tagged w/ Get Booked
-
Thom Geier says it best, so I'll just let him begin:
"There’s been much fulminating in the books world lately that The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, is bad for publishing. This week, former Publisher’s Weekly editor Sara Nelson even dubbed Brown a “Book Killer.” The theory is that Brown’s readers will only troop into stores (or go online) starting Sept. 15 to buy Symbol, probably at a deep discount, and they won’t buy anything else. Worse, the critics argue, the hubbub surrounding Symbol will drown out media coverage of other books — and eat into sales of those books too. So publishers have supposedly been shuffling the release dates of various titles so they don’t have to go head-to-head with the Dan Brown juggernaut."
Thom Geier's analysis:
"It doesn’t take a Harvard symbologist to see that this is mostly sour grapes and a whole lot of hooey."
You hear that? A whole lot of hooey. I like this guy.
"It reminds me of the stink that publishers raised over the Harry Potter series, successfully persuading The New York Times and other outlets to demote the titles from their adult best-seller lists so that J.K. Rowling titles wouldn’t hog up so many slots. Why do we have to compete with a book that appeals to a youth-skewing mass audience, beyond the usual Starbucks-sipping B&N crowd?, the publishers asked. That just isn’t fair! (Imagine if the movie studios tried something similar so they wouldn’t have to compete with the box office returns of G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra.)"
Mr. Geier goes on to point out that, although Dan Brown's new novel will almost undoubtedly jump to the #1 slot, it's effect on the book purchasing trends of other books will be minimal and, if anything, will draw in and audience that may include many "non-habitual book shoppers."
"The crossover with Jon Krakauer or Jonathan Lethem or Pat Conroy, some of the authors alleged to be “hurt” by Brown, seems infinitesimally small. (I’d love to see the Venn diagram of the overlap in readership, actually.)"
Brownie points if you can supply Master Thom with his Venn diagram.
--
Sooo...
Booked Wants to Know:
Do you think Dan Brown is a Book Killer? Will you be reading his newest book, Lost Symbol? And which would be worse to meet in a dark alley: the Dan Brown Juggernaut or the J.K. Rowling Youth-Skewer?Thom Geier says it best, so I'll just let him begin:
"There’s been... more
-
