4 ms·

I have one big issue with the book industry... many actually... but related to the article, all this whining is self imposed. Literary books are marketed far h

I have one big issue with the book industry... many actually... but related to the article, all this whining is self imposed. Literary books are marketed far heavier than genre. This is the equivalent to arthouse films vs what actually makes money as a movie/show. Let's take one similar plot. A chemistry teacher is diagnosed with cancer, cant get treated and eventually dies. Literary and arthouse will do a discovery piece on how this person copes with death and cries with their family, then character dies. Genre... the dude builds a meth empire and everything the arthouse did, the genre adds in. Let's be serious about which was really going to be successful and why. Entertainment is about escaping boring. You fail that, you fail in general. Most book lists are boring people with boring problems doing boring things. The book industry did this to themselves by shitting on the genre writers. The publisher that does a marketing campaign, "to hell with boring literary books" and pushes mysteries, scifi, cozys, fantasy and others, they'll open up to the demographic that's not "regular readers". Thats about 70% of a population is an untapped market. Most people who dont read on a normal basis have been trained by school and the book media that fun books are "wrong". I have zero sympathy for the book industry in this regard and I'm an avid reader. I've converted more non-readers than any guilt tripping article regarding this problem.

KittenInABox 5y ago
Every major publishing house has a SFF imprint with its own marketing budget and does marketing campaigns. Tor dot com (Macmillan), Orbit Books (Hachette), etc. They have marketing campaigns on youtube, tiktok, instagram, twitter and more. They have little video trailers, cover reveals, physical and collectible advance copies etc. Or in simple words, could you clarify here?
- NoOneNew 5y ago
  The average person who doesn't visit a bookstore has zero clue. If you're a reader, its all duh, but you're acting like an elitist then. Just because you know, doesn't mean outsiders know. At that, the "right books to read" attitude pisses me off. Its everywhere in some form or another in popular media where someone can accidentally see it. The industry is constantly marketing to their diminishing demographic instead of trying to figure out how to increase it again. Talk to non readers to find out their knowledge set of what kind of books are out there. Again, I convert folks all the time. I get zero a year readers to an average of 6 to 10 a year. Mostly because i used to hate reading until i got converted as well. I know the pain points.
- spoonjim 5y ago
  When there is a book that "everyone is talking about" (i.e Oprah or the New Yorker or whatever) it's usually a memoir of someone's difficult life, usually a member of a declared "oppressed" group. For example, Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me." I read that book. It's not even supposed to be enjoyable, and it's not really great writing or something that I feel like I need to tell my friends about. Essentially it's stuff you feel like you "should" read rather than you "want" to read. Like vegetables instead of ice cream. The ice cream is the page turning thrillers where some guy is beating up criminals in parking garages and chasing art thieves around the world. The book industry puts its highest profile promotion on vegetables instead of ice cream.
eric_b 5y ago
I think you're spot on. I'm an avid reader but I enjoy all the "low-brow" stuff. Tropey high fantasy, cheesy sci-fi, formulaic legal thrillers, I love it all. If it has "spy" anywhere in the description I'm in. But you're right - the only books I ever hear about from a marketing standpoint are the ones my wife is reading for her book club. So either Oprah talked about it, or it's part of the "book club marketing machine" or whatever. I wish the publishing industry could turn things around. I think the low percentage of people who actively read fiction is ultimately a bad thing. Binge watching Netflix is not the same as binge reading a good book series imo.
- bluGill 5y ago
  The low percentage off readers isn't a bad thing: they buy book after book and keep the industry going. Sure there aren't as many as would buy a movie (however you get your movies - cable, dvd, theater...), but that is still a large enough niche to be worth serving. However expanding the niche would be a good thing.
- vidarh 5y ago
  I might have to add "spy" in the description of my next novel. > the only books I ever hear about from a marketing standpoint I'm actually pushing my novel via Taboola at the moment. It's definitively not profitable in terms of sales of a single book, but interestingly in terms of signups to my e-mail list it's one of the best I've found, and I'm spending a tiny amount on it each month on the theory that I'm reaching users who are less jaded and more likely to be outside of the typical bubble I reach on e.g. twitter, and who might well turn out to be worthwhile to be able to repeatedly market to over time in the hope of seeding some word of mouth outside of my normal audience. Half the fun for me (this is a hobby) is trying to figure out the marketing channels that will work...
Siira 5y ago
I don’t really see the evidence backing this claim. Most popular fiction books on Goodreads are not exactly “deep.” Publishers aren’t some stupid ideologues either. It’s far more probable that books simply can’t compete with the addictive, visual, social entertainment that is growing by the day. This isn’t such a big problem either. The minority that does read books are still huge in absolute terms, and we have more options than ever to read.
- dimitrios1 5y ago
  > It’s far more probable that books simply can’t compete with the addictive, visual, social entertainment that is growing by the day. The thing is, they aren't competing. Those attracted to addictive visual social entertainment weren't likely to read a book anyways. The type that enjoys both does both, and does not consider one to be a replacement of the other.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> The publisher that does a marketing campaign, "to hell with boring literary books" and pushes mysteries, scifi, cozys, fantasy and others, they'll open up to the demographic that's not "regular readers". Thats about 70% of a population is an untapped market. Tor? DAW? You talk like no one ever thought of publishing science fiction or fantasy books. It's been going on all along!
- NoOneNew 5y ago
  Like I said to another commenter, avid readers know these publishers. Outsiders who would potentially read from them dont know they exist. Non readers think books like The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter are once in a lifetime books. They're actually fairly normal genre pieces. Difference was, these were marketed better.
atseajournal 5y ago
I know the following will sound like something only a sock puppet would say, but I created an account just to agree with the level of rancor you've got towards the boring-by-default literary world. I got serious about writing as a teen, and being a serious writer meant aping the great literature I was reading -- ie an emphasis on fine prose and emotional weather reporting -- which led to an acute lack of juice in my fiction. Trying to remedy that now, and always looking to hear more from people working on that same project. Have you got a blog or anything like that?
- NoOneNew 5y ago
  So... out of curiosity, what are you looking for out of a blog? A few people have commented I should over the year. I dont have one, but I've thought about doing one.
  - atseajournal 5y ago
    Based solely on this comment thread, I say this should be post #1: "I convert folks all the time. I get zero a year readers to an average of 6 to 10 a year. Mostly because i used to hate reading until i got converted as well. I know the pain points." I used to read 30-ish novels a year, and now it's more like 4. Would love to get back on the horse, I'm sure there are plenty of others. Finding fun books to read is tough. As for post 2, 3, 4...? I dunno, but I'm on Twitter at atseajournal, and happy to hear about whatever.

