It's been a truism for a few years now that most book buyers are women. When I worked at Barnes and Noble it was the Romance Section that had the briskest business and those Sneaky Pie Brown Mysteries (and other cozies) sold like hot cakes. Some men do read Sneaky Pie Brown and romance novels but no man has ever bought one. This story below from The Chicago Sun Times confirms what I've suspected for a while now - male book readers are an endangered species. What do men do with their time? Nobody knows. Watch TV, play video games, go to the driving range, kill prostitutes in back alleys? They're certainly not hanging out in bookshops. The Sun Times story has a couple of interesting angles for me. I read The Time Traveler's Wife a few years ago and quite enjoyed it - its basically a romance novel with a college education. Also Niffenegger's agent Joe Regal was my old agent back in the day and her publisher Nan Graham was my publisher for Dead I Well May Be - both of them are very smart people. Anyway it's food for thought - don't be surpised if you never hear from Adrian McKinty again, but Adrianne McGinty suddenly becomes a well known romance novelist...'Time Traveler's Wife' author hits jackpot
By Teresa Budasi, Chicago Sun Times
Chicago author Audrey Niffenegger, who wrote her way to the best seller lists six years ago with The Time Traveler's Wife, has apparently snared a $5 million advance for her followup novel, Her Fearful Symmetry. Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, was the big winner in a hot bidding war, which also included Time Traveler publisher MacAdam Cage and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which published the paperback.
Audrey Niffenegger is also a visual artist and faculty member at Columbia College Chicago. I would say it's a bit of a gamble for a publisher to shell out so much money for a second novel, not only in this climate of a crumbling economy. . .but Scribner VP and editor in chief Nan Graham isn't worried. "She really has defied custom and written a spectacular second novel, which is one of the hardest things to do in this universe," Graham told the New York Times.
Audrey Niffenegger is also a visual artist and faculty member at Columbia College Chicago. I would say it's a bit of a gamble for a publisher to shell out so much money for a second novel, not only in this climate of a crumbling economy. . .but Scribner VP and editor in chief Nan Graham isn't worried. "She really has defied custom and written a spectacular second novel, which is one of the hardest things to do in this universe," Graham told the New York Times.
37 comments:
Here's a question: since when did we start spelling Traveller with one 'l'?
Robert E Lee's horse: Traveller
That Bill Paxton movie about Irish gypsies in North Carolina: Travellers.
The 1977 RPG, Traveller.
I hope you're not ashamed of your RPG past, Anon?
As a matter of fact I'm quite familar with the Traveller Role Playing Game, I may even have played it. Sort of a Dungeons and Dragons set in space if I recall.
Americans do not like extra anything in their words. Spelling is not our strong point.
Actually, though I know the romance industry is huge in the U.S., our store does not bear this out, and my sales reps tell me that this isn't unusual in their Bay Area region accounts. Believe me when I say that as the mass market buyer I have practically no shame and if sales bore it out, I would load up a table with romance, but generally its just three or so of some titles and a pass on many.
I was wondering aloud lately why we don't have better romance sales, and someone theorized that women do still read romances in Santa Cruz, but many of them are embarrassed to buy them at a 'highbrow' bookstore such as our own, and buy them at the supermarket stands or wherever instead, and thinking about it, I expect there is some truth in that. It's too bad, really, because we could use the sales.
I have sold romance novels to men--it's rare, but they get on a certain writer, usually Nora Roberts, and they embrace it.
As for cozies, well, they do okay, but really nothing compared to the likes of Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, James Patterson (yeah, yeah) and Robert Parker. Hard boiled crime sells to men and women, so I think male writers odds are still pretty good, even up against the likes of Grafton and Evanovich, who aren't cozy anyway.
I would not say that our store is totally driven by sales to female readers. Lots of male customers buying books, last time I looked. Which was today.
Time Traveler's Wife is beloved here, of course. I haven't read it. Come on--you could say DIWMB is a romance novel with a college education, plus an extra dash of bloody mayhem.
Niffenegger has a wider range than some might think. You could check out this one, for instance. Personally, not my cup of tea, but someone here might go for it...
Seana
Funnily enough I tried to get TTIS from The Denver Public Library when it came out but they were never able to get it for me. No one actually refused to do it, but mysteriously it didnt happen. I ended up reading it in a comic book store and thought it was pretty good. In fact in my book Niffenegger is 2 for 2. TTTW and TTIS - both not bad.
Denver Public Library were able to get Alan Moore's Lost Girls for me however so maybe I'm just seeing plots where there are not plots.
The thing that jumped out at me when I read about the advance was the disastrous Cold Mountain follow up, but according to the NYT Nan Graham has actually read the new novel and thought it was terrific so it'll probably be a win win for everyone.
