Yesterday, I smiled at Scott D. Parker's post on Do Some Damage. (Blog updates in the Author section of our FeedMe bar.) In The Anatomy of a Hit, he pondered the popularity of the song "Hey Soul Sister" and compared it to the unknowable chemistry of the publishing industry:
Go with the groove and have a lovely Sunday.
Why did Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code strike such a magnificent chord where Angels and Demons (before) and The Lost Symbol (after) didn't? Why did John Grisham's The Firm take off and carve out a new sub-genre (Scott Turow aside)? Ditto for the Twilight Saga. Is it the vicissitudes of the buying public? Is it timing?Most of the time, I can only shake my head, thinking A) hand of God or B) deal with Satan. But if there was a formula for success, if any of the people who pretend to have it figured out actually could figure it out, if the bat-s#*t industry climate became predictable and rote, I think a lot of energy would bleed out of the art. The high risks and rewards of the writing life in combination with the vagaries of the publishing biz leave only one prudent way forward: To thine own self be true.
Go with the groove and have a lovely Sunday.
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