I recently wrote about 10 New Year Resolutions for the publishing industry. While I was writing, I was thinking about how easy it is to state the problems, yet how hard it is to actually fix them. I decided I would challenge myself and start a research project on what I think may be the biggest issue facing the industry as a whole, finding the markets that are ignored now.
There are many markets that feel ignored, but I thought of one that could have a very large impact on the industry – people in their twenties to early thirties. It is a generation of ignored readers, and it is my generation. There are YA books and there are books for our parents, but there isn’t anything for us. There is a reason so many bloggers, especially bloggers in their twenties, read so many YA books.
I have thought about some of my ideas of how to get books for this age group and how to market them, but for now I will keep that to myself…because I want to find out what the readers think! It is something that publishers do not do, but every other industry does extensively. Publishers need to follow suit, find out what their readers want and find a way to give it to them. Now, I don’t think readers should pick out the plot or the author, but they should get a chance to voice their opinions on marketing, genres, eBooks, and many other aspects of publishing.
So that is what I am doing. I am asking all 20-32 year olds to go take the survey! It only takes about 10-15 minutes and it will be a huge help for me, the industry, and eventually you!
I am going to throw in a contest too. Currently, I have only sent it to people I know in real life and have 25 responses. So the contest will be for milestones in responses. The books will be determined later (look at the bottom of this post to see some of the books that might be given away), but they will be some of my favorites! This contest ends February 15th. We are up to 100 so it is guaranteed that someone will win!
100 responses – 1 book, 1 winner
200 resposnes – 2 books, 2 winners (1 book each)
300 responses – 3 books, 3 winners (1 book each)
400 responses – 4 books, 4 winners (1 book each)
500 responses – 5 books, 5 winners (1 book each)
1000 responses – 10 books + $25 Borders gift card, 5 winners (4 win 2 books, one wins 2 books and gift card)
If there are more than that…I will think of something else!
Now how do you enter this contest? Well…you have to work a little for it. For these steps, the survey URL is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6GMTP2C.
You can list everything you do in one comment (unless you do them at separate times, then you can just add comments)
+1 entry for leaving a comment telling me that you either a. took the survey or b. are not in the age group
+1 for tweeting about the survey (NOT the contest) and encouraging friends to go take it. (give me the URL)
+1 for tweeting about the contest. (give me the URL)
+1 for following the blog
+1 for referrals. There is a question in the survey asking who referred you to the survey. Everyone who writes your name = an extra entry
+3 for blogging about this survey. Send me your link.
The more people who take this, the better the prizes and the better your chances.
Here are some of the books that are up for grabs (more will be added)!
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar’s lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar’s paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles’ once peaceful home. When Edgar’s father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm—and into Edgar’s mother’s affections.
Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father’s death, but his plan backfires—spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father’s murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.
My Name is Will A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare by Jess Winfield
Willie Shakespeare Greenberg is not living up to his name. It’s 1986, and instead of finishing his thesis on the Bard, this grad student is saying “yes” to drugs, bedding coeds, and delivering a giant psychedelic mushroom to a mysterious collector.
Meanwhile (or rather, back in 1582), would-be playwright William Shakespeare is an 18-year-old Latin teacher whose world is turned upside down when a stranger entrusts him with a sacred relic from Rome, drawing him into an underground network of Catholic dissidents.
When the lives of Willie and William begin to eerily intertwine, their wild misadventures will shape not only the “Shakespeare” each is destined to become…but the very course of history itself.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler’s Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
Denis Cooverman may have brains to spare; it’s guts that he lacks — or at least, he did until today. Stepping up to the podium to deliver an inspirational speech to his graduating class, Denis decides that the time has finally come to call out his classmates on their peccadilloes and declare his love for the prettiest girl in school — Beth Cooper. Much to Denis’ surprise, Beth responds by accepting an invitation to a party at his house later that day. But Beth’s meathead boyfriend, Kevin, is none-too-pleased that his high school prize is mingling with the biggest dweeb in school, and when Kevin shows up at his house and tears the place apart in a fit of rage, Denis, his best friend Rich, Beth, and her friends Cammy and Treece all pile into Beth’s car and flee for their lives. For four long years Denis sat silently behind Beth in class, pining for a way to make his love known. Now, over the course of one long night, Denis will finally get to know the girl of his dreams better than he ever thought possible. If he manages to survive until morning, it’s sure to be the story of a lifetime.
Boys and Girls Together by William Goldman (one of my favorite books ever!)
Aaron, Walt, Jenny, Branch, and Rudy. They are children of America’s postwar generation, as different from one another as anyone can be. Yet they are bounded together by the traumas of their pasts, the desperate desire to capture their dreams and satisfy their passions, the stirring pleasures of sexual awakening — and the twists of fate that will inextricably link their lives in the turbulent world of 1960s New York City.
Pub Writes 