A publishing friend of mine just sent me Little, Brown’s spring catalog. For those of you who haven’t seen a book publishing catalog, they are fascinating, part preview of things to come and part re-view of what editors thought was relevant/interesting/saleable 12-24 months ago.
And so I present to you, without comment or judgment, the first ten hardcover titles of the Spring ’09 Little, Brown and Company catalog (with marketing taglines):
1. THE HORSE BOY by Rupert Isaacson
“The remarkable, inspiring story of a father willing to go to the ends of the earth to heal his son.”
2. A LUCKY CHILD by Thomas Buergenthal
“The profoundly moving memoir of a young boy’s odyssey through the Holocaust.”
3. THE 8TH CONFESSION by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
“The only episode of the Women’s Murder Club this year!”
4. FOLLOW ME by Joanna Scott
“From one of today’s most captivating literary voices, an epic and unforgettable novel of a young woman’s search for herself in America.”
5. THE SCARECROW by Michael Connelly
“#1 bestselling author Michael Connelly—the best mystery writer in the world”*—brings back the hero of The Poet in a terrifying new thriller.” *GQ
6. INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH by Luis Alberto Urrea
“Beloved bestselling author Luis Alberto Urrea returns with a brilliant, ebullient, and timely road novel about a young woman’s journey north, to America.”
7. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? by Rocce Mediate & John Feinstein
“The legendary Rocco Mediate teams up with America’s favorite golf writer to chronicle the golfer’s epic head-to-head battle with Tiger Woods in the 2008 US Open.”
8. DO-OVER! by Robin Hemley
“A middle-aged father conquers the embarrassments of childhood—by calling ‘do-over!’”
9. MIX SHAKE STIR by Danny Meyer
“Start any evening off on a glamorous note with stylish, unexpected cocktails from Danny Meyer’s world-renowned New York restaurants.”
10. THE MAN’S BOOK by Thomas Fink
“This manual of manliness is the essential gift for any self-respecting father, friend, graduate or groomsman.”
Tags: books, culture, publishing
From the taglines – I want to read some of them already. I wonder if that will change when I see the covers…
Cheers,
Trevas
The taglines didn’t appeal to me, especially when I saw taglines that echoed each other. But I did want to read the taglines. They tell me that I have no tagline for my book.
I’m one of the ones who’s never seen one of these catalogs… is this the first 10 of 20? Or the first 10 of 100? Also, I’m assuming authors don’t write their own taglines. These are slathered in marketing gravy.
Talk about abasing the currency of language… Mainly what those taglines make me think of is how the word “bestseller” no longer means, y’know, bestseller. It’s like saying “This is the most unique book I’ve ever read!” or “This is the #1 most unique book I’ve ever read — it’s exponentially more unique than #2!”
In the spirit of Wanting Publishing To Be More Awesome, how could we remake the publisher’s catalog — either this specific example, or in general? Do we know what the process is? Do we know what the retailers’ buyers expect? Is this the best that can be done, given those expectations?
Oof. These read like a daytime TV guide. But maybe that reflects more on taglines in general, as opposed to these specific books.
What’s with all the women going on journeys lately?
Re: Jes, my brother Lee from Literature is Not Dead just made a post about that, actually, how the publishing industry has completely lost touch with it’s markets. You can red it here: http://literatureisnotdead.com
- Kid
@Lars: the catalog contains 113 pages of books from Little, Brown (the main imprint), Back Bay (not sure what it is), Orbit (which seems to be quality sci-fi and fantasy) and Arcade (which is also hard to get a handle on but seems to be “smaller” projects). A handful of books get a two-page spread, such as “lead title” THE HORSE BOY. The others get a single page.
kidbrother: My fave part of that “LIND Publishing Part 1″ rant:
For some reason people seem to think the failure of a few publishing houses might doom literature, as if anything short of complete annihilation of the human race would stop us twisted writers from writing. Can you imagine anything stopping James Joyce except a bullet to the brain? You put rabid dogs in the same room as Emily Dickinson and my money is still that what comes out of the room is poetry and not dogs.
Ha — absolutely something I wish I’d said myself!
“You put rabid dogs in the same room as Emily Dickinson and my money is still that what comes out of the room is poetry and not dogs.”
That is a ridiculously great line.
That is the best line I’ve read in years.
It is a great line. But our estimation of its greatness seems to rest in part on certain expectations about Emily Dickinson, i.e. that she wasn’t in her own way a stone cold fierce critter. I mean I have a feeling she could just look at those dogs and send them belly-crawling out the door. Zero at the bone–dogs know.
Yeah, I love that line!
But the books though…um. Maybe that’s why I feel so disconnected. None of them really appealed to me…
I don’t think it’s possible to make an accurate judgment based on the taglines alone (except for the golf book). For example: “The remarkable, inspiring story of a deaf man who forges four unforgettable friendships.” … Would anyone want to read “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” based on that single line of promo copy? Maybe the actual catalog provides a little more info. I have no experience in publishing, so I find these insidery details fascinating.
Man, this is what I get for not reading DCWYTBMA more often. Everyone talking about my blog and I didn’t even know it! Thanks for the kind comments.
I disliked the book taglines, particularly when they sounded so repetitive, but I agree with Lars in thinking that the problem might be the tagline format itself. Does a tagline really convey any useful information? Why bother? If the book gets a page of description, or even a paragraph, in the catalog, I’d cut the taglines entirely.
OR, I hear some publisher catalogs are going online. Have a first paragraph of copy about the book and then a “read more” tag like so many blogs do.
The problem with these taglines is that they are full of subjective (i.e. bullshit) qualifying words: inspiring, moving, timely, unforgettable, remarkable, essential, etc. These are qualities that readers need to be allowed to judge for themselves.
Smart, professional authors know that when pitching or querying an editor/agent, you should leave such judgment calls to the editor/agent and just SAY WHAT THE DAMN BOOK IS ABOUT without ordering him/her to like it. That’s what I wish this publisher had done with the taglines. Publishers: Tell us the hook and let us decide if it’s the kind of story we might enjoy. Then, if we read it, we’ll tell YOU how captivating or brilliant or profound it is.
Pretty much the only exception among these taglines is the Women’s Murder Club book, which is most likely to be picked up by readers who are already familiar with the series.
As an editorial intern for an independent press, I have to play devil’s advocate here.
The one-liners in catalogs are typically never meant as a way to market a book to the public. The subjective, qualifying words Jolie complained about are TOTAL marketing jargon, yes, because they are specifically for the benefit of our distribution companies, whose sales reps blaze into our offices for meetings, call frequently, stress out our editors-in-chief, ask a thousand questions and typically only read that one sentence tagline to gauge whether or not the book will sell. So interns and assistants like me are forced to include those words-captivating, edgy, uplifting, quirky, et al.-while editing the catalog copy, for the sole purpose of generating interest from the very people who have the contacts and sales skills to make our books critically and/or commercially successful.
Now, I am in no way justifying every book every publisher prints. Nor am I justifying the way every book is, or is not, marketed. I’m just saying that there is a reason most of you have never seen a publisher’s catalog. They’re not written for you. They’re written for the corporate peeps who help get them sold to the stores from which you will, or will not, purchase them
Note: I am not an intern for Little, Brown
Thanks for playing Devil’s Advocate. As a former agent, I also wrote marketing shorthand like this when I represented our clients’ books to foreign markets.
Still, I think it’s interesting for outsiders to see how insiders play. I would never suggest that a writer craft their project so it fits one of these taglines. At the same time, it doesn’t hurt to know what your baby is going to be treated this way some day.