Thoughts on the article "New Adult: Needless Marketing-Speak Or Valued Subgenre?".
So the gist of this article points to what is going on within publishing where adult themes are being shoe horned into young adult literature. The traditional age range the YA lit demographic is thought to be 18 to 29. But it thrills publishers that older adults are reading this genre which puts more money in their pockets. However the backlash comes from authors who say that the traditional YA genre they want to write for is being confused and warped into PG-13 versions of Shades of Grey. The author backlash argument has some merit to it and seems to be reflected by traditional genre reading communities. This article does point out that most of the books that are increasingly becoming YA lit are just washed down romance novel from a tween's point of view. Often the protagonist in these genre's are female young adults who are coming into their own through an adventure while pursuing a romantic lead on the side. Regardless of the title (Hunger Games and Twilight) fans realize the latest gimmick that publishers are playing to get more sales. Often at literary conferences themed on traditional YA lit like comic books and sci-fi fans actively boo the presence of these titles that have a twinge bit of a their favorite fiction but rely to heavily on the romantic bit to make it engaging for them. Where as fantasy (Harry Potter for example) that has a strong detailed setting and character adventures and just a twinge romance are fully excepted into the fold of traditional literary fandom.
So while authors are the creators of the content they never truly hold all the cards. There are various methods to sell books and shaking up a genre or two where money can be made will certainly be where publishing companies will scurry too. However the reading community seems to respond to traditional genre stereotypes and keep their favorite titles close to them. This still won't stop infuriating them when Barnes & Nobles adds a Teen Paranormal Romance aisle to their sales floor because it just sells well.
Thoughts on the article "A Not-So-Young Audience for Young Adult Books":
This piece primarily comments on the feeling that older adult might feel while reading YA lit. The author of the essay reports that they primarily read YA lit for the nostalgia as the appeal and that those that are dismissive of the simplified ending are kind of missing the appeal of why older adults are picking up these titles. I would say that there is a similar feeling for the nostalgia that is created when reading something to remember what we may have felt at some point in the past. I mean it usually something that we have a simplified memory of that makes us feel comfortable in the present. Like a favorite vacation spot or a favorite meal that was served at home or at a restaurant. Just for comparison the opposite end of a continuum in relation to nostalgia would be post traumatic stress. The author made mention of this point when talking about reading books like "The fault in our Stars" which I believe is a YA romance. And most people have that previous memory of being smitten by someone else that they deeply attracted to whether it's reciprocated or not. Those nostalgic feelings can feel like they are transporting people through time in their brains to a place that feels much simpler and younger. Of course the author also mentions that books that are YA lit which don't use romantic leads or have nostalgic endings, go for a darker twist that most people avoid. Like in the Outsiders when a childhood friend of the protagonist is responsible for murdering someone. The reader can only imagine how immediately stressful trying to hide your teenage buddy from the police who just fatally stabbed a rival gang member. The dynamics of such an event would change someone for life, usually not for the better. However this classic YA lit will not get the same face time from an adult readers except those interested in catching up with books they missed as a child or have their own children who need to read from a school's summer reading list.
Week 7 - Assignment 3
Johngreenbooks.com - Blogging about your own books and catering to fandom on the same webpage is kinda neat, kinda risky, and looks exhausting all at once. Author John Green seems young enough on his website that his books connect with the generation of teens that he is writing for. His narrative is hyper kinetic in that he feels like he enjoys experiencing the adventures with his fans and the characters that he has created. As opposed to be being passive narrative where teens might feel that they are being preached to about the way they should live their lives. The latter is more successful and engaging and probably more accurate to the point of view that of teens experience that phase of their lives in passage to becoming young adults. Everything that John Green is doing is probably very relative with that fan base. That were the fan base ends too. To older readers, they usually find the stylized communication of hyper-kinetic narratives annoying. I know I do. While it is crafted sound bites, overall, it has a manic sense to it that seems impulsive with undertones of narcissism (look how witty my short form tumbler videos are). I'm not saying that this is the kind of person that John Green is personally, I am saying that the character he has to become when running his web site for fans. It's like the difference between Bruce Springsteen on stage bouncing around singing for a stadium full of fans and Bruce Springsteen who is flying coach to the next concert venue. It just sounds extinguishing to be that an author to have to write, edit, publish, and additionally appear to be super interactive with your fan base.