KittenInABox 5y ago

Every major publishing house has a SFF imprint with its own marketing budget and does marketing campaigns. Tor dot com (Macmillan), Orbit Books (Hachette), etc. They have marketing campaigns on youtube, tiktok, instagram, twitter and more. They have little video trailers, cover reveals, physical and collectible advance copies etc. Or in simple words, could you clarify here?

NoOneNew 5y ago
The average person who doesn't visit a bookstore has zero clue. If you're a reader, its all duh, but you're acting like an elitist then. Just because you know, doesn't mean outsiders know. At that, the "right books to read" attitude pisses me off. Its everywhere in some form or another in popular media where someone can accidentally see it. The industry is constantly marketing to their diminishing demographic instead of trying to figure out how to increase it again. Talk to non readers to find out their knowledge set of what kind of books are out there. Again, I convert folks all the time. I get zero a year readers to an average of 6 to 10 a year. Mostly because i used to hate reading until i got converted as well. I know the pain points.
spoonjim 5y ago
When there is a book that "everyone is talking about" (i.e Oprah or the New Yorker or whatever) it's usually a memoir of someone's difficult life, usually a member of a declared "oppressed" group. For example, Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me." I read that book. It's not even supposed to be enjoyable, and it's not really great writing or something that I feel like I need to tell my friends about. Essentially it's stuff you feel like you "should" read rather than you "want" to read. Like vegetables instead of ice cream. The ice cream is the page turning thrillers where some guy is beating up criminals in parking garages and chasing art thieves around the world. The book industry puts its highest profile promotion on vegetables instead of ice cream.

