The Author Drawing Young Men Into Bookstores

C.J. Box taps into fishing, hunting and rodeo podcasts and media to promote his Joe Pickett crime series

- JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG

W warden riter C.J. Box built a legion of fans obsessed with his long-running Joe Pickett crime series about a Wyoming game who battles corrupt government officials, crooked landowners, and other villains who have money or power or both.

Then he embraced podcasters.

He tapped into shows focused on the rodeo, fly fishing, hunting, and other outdoor and western subjects.

Young men with fishing caps and long beards began to show up at his book signings, many telling him that they hadn't been to a bookstore in years.

"It helped me build a male readership," said Box, 66 years old. "Often this was the first book signing they'd been to. Some weren't even sure what page to get the signature on. I loved it." Finding new readers is one of the biggest challenges facing writers, including those with established fan bases. Print book sales in 2024 through Dec. 7 were flat compared with the same period in 2023, according to book-tracker Circana BookScan. Some new titles have a price tag of $30 or more with little chance of being an impulse purchase.

Box now does more interviews with alternative media than with traditional TV, radio or newspapers. He appeared earlier this year on the MeatEater podcast hosted by author and outdoorsman Steven Rinella, whose audience is 90% male and ranks in the top 10 on Spotify's sports chart.