er...

[electricland]

http://www.bookslut.com/blog/archives/2005_03.php#004801

Publishers are stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to customer data: beyond vague ideas that reading increases with age, class and education, they have little or no idea who their customers are, where they live, or what their tastes may be. Who are all these new Da Vinci readers? No one knows. Publishers need to be much more sophisticated about building consumer databases and mining them through newsletters, websites and focus groups.

Without having read the linked article, may I just say: Great. Because we need more books that will pander to the readers of The Da Vinci Code. Editorial judgement? Publishing good books? Who needs that?

Comments

[pretentiousgit.livejournal.com]

Ha aha ahaaaa.... hoo. Ok. I literally just exited a session on Publishing Your Dissertation/Book, and actually, it's so true. Even the tiny university presses have No Clue Whatsoever as to how to make people read books, or how to sell books. There was a footnote on one page that it's usually best if the text is "accessible".

Whee.

As to the Da Vinci Code thing... it's sort of like the Harry Potter phenom, isn't it? People really want accessible, believable works about what is basically fantasy - you know, conspiracies, etc. that are legible and in contemporary language, rather than academic. I dunno. I think the formula shouldn't be that tough to work out.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

But if publishers start Giving The Public What They Want by publishing only what the largest number of people will want to read to the exclusion of all else, we promptly slide straight to the lowest common denominator.

The word "formula" in this context makes little alarm bells go off in my ears...

[pretentiousgit.livejournal.com]

Good point. I being a member of the 11+ books per annum club, I don't think I particularly get a say.