One of the perils of being an ex - editor of a publishing house is that friends invariably ask, "What made that book a best - seller? It was awful" as though you were personally responsible! This question was again asked of me recently by a friend who had just spent some Rs. 500 on a book which had been featured in several “Top Ten Books of the Month” list in leading magazines! He bought the book and then discovered that he could not get beyond the first 20 pages. The book was, in his words, a dud. He seemed to feel that since I had a “relationship” with the publishing industry, I was responsible for making him part with his hard - earned money!

I think it is time I let the cat out of the bag and thus save myself from being accused again in the future!

Books do not make it to the top ten best - seller lists because thousands of people have read and have sung praises of the book! One or two may but the rest make it to the list because the publisher planned it that way.

Since I spent more than a few years with the book publishing profession, I can say in all sincerity that when it comes to determining a best - seller, nobody knows anything. No one knows for certain if a book will be a best - seller. The first question that the Publisher asks of his editorial minions is, "Can we make it a best - seller?"

There are several reasons that are not usually mentioned. The publisher had met the debut writer and was impressed by the fact that she was good looking! ... Or discovered the writer had “connections”. The saner voices then point the various flaws in the manuscript only to be told brusquely, "That's what you guys are there for…to make it readable."

Once the book is printed over - riding the objections raised by the vetting editors, the publisher sets the wheels in motion. The author is “shown off” at all the right places and usually with people with right connections. These people with connections then spread the word around. Then comes the all - important task of getting the book "placed" in the top ten best seller lists of the dailies and magazines. Here the non-existent Literary editor of the daily (most papers do not have one and the job is outsourced to a friend of a friend of the editor!) starts ranking it on the suggestions of the publisher.

Whatever spot the book occupies in the top ten list is not based on the “readability quotient” of the book but, wait for it, the very list is supplied by the publishers marketing team.

The list is based on a sample of actual sales data from various booksellers and then extrapolates the findings into total sales. Thus if a title sold only slightly better than another one at its sample stores, even by merely one book, the better selling title is ranked at a higher level.

Here is another scoop. The best - seller “Da Vinci Code” was published by Doubleday. I was told by a little bird that the publishing house knew it had a cracker on its hands so they went into action by sending out 2,000 advance copies to reviewers, bookstores and the “Big Mouths” (the opinion - makers) to make sure the book got “noticed”. At some book store chains, each employee was given a review of Da Vinci Code and told to memorise it and then talk about the book to prospective customers.

Here is another tit - bit that ought to make you sit up and think. This too from a mole inside Doubleday. The book in question and which later became a sort of cult classic was “The Traveller” — a thriller by an unknown “John Twelve Hawks”. Twelve Hawks seemed to have been cast in the mould of the secretive J. D. Salinger except he went further and made himself invisible even to his editors at Doubleday. Even the man’s literary agent had not seen him! He lived “off the grid”, that is — no address, no personal phones. His phone conversations with his editor were filtered through a voice modulation gizmo.

But as far as Doubleday was concerned, this was manna from heaven. A strange book and even stranger author whom they had not even seen… Doubleday went to town with this information. They sent out a few thousand copies of the book to the “Big Mouths”, created a Traveller - themed internet game and by spreading even more largesse to Twelve Hawks made 3,000 DVDs in which the author read from his book in a voice modified and rendered unrecognizable. The book went on to hit the best - seller charts in various countries. The book makes terrible reading unless you belong to the crowd that reads books that make no sense!

On a smaller scale even our own Arundati Roy's “God of Small Things” had a roller coaster ride helped by her publisher. Arundati's personal life was as interesting as her book was uninteresting! She had fought with her mother and left house in Kerala to stay in a slum in Mumbai. She joined NID and made a film with an extraordinary and inscrutable title, “In which Annie gives it those things”, See ? Then she was the daughter of the redoubtable Mary Roy who took on the might of the Church in Kerala to get her share of the family property. There were other more salacious bits some of which were splashed in the tabloids. The publishers then got the “Big Mouths” to talk about the book. Incidentally, one of the Big Mouths was Shobha De! There were favourable reviews in select dailies followed by interviews.

Arundati's own “in your face” attitude helped sell her book. The rest is history and dear Arundati never wrote another book!

The truth of the matter is that you will never know if a book is good or bad unless you make an attempt to read it. But if you go by the best - seller lists put out by the publishing houses aided and abetted by a pliant media, then you may end up splurging hard - earned money on a book that you will find difficult to read beyond page -10 !

Lateral thought:
My friend says he has about 12 books in his “To be read” corner of his bedroom that were bought like “hoarders” primarily after reading newspaper and magazine reports. When will he ever read them?

Courtesy: Star of Mysore

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