Year: 2008

For all this talk about the decline of literary reading in America, there’s really been very little offered in the way of solution. As per usual, I’m probably unqualified to be writing this (caveats seem to have worked for Britt; maybe they will for me too), but I think I have an idea that might possibly save the book world: Better advertising. At the very least, it’s worth a shot.

I think it’s time that publishing houses – Penguin, Random House, Harcourt, et al – take seriously the notion that the American entertainment economy is saturated and competitive (duh…) and therefore that books shouldn’t be competing against other books; rather books as a medium should be competing against movies as a medium, or music, or porn, or anything else that might take time away from reading.

If this is already their mindset – many of them are incorporated, after all – then they need to pull their heads out of their asses and be more effective. Where do I see advertisements for books? In the New Yorker, in the New York Times Book Review, in Harper’s, in literary journals – places readers already are. And while there’s something to be said for targeting your audience, in order to thrive, I would think you need to attract some new customers.

According to tradition, a potential convert to Judaism is supposed to be turned away by a rabbi – three times. If that person persists in his effort to convert after the third rejection, he is considered serious enough about the faith, finally, to be allowed in. The publishing world seems to make their barriers similarly ridiculously high; advertising, like religion, is a means to access mass amounts of people, but literary advertising seems to confine itself only to people already of the faith, so to speak. In Judaism, we bitch about intermarriage diluting and possibly annihilating the religion. Likewise, the publishing world bitches about the reallocation of words from the well-regarded print periodicals to poorly edited blogs (hi!).

 

But neither Judaism nor literature, it seems, proactively recruit fresh constituents. Is it elitism? Is reading something so holy that it shouldn’t need to be marketed? Something so inherently valuable that people should flock to it of their own accord, and any need for a commercial here and there is preposterous? Yes. But then there’s reality to deal with.

Right now the most vibrant literary events in Minneapolis are the Books and Bars series, Talking Volumes, Talk of the Stacks, and the existence of The Loft. (Doubtless there’s some great stuff I’m leaving out, like the reading series at Spoon River … feel free to PR and big-up yourself in the comments section below, and I’ll throw in a hyperlink if you don’t. I’m making a different point, though … right … about … now:) As far as I know, these goings-on are funded by independent bookstores, bars, the library system, and MPR – not by Random House, Penguin, and so on.

Meanwhile, the most effective advertising for books is done, I think, by Amazon, which tells me what books I might like, based on what books I’ve previously bought. Again, the publishing houses aren’t behind this, I don’t think – rather it’s simply Amazon’s self-interest in promoting sales.

Furthermore, it seems publishers are incompetent with the money they actually have for marketing. Last night, best-selling author/sometimes-musician Darin Strauss was in town to promote his new novel, More Than It Hurts You. About fifteen people showed up at the Galleria Barnes & Noble to hear him speak. Maybe five of them, he estimated, bought his book –– totaling roughly $125 for penguin, minus B&N’s take, minus cost of printing, etc. This, Strauss said, was a fairly typical turn-out for his current tour. He explained that the real intent of an author tour is to generate publicity, via interviews and reviews on local radio stations and in local newspapers.

But, aside from this amazing piece of writing, Strauss had nothing lined up in the Twin Cities. Neither the Strib nor the Pioneer Press has yet run a review of the book, nor did he get on the radio. I think City Pages mentioned he was coming in a blurb on their A-List.

And yet he was here, which means Penguin (his publisher) shelled out for his flight, his hotel, and a hired car to take him to his reading. That’s got to be getting close to $600, if not more. There are about twenty stops on his tour. This is money that could be spent buying print or radio or television or (gasp) movie preview slots to advertise, which one hopes could generate more than five book sales.

So – and feel free to amend – a few thoughts on what publishing companies can do to help save books in the modern world, without resorting to E-Books, God willing:

– Take a big chunk of the money allotted for author tours (except in cities guaranteed to get a big audience draw) and spend it on advertising.

– In the short term, forget specific authors and books, and do a good campaign promoting books in general, with a heavy, heavy emphasis on literary novels by current authors.

– Advertise in ways that will draw new readers. (Oprah’s great for having her book club, but it’s a little scary that she’s the pre-eminent bookseller of our times.) This may take some thought. Product placement? We’re all suckers for it, anyway. So why not?

– Merchandising! On The Road – the Toilet Paper Scroll. Are you telling me you couldn’t have a Holden Caulfield action figure, which actually broods? A Lolita doll? Or less perverse toys thereof?

– A rough idea: Fuck hardcovers! I’m not sure what their function is anymore, except to make people not buy books. Fairly frequently I hear someone browsing the new releases section at Magers and Quinn and hear, "Oh, I’ll just wait until it’s in paperback." Yeah, buddy – I bet you will. I’m not sure this testing-of-the-market to see if it justifies a paperback run is useful anymore. With the advances of
immediate and on-demand publishing, why not just spend an extra nickel on a more-endurable paperback to begin with (Penguin Classics-type quality), and use the extra cash on, I don’t know, more advertising.

– Community involvement. If Target can sponsor free museum days, Random House can sponsor outreach programs, too. According to me, at least.
Check this: Even B&N and Borders are struggling now in the giant commercial suction cup that is the Internet. The dominant bookstores soon might be those that people feel personal connections to. So maybe instead of paying to put shitty cardboard displays with books We’ve All Been Meaning To Read up front, publishers should finance Independent Bookstore Community Involvement Stuff. What about a tutoring program inside a bookstore? Kids could get help with their English homework for free and get comfy with the environment of must and dust. Booksellers and publishers would be seen as giving back to their communities (more than they already do simply by peddling great books). If the program were two days a week for two hours, you could pay one employee (if volunteers are unavailable) probably less than $10,000 a year. Would other infrastructure be needed? I’m sure English teachers would promote it to parents. Just a thought.

One last cheap tie-in to religion: Without playing the advertising game, reading looks to be going the way of Reform Judaism – something its practitioners respect, and probably hope to pass on to their children, but which is really only observed once or twice a year.