by Jay Hartman
As we start experiencing flowers, heat waves, and allergies, there’s no doubt Spring is upon us (well, in most parts of the U.S.). And the spring months start leading us into the time period my former Waldenbooks staff and I referred to as SOS, or the Season of Sexism.
When you work for a major bookstore chain, there doesn’t tend to be a whole lot of thinking at the top of the management food chain for marketing Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Mother’s Day promotions are romance, cookbooks and gardening. Father’s Day books are nonfiction sports books (heavy emphasis on golf), war fiction (heavy emphasis on Tom Clancy) and business titles (heavy emphasis on being the best CEO you can be and closing sales). Year after year we saw the same promotions come down the pike, and we always said the same thing…doesn’t anybody realize people do read other things?
As a publisher, retailer promotions are a key part of getting our titles out in front of eyes. Overdrive typically runs some big promotions for libraries in May and June, but we see other themed promotions from several of our retailers in the U.K., Australia, and Africa. The problem is, most retailers are still running the same tired promotions we used to see back in the day, and they’re not necessarily aimed at an international market. Surprisingly, in the last two years Overdrive hasn’t run a single Mother’s Day or Father’s Day promotion. We had to submit Mother’s Day titles separately for promotion.
Authors aren’t doing much to change things up either.
Since American authors are so heavily biased towards selling through Amazon and to American audiences rather than the numerous other retailers that make up the international markets, my inbox has been steadily filling up with notices of “buy my romance book for Mom at Amazon” emails.
Here’s the problem. Due to the U.S.-centric promotion by authors, moms in other countries get ignored. Mother’s Day in Norway is celebrated in February. Vietnam, one of the leaders in literacy in the world and with one of the highest reading rates by women, celebrates Mother’s Day in March. Thailand? August. The U.K., whose passion for books far exceeds the U.S., celebrates the fourth Sunday of Lent as Mother’s Day.
Father’s Day isn’t much better. I’m still seeing war, sports, and business books heavily skewed as we head toward June. That’s unfortunate, since dads are so much more than this. And American authors aren’t thinking about the dads in Australia who get celebrated in September. Or China in August. Or Germany in May.
Successful publishers need to 1) think globally and 2) know your audience. If you rely on outdated marketing tropes, you’re not really listening to what your audience wants or being with them when the opportunity strikes.
Keep in mind that when it comes to reading engagement worldwide, the U.S. ranks a dismal #23 on readership. Asian countries take most of the top spots. If you’re aiming for #23 instead of #1, you’re doing it wrong. We’ll talk a lot more about this in next month’s column, but for now you should familiarize yourself with the top reading nations and when they celebrate their gift-giving holidays, to align your promotions with them.
In terms of interest by genre, most studies do show that women lean towards fiction genres and men towards nonfiction categories. However, a study done by the American Library Association shows that women aren’t just about the romance books. They also prefer realistic fiction dealing with relationships, mystery, realistic fiction dealing with problems, and humorous titles. Gardening, cooking, nonfiction relationship books…none of those made the cut.
And the men? Adventure, humor, horror, and science fiction. On the nonfiction side, it’s more about history and memoirs/biographies. Not golf. Business books fall much farther down the list. In fact, according to the study, the one thing both genders have in common is “realistic fiction that deals with the contemporary problems of people.”
Of course, it doesn’t help that many authors, publishers, and retailers continue to promote the old, tired ideas of what men and women want. However, if you take the time to do research on the markets around the world, you can be a force for change with your writing. Maybe this is the year Mom gets a well-plotted murder mystery instead of 50 Shades of Sex Scenes Surrounded by Poor Narrative. Maybe this is the year Dad discovers Cthulu instead of receiving a copy of How to Win Friends, Influence Enemies and Keep Women from Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling. And maybe, just maybe, a mom in Norway wakes up next February and discovers there are authors in other countries promoting to her on her actual day of celebration.
The end of the Season of Sexism begins with you.
Looking to get The Publisher Perspective? Send your questions to jhartman@untreedreads.com with TPP in your subject line. If your question is used, we’ll send you a free ebook from Untreed Reads.
Jay A. Hartman, editor-in-chief at Untreed Reads Publishing, founded Untreed Reads to promote ebooks with an emphasis on independent authors and publishers. He’s written about the ebook industry for fifteen years and previously served as content editor for KnowBetter.com, one of the internet’s oldest sites reporting on ebooks and epublishing.
Cool column! I do wish to be read, but my target is well-off youth. Are there middle-class youth in Asian countries?