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Re: Marketing, Ideology and Parental Concerns
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From: Lyn Miller-Lachmann <lynml_at_me.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 17:13:02 -0500
I'm going to dive into this pool because I'm a huge fan of Journey of Dreams. The author took great care to make it appropriate for readers in grades five through nine--there are harrowing aspects but not too harrowing, and one gets the feeling that characters one has grown to love will be safe. I really liked that, even though I didn't offer the same sense of safety in Gringolandia. (Gringolandia, granted, was written for mature teens and is now being marketed as well to college and adult readers.)
I think a lot of the issue with Journey of Dreams had to do with a U.K. publisher that didn't know the U.S. market well enough. I believe that small presses are often the best places to find books that are out of the mainstream culturally, ideologically, or for a host of other reasons. The reviewers who gave starred reviews to Journey of Dreams (and Gringolandia, another small press book), and the awards committees that recognized both these historical novels set in Latin America deserve much praise. We need to realize that small presses are not last-resort publishers for inferior books that authors don't want to self-publish (and I have actually heard small presses called "the minor leagues" at conferences) but courageous and innovative producers of books that fill underserved niches. Charles's point that marketing can be targeted to readers who are ideologically sympathetic is well taken. Yes, it's preaching to the choir, but the choir isn't getting much preaching these days and we're grumpy. It's why a lot of folks have stopped reading books and started reading blogs. Arianna Huffington is smiling all the way to the bank.
There's a lot that small presses can do to make their efforts more successful, from cover design to format (Frances Lincoln always had more success bringing out titles in original paperback, but in the U.S. that makes the books less attractive for reviews and awards) to finding the right places to sell the books. I've copied Charles's suggestion below as my way of seconding it.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009) Rogue (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2013) www.lynmillerlachmann.com www.thepiratetree.com
On Feb 13, 2014, at 4:42 PM, Charles Bayless wrote:
> In fact, for those of you who are connected with a university with a business school, perhaps this might be an interesting case study for a marketing class.
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 17:13:02 -0500
I'm going to dive into this pool because I'm a huge fan of Journey of Dreams. The author took great care to make it appropriate for readers in grades five through nine--there are harrowing aspects but not too harrowing, and one gets the feeling that characters one has grown to love will be safe. I really liked that, even though I didn't offer the same sense of safety in Gringolandia. (Gringolandia, granted, was written for mature teens and is now being marketed as well to college and adult readers.)
I think a lot of the issue with Journey of Dreams had to do with a U.K. publisher that didn't know the U.S. market well enough. I believe that small presses are often the best places to find books that are out of the mainstream culturally, ideologically, or for a host of other reasons. The reviewers who gave starred reviews to Journey of Dreams (and Gringolandia, another small press book), and the awards committees that recognized both these historical novels set in Latin America deserve much praise. We need to realize that small presses are not last-resort publishers for inferior books that authors don't want to self-publish (and I have actually heard small presses called "the minor leagues" at conferences) but courageous and innovative producers of books that fill underserved niches. Charles's point that marketing can be targeted to readers who are ideologically sympathetic is well taken. Yes, it's preaching to the choir, but the choir isn't getting much preaching these days and we're grumpy. It's why a lot of folks have stopped reading books and started reading blogs. Arianna Huffington is smiling all the way to the bank.
There's a lot that small presses can do to make their efforts more successful, from cover design to format (Frances Lincoln always had more success bringing out titles in original paperback, but in the U.S. that makes the books less attractive for reviews and awards) to finding the right places to sell the books. I've copied Charles's suggestion below as my way of seconding it.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009) Rogue (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2013) www.lynmillerlachmann.com www.thepiratetree.com
On Feb 13, 2014, at 4:42 PM, Charles Bayless wrote:
> In fact, for those of you who are connected with a university with a business school, perhaps this might be an interesting case study for a marketing class.
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Received on Thu 13 Feb 2014 04:13:26 PM CST
