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[CCBC-Net] Celebrity Books
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From: Olgy Gary <omgary>
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:28:55 -0600
> Here is a link to a biting article on the subject:
> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04308/405539.stm
Thanks again for the link to above article, Jim. It's a good one.
Here I'm replying to various quotes I've taken from the article:
"There's no doubt the celebrity volumes sell well to parents and other adults dazzled by celebrity. But book critics and librarians generally disdain celebrity books as preachy and poorly written." My take: Parents are a savvy bunch these days and count their pennies when it comes to buying books. As a bookseller, I have found them to be educated on what's good and what's not good writing and found that they do rely on their school librarians recommendations as well.
"And there is seemingly no connection between whether they can write and whether they will get published." My take: True. True. But my question is why does it have to be this way? And the next quote I take from the article answers it for me,
"There's no mystery about why celebrities write children's books. They get to play to a new audience, earn money and media attention and perhaps revitalize a career. In addition, celebrity children's book authors often
"cross-promote." My take: Here's the key to this issue as far as I'm concerned. Writing is an art, but publishing is a business. And we can't ask publishers to acquire manuscripts and publish them if they're not all going to make money for the house. This is why I've been teaching a class on "Websites, Blogs, and Platform Building" at writers conferences and plan on start teaching it online in the near future. "Platform building" is the key word and was the buzz word at the recent Pikes Peak Writers Conference I attended. If we could get brilliant, talented authors to wear both a writing as well as a marketing hat when they pitch their manuscripts this would go a long ways in making their books sell better and perhaps publishers wouldn't need to go to celebrities as much as they're presently going to. After all, in my mind, what's appealing about celebrities is that they already have a built-in platform, a captive audience they're going to market their book to.
Olgy
------------------------------------------- Olgy Gary, Gen'l Manager
"children come first...because they're our greatest treasure!" http://www.childrencomefirst.com http://tinyurl.com/yk9tvq - Free CCF bulletin
Received on Tue 05 Jun 2007 05:28:55 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:28:55 -0600
> Here is a link to a biting article on the subject:
> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04308/405539.stm
Thanks again for the link to above article, Jim. It's a good one.
Here I'm replying to various quotes I've taken from the article:
"There's no doubt the celebrity volumes sell well to parents and other adults dazzled by celebrity. But book critics and librarians generally disdain celebrity books as preachy and poorly written." My take: Parents are a savvy bunch these days and count their pennies when it comes to buying books. As a bookseller, I have found them to be educated on what's good and what's not good writing and found that they do rely on their school librarians recommendations as well.
"And there is seemingly no connection between whether they can write and whether they will get published." My take: True. True. But my question is why does it have to be this way? And the next quote I take from the article answers it for me,
"There's no mystery about why celebrities write children's books. They get to play to a new audience, earn money and media attention and perhaps revitalize a career. In addition, celebrity children's book authors often
"cross-promote." My take: Here's the key to this issue as far as I'm concerned. Writing is an art, but publishing is a business. And we can't ask publishers to acquire manuscripts and publish them if they're not all going to make money for the house. This is why I've been teaching a class on "Websites, Blogs, and Platform Building" at writers conferences and plan on start teaching it online in the near future. "Platform building" is the key word and was the buzz word at the recent Pikes Peak Writers Conference I attended. If we could get brilliant, talented authors to wear both a writing as well as a marketing hat when they pitch their manuscripts this would go a long ways in making their books sell better and perhaps publishers wouldn't need to go to celebrities as much as they're presently going to. After all, in my mind, what's appealing about celebrities is that they already have a built-in platform, a captive audience they're going to market their book to.
Olgy
------------------------------------------- Olgy Gary, Gen'l Manager
"children come first...because they're our greatest treasure!" http://www.childrencomefirst.com http://tinyurl.com/yk9tvq - Free CCF bulletin
Received on Tue 05 Jun 2007 05:28:55 PM CDT
