Marketing magic happens long before the final product lands on the shelf. They want us all hooked, compelled and decided to buy the book before we can even touch or smell the pages, slide our fingers down adroitly designed covers, feel the weight or whatever our fetish is. They need us to love the concept before many of the details are revealed. Early readers’ attention secure sales. Book trailers, growing in popularity, come in aid and work in favour of teasing one’s appetite. Here is what we think is essential when creating one.
By Agnieszka Ramian
Marketing magic happens long before the final product lands on the shelf. They want us all hooked, compelled and decided to buy the book before we can even touch or smell the pages, slide our fingers down adroitly designed covers, feel the weight or whatever our fetish is. They need us to love the concept before many of the details are revealed. Early readers’ attention secure sales. Book trailers, growing in popularity, come in aid and work in favour of teasing one’s appetite. Here is what we think is essential when creating one. by Emlyn Roberts-Harry While it's generally not a good idea to outright ignore your fans, it is important that creators not fall into the trap of simply giving them what they think they want. Listening to fans' demands rather than doing what you want to do is a slippery slope, especially in the internet age when everyone has feelings of entitlement and can easily make the whole world hear their grievances. by Graeme Stirling A few days back, we took a look at Fiona McIntosh’s Betrayal, a muddy, sometimes grim fantasy tale with some apparent references to the Reformation and violent segregative politics. Last week, we pondered over the link between fantasy fiction and the adventure novels of the Victorian era, in particular how the legacy of the former has transformed into the latter. Thanks to a certain bearded, bespectacled gent with the same two middle initials as fantasy forefather Tolkien, the genre is presently big news. By Charlotte Dibley I’ve been thinking a lot about romance and how it is portrayed to us mere mortals. I’ll be honest: I’m exceptionally conflicted. I had this thought whilst I was sat watching a generic Disney film (I’m aware this is the Books section but bear with me). The common consensus is that Disney and romantic films (e.g. some kind of struggle, boy meets girl, potentially more struggle, boy saves girl or they save each other, they live happily ever after) provides a false impression of what life is actually like. With this, I couldn't agree more. In recent years, there has been particular emphasis on the effect this has on girls, who seemingly develop a Princess complex. From my own childhood experience, I desperately hoped that I would fulfil some noble destiny, have the picture perfect Prince who would sweep me off my feet, and we'd be amazingly compatible and stay together until the end of time. This somewhat idealised vision, I presume, works both ways. Boys must witness the ridiculously high expectations of most girls and immediately feel that they should be strong, heroic and romantic. By Graeme Stirling As his twilight years began to dawn on him and to cast a shadow over a hugely successful career, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle went a bit mad. The Scots-born physician-turned-author had run into a stroke of horrible luck, losing his son in the First World War just over a decade after the death of his first wife, and turned to spiritualism as a means of solace. He was the key defender of the Cottingley Fairies hoax and remained adamant that the mystical winged creatures were real. He did his level best to convince fellow spiritualists to edit their faith system around his original Christianity. He titled his only memoirs The Wanderings of a Spiritualistand in them claimed as irrevocable fact that he could talk to the dead and had done so several times before an audience. By Samantha Payne Film adaptations, the phrase now fills me with dread. Why? It all began with the announcement of the first Harry Potter movie. The little excited nine year old that was me, waited with eager anticipation with her big brother; who by the way was the one who read the first book to her. She watched the movie with wide eyes, feeling the thrill when she recognised scenes from her beloved book. She and her brother discussed, at length, the merits of the film; only discovering a few minor things left out but it was otherwise an excellent film. Slightly older now, she went to see the second film and was much the same impressed by its accurate portrayal of the story. It was the third film that her disappointment in the film series began. The changes and story elements that were missing were starting to become more glaringly obvious to her and she found herself not being able to enjoy the movie because of them. This disappointment grew as the series progressed. She loved the actors who played the familiar characters but it was the distorted way in which the story was told that disturbed her. This experience is why I no longer trust a film adaptation of a book to be anything compared to the book itself. by Hayley Charlesworth Pulp Fiction. When most people hear those words, their mind immediately goes to Samuel L Jackson being terrifying and John Travolta shooting Marvin in the face in Quentin Tarantino’s masterwork. But pulp fiction actually describes a genre of literature popular in the 50s, 60s and 70s, popularising most crime dramas starring femme fatales or sci-fi romps. With tongue firmly in cheek, the wild, campy adventures basically made pulp fiction the b-movie of the book world. And now one company, Pulp the Classics, is returning to that cheeky sense of humour with their releases, issuing classic novels with amusing pulp fiction covers. Let’s take a look at the roster. By Verushka Byrow Over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself appreciating humour in writing more and more – not the over the top humour, but the sly, snarky humour that doesn’t. per se, stand out in a passage as “OMG, this is so funny” but, it flows in with the story, an intricate part of the text that just cracks me up. I actually blame J. K. Rowling and the Weasley twins for this – it’s extremely hard to remain composed in a train full of suited professionals while reading about Fred and George. I know, I’ve tried. by Hayley Charlesworth As the film section’s dedicated TerriBrill expert, the responsibility of reviewing this book could only fall to one person. Michael Adams’ one-year odyssey into the world of bad cinema is funny, worrying, and acts as one hell of a recommendation list for bad film fans. By Verushka Byrow Years ago I worked in an office that took me 45 minutes to get to by train. That was right around the time Harry Potter had taken off and everyone was reading it. And, I jumped on the bandwagon. So there I was, 30-something and reading Harry Potter in a train filled with people in business suits and thick novels, with names I had not heard of before. They were most definitely more serious literature than my own Harry Potter title. I was the only one that broke out into uncontrollable giggles when the Weasley Twins pulled any of their tricks in the books. No, seriously -- tears rolling down my face, trying valiantly to stifle my laughter in a funeral-quiet carriage with people in need of their first cup of caffeine -- or if it was the evening ride home, ready to get home. |
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