Stackedbooks.com - After reading their about us section on their WordPress blog I see that Stackedbook.com is written by two professional librarians blogging about materials that they work with at their job. While there's nothing new about blogging about work (Heck, that's what I'm doing here right now for these assignments, blogging for work) blogging is certainly not journalism. Blogging is usually done in addition to one time outside of work and seems to be a niche readership based on a mutual topical interest. And if someone's blog has enough readership they may be able to make some money off of ad revenue from frequent visitors gathering to a community forum or blog post.
Johngreenbooks.com - Blogging about your own books and catering to fandom on the same webpage is kinda neat, kinda risky, and looks exhausting all at once. Author John Green seems young enough on his website that his books connect with the generation of teens that he is writing for. His narrative is hyper kinetic in that he feels like he enjoys experiencing the adventures with his fans and the characters that he has created. As opposed to be being passive narrative where teens might feel that they are being preached to about the way they should live their lives. The latter is more successful and engaging and probably more accurate to the point of view that of teens experience that phase of their lives in passage to becoming young adults. Everything that John Green is doing is probably very relative with that fan base. That were the fan base ends too. To older readers, they usually find the stylized communication of hyper-kinetic narratives annoying. I know I do. While it is crafted sound bites, overall, it has a manic sense to it that seems impulsive with undertones of narcissism (look how witty my short form tumbler videos are). I'm not saying that this is the kind of person that John Green is personally, I am saying that the character he has to become when running his web site for fans. It's like the difference between Bruce Springsteen on stage bouncing around singing for a stadium full of fans and Bruce Springsteen who is flying coach to the next concert venue. It just sounds extinguishing to be that an author to have to write, edit, publish, and additionally appear to be super interactive with your fan base.
Stackedbooks.com - After reading their about us section on their WordPress blog I see that Stackedbook.com is written by two professional librarians blogging about materials that they work with at their job. While there's nothing new about blogging about work (Heck, that's what I'm doing here right now for these assignments, blogging for work) blogging is certainly not journalism. Blogging is usually done in addition to one time outside of work and seems to be a niche readership based on a mutual topical interest. And if someone's blog has enough readership they may be able to make some money off of ad revenue from frequent visitors gathering to a community forum or blog post.
So what's Stackedbooks.com topical niche in the bloggosphere? The two bloggers that run this site, Kimberly and Kelly, say that they met in grad school when working on their information studies. Between the two of them it seems from their references that they have a lot of experience in YA lit. So guess what, they tend to blog on teen oriented titles. They say on their website that they give honest reviews, which is usually code for their opinion. Also from reading a handful of their post the take away is that they have a first person narrative that has a kinda distinct voice or personality to their reviews. This is fine for those that like that kind of style. Again to keep a fan base of people to come back bloggers need to have a narrative voice in their blog that readership can identify with. And if that readership like edgy, impulsive, witty blogging I think there's plenty of that content on this site. I have to admit though it is neat that two people collaborate on the site. Usually people like to have one blogger that they only one to hear from which puts that onus of content creation for the blog on one person and that can be a lot of work sometimes. So it's cleaver that they split it up into two people so that they have some downtime from the blog and can cater to other activities occur in real life.
Week 7 - Assignment 4
While publisher's website may not be the most exciting place to decide what book may be the next one you read. It may help from time to time if you have a favorite publisher to check out what they're selling. Between the actual printing and shipping books to customers and book stores there's a lot of time also spent on promoting their products. Like sales representatives will go out with a specific theme in mind to usually sell to retail stores, website tend to have the same perspective with their visitors. While it is very easy to be dismissive about advertising as being a campaign to rally the troop around a brand. If publishers were not to promote their materials sales would most likely be dismal and the author would have to find a new publisher or just be to discouraged to ever attempt to publish again.
So looking at the teen books on Harpercollins.com and Harlequin.com there are two distinct marketing techniques. Harpercollins.com in their teen section is bee-lining straight to YA romance novels. They have a few titles that may be fantasy or paranormal teen adventures but it's almost exclusively romance of a young teen falling for the boy of her dreams. Harpercollins.com is taking a stand that they don't need to diversify their product line to maintain interest in their YA lit romance titles. They probably attract better writers who's works stand to make more money per title and prestige of being published by Harper Collins. Where as Harlequin.com is promoting still a majority of YA romance titles they are a little more diversified in their offerings. There line up seems that they are almost 50-50 between teen paranormal and teen romance literature. I think this is because Harlequin tends to appeal to serialized popular quick reads to keep their sales numbers up.
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