The big talk earlier this month in the book industry was the release of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. I will admit that I was excited to pick it up, and although I am only about 100 pages into it, I love seeing DC get the same conspiracies at every turn treatment that European capitals received in his previous two Robert Langdon novels.
Yes, I am excited to read the book. However, both Jonathan, our ACD, and I agree that being in an industry where we use language to craft compelling messages for our clients, and knowing good from bad language is a key component, admitting that I am excited to finish this book is akin to catching Good Will Hunting staring down at the multiplication tables.
In discussing Dan Brown’s writing style last week, I told our ACD that my favorite thing about Dan Brown’s style is how he tries to cram encyclopedic knowledge into regular conversations – with plenty of awkward sentence structures and italics to boot. I came up with the following fake exchange of dialogue between two potential Dan Brown protagonists:
“I will not like to go to the Norbious Vektor.”
“You mean the top secret Norbious Vektor that was founded by Swiss Guards in 1117 as a critical defensive weapon for the Church to use against the Hohenzollern Empire?”
“Yes. It was believed to be lost for all eternity after the agreement of the Lateran Council that proclaimed the Vatican to be a separate, independent city-state within the geographic boundaries of the Eternal City: Rome.”
Like all of his previous books, The Lost Symbol’s key selling point is not that it is an engaging example of stellar word-craft. Rather, his books are fun, quick reads. And that is where honesty in marketing and messaging come into play. His books are not selling themselves as classics, as “Literature” or as anything that should appear on a college syllabi. The messaging around the book seems to be: “You know you want to read this book. You will read this book. And likely enjoy it.” Coming up with the right strategy and the right message for the right product is key in publishing as well as in the B2B and B2G space.
