Books are a bit of a unique element of the world of entertainment. Unlike movies and music, which can be heard, seen, and advertised using just about every aspect of the media - television, radio, internet - books are very different. Their sounds, colors, and characters come from within the individual reader's mind and not from an outside source. The publishing industry can't do much in the way of advertising beyond telling the audience that a book is good and they should buy it. How, then, have books managed to gain such popularity in today's image-driven world?
In thinking about this topic, I remembered a class I took during college aptly titled "American Bestsellers." On the first day of that class, we had a discussion about what aspects of a book make that book a bestseller. We then compiled a list: sensation, sales, popularity, and content.
Perhaps the best example of a book with a sensational impact is Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The novel used local southern dialect, including a term for an African American that, while common then, is highly offensive today. The sensation caused by "Huckleberry Finn" led people to want to read the book and take a side. Readers either joined the fight against such controversial writing or championed the novel as the ignored truth of the times.
There are two series which make themselves excellent examples of the aspect of popularity creating a bestseller. J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series and, more recently, Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series have both spent time dominating the "New York Times" bestseller list, which is based on the number of books shipped to different stores throughout the nation. However, there is an untraceable aspect of the concept of popularity - what if one person purchases the book but two people borrow, read, and love it? Those two people are not going to show up on any list, but the book then gains further popularity as those two talk about it and encourage their friends to read it, and so on. Here books shine in their best advertising method: word of mouth.
Through the conversations that encourage one person to borrow a book from another or gain access to it in some other way, books can become popular, fade, and then become popular once again. Of course, music and movies also make use of this, but in addition to the other types of advertising they are able to take advantage of.
In that college class, we agreed that the best measure of a book's popularity is the number of people who have read it and considered it a worthy piece of literature. In this way, books encourage communication between individuals - whether in person, over the phone, or using the Internet. The person who has read the book must explain characters and plot instead of simply showing images from a movie or having their friend listen to a song.
In a "New York Times" article, Shira Boss examined this concept. She stated that movies and music "have made a point of using new technology to gain a better understanding of their customers." Boss uses the Internet as an example, stating that television companies can use web sites, blogs and forums to get feedback from the fans. The publishing industry has no such ploy.
As the world grows smaller with developments in technology, books remain the underdogs of entertainment. They sit quietly on bookstore and library shelves, waiting for the reader, and they depend on that reader to get their message to other people through their most concrete method of advertising - word of mouth. An author relies on the chance that somewhere, someone is going to read his or her book and share the experience, and that the reader will continue to spread the word until a book becomes as popular as the next blockbuster film.
(Jen Matsick is a reporter at The Review, covering the villages of Wellsville and Salineville. Reach her at jmatsick@reviewonline.com)
