of people more important than ever.
What in the world does this have to do with writing? Identifying the Mavens, the Connectors and the Salespeople, according to Gladwell, is instrumental to marketing success. In traditional publishing, the agent may be the Maven, the early adopter who identifies your book as new and exciting and provides this information to an editor. The editor may be the Connector who brings together the thought leaders, within the agency and without, to hone the book, to bring together the agency resources, and match your book with the world of writing and authors they know and promote. The marketing department is, of course, the Salesperson in the equation, persuading the groups they’ve targeted to buy your book.
In independent publishing, the author must seek out these people or groups to promote the ideas and the viability of the book. Sometimes the author must be the Maven, the Connector and the Salesperson.
Gladwell writes about the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells, describing the process of how that book would become a bestseller in 1998, selling over 2.5 million copies.
He says that Wells wrote an appealing and beautifully written story about mother-daughter relationships – she created a great product. On its own, that may not have been enough to top the charts. The strength of word of mouth (old school viralness) began to worm through the various book clubs that were popular in California. These (maven) book clubs, attended by mothers and daughters who connected with the book’s characters, boosted sales, often buying several copies to give to other daughters, mothers, and book club members. And, because the groups themselves were influential, their recommendation influenced other book groups comprised of the same. Readers are notoriously prone to the recommendations of other readers in selecting their next book. It’s an industry built on word of mouth, reviews, and other “trust-based” promotion. The perfect convergence of a product matched to the ideal small target group, achieving massive results.
Ah, should we all experience such a match for our own writings.
Need more? Here are some links to help you find the Mavens, Connectors, and Salespeople in your universe:
Jane Freidman is ever at the top of the list with “How to Find and Reach Influencers to Help Promote Your Book.”
For YA authors, from the YA Bookshelf, a ranked list of the top 50 influencers in YA here.
And from Forbes, an article on Bookstagrammers, the intersection of Instagram and book reviewers.
