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Crossover appeal - hype?
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From: Nina Lindsay <linds_na>
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 13:58:44 -0700 (PDT)
I find the discussion about marketing/"hype" very interesting, especially within the context of the current discussion on crossover appeal. John Mason's comments (that a bestseller is such on its own merits-- that the marketing $$ support a book that is excellent on it's own (hope I paraphrased that okay)) are useful in the midst of comments by librarians/teachers. I think that we (speaking now as a public librarian, and possibly for a wider group) often feel like "marketers" of children's literature ourselves. In many ways we are, although in a very different way than publishers. Especially in a market where children's literature is usually treated as a "marginal" literature
(think of the NYTimes Book Review: every OTHER week there is ONE full review of a children's book), we dedicate ourselves to reading, evaluating, and "pushing" our favorite books. Maybe we were all taken aback by Harry Potter's success? We didn't have to do anything... word-of-mouth and Scholastic together "sold" the book, and the library patrons came to us looking for it. Harry Potter is the only children's book I've known that's had dozens of people in a hold list waiting for it
... as popular adult novels regularly do.
While not disagreeing with John Mason, I don't think we can discount Scholastic's role in Harry Potter's success. The book was treated like a bestseller, with displays in bookstores. I've never seen that for other single children's books. It was marketed, it seems to me, in the same ways that adult bestsellers are; and so, I'd guess, more adults took notice. Certainly "cross-over appeal" is affected by this kind of marketing -- just as appeal for any kid's book can be affected by how we
"booktalk" it to an individual patron.
The marketing behind Harry Potter was expensive; and most children's departments of publishers don't have the $$ like Scholastic does. Does anyone think that other publishers will start to catch on that children's literature can sell? If so, I'll bet that "crossover" books will become commonplace. I know I'm not the only adult out there who prefers to read John Christopher to John Grisham, Susan Cooper to Sue Grafton, Tim Wynne-Jones to Tom Clancy, Louis Sachar to Louis L'Amour...
Nina
Nina Lindsay, Children's Librarian Melrose Branch, Oakland Public Library 4805 Foothill Boulevard Oakland, CA 94601
(510)535V23 linds_na at oak2.ci.oakland.ca.us
Received on Mon 07 Jun 1999 03:58:44 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 13:58:44 -0700 (PDT)
I find the discussion about marketing/"hype" very interesting, especially within the context of the current discussion on crossover appeal. John Mason's comments (that a bestseller is such on its own merits-- that the marketing $$ support a book that is excellent on it's own (hope I paraphrased that okay)) are useful in the midst of comments by librarians/teachers. I think that we (speaking now as a public librarian, and possibly for a wider group) often feel like "marketers" of children's literature ourselves. In many ways we are, although in a very different way than publishers. Especially in a market where children's literature is usually treated as a "marginal" literature
(think of the NYTimes Book Review: every OTHER week there is ONE full review of a children's book), we dedicate ourselves to reading, evaluating, and "pushing" our favorite books. Maybe we were all taken aback by Harry Potter's success? We didn't have to do anything... word-of-mouth and Scholastic together "sold" the book, and the library patrons came to us looking for it. Harry Potter is the only children's book I've known that's had dozens of people in a hold list waiting for it
... as popular adult novels regularly do.
While not disagreeing with John Mason, I don't think we can discount Scholastic's role in Harry Potter's success. The book was treated like a bestseller, with displays in bookstores. I've never seen that for other single children's books. It was marketed, it seems to me, in the same ways that adult bestsellers are; and so, I'd guess, more adults took notice. Certainly "cross-over appeal" is affected by this kind of marketing -- just as appeal for any kid's book can be affected by how we
"booktalk" it to an individual patron.
The marketing behind Harry Potter was expensive; and most children's departments of publishers don't have the $$ like Scholastic does. Does anyone think that other publishers will start to catch on that children's literature can sell? If so, I'll bet that "crossover" books will become commonplace. I know I'm not the only adult out there who prefers to read John Christopher to John Grisham, Susan Cooper to Sue Grafton, Tim Wynne-Jones to Tom Clancy, Louis Sachar to Louis L'Amour...
Nina
Nina Lindsay, Children's Librarian Melrose Branch, Oakland Public Library 4805 Foothill Boulevard Oakland, CA 94601
(510)535V23 linds_na at oak2.ci.oakland.ca.us
Received on Mon 07 Jun 1999 03:58:44 PM CDT
