How Kluun creates space by making marketing a part of the art of writing
Happyplaces Stories (video)
Rewind. In 2003, a then-unknown writer named Kluun published his first novel, titled “Komt een vrouw bij de dokter” (available in English as “Love Life”), dramatised from events in his own life. “Komt een vrouw bij de doktor” is a book about Stijn and Carmen living in Amsterdam in the prime of their life, both running their own companies, enjoying the nightlife of the Dutch capital city, surrounded by success and friends. Until they are struck by breast cancer. The book is about their journey through cancer, about how it rips at the heart of their family and confronts her close friends. It is written from the perspective of Stijn, a fun-loving, philandering, emotionally challenged husband, as he faces the reality that his wife is terminally ill. It is a book about preparing for the end, an ode to love and the strength of family. The book is a roller coaster of emotion from anger at the medical establishment to hope brought by treatment options, desperation as the effects of chemo take hold, to the final realisation that Carmen won’t see their young daughter, Luna, grow up. A heart-wrenching read, all the more because it is based on real events. Back then, nobody could imagine that Kluun would become the all-time best-selling author in The Netherlands, selling over a million copies of “Komt een vrouw bij de dokter”, with translations in 27 countries. The book has been made into a very successful film in 2009.
I remember going to his book release event in a hotel in Amsterdam, which was no typical book presentation but an event that immersed the visitors into segments of the story. I remember arriving there, where women dressed up as nurses and pointed people where to go. A bit later, a nurse picked up a small group to follow them to small rooms, where you could experience scenes from the book first-hand. Sitting in front of a doctor and hearing that you have been diagnosed with cancer was intimidating. Then, move over to the next room to get a shot of vodka while dancing to loud music. To then move to a space to mourn someone who just passed away. It was a really powerful experience to get into the story before even reading it. It’s way more immersing than any film trailer.
Fast forward to 2005. Kluun was one of the writers for the SMS novel we created at the Texelse Boys Playground at the Lowlands Festival. The Lowlands Festival is the biggest music & arts festival of the Benelux, a 3-day camping event taking place during the 3rd weekend of August and entertaining +55,000 people per festival day. The Texelse Boys project was a platform for trying new things, like creating stories in new ways using the crowd and technology. This led to writing a novel with the 55,000 festival visitors and their mobile phones. To ensure it would now become a collection of 140 characters, four writers helped us stitch all these contributions into a story worth publishing.
Between 2003, the movie that came out in 2009 and today, Kluun has been active as a writer and by organising events like “NightWriters” to create a stage for other writers, always in ways that are so different from the formal literature world. I have been following him ever since we met, admiring the space he created not only for himself but also for other writers. In June 2014, I visited him on his house boat in Amsterdam.
Look, I am originally a marketeer. And I still think that, marketing, or marketing communication, is a beautiful profession. If you regard books as literature, and literature as an art form — I enjoy mixing the art form and the marketing. Those things that are already being used in the field of theatre, like the Parade, the Holland Festival. In the world of musea this has been going on for a long time now. When you look at the way in which they presented the Rijksmuseum, with all the publicity and stuff, that is almost like an art form in itself. Downstairs, I have a book that I read to my daughter about Monkey and Mole, who are lost and wind up in a museum. They see all these different art works and the funny thing is, when you walk around the Rijksmuseum with your kids and you run into a member of staff and ask them: “Where is the porcelain monkey?”, they will tell you: “Over there, and you probably also want to know where you can find the dollhouse, because I assume you have read about that too.” This way, the book you read to your child is a marketing thing, but it starts with the child actually wanting to go to the museum, like Monkey and Mole did. I think this is beautiful. In literature, this used to be ‘not done’. You had to politely recommend something and then the critics would determine if the people should read it or not. Coming from the branch of marketing, I think: who the fuck are you, critic? I am perfectly capable of determining if people are going to read it or not. And then the people can determine if they want to finish it.
Blending spaces
What I do when I have an idea… Right now I am working on ‘DJ’ and a family novel is coming out soon. This novel has been brewing for many years now, because it was supposed to be a book about my uncle, but now it is about my entire family. I am working on the idea of a children’s book. On the war between the smoked sausages, black pudding and frankfurters. I am developing this storyline together with my daughters and we plan on working on it this summer. And I still want to write a fictional tourist guide on Amsterdam. These ideas are brewing, this process takes years.
But I always have to focus on one project, because otherwise nothing happens. Right now, this is ‘DJ’. But the funny thing is, I do know that I am going to work with these ideas. And I already know that such a fictional tourist guide is going to be an inside joke and will likely only be bought and read by some 5,000 people. If I would be a marketeer, I would feel bad when a work is not going to be read by anyone and the author thus decides not to follow through with it. ‘On Amsterdam Nights’, same story, we knew beforehand that it would be bought by 15.000 people tops. But I wanted to write an original reference book. If, someday, in twenty years, a student were to graduate on the topic of Amsterdam nightlife, that someone would tell them: “Go to the library and look for that book by Van den Beek and Kluun, because they wrote about it”. That is my ambition. Hans Van den Beek and I have spent a year and a half working on this book. That is absolutely not profitable and we could have predicted this beforehand. So in this way, I am absolutely no marketeer.
But once I finish writing the book, and during the process of writing I do save all marketing ideas in one document. I already start talking to people, like the Amsterdam Dance Event, about the promotion of the book. The moment a deadline is postponed because a book is not yet good enough, we move it to the next Amsterdam Dance Event. I am not the type of marketeer who takes this into account beforehand, nor do I think that the marketing is more important than the book itself. I am the type of marketeer who comes up with marketing ideas during the process of writing. Most of these ideas, or the good ones, can and will be used later on. That is when you want your ideas to kind of merge. This is also bound to happen with ‘DJ’, where we will merge fiction and fact both in the book itself, and in the marketing of the book. I think this is a lot of fun. Making marketing a part of the art form. And, I enjoy doing this because I am a marketeer. And I also believe that marketing can be an art form. Or an applied art form. As an art form, marketing is often contemned by artists and the media. This is what I love to do.
