Triple Review of The Last Ferry Out, Growth Hacker Marketing, and Perennial Seller

My plan was to read Growth Hacker Marketing, Perennial Seller, have my double surgery, read The Last Ferry Out, and have a review done in time for Andrea’s author event in our hometown on June 3rd. I was going to do this while working my full time job, and building my reading audience and author brand. I failed in the sense that I didn’t do this in the order of operations mentioned. I breezed through Growth Hacker, got decently far into Perennial Seller, and realized that with the pending double surgery, there was no way I would finish, and be able to read and review Last Ferry Out… unless… I did something extreme and ill-advised. So I decided to read all of it at once, despite one being a beach read thriller and the others being business books. I also decided to do a combined review of all three. My apologies to Andrea and Ryan if this was a terrible idea, which it might be.

There is the old saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Starting there and going on a tangent, an ounce of quality is worth a pound of marketing. Perennial Seller is about the need to have a quality product, no matter what the medium is, but especially if it is a creative product. No matter what your product is, quality and value matter. The book also emphasizes a business rule where one can reasonably expect that a product can last double the life it has had so far. So if a product has been out for a year and people are still buying it, one can assume it will last another year. If it makes it to two, one can assume it will last two more years, and so on. Because the product is quality and has value to consumers. Ryan goes into detail with examples of this and explains it more articulately and intelligently than I am.

Andrea’s first novel came out six years ago, and people still enjoy it, buy it, and read it. So by using the Perennial Seller formula, that book should continue to be relevant for another six years. Longer probably. Her subsequent books and impressive sales would strongly indicate that she is here to stay. I certainly wouldn’t bet against her.

Growth Hacker Marketing is about going against the grain of traditional marketing, advertising, and public relations to generate a grassroots, self-sustaining audience and consumer base. It is not strictly an either or, nor is there a one size fits all trick for that kind of growth. Andrea started out working for magazines, writing articles, blogging, and slowly building a sustainable, loyal audience. Little by little, that audience compounded. I’m not sure exactly what her growth hack was, but she did it. Growth hacking does not have to be something simple, obvious, or tangible. Whatever it was, it worked. She built an audience. Then the publishing industry took notice. With a quality product, and an established audience, they were able to use traditional marketing combined with growth hacking to scale up. Being able to scale up is a feature of both traditional and growth hacker marketing. But it all still depends on product quality. It doesn’t matter how big your audience is if the product quality and willingness to buy is not there. Fortunately, it’s there. In spades.

As I am currently in the process of writing my own debut novel, THE COLORS WE BLEED FOR, I noticed two things right away when I opened The Last Ferry Out. First, I noticed what was not there. Namely, blurbs. A blurb is that one or two sentence review that authors, journalists, and select reviewers submit to be included in the first few pages of most books. There are no blurbs. Bold choice. Though, recently, a hornets’ nest was kicked over with none other than the New York Times asking whether or not the blurb, as we know it, might in fact be dead. I’m currently collecting blurbs, so it better fucking not be.

The other thing I noticed right away was the inclusion of a trigger warning. I totally get why people include them. Not wanting to invoke a reader’s trauma is an act of kindness. The other side of the coin is, well, spoilers. Thematic spoilers would be a more precise term. I go back and forth on trigger warnings. I like being surprised. Maybe the industry could adopt a standard where media has a QR code or something where a person who is concerned about being triggered could use it, and somebody who wants to be surprised can still be surprised. In fact, I’m definitely going to do that, whether the industry does or not.

I intentionally avoided reading the dust jacket, trying to go in as fresh as I could, minus the trigger warning that I couldn’t resist the Siren’s Song of. I knew the genre, setting, and a little bit of the themes going in. As it is a fun, unpredictable thriller, I fully expected violence, murder, and a just-right amount of mystery. The book delivers on those, in medias res. Graphic violence, sensory details galore, and a word I had to look up (believe it or not, I don’t pride myself on my vocabulary) made for a great hook, the kind of stuff a person boarding a plane or sitting in a beach chair or on a towel would love. By the way, the word was sluicing. Which basically means that the flow of a liquid is being affected by water or its surroundings. A double entendre to establish the stakes and the setting, perhaps.