Okay, so here's the nefarious thing in all this. I don't know whether the Denver Public library 'declined' to get it for you or not. I do know that there was a kind of 'thing' around that book. I read it, to the degree I read it, in the bookstore, but in an atmosphere that was strongly against it. I don't actually know what I would have thought of it if I had read it in some more neutral context. I do know that the store never exactly promoted it because they didn't really know what to do with it. It makes sense to me that a comic books store might do better with it because it would not feel so offbeat in that context.
Okay, great if Niffenegger's second book is another bestseller. Except that it isn't really her second book, is it? TTIS did come out after TTW, though I think it was a project she was working on for a long time, and I think it kind of thudded. It didn't matter that it was a project dear to her heart, and it didn't matter that she had developed this huge audience. Because it didn't fit within the reasons for the Time Traveler's Wife success, there was no room for it.
Of course, it may have had brisk sales on Amazon for all I know. All I know for sure is that in our store, her name wasn't enough to carry it. Which I find a little discouraging. It's not that I think that if people love one book a writer does that they should then love them all. But I do think that there is some element of TTIS that must have been in TTW, ie, something odder, and people only really read it for the love story.
Oddly enough, while we've been nattering on here, someone was posting this at Chicklit Forums, which is a site I've visited for a long time, mostly women, yes, but not at all devoted to chicklit as a genre.(The owner of the site came up with the name before chicklit became a publishing phenomenon.)
Finished The Time Traveler's Wife and remained largely unimpressed by it. I thought the actual writing did a disservice to the story, which was interesting in theory. I felt like the main characters were developed very little throughout the 500+ pages of a book chronicling their life together, and too much time was squandered on the minutiae of daily life that were irrelevant and unimportant. Parts were nice, and I did tear up near the end, but in a begrudging kind of way on my part.
Yeah--tough crowd.
Seana
Nice linkage. A stern review. I liked it better than that.
I'm assuming that Nan Graham knows that this is her THIRD book. I mean someone must have told her, right?
What happened to your group read of Kidnapped BTW? Everyone give up?
Thirteen Moons was a fantastic read; I thought it bested Cold Mountain in character depth, description, language, everything. Didn't want it to be over. Odd that it sold much less. I hope nobody makes a crappy film version.
Guess MInghella won't, anyway.
Hardbarned -
I liked Frazier's prose, but the ending pretty much ruined Cold Mountain for me. I don't think Frazier prepared us for the downer ending like he should have.
Do you think I would enjoy Thirteen Moons? I seem to recall it's a collection of short stories? Or am I totally off base here?
Well, it's certainly a lovely title, "Her Fearful Symmetry,"
in fact the title alone may be worth the advance!
Nice to see any artist get paid so well.
Lot's of great work under the header of "chick-lit" lately. My favorite being "Peony in Love" by Lisa See (great story of lost love and ghosts) and "Restless," by William Boyd (great mother-daughter spy-suspense book, which proves that men can write great chick-lit, too.
PKL
Re Kidnapped,
No, we haven't given up yet. We only meet once a month, so I tend to pace myself, meaning, really, that I read the whole book in the last week. But I'm about a hundred pages in and liking it very much. I do find it kind of humorous, though, that after all David Balfour has been through already, he has just said "With my stepping ashore, I began the most unhappy part of my adventures." I mean, its not like it's been a barrel of laughs so far.
Brian, yes I think you'd like 13 Moons. It's not short stories, but a novel about a young man who is sent away by his family to work a remote wilderness trading outpost in the pre-civil war era US. He basically raises and educates himself and befriends a native american man. He becomes a lawyer to defend indian land claims and has many adventures with and without one woman whom he loves throughout his long life. The best word to describe the novel is rich. The way he describes the land, his animals, the way he cooks over a fire,his love for reading and writing, his intimacy with nature, his varying comfort with and resignation to a life of solitude. He spends most of his life alone and yet has the most fascinating experiences and insights. Anyway, as you can see, it sold me.
In other news, I just scored two library edition hardback copies of DIWMB, which I plan to distribute to friends unfamiliar with Adrian's trilogy of awesomeness.
Never knew I was such a "maverick" but as a male reader of fiction, I have been on a Denis Johnson kick this year. Listened (I know, I know, not the same) to the epic Tree of Smoke and am now reading Already Dead (title seems weirdly familiar) which is phenomenal.
HB
Thats interesting. I listened to Cold Mountain as an audio and I didnt think it was that great, so I'm intrigued by what you say. Maybe I'll give Moons a go and make my own mind up.
Adam
You and I are a dying breed.