True
No person HAS to do things. But artists, like authors, have to do some things. I can imagine that some authors are jealous of the fact that I, well, from my personality and marketing, I have given many presentations.
This comes natural to me. I also enjoy doing it. I do not think you can ask authors to be somebody they are not. Like, when talking about space. Something that goes way beyond their space. It does not work if you tell them to step out of their comfort zone. That is not how it works. Be who you are. If you don’t, people will see right through you. You can hate me, but you believe me when you see me on television. That is Kluun. I do not pretend to be someone I am not. When you have to think too much about how to develop and sell your product, even though it is not what you want to be, it does not work.
Robert Vuijsje has named this ‘Kluun’s Law’. And when he was working on ‘Alleen Maar Nette Mensen’ he said: “How do I turn this into a bestseller?” And Kluun’s Law holds that you have to give interviews to everyone who is somewhat worth it. I want to tell the author how good his book is. Not because I want to sell it but he loves this book so much. And he knows so much about it: he knows every wart and every nail, and he wants to share this with the rest of the world. That is nice. Whether or not someone actually reads the interview. It is nice to tell your story. So, every school paper that has more than 500 prints, but also the VIVA. And also RTL Boulevard. And then you can determine what you do or do not want to share. People often think that I share everything, but that is absolutely not true. But I do not feel too big to give an interview to Libelle. When I am already on Ibiza and they want to do an interview with me. I will say: “Fine, as long as you don’t photograph my children or my house, you can interview me”. And then I will spend two hours giving this interview. As an author, you could also say: “I only want to give interviews to ‘De Groene Amsterdammer’ and, ‘Zomergasten’ and ‘Pauw en Witteman’, and all other things are beneath me. You could do that. That is fine. But you will never write a bestseller. And that is fine, too. But then you should no envy those who do write a bestseller. So you don’t have to do anything, stay true to yourself. But do not envy those who do want it, those who go for it and those who are given the opportunity. I think.
Fame
Kluun, em… I was at the neighbour’s house yesterday. And my neighbour’s daughter said to me: “Do I call you Kluun or Raymond?” I told her: “Kluun feels more like my own name, because I named myself Kluun as an author, but this nickname goes way back”. Since 1986, when we had an Elfstedentocht in The Netherlands. I have told this story a thousand times already, so I can almost dream this little speech. The phrase ‘klunen’ came back into the Dutch language and one of my friends said: “Van de Klundert… Hah, Kluun!” And since then, my classmates started calling me Kluun. And after a while I even called myself Kluun. And my first wife, who passed away, also called me Kluun. And I called her Juud. And all our friends called us Kluun and Juud. So the funny thing is, most people think that my name is an avatar. But it is actually the most personal thing there is.
I feel like Kluun suits me much better than Raymond. Raymond is a name… Ray. My parents chose that name for me. So even these things have merged.
When you consider fame to be like the eye of the storm. Everything happens around the eye. But the eye itself is calm. What has changed for me, compared to 12 or 13 years ago, slowly but steady… Once I had sold my marketing agency in 2001, after my wife had passed away and I had returned from Australia. That is the moment I started writing. The first year: not knowing if I would ever be published or not. The second year: not knowing if I would ever be able to make a living out of it.
Nothing much has changed for me, actually. I no longer have a second-hand PC, but a Mac. But it is still a writing table. There are still papers on it. And I have the same friends as I did before. I may see one or two of them a bit less than before. And over the years I gained some friends as well. In the world of authors, Saskia Noort is one of my close friends. And I also know some people whom I never would have met if I weren’t famous. But I have also gained many friends who are not famous. The only thing that changed is knowing that everyone has an opinion about you and are entitled to their opinions. Because you are famous. This evolves gradually. But I know that people think: “Hey, it’s Kluun”, when they see me walking down the street.
And people then also immediately have an opinion. And when I walk to the toilets of an Amsterdam festival in the woods, by myself, that is when it can be annoying. In Amsterdam, it is cool to act like you do not recognise people, which is terrific. But on these festivals, they go: “Hey Kluun!”, “I want to take a picture with you!”. That is annoying. But in most cases, it is enjoyable. People are nice, generally. Except you should not not look on Twitter. But Femke Halsema taught me that these things are so much worse when you are a soccer trainer, Femke Halsema or Gordon. But your private life does not change that much. During the day, I write. And I sometimes give an interview. And ten years ago you probably would not have come to me, and here you are. Ten years ago I probably would have been talking to someone else, about business or something like that. The fact that everyone recognises your face, does not mean that this changes your life. And I think this is the best kept secret of famous people. You can just take the tram if you want to. And you can do whatever you want to do. But sometimes people shout: “Hey!” But apart from that, my life has not changed one bit. This is a discovery. Back in the days, I would always wonder what kind of lives the people on TV were living. Well, his life is exactly the same. Except for the two hours he spends in the studio. Apart from this, everything is the same. Maybe this is different when you are a superstar. Then you are, and this is what my book is about, then you have become your concept. The interests are so high. People need to make money off of you. And then you will become your own brand. But in the case of a Dutch author, whose work has been translated into thirty languages, but who has sold a relatively small amount of books, living in a normal city like Amsterdam, where nobody cares how famous you are… Because they run into two famous soccer players, a politician and a TV celebrity at the butcher. And I quite like it that way.
