Hey Ellen,
Micki Maynard's reply to our exchange last week got me thinking. She says that an author's publicity blitz needs to work on both the national and local level. A successful book launching, she says, combines the two.
I agree. And, ironically enough, it also is the very formula that makes a newspaper-sponsored book fair successful. I suspect that the newspapers that you talked about last week which backed away from putting on a book festival were taking too elistist an approach to the event. The reason book fairs put on by the
Los Angeles Times (and, if I can modestly add, the
St. Petersburg Times) have been so popular is because they take the big tent approach. A successful book fair not only presents popular national and regional authors, but also covers a wide variety of genres and subjects. In most cities, a festival that features only literary authors, I'm sad to say, won't draw the biggest crowds. On the other hand, at successful book fairs those authors can get more exposure to people who might never think of picking up one of their books.
Newspapers, of course, have to be convinced that such an event is in their interest -- and, yes, they have to be willing to provide the resources to get these events launched. I'm surprised to hear that the
Seattle Times wasn't willing to pay $25,000 to get a crowd of 9,000 to an event. Sure, 20,000 was better when they weren't charging, but 9,000 paying customers is nothing to sneeze at. And I don't think newspapers should only count heads at these events. Our own festival garners an enormous amount of goodwill -- and from the newspaper's point of view, free publicity -- from people who never get to the fair. The event has been covered by C-SPAN, for example, and it has been featured in a wide variety of national pubications. Kids who have never owned a book are given one, thanks to a program whereby participants are encouraged to bring books to the festival for those in need. And, at any rate, throwing its lot toward literacy and the encouragement of reading seems to me a good idea for a business whose customers, after all, are by definition readers.
Perhaps what is needed is more information about how these festivals can work to a newspaper's advantage.
Hi Margo,
Well, you're preaching to the converted, but also someone who sees most newspapers in a hunker-down mode, longing for the old days when TV and radio were the only threats to their readership and ad revenue. Consider my follow-up "conversation" -- via e-mail, of course -- with Micki Maynard, who covers the auto industry for
The New York Times and responded to last week's column.
She considers her website a critical link in promoting her latest book, "The End of Detroit." (Check it out at
www.michelinemaynard.com and
www.endofdetroit.com.) Authors on the Web, (
www.authorsontheweb.com) an off-shoot of BookReporter.com, (
www.bookreporter.com) built it for her for $2,500, and it costs her $50 a month to maintain it. Included in that price were links to search engines and a mention in the
Book Reporter, which reviewed her book and did a Q&A with her.
"I have found that promoting my book this time out was much different than my previous books, published in 1998 and 1995. And the web still is in its infancy when it comes to the book world," Maynard says.
Her words prompted me to call Carol Fitzgerald, effervescent founder of The Book Reporter.com and its family of sites for teens, kids, authors, book clubs and -- the latest addition -- one for Christians. I think Fitzgerald is counting her blessings, because she's getting more than half a million unique visitors every month and making money besides. As newspapers chop book coverage, she's there to scoop up the reading and writing audience.
Newspapers need to court book readers the same way Republicans are now targeting guys who like to watch car races: It may be a niche market, but it's a critical one. Book festivals are one way. But the Internet is another, and that's not all.
Four years ago, the
Minneapolis Star Tribune came up with its new-and-improved version of a book club, Talking Volumes, which is stunning in its reach and commitment. Teaming up with Minnesota Public Radio, the
Star Tribune runs a Sunday feature on the author of its featured book and a 7-day serialization of the book. MPR reinforces this effort with a call-in show that is heard on 20 stations in five states. Both organizations run house ads or PSAs to promote the effort. A culminating author event at
the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul (also known as the home of "Prairie Home Companion") attracts sell-out audiences. Senior culture editor John Habich, a Talking Volumes creator, says that publishers consider it one of the top five publicity venues in the country.
This wouldn't work in every city, but Minneapolis is a readers' town, and the
Star Tribune takes pride in identifying with the high interest in books. Besides guaranteeing that chosen books will make the regional bestseller lists, Habich says it has created "tremendous, tremendous public good will" for the newspaper.
The serialization idea is not confined to already published books, of course, as Dickens long ago proved. This holiday season Poynter's own Chip Scanlan and his wife Katharine Fair have serialized a Christmas story called
"The Holly Wreath Man" through Universal Press Syndicate. The story is appearing in or on 23 newspapers or websites, underlining the idea that fiction could have a place in settings that have not been congenial to the idea.
As Habich pointed out when I asked him how his paper could justify devoting more than 200 column inches to a book excerpt, a lot of feature sections use wire fill around those inside ads, so maybe serials represent a better use of space. What a radical thought, that newspaper readers might survive without their daily dose of Madonna or Britney Spears.
Hi Ellen,
I think your message is right on target: Newspapers better start thinking creatively or they will turn
away the one audience they can't afford to lose: dedicated readers. If airline magazines can offer book excerpts, why not newspapers? If millions join in book clubs launched on "Oprah," "Good Morning America"and the "Today" show, why wouldn't they be drawn into a newpaper book club? Minneapolis is not the only "reader's town'' in the country. I think more cities are book friendly than we might imagine. Who would have thought a book fair in St. Petersburg could draw up to 20,000 people?
So why do these ideas take root in some areas and not others? I suspect in each case there is a single individual behind the initiative, someone who simply believed that books are important and found a way to promote them. Bookstore owner Mitch Kaplan of Books and Books, for example, is the godfather of the Miami International Book Fair, a week-long affair that draws hundreds of thousands. Mickey Bazalan-Knox, a dynamic woman now in her 90s, launched the Sarasota Book Fair. Nancy Pearl, executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library, single-handedly came up with the idea of having the citizens of her city all read one book, and now One Book, One City initiatives have cropped up all across the country. And, as you point out, it was a culture editor -- John Habich -- who started the Minneapolis Talking Volumes project.
All of these people have understood one thing: There are a lot of booklovers out there.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story placed the Fitzgerald Theater in the wrong location. (
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