So I have a kid who gets recognized in airports and coffee shops. I think he’s pretty cool myself but let me tell you a bit about why this happens and what it has to do with me and you.
Back when he was in high school, my kid launched a YouTube channel and had a few hundred followers. He was also a runner with good grades and this got him into Harvard where he ran track, and here’s where the story gets interesting. In his freshman year, he made a video entitled “A Day in the Life of a Harvard Computer Science Student” It turned out that lots of people his age also wanted to be Harvard students or to know what it was like, so a lot of people watched it, made comments on it and liked (or disliked) it. Which got the algorithms paying attention to it.
Now I’m not a computer science student of any sort, but as we all know from using the Internet for any length of time, sites are designed to market to us, whether to sell us what we want or to make us want what they’re selling. Sometimes it seems rather Big Brother-ish but other times it’s a service that points us to something we’re genuinely interested in.
In this case, it meant that when someone of a similar demographic was on YouTube, this video was suggested to them. And the more people watched it, the more often the video was suggested and watched. It meant my kid’s subscribers skyrocketed on the basis of that video alone, which as of today has 13M views. Few people my age recognize him in public places but lots of college-aged people do. Many of them tell him that his subsequent videos on study habits and reading have changed their lives for the better.
This isn’t meant to just be a mom brag. (Although I am proud for sure.)
The reason I tell this story is that the same thing happens when it comes to books. Go on Amazon and click on a book and you’ll see “Customers who viewed this item also viewed…” On GoodReads, you’ll see “Readers also enjoyed…” on each book’s page. And those who do understand algorithms better than me explain that the more a book is reviewed and rated on either site, the far more likely it is that it will be recommended to others on the site. This is especially true on and before the day of publication (which in my case is September 12, 2023).
So here I want to ask for a favour (or a favor, if you’re from the US): if you’d be willing to pre-order Renaissance either from Amazon or from your local bookstore or from my publisher, let me know and I will send you a FREE digital copy so that you can read and review it in advance on Amazon and GoodReads. You’re also most welcome to tell family and friends and readers of your social media. Every bit helps get the book into people’s hands.
I’m hoping this is a win-win-win. You get some summer reading, I get some readers, and those readers get to discover a book that suits them. Think back to what I said about the viewers of my kid’s videos, how his content made a life-changing difference for some people. That’s my hope for readers of this book too. I love the quote from William Nicholson: “We read to know we’re not alone.” My hope is that this book will resonate with readers so they can know in their own lives that they aren’t alone. You reading and reviewing or rating this book will also do that for me. So thanks in advance. (PS If you don’t like reading digitally and want to wait for the paper copy of the book, pre-orders still help and reviews after the publication date are also most welcome.)
Grazie!
Susan Fish 