“The Secret of the Da Vinci Code's Popularity! --An Expert's How to Write a Book Step-by-Step Guide”
Here's how Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code became one of the most popular books ever published!
by Steve Manning
Dan Brown's fourth book, The Da Vinci Code, is now one of the most popular books ever published. It has brought the author no end of notoriety, no end of personal wealth, no end of celebrity (although Brown tries to avoid it now as much as possible) and puts him in a position just about every aspiring and journeyman author wants to be.
So just what makes this book so popular? What has turned this book into the Harry Potter for adults that it is? Providing the answer is my objective for this article. And although I'm convinced the answer is far beyond the logistical limits of a simple article, let's see how far we can go and how close we can get to the truth. Here are the details…
First, let's get a time line if at all possible.
1994, Brown vacations in Tahiti and reads Sidney Sheldon's "The Doomsday Conspiracy." Convinced he can do better, he starts work on his first thriller.
Three books (including Angels and Demons) and 20,000 total copies sold later, he's a virtually unknown with little success but with an editor, Jason Kaufman, at Pocket Books who believes in him.
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Realize that Kaufman edited Brown's first three books as well as The Da Vinci Code, so it's not new editorial ability that makes the difference.
Kaufman quits Pocket Books and gets a job with Doubleday. He immediately presents Brown's outline for The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday likes it and March 18, 2003, is set as the publication date.
Doubleday sends out 10,000 copies of the book to reviewers and critics. I can't find out why, but I suspect someone's medication dosage wasn't high enough. 10,000 copies is a good first print run for most books.
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For some reason, bookstores also by into the mania and overload themselves with copies of the book. They have far too many copies to move with just the publisher's typical mediocre marketing efforts, so they all start erecting in-store, in-your-face displays of the book.
Doubleday has shipped 230,000 copies.
On March 17, 2003, a day before publication and a day before the embargo date of publisher's press releases, "Okay, we'll tell you about this book or give you a copy now, but you can't say anything about it until March 18, 2003," Times book reviewer Janet Maslin gives the book a rave review 24 hours ahead of time. Oops!
The book sells 6,000 copies on the first day and 23,578 by week's end. It was number 1 on the times hardcover, fiction, bestseller list by the end of that week.
So non media word-of-mouth marketing had nothing to do with the first 23,578 copies sold. Ten thousand advance copies turned into 23,578 sold copies. Brown was a virtually unknown author.
Doubleday unleashed the advertising hounds with a huge campaign for the spring and summer.
In November ABC aired a primetime special called "Jesus, Mary, and Da Vinci," which seriously considered the historical ideas in the book. Brown appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" in the morning, the special aired that night. Sales went through the roof.
Sales may have started to die off a few months later, but on May 1, 2004, religious groups stirred up the promotional pot by declaring all manner of nasty stuff regarding the book. Brown never said the book was anything but fiction. Only the depictions of architecture and art were factually accurate. Sales took off again. The religious folks keep on complaining, and the sales continue unabated.
And then, just when you thought things couldn't get better, Brown and Doubleday are sued for copyright infringement by a couple of authors who can't possibly win. The Da Vinci Code sales increase, but so do the sales of books by the suing authors.
Dan Brown is a good writer. He's got a nice plot with lots of action and a very fast pace. And he's added a sprinkling of education and historical appreciation into the mix.
Is he a better writer than most? Not really. Is it a better plot? Not at all.
It's the marketing that made this book succeed. The constant and never-ending presence in the media (sometimes bought and paid for, sometimes just bald-faced luck sparked by a healthy dose of controversy) meant the book was never far away from the public consciousness. And even closer to the next sale.
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Time for a little unabashed, self promotion: If you haven’t asked for my Free CD, “How to Write a Book On Anything in 14 Days Guaranteed!” then you’re just plain nuts! It’s free, no charge, but you can bet this $100 CD will be carrying that price tag very shortly. How do you get it? Just email me at Free CD, Please, or CD_please@writeabooknow.com and make sure you include your name, your mailing address and your telephone number in the email.
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Just about everyone has asked me, what's the cheapest, fastest, most cost effective way to turn your manuscript into a real,
book-store book. Cheap as in 50 cents per copy. Fast as in can
I have it by this afternoon. Cost effective as in, what if I only
want to produce one or two copies. Take a look at this information for all the answers you'll ever need.