eric_b 5y ago

I think you're spot on. I'm an avid reader but I enjoy all the "low-brow" stuff. Tropey high fantasy, cheesy sci-fi, formulaic legal thrillers, I love it all. If it has "spy" anywhere in the description I'm in. But you're right - the only books I ever hear about from a marketing standpoint are the ones my wife is reading for her book club. So either Oprah talked about it, or it's part of the "book club marketing machine" or whatever. I wish the publishing industry could turn things around. I think the low percentage of people who actively read fiction is ultimately a bad thing. Binge watching Netflix is not the same as binge reading a good book series imo.

bluGill 5y ago
The low percentage off readers isn't a bad thing: they buy book after book and keep the industry going. Sure there aren't as many as would buy a movie (however you get your movies - cable, dvd, theater...), but that is still a large enough niche to be worth serving. However expanding the niche would be a good thing.
vidarh 5y ago
I might have to add "spy" in the description of my next novel. > the only books I ever hear about from a marketing standpoint I'm actually pushing my novel via Taboola at the moment. It's definitively not profitable in terms of sales of a single book, but interestingly in terms of signups to my e-mail list it's one of the best I've found, and I'm spending a tiny amount on it each month on the theory that I'm reaching users who are less jaded and more likely to be outside of the typical bubble I reach on e.g. twitter, and who might well turn out to be worthwhile to be able to repeatedly market to over time in the hope of seeding some word of mouth outside of my normal audience. Half the fun for me (this is a hobby) is trying to figure out the marketing channels that will work...

Siira 5y ago

I don’t really see the evidence backing this claim. Most popular fiction books on Goodreads are not exactly “deep.” Publishers aren’t some stupid ideologues either. It’s far more probable that books simply can’t compete with the addictive, visual, social entertainment that is growing by the day. This isn’t such a big problem either. The minority that does read books are still huge in absolute terms, and we have more options than ever to read.

dimitrios1 5y ago
> It’s far more probable that books simply can’t compete with the addictive, visual, social entertainment that is growing by the day. The thing is, they aren't competing. Those attracted to addictive visual social entertainment weren't likely to read a book anyways. The type that enjoys both does both, and does not consider one to be a replacement of the other.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> The publisher that does a marketing campaign, "to hell with boring literary books" and pushes mysteries, scifi, cozys, fantasy and others, they'll open up to the demographic that's not "regular readers". Thats about 70% of a population is an untapped market. Tor? DAW? You talk like no one ever thought of publishing science fiction or fantasy books. It's been going on all along!

NoOneNew 5y ago
Like I said to another commenter, avid readers know these publishers. Outsiders who would potentially read from them dont know they exist. Non readers think books like The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter are once in a lifetime books. They're actually fairly normal genre pieces. Difference was, these were marketed better.

atseajournal 5y ago

I know the following will sound like something only a sock puppet would say, but I created an account just to agree with the level of rancor you've got towards the boring-by-default literary world. I got serious about writing as a teen, and being a serious writer meant aping the great literature I was reading -- ie an emphasis on fine prose and emotional weather reporting -- which led to an acute lack of juice in my fiction. Trying to remedy that now, and always looking to hear more from people working on that same project. Have you got a blog or anything like that?

NoOneNew 5y ago
So... out of curiosity, what are you looking for out of a blog? A few people have commented I should over the year. I dont have one, but I've thought about doing one.
- atseajournal 5y ago
  Based solely on this comment thread, I say this should be post #1: "I convert folks all the time. I get zero a year readers to an average of 6 to 10 a year. Mostly because i used to hate reading until i got converted as well. I know the pain points." I used to read 30-ish novels a year, and now it's more like 4. Would love to get back on the horse, I'm sure there are plenty of others. Finding fun books to read is tough. As for post 2, 3, 4...? I dunno, but I'm on Twitter at atseajournal, and happy to hear about whatever.