By the end of the first chapter, we know a little about the main character, Abby. We know generally where she is, why she’s there, and what happened to get her there. Abby’s sexual orientation and character motivations are explored early on, which sets the tone and gives the reader just enough information to want to know more, while also knowing just enough to be drawn in. The setting is also described in a way that piques interest while remaining exotic and interesting. Dare I even call it intoxicating.

Ryan Holiday asks the question of whether it is better for an author to have a million followers or 10,000 fans. He emphasizes that followers are vanity numbers and do not reflect sales numbers. It doesn’t matter if you have a million likes if none of them have any intention to buy or interest in your product.

The notion of followers versus fans as sales leads reminds me of Glengarry Glen Ross. In the sense that all authors are salespersons, good leads matter and are coveted. Followers who follow you because you are trendy are not good leads. You want your product to be pitched to people who are interested and actually want to buy. I’m not suggesting cutting corners or doing anything unethical to gain an audience or to drive sales, but we can always learn from or use a refresher from Glengarry Glen Ross (whether it is YouTube or going to see the actual play, now staring Bill Burr, Bob Odenkirk, and Kieran Culkin, currently on Broadway).

Andrea Bartz has 10,000 fans. Rounding down. Rounding way down. I don’t think she has a million casual followers, but I could be wrong. Her brand is sustainable and growing. Growth Hacker Marketing and Perennial Seller in action.

Back to her book, it is a juicy summer read that captures the alure of a Tropical climate, while keeping it mysterious. At one point early on, she describes the smell. Not quite the smell of the ocean, seaweed, or algae, but a combination of the three that, in my mind’s eye (or nose I guess), would be unique to that place, at that time of year, in those weather conditions. It actually got me thinking about how the green, gooey, gross lake algae has one smell, how the seaweed blooms and algae plumes of Lake Michigan have a completely different smell and texture, and how ocean seagrass, and specifically the Gulf have a different smell entirely. All that from just a few words painting a sensory picture of a setting.

Andrea does a great job of introducing characters and giving bite-size plot details in short chapters. Flashbacks and an early shift from in POV keep the reader’s attention without giving too much away. You’re there. On a fictional island. You can’t help it. You are right along side Abby, looking for… something. Meaning, answers, truth, ominous omens… something. Tension builds as Abby searches for people and information on an isolated island that may only seem like paradise.

I put the books down. Turns out I didn’t need double hernia surgery. I needed triple. This gap left me crunched for time, I wanted to have finished her book by the time I next saw her, but I also wanted to enjoy it. Last Ferry Out is kind of a zero to sixty thrill ride. It was a slow burn much of the way, then it slammed on the gas. Red herrings for days, unexpected POV changes, and nonlinear storytelling gave it a great Quintin Tarantino directs Agatha Christie vibe. Also, my guess at the beginning was totally wrong.

While I was still drugged up from the surgery, I texted my web master that I needed him to go out into the desert and find a Christ-like figure for me. I meant Ryan Holiday, who is as much a philosopher as a business writer. I didn’t have a specific request, just go out into the desert and find him. I was really medicated.

I realized as I finished Last Ferry Out and Perennial Seller that Andrea is a living example of what Ryan is trying to teach. She built an audience of loyal readers and her brand is going to last. She could be a case study for anyone who reads Growth Hacker Marketing or Perennial Seller (and hopefully not all three at once while drugged from surgery).

The clock struck midnight and it was June 1. Pride Month had begun. One of the things I like about Andrea’s writing is that there are plenty of LBGT characters, but they are all round and being LBGT is almost a background detail for them, rather than the personality of a flat character. This is, in my opinion, a service to her writing and to the community.

Last Ferry Out is a great plane/beach read. It is not too long, and easy to read. Engrossing. I made a mistake by not setting aside more time to devour it. Don’t make my mistake. It can be read in a couple of sittings, and would be best enjoyed on a long flight or a long weekend.

If you are a creative trying to build an audience, trying to be like Andrea, read Ryan Holiday. He may not be a Christ-like figure in the desert, but his books are worth seeking out. I thought about comparing the Bartz Sisters to the Bronte Sisters, or calling Andrea a millennial Agatha Christie, but I’m pretty sure neither of those would be original, and she’s not the next Agatha Christie, she’s the first Andrea Bartz. And she’s got staying power.

Be sure to check back for my upcoming review of Ron Chernow’s Twain. Please add your name to my email list, I promise no spam. Just an update every now and then between now and when THE COLORS WE BLEED FOR comes out.