48: If Marketing is Storytelling Then Learn from NYT #1 Bestseller Chris Bohjalian

Marketing is all about telling stories. Who could share better storytelling insights than #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian who also started his career in account service at J. Walter Thomson? A character-driven novelist who imports his own emotional experiences into many of his deeply descriptive works, Bohjalian has mastered the ability to connect with his readers. The wordsmith shares his strategy for hooking in audiences and discusses his genuine approach to engaging with fans on social media.

Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 20 books including Midwives, Sleepwalker and The Guest Room. His work has been translated into over 30 languages and three times become movies. Bohjalian's new book, The Flight Attendant, lands March 13, 2018.

His books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Hartford Courant, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bookpage, and Salon.

Bohjalian's awards include the ANCA Freedom Award for his work educating Americans about the Armenian Genocide; the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; Russia’s Soglasie (Concord) Award for The Sandcastle Girls; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Trans-Sister Radio; a Best Lifestyle Column for Idyll Banter from the Vermont Press Association; and the Anahid Literary Award.

He is a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Bohjalian has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, and The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. He was a weekly columnist in Vermont for The Burlington Free Press from 1992 through 2015.

After graduating from Amherst College, Bohjalian started his career in advertising as an account executive at J. Walter Thompson where he met the host Drew Neisser. In this episode, you'll learn among other things the dramatic story that pushed Bohjalian out of New York City and into the verdant hills of Vermont.