Reading For Fun

sarahreesbrennan:

PUBLISHING: Gosh a lot of people are reading and apparently enjoying young adult fiction. It’s selling really well.

PUBLISHING: How would it be if… we had… TWO categories that were selling really well? We’d be selling TWICE as much! MATHEMATICS!

(Similar conversations take place in businesses…

An awesome interview that goes into some detail of the plot of The Casual Vacancy and discusses how this book is different from the Potter series among other topics.

Although I knew this novel was aimed toward adults, this article definitely opened by eyes to just how mature the themes in this novel will be.

A notable (hilarious) quote:

“The thing about fantasy—there are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky.”

(Source: readingforfun)

This article describes the pros and cons of authors promoting themselves and their work using social media sites.  While some authors, especially in the YA genre, have flourished with the help of YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. (i.e. John Green, Maureen Johnson, Stephanie Perkins) others like those mentioned in the article have been made fools of by using these sites.  

This article brought up a lot of great points, especially for someone like me who is interested in the marketing/publicity aspects of the publishing world.  I think the key to using social media successfully when promoting a book or author is to have a purpose other than simply making noise.  

Promote a contest or sweepstakes on Twitter or Facebook, let readers ask authors questions on Tumblr/Twitter or during a livestream on YouTube.  Of course, authors should use these social media outlets casually as well, so as not to give the impression that their sole goal is to increase sales.  What people HATE is to be bombarded with tweets and posts screaming, “BUY MY STUFF!!!!!111”.  

But the struggle for PR and marketing professionals is, how much is too much?  Where does the line get drawn?