On a slightly more serious note, I'm not quite as skeptical as all that about the death of the book. I mean just taking the US as an example lets say that only 1 percent of men regularly buy books. I know its much more but lets just say its 1 percent, thats still 1.5 million regular book buyers out there! Ok times are hard but we're not talking about Iceland here, the publishing industry will definitely survive - in some form anyway.
Seana
Ah I remember that bit. Everyone's speaking Gaelic and they're Catholics.
And you must have got through the "am I no a bonnie fighter Davie?" Classic.
Patrick
Hmmm I dont know about that. I'm assuming its a Blake analogy. But I've got to say I like the original better. "Thy Fearful Symmetry" has a more Biblical portentous sound to it. Her Fearful Symmetry seems to have too many R's in it.
Brian
I though the audio was fine. I was prepared for the downer ending because of all the mournful music they kept playing.
This isnt going to end well I was thinking.
Brian, Barned,
As you can see I'm kind of in two minds about Cold Mountain. Have either of you seen the film? Should I pop down a few bucks and check it out? I remember reading that it was filmed in Romania and it had Jack White in it which made me interested.
Adrian,
Cold Mtn, the book: liked it very well, though I did not hear the audio version. I agree wholeheartedly with what you said once about how a particular reader can utterly ruin a good audiobook, or make it shine. Liked the film but found it a little too manipulative with sweeping music, wistful glances, sappy longing. . .etc, and neither Jude Law nor Nicole Kidman (though I'm told she now resides near me in Tennessee) have a clue when it comes to southern accents. Worth a streaming download on netflix? Yep, Jack White and Zellweger are the best parts, though she was annoying as hell in Appaloosa recently, looking very Botoxed. . . Love that Joker!
13 Moons, however, I did listen to on audio, and it was fantastic. I liked it much better than Cold Mtn on film or in print, and I doubt it would be adapted well, though I'm sure it will be before long. To conclude, read 13 Moons before you rent Cold Mountain.
What are men doing if they aren't reading books?
Well, I confess, that in the distorted world I live in, all my male friends read a lot. I am lucky. It's a far cry from my childhood where the only book in the house was the RAC Book of the Road. God, I loved that book. My escape from Crossroads.
I'm aware of the data that show that men are not reading. However, it's not clear they are doing much else either. Are they engaged in sporting activities? Well, running is just about the most popular sporting activity and yet there are few males to be seen at my local running club, despite the recent explosion in membership numbers.
Are they engaged in hobbies? Thirty years ago, on any Sunday in my housing estate, an endless number of cars could be found on ramps and in bits. Today I'm helpfully reminded that my interest in mechanics (bodging)is becoming abnormal when I visit my local car spares shop - Halfords - and find it full of bicycles and SatNavs rather than spanners.
Are they down the pub talking about how they are being shafted by the CSA? Nope. Pubs are closing at 40 a week in the UK at the moment.
Working long, long hours to earn a crust? Not in the UK. Ever since the 1980s labour force participation rates in the UK have been dropping.
WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
What are men doing if they aren't reading books?
Well, Alan, I have two hypotheses about that. The first is that men, especially men in the U.S., but perhaps men everywhere, have taken President Obama's speeches to heart and have decided to foreswear drink and self-indulgent pleasure of any sort, opting instead for long hours of community service. Doing such frivolous things as athletics, auto repair and even reading take a pale second to working in soup kitchens, tutoring children, giving blood, taking food to shut-ins.
I'm pretty sure that's what's going on, but in case I'm wrong, I do have a second hypothesis. In this scenario, they are still drinking and smoking, but they can't be bothered to go to pubs because they need all their free time to spend in front of various screens, where they watch sports, download porn, and fight each other in computerized intergalactic space.
I'm not a man though, so I'll leave it to those of you here which scenario seems most likely.
Adrian,
Yes, I have gotten past at least the first swashbuckling part. That's a fine line, but my favorite part of that scene is when the swashbuckler in question composes a ballad about his own feats on the spot, in Gaelic, neglecting to include his brave comrade--i.e., our hero--in the telling. David excuses him because 'poets have to think about their rhymes'.
Poets get excused a lot.
I didn't know what you were talking about with the people speaking in Gaelic, because at that point David was marooned, but now I understand. Have come upon your favorite line, too, the exposition of which is both brilliant and hilarious. I didn't see it coming, so I suppose I didn't really get the whole set-up as a kid.
But here's a real question, ignorant as I am--are you saying that as Catholics those people wouldn't have been speaking Gaelic, or what?
Seana
No the lowland Scots would be largely Protestant and English speaking like Davie, the highland and islanders would be Catholic and Gaelic speaking. Hence the 45 when the highlands and islands rallied to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the lowlanders largely did not.
