Why Your Book Needs an H Mart Factor

Another crucial element of a killer book proposal (that publishers will want to buy) is what I call the H Mart Factor.

If you’re not familiar, CRYING IN H MART is a stunning memoir that spent 60 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and made the author, Michelle Zauner, a literary star. Her runaway success was unexpected.

What launched it? The H Mart Factor.

If you look at nonfiction books on the bestsellers list, most authors have a) celebrity or b) an audience of true believers they spent years developing. Zauner had neither. She is the lead singer of an indie band, Japanese Breakfast, but they are hardly a household name—even now. She did pen a popular piece in The New Yorker, which didn’t hurt.

But what made that piece popular—and later, her book—is that she she wrote about a common subject (a loved one getting cancer) in a completely unusual way. Can you guess the most common subject of memoir book proposals (as well as essays pitched to Dan Jones, editor of the NYT’s Modern Love)?

A loved one getting sick or dying.

If you want to write about that, or any nonfiction topic that has already been covered ad nauseam, you need an H Mart Factor:

1—It’s never been written about in this specific way before

2—Only you could write it this way

3—Bonus if it’s also counterintuitive, surprising, controversial or speaks to a growing trend

Zauner had all three. She did not write about her mother getting chemo, losing weight, or taking brutal trips to the doctor. (Almost everyone knows about these experiences, even if second hand.)

Instead, she wrote about Korean cooking, culture, and relationships. (Point #1: No other cancer or losing-my-mom memoir has been packaged in this way.) She told us about re-embracing her Korean heritage once her mother was sick and how she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul. She took us on a trip inside the walls of her Korean home and back to Korea as she visited. She wrote about food and culture primarily, over grief. (Point #2: No one else could have written this exact book; instead of writing about common experiences people have when a loved one is sick, she included the experiences that only she had.)

It didn’t hurt that as a culture, we were becoming obsessed with all things Korean. (Point #3: Speaks to a growing trend.)

Many authors don’t think enough in advance about how to package their books; They just write. But a book is a product. For it to be compelling, you have to design it with the mindset of a marketer or product designer.

There are a million ways to compose a story. Zauner could have written about her music or her band or any number of others dimensions in her life as a way to tell us about her grief. She tapped into her H Mart Factor—and used it as a way to package her story in a way that was wholly unique to her, fascinating to learn about; one that touched a chord in the cultural zeitgeist.