At Nielsen’s annual all-day Children’s Book Summit last week, the hottest new material presented was researcher Julanne Schiffer’s “How Bankable Is Buzz?”
The scientific finding from Nielsen: Authors, in general, are among the public’s fave people in the entertainment world. Only TV and film actors score more highly with fans, which means that authors are rolling in ahead of sports figures and musical artists. What’s more, fans of authors like their authors more than fans of other types of people like their icons—even athletes are not as highly thought of by their followers.
So how do you become a favorite with a book-buying consumer? Dependability. Overall, Nielsen discovered, consumers perceive authors to be successful, influential, and dependable. In YA in particular, Schiffer said, “We were surprised to learn that dependability was so strongly correlated with high sales.”
And demonstrating your dependability in terms of online savvy is a smart move: “Current social-media campaigns are driving current sales … and being perceived as social-media savvy is becoming increasingly important with time,” Schiffer said.
Of course, there’s always something that makes you scratch your head in this kind of research. When the team looked up the top fifteen authors on several attributes, a dead guy—J.R.R. Tolkien—came off as more likable and influential than anybody alive today. Lots of staying power in the Shire.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