I think its hilarious that Davie is shiprwrecked and lost and completely an alien in his own country.
Alan, Seana
Yeah I dont know what they're doing either. They're a total mystery to me. And I'm going to be even more flummoxed when Battlestar Galactica ends forever in two weeks.
Thanks--that's not only a helpful description of the difference between the Highlanders and Lowlanders, but I like your pointing out his more shall we say metaphyical state of being as well.
As for occupying yourself post-Battlestar Galactica, I'm thinking that devising a computer game of Kidnapped would not be the worst idea ever. As I say, I'm not even halfway through, and already there are many, many options of failure to be exploited as dead ends or wrong turns, or better, battles!
Some men do read Sneaky Pie Brown and romance novels but no man has ever bought one.
I wouldn't know. I remember a discussions on genres on Detectives Beyond Borders in which Linkmeister admitted liking Nora Roberts.
This reminds that recently I skimmed through a romance novel. Cheap romance paperback (at .20 euro) are a great success at the monthly charity used books market.
In this one, the original title probably something like "A loveable Irish rogue" our feisty (spunky?) heroine is an American anthropologist in Ireland for a convention. On route to the castle where the convention is held,the road is blocked by bags of peat who had been dropped by a cart- a peasant and two boys are trying to put them back.
As anthropologists are wont to do, she begins to berate the man for his stupidity, backwardness and lack of education,
and is quite incensed at his smug replies (though she manages to take note of his earthy complexion, bright blue eyes and overall talldarkandhandsomeness).
It later turns out (surprise!) he actually is the lord of the castle,who still does those menial jobs because he's such a down to earth guy.
Best of all, he's actually American too- Boston Irish- and had to work hard to rise from his lowly background and get a university education before inheriting a castle and a county-sized piece of land.
At this point I was distracted and ended my skimming.
Marco
Shit thats the entire plot of my screenplay. Damn it - straight into the bin.
I'd like to see a romance novel for once where they reject the rural and find that those big city folk are much more appealing and interesting than all those creepy types in the villages.
Wonder if this drug could help people read more books
Marco
Oh man the Onion is the cure for the blues.
When I was in grade school I was taught to spel traveller both ways.
But the teacher much preferred the one L. I preferred the former spelling because I felt that the extra L was needed, for backup I guess in case anything happened to the first L.
This was in the same class where the teacher tried to teach us kiddies how to spell Chicago. She had a helpful phrase: "chick on the car and the car won't go." I was in the 1st grade and was convinced that there was no way in I'd ever remember that asinine phrase, so I forced myself to say to myself "Chic" "ago" every time I heard the word Chicago, which was a lot for obvious reasons.
I guess both ways of remembering were effective, 35 years later.
Hey Adrian,
Did you know that the Denver library was the scene for lesbian pickups in the 1970's? I went to college in Boulder in the 90's and met up with a fair share of Denver lesbos. There were no bars (I guess the mafia wasn't running Denver?), no book clubs, no lavender back rubbing sessions (ha, made that one up...I hope such things don't exist), back then, so somehow word got out that if you wanted to hook up with another lesbian, you had to go to the Denver Public Library on Thursdays and wear something green.
I find myself compelled to disclose the most random things to you on your blog. It's like you know all the right trigger words or something.
Sheiler
I did not know that. It still makes sense though. Even today the DPL is filled with serious, rather attractive women, whereas the males are mostly homeless guys who I'm afraid to say tend to be rather drunk and carrying a fair degree of pong.
I'll bet you didnt know though that the DPL is locus of the human rebellion in L Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth.
...guys who I'm afraid to say tend to be rather drunk and carrying a fair degree of pong
Adrian, maybe that's where the rest of the male readership is ... too.
Do you know why DPL was selected for the Human Rebellion? Does Tom Cruise know about this? Do the robots from outer space like being a mile high or something?
Also if you see any wayward lesbian in the library wearing green, and looking a little tired, maybe you could head her in the direction of the few Denver gay cowboy/cowgirl bars. There were like 3 or 4 when I lived in Boulder. I always pretended I was visiting Japan, observing their ways because it was all so different. Well, you could do all this when you go back to Denver, that is. You're where now? In Tazmania? Do the Lawrence Welk fans there shoot guns and yell TAR-nation!
Speaking of which, did you ever read Annie Oakley's Girl by Rebecca Brown?
OK I have got to stop eating cookies before going to bed.
Sheiler
I havent read Rebecca Brown, but for my sins I did read Battlefield Earth. The DPL becomes the centre of human resistance against the aliens because in among its ruins Johnny Goodboy Tyler finds a copy of the Declaration of Independence in a glass case and this inspires him to revolt.
Post a Comment