Target Audience

Okay, I’ll admit I watched the Eclipse trailer Thursday morning at 9:01am. I wasn’t counting down or anything, but I did run over, like the rest of the women in my office, when my co-worker announced she had it on her screen. While the men in the office rolled their eyes, I realized that the hype surrounding this movie is not unusual. In fact, I’ve been the victim of far too many hyped movies that I would not have seen otherwise and often wished I hadn’t – Transformers comes to mind. But that hype, more so than the quality of the film, can make a movie into a blockbuster – once again, Transformers comes to mind - while films of merit that do not have the same budget fall under the radar and sadly go unseen.
This marketed hype is now becoming applicable when it comes to books. Hype used to be either generated by the author’s previous success or word of mouth. While it was no guarantee that you would like the book, your chances were increased if you already enjoyed an author’s previous work or your best friend told you that "you have to read this book right now, the vampire is so hot". That’s changing though. Advertising books through print ads in newspapers and magazines is morphing into movie-like trailers during commercials of prime time television, especially for YA books – or maybe that just says something about the type of shows I’m watching. Still, more and more fiction is reaching out to its intended audience through television and websites. With the Kindle, iPad, iPhone apps and nook it is easier than ever to have instant literary satisfaction; see the ad, buy the novel and start reading chapter one in less than a minute.
All of this sounds great, but unlike movies whose target audience is often obvious - Murder & big explosions? Advertise during a game. Love story with a hot guy? Buy commercial space during Grey’s Anatomy. Twisting plot? Lost has the audience for you - books can be harder to categorize. Where would you advertise say… Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol? It’s got murder and big explosions, plot twists and in your mind’s eye if you replace Tom Hanks with, say, George Clooney (depending on your preference of course), then your audience is spread throughout primetime television. And how do you reach those who are interested in conspiracy theories, who perhaps don’t watch TV for fear of being brainwashed? Books don’t always have the kind of target audience a movie does. Nor do they have the “my wife dragged me to see this” excuse that a chick-flick gives a guy who wants to be swept up in a little romance. How do you find your reader when they could be anywhere?

It's All In How You Carry It

I’ll admit, I’ve always been a list girl, and sadly I’ve killed more trees using post-its than any other paper product. Until the invention of post-it and lists apps that is. Now my need for order is a bit greener. Despite my overly enthusiastic organizational habits, or maybe because of them, I’ve always enjoyed those ‘screw it’ moments where you call out of work because the weather is just too nice, take a new way home, plan a last minute can’t-beat-this-deal vacation, or just drive around looking for somewhere new to explore.
With Celiac Disease the only way to do something unplanned is to be constantly prepared for the possibility of something unplanned. That sentence, and the experience, is mind-numbing. Obviously, this takes some of the fun out of it. Gone are the all day shopping trips where I just grabbed something in the food court. Stopping ‘somewhere’ on the way home involves massive web research. And Sunday mornings spent walking the city only works within a radius of a restaurant that serves gluten-free brunch. The irony is, I used to go for long periods of time not eating without a problem – it’s amazing how the idea of lunch can be forgotten in Sephora. Now though, I get dizzy if too much time goes by trying on shoes, and it has nothing to do with the height of the heel.
I try not to let it take the joy out of the unexpected, but it’s just not the same when I require a gluten-free granola bar in my pocket at all times. It’s a tether to the everyday that I’m trying to escape; a literal weight that I can never unload. I admit, for a while that load felt very heavy, but I've since discovered that it's all in the way you carry it. Countless bags of varying designer quality help, as do the shopping trips they require. And lets face it, even a planned shopping trip has its fun.