The Bridgerton Blueprint for Authors

LESSONS FROM A BESTSELLER TO A BLOCKBUSTER

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a little obsessed with pop culture. So the fact that this newsletter is so heavily influenced by pop culture is no accident. It’s me. This is who I am and I share that with all of you on a weekly basis.

If you live in the Western world, what’s more pop than the Netflix series Bridgerton? The record-breaking series has been a hit for Netflix since Shonda Rhimes spun her magic TV wand and anointed Bridgerton the most-watched Netflix original when it first aired over Christmas of 2020.

But like so many TV and movie blockbusters, Bridgerton was originally a novel by Julia Quinn. Actually, it was a series that ran from 2000-2006 with each book following one of the eight Bridgerton siblings.

Julia Quinn is a force in the industry, so the original title — The Duke and I — was a mild success. But examining the burst in sales when Netflix first aired the series, I can’t help but wonder if authors can somehow reverse engineer the process to achieve even a fraction of the success of a TV adaptation like Bridgerton.

I recently saw a post on Instagram that talked about the unique approach of this one writer named Ben Mezrich. Apparently, he only writes a book after he has sold the film rights. It’s been a successful strategy for him, as his book to movie adaptations include popular titles like The Social Network, 21, and Dumb Money.

While I can see the validity of that strategy, it’s not possible for all writers to imitate. But there are aspects of this that we can pull from to bring more attention to our stories.

For example, I’ve turned the cover design for my second novel into an art exhibition. The art was created by high school students who entered a book cover contest I organized for local art schools here in Toronto.

During the exhibition, I had an actor do a reading of my novel and served wine and cheese all night. This event made it possible for people to experience and engage with my novel in a different manner. They attended the event because they loved art, but they left having become far more aware of my novel. And because for many of the attendees, it was their first interaction with my book, they were far more open to purchasing it because I connected the novel to something they were already passionate about.

Another route authors can take is to find a partner to help boost your release or amplify the awareness of your novel. With the same novel I did the art show with, I also partnered with Breast Cancer Canada for my release. 

What you need to keep in mind about partnering is that the partnership must align with a core theme of your book. The title of my second novel was Beauty Scars and it focused a lot on what defines physical beauty. It was a natural fit for the Breast Cancer Society and when I pitched them the idea, they loved it. We ran a billboard and subway campaign together and achieved some good results. 

Do you see how each of the two previous examples borrow from the spirit of Ben Mezrich’s strategy? We aren’t following it exactly, but we’re able to pull the right strings that can work for our purposes. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to follow and understand what’s happening in pop culture, within the publishing industry and beyond. We can learn so much and apply it to our own writing journeys. 

One idea I’ve been toying with is how to implement music into the marketing of my novel. In my most current release, And Then There Was Us, music plays such an important role in the life of the main character. I know there’s a way I can pair the two, either through partnerships or my own creative ideas, but I haven’t quite figured out an approach that would actually elevate the awareness of the novel or attract readers in a significant way.

If you have any ideas, I’m open to it. 

When we as authors find different modes of expressing our book ideas, it captures the attention of people who may not otherwise be looking in our direction. It will take some creativity, but we’re all creative storytellers. This shouldn’t be an issue.