Editing Principle 17: Piggybacking

This one has more to do with information architecture and content strategy than it does book production, though its implications are felt there too:

It’s easier to get attention / entice someone to click on a link / appreciate your Tweet when contributing to a debate that’s already generated memes. Introducing a new topic and finding people who’ll love (and remember) you for it is harder.

n.b. Easier. Not always better. Much depends on execution.

PS. A corollary as it pertains to literature? Titles like Alain De Botton‘s brilliant, career-making How Proust Can Change Your Life or Karen Joy Fowler‘s The Jane Austen Book Club.