Becoming a Voice, The Power of Word of Mouth

“My wife read this last night. She wants every teacher in her building to have this.”

“You’re spreading it around, eh? You must like it.”

This exchange between George Moore and Nicholas Staal in A Disgrace to the Profession, our novel, describes how word of an underground newspaper spread. The same thing happened with our novel: Readers found the book, read it, and then told their friends about it. They bought copies to give to others. In fact, salespeople at the local Borders told us that they’d never had so many book buyers comment on a book while purchasing it. “I’m going to send this to my niece, my old roommate, my dad, my college teacher, etc.,” they’d announce at the cash register.

We watched book sales grow exponentially as one or a few readers would hear about the novel in an area. We’d get an order or two, and a then a flood would come in from bookstores, the local library, and individuals. (That’s one of the perks of self-distribution—we get to see where the book is going!)

We’re pleased that we’ve been invited to book club meetings and bookstore signings in Iowa, Minnesota, and Texas. The first book club we attended was Read and Feed, a group of teachers from the Glidden-Ralston school district in northwest Iowa. The school secretary in the K-12 building found the book and recommended it to the group. Twenty-three people attended the dinner meeting, and the group only has 10 members! The manager of Prairie Lights in Iowa City told us that the store had to carry the book because of the persistence of customers.

We know that school board members and teachers’ organization representatives have purchased books to give to other members of their groups. Graham Gillette of the Des Moines School Board wrote us, “A Disgrace to the Profession should be standard issue for teachers so that they know they’re not alone. [It] should be mandatory for administrators and school board members to remind them about those struggling to teach. [It] should be read by every adult who cares about education.”

Paula Cain, a terminal cancer patient living in Iowa City, called to thank us for writing the book. “I’m just glad I got to read it before I die,” she said. Friends in Belmond, her former residence, had told her of the book. Then she told a group in Iowa City, “the subversives,” she called them, and word spread. When Paula died, her friends in Belmond asked us to donate two books to the public library in her memory.

We got an order from Portland, Oregon, from a woman who heard about the book from someone in California who heard about the book from someone in Missouri—and so it goes.

The book has turned up on Internet chat rooms, on organizations’ newsletters, and in comments on many home pages such as those for Project Fit America and the University of Delaware’s Research and Development Center. We found this comment on BiologyBooks.net (and we don’t even know where the company is or how to contact it!): “A Disgrace to the Profession is the best book written by teachers about teachers.”

We know that word of mouth has been our strongest marketing tool, stronger than all the press coverage. Not everyone has access to or even reads newspaper and magazine reviews. However, a recommendation from one friend to another carries with it the strength of sincerity. As one reader told us just this week, “Every teacher I know respects your work and thanks you for telling the truth.” What is this type of praise worth? Priceless!

Watch for our next posting: Becoming a Voice, the Stuart Book Dump.