At a writer’s conference, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Writers House super-agent Daniel Lazar. During the talk, he was explaining what it was like to be an agent, and how tricky it was to pick authors to work with. Because not everyone can do it. He asked all the attendees to raise their hands if they thought [insert name of super-popular mega-bestseller who isn’t Colleen Hoover] was overrated. Was she a bad writer? About half the hands in the room went up. And he said that half the people in the room had missed the magic inherent in this author’s work.
According to sales records, millions of readers disputed the raised hands in the room.
Most of us sitting there would’ve been satisfied with a hundred readers. Or maybe even a handful of strangers who aren’t are moms. But this author had millions of loyal readers and half the room was dismissing her writing?
Millions of readers.
For the first quarter of this newest of new years 2024, I want to explore an author who has sold millions of copies, yet who might also be dismissed out of hand by a roomful of wannabe bestselling authors.
Self-publishing phenom, BookTok Queen, genre-bending guru, and sometimes-controversial Colleen Hoover.
She published her first book, Slammed, on Amazon and was thrilled when six people she didn’t know bought the book. After publishing a few more titles, TikTok’s readers, the famous #BookTok, got involved and her passionate reader fan base launched Hoover into the stratosphere. It Ends With Us sold over four million copies alone. Hoover writes across genres, writing romance, young adult, and (the focus of my explorations) suspense. Her focus on the darker aspects of relationships has generated several critical essays and driven lots of discussion on portraying healthy relationships and potential abuse.
It’s taken me a while to pick up a Colleen Hoover title, I’ll admit. Her popularity has something to do with that. Somewhere along the line, I must have internalized that “popular” was “conforming.” And conformity has always felt like a dirty word to me. The idea that everyone in the world—in the universe even—could be doing the same thing at the same time felt abhorrent to me.
I mean, when my third grade class read Madeleine L’engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, the scene where all the kids come out along the street, all bouncing the same ball, and their mothers call them home at the same time gave me nightmares that I still haven’t entirely processed.
Why would you do the same thing as everyone else?
Because of this, I’m always slow to the bestseller lists.
(This next piece will surprise people who know me well.)
For example, as a teenager, I refused to read Stephen King because he was SO popular, even though I loved, and continue to love, horror. I just wouldn’t do it. Some stubborn streak. So it wasn’t until I was twenty-one, determined to become a writer, that I picked him up. Though I didn’t start with his horror novels. I grabbed On Writing, which blew my mind. His voice was so strong, so palpable. It was like he was sitting in the room with me.
I realized I might’ve been a bit of a punk, much like the hand-raising half of that conference crowd, dismissing so many millions of opinions out of hand.
I continued to resist such phenomena as The DaVinci Code, Gone Girl, and Twilight. However, when I eventually picked those crazy bestselling books up, I inevitably loved them. Much like I love Stephen King now.
Colleen Hoover fits nicely into my pattern of resist-read-love. My goal know is to try to understand the juggernaut that is Hoover. Currently, I’m digging into the self-publishing sphere—and who better to emulate than a bestselling self-published author? And, since she writes crime and suspense—the genres I want to focus on (with some sci-fi and horror thrown in) I’m starting my Hoover journey with Verity and followed up with Too Late.
Over the next couple months, I’ll share what I’ve learned and what thoughts popped in my brain while reading these two novels.
I’ve read Verity and within a few pages my first thought was: Damn. She’s pretty good. Maybe a little messed up, but I dig it.
As I dig in, I’m hoping to learn writing tricks, how to resonate with so many readers, anything about BookTok, and how to get away with writing multiple genres when all the publishing advice says that’s a no-no.
Before I get too far into my exploration of Hoover, what do you want to learn? Have you read Colleen Hoover? What are your thoughts on her writing and her popularity?
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