‘New adult’ writer succeeds through luck, word of mouth
NEW YORK — Colleen Hoover’s years as a published — and self-published — novelist have been one long, pleasant surprise.
The Texas-based writer broke through in 2012 when, through an Amazon. com program, she released “Slammed,” which became a showcase for how an author in the internet age can succeed through luck and worth of mouth. Bloggers and social media helped the book grow a following online, and within months “Slammed” was on The New York Times e-book fiction list, despite having no organized publicity.
By the end of the year, Hoover had self-published a bestselling sequel, “Point of No Retreat,” and signed a deal with the Simon & Schuster imprint Atria.
She has since been a prolific and reliably popular romance (sometimes called “New Adult”) and thriller writer, with more than 20 novels and novellas, including “Maybe Someday,” “Confess” and the upcoming “Reminders of Him.”
Her work has been in especially high demand this year — but not because of a new book, movie tie-in or other news event. Because of TikTok. Her novel “It Ends With Us,” first published in 2016, has been selling tens of thousands of copies a week and topping bestseller lists thanks largely to its popularity on #BookTok, the TikTok niche where young readers talk up their favorite works.
Hoover joins a growing list of #BookTok’s surprise beneficiaries over the past couple of years, including Madeline Miller for “The Song of Achilles” and Matt Haig for “The Midnight Library.” Barnes & Noble
has even set up special tables for #BookTok favorites.
“Colleen Hoover has been a massive driver for customers over the last few months,” Shannon DeVito, Barnes & Noble’s director of books, said in a statement. “‘It Ends With Us’ has been trending on #BooKTok since June and we have been selling upwards of 10,000 copies per week.”
In a recent phone interview, Hoover sounded both amazed at her fortune and afraid she might jinx it. She says she and her husband still enjoy eating Hamburger Helper, and she only reluctantly acknowledges that she doesn’t have to worry anymore about paying for the education for her three sons.
“We’re scared to really change our routine or act like the sales will last, or even go out and celebrate with a nice dinner,” she says. “It takes things awhile to soak in for us.”
Born Margaret Colleen Fennell, the 41-year-old Hoover had thought of becoming a writer since she was a girl, but set it aside while at Texas A&M-Commerce, when she married Heath Hoover
and had her first child. She continues to follow an unpredictable path. Atria published “It Ends With Us,” but Hoover still likes to self-publish some of her work, including the thriller “Verity.”
Even before #BookTok’s assist, she helped expose her own work to new readers by offering some of it for free in 2020 as a gesture of support during the start of the pandemic.
“I’ve just been doing (self-publishing) for so long,” Hoover said. “My sister is an editor and cover designer, so I have people in my family who help with aspects of it. I just really enjoy it.
“Also, I feel like when I published with a publisher, the successes are theirs, but the failures are mine. That’s just something I feel, or make myself feel. But with self-publishing, all the successes are mine, and all of the failures are mine.”
Her advice for younger writers?
“A lot of people ask me ‘What’s your secret?’ ” Hoover said. “And my answer is, ‘I don’t have one.’ It’s just been a lot of different things that led to this point. There’s no magic answer.”