Week Nine Work

Book Trailers To Be or Not To Be:

I totally agree with the Chicago Tribune’s assessment that there are an awful lot of lousy book trailers on the web.  This is an area of the marketing industry that has only recently come about and does have a place in book promotions.  It should be a no brainer to produce a polished product if you want it to reflect positively on the book you are promoting, so leave this to the individuals who are good at this.  I do watch book trailers and have seen some very impressive ones.  I was on the fence about reading Niceville but the trailer closed the deal for me and I ended up showing it to multiple people because of my reaction.  The New York Times article hit the mark in describing how popular this form of marketing is with teens and how easy it is to just go ahead and purchase that book you just saw a trailer of, because you are already online. 

As far as a reader’s advisory tool, I don’t believe that book trailers have developed enough at this point to provide our customers with a reliable source of information.  We don’t want to direct them to a tool that looks amateurish. 

Final Thoughts:

 

I finished! My final thought is relief! I appreciate all the hard work the committee did in providing staff with this valuable reader services training.  I discovered and reacquainted myself with many different tools.  Following blogs for genres I don’t normally read has broadened my ability to provide better service to our customers.  I enjoyed the teen assignments and particularly appreciated the readalikes chart.  The flow chart on subgenres was also very informative and I have added many of the titles to my Goodreads account!  I only wish we had been provided more time to complete these assignments as I found myself rushing through the material I would rather have had time to thoroughly digest.  Some of the assignments had so many pieces to them we should have had more than just a week to finish these tasks.  I could not have completed the training by the original deadline so I am grateful for the extension but would have felt less stressed through the process if I had known there would be additional time at the end to catch up.

Week Eight Work

Four Nonfiction Genre Areas:

Biography:   The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Biography genre: Books listed alphabetically in the Biography section, the first area of nonfiction at the Towson branch.

Crime: Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi

True crime genre: Dewey 364’s.

History: Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

History genre: Dewey area by subject, this particular work in civil war history 973s.

Memoir: The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball

Memoir genre: Located throughout collection in Dewey area by subject. This particular work was in the gardening section 635s.

Book Talks:

The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball – This nonfiction work reads so much like a fun fiction novel that you will find yourself checking the spine label to confirm that this is indeed a true story.  The main character of this memoir is a young female journalist from New York City who decides to write an article on organic farming.  She spends several weeks doing research on a farm, working alongside the owner with whom she falls in love. They decide to start their own farm and co-opt in upstate New York and the story recounts the many obstacles and unexpected realities she faces with such a 180 degree change in her lifestyle. This story will appeal to those who enjoy a strong female character.  It is written with humor, honesty, and some suspense.  Can this couple make their farm work in time to provide their products to the people who have paid into the co-opt? Will their engagement survive the first year of starting their massive endeavor?  Readers will enjoy this interesting narrative, learn a ton about farming, and be rewarded with many recipes utilizing products raised on their farm.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi – This disturbing, graphic, and horrific story contains all the suspense of a first rate fiction thriller.  Knowing that these events actually took place adds to the fear factor.  As the author recounts the background history of Charles Manson and his followers, it becomes understandable how this charismatic, persuasive psychopath could manipulate and warp lost individuals into doing his bidding.  The description of the actual murders will chill readers to the bone.  This story will appeal to people who enjoy a good crime story as the reader gets to follow the investigation of the murders, to the apprehension of the culprits and their trial.  As Manson and his followers periodically come up for parole and these events are recounted in the press, the interest in this book stays current.  Helter Skelter will appeal to those who enjoy reading about famous cases and shocking crime stories that one could only wish had been the work of the author’s imagination.

 

Week Seven Work

*Not just for teens Library Journal, Jun 15, 2011:  After reading this article I found the section about the marketing of YA books interesting.  Utilizing video trailers for books and posting on Facebook and Twitter reaches a wider reader base than just teens.  Readership among adults will continue to grow because they are being marketed to just as much as the original teen target audience.

 

*The Next Big Thing YALSA; The Hub, Oct 2012:  Sometimes the adult public needs to be encouraged to pick up a teen book. As librarians, we understand their appeal value, but occasionally it takes a book talk to entice a customer to take a look at a potential title. Since I “follow” new teen titles, I was not surprised by the news that more and more adult authors are generating novels for the teen audience.

Comments posted to Peggy P. and Richard S.

The two blogs I followed were John Green Books and Teenreads.

I very much enjoyed the Teenreads site and liked the “Adult Books You Want to Read” feature.  This is the converse of our week 7 Be More Bookish assignment on adults that read teen novels.  This is a valuable tool in helping grow our readers to a more mature level of books once they are ready to look beyond the Teen section.  Another thing that I think makes this blog “work” is the variety and depth of articles.  I also liked the daily quotes and believe adults would get just as much from this blog as teens do.

The John Green Books site was fabulous.  If you weren’t a John Green fan before checking out his site, you will definitely want to try his books after visiting his blog.  His video clips are beyond entertaining and the running ticker on the front that posts readers’ comments on his books acts like a hook to get you interested in what they are discussing.  Both of these blogs would be enjoyed by adult and teen readers alike.

According to the two Teen imprints that I evaluated: Little, Brown Books for Teens and Tor Teen (Macmillan) it is my opinion that there is a current trend toward expansion of the sci-fi, paranormal genres.  The trailers and book blurbs discuss steampunk and genetic mutations.  I think the reign of the vampire may finally be over!