DRAMA's Gone To College
They grow up so fast.
::tear drop::
So Not The Drama has headed off to college via my god daughter (Hey A!), who recently entered her Freshman year at [college name redacted to protect the innocent]. Apparently, she's passing her copy of So Not The Drama around and her dorm mates are loving it.
Well, I'm pleased as punch! The thing is, when I wrote the book, I didn't actively think, "this book will be great for ages blah, blah, blah." I figured the ideal reader was a middle schooler who wanted to read what high school might be like -or- an older teen/adult who wanted to relive an extreme, yet reality-based POV of high school.
That there description of my ideal reader is a marketer's nightmare!
P, they're saying, you can't have it both ways.
Ahh, but I can. Because A isn't the first (ex) high schooler to let me know the story appeals to them. Far from it.
Obviously I haven't touched every reader of the book, but anecdotally I've spoken to enough to know the age range of young uns who have read and liked it starts at 9 and ends at about 58.
Sweet.
The moral of this story is:
As much as we bally around the word "subjective" in the publishing industry - because it is a very subjective business - sometimes as authors and people in the book biz, we forget to apply that when discussing who our ideal reader is. That there is no way to truly identify what story will touch a certain some one.
I've never consciously worked to write toward a target audience, because I know there's a whole team of people at my publisher who will work that out once they receive a finished product. And thank God for 'em.
But, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the true definition of the word "reader" is someone who reads. And usually those kind of people read anything that captures their attention.
Yay readers!
::tear drop::
So Not The Drama has headed off to college via my god daughter (Hey A!), who recently entered her Freshman year at [college name redacted to protect the innocent]. Apparently, she's passing her copy of So Not The Drama around and her dorm mates are loving it.
Well, I'm pleased as punch! The thing is, when I wrote the book, I didn't actively think, "this book will be great for ages blah, blah, blah." I figured the ideal reader was a middle schooler who wanted to read what high school might be like -or- an older teen/adult who wanted to relive an extreme, yet reality-based POV of high school.
That there description of my ideal reader is a marketer's nightmare!
P, they're saying, you can't have it both ways.
Ahh, but I can. Because A isn't the first (ex) high schooler to let me know the story appeals to them. Far from it.
Obviously I haven't touched every reader of the book, but anecdotally I've spoken to enough to know the age range of young uns who have read and liked it starts at 9 and ends at about 58.
Sweet.
The moral of this story is:
As much as we bally around the word "subjective" in the publishing industry - because it is a very subjective business - sometimes as authors and people in the book biz, we forget to apply that when discussing who our ideal reader is. That there is no way to truly identify what story will touch a certain some one.
I've never consciously worked to write toward a target audience, because I know there's a whole team of people at my publisher who will work that out once they receive a finished product. And thank God for 'em.
But, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the true definition of the word "reader" is someone who reads. And usually those kind of people read anything that captures their attention.
Yay readers!
posted by Paula at 8:10 AM
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