Wednesday, May 22
Week 5 Assignment 2
Customers at Parkville seem to like mysteries, SF, Amish fiction, chick lit, urban fiction, some bestsellers and book club material, and blockbuster authors. They enjoy leafing through the Hot Titles binder and placing holds on upcoming new fiction. They sometimes want to read a book before the movie comes out, if the movie has been getting good publicity. EarlyWord really helps out here, especially if the book carries a different title than the movie. This valuable site has great resources to use with customers who are interested in titles that are trending now. There are awards lists, links to publishers' catalogs, publishing news, best books of the past year, movie trailers, watch lists, and categories of books for all ages. The section that I would use again is the very comprehensive Non-Fiction read-alikes, for those customers who choose to read NF and want suggestions. The site is superlative. It goes without saying, since it's edited by a former BCPL'er. (smile)
Week 5 Assignment 3
I selected The Yonahlossee Riding Club for Girls from the PW link from the right-hand nav Coming Soon Season Previews because it was vetted by Curtis Sittenfeld and I enjoyed his novel Prep, a coming-of-age story about girls an an exclusive preparatory high school. This new one is set in the 1930's south, however, not present day but deals with girls in trouble, teen angst, and what goes on in these private girls' schools behind the ivy-covered brick walls. This would be an emotion book, and not expected to be fast-moving. It should be popular with teens and fans of historical chick lit, readers who enjoy books about school life. The appeal factors would be the campus setting, tone, and characterization. Readers would also like The Catcher in the Rye, Disobedience, The Life All Around Me, Old School, and Bill Warrington's Last Chance.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Tuesday, May 21
Week 5 Assignment 1
I have been following the resource http://www.stopyourekillingme.com because I want to know more about all the different sub-genres of mysteries, this not being a category that I explore much. Tons of work went into this site. In the left-hand navigation pane, users can find lots of special indexes where they can access books by character name, profession, ethnicity, historical period, and type of mystery. Readers can specialize in cozy mysteries in which the detective is a librarian. There are 4100 authors of mystery, crime, thriller, spy, and suspense books; mystery readers can spend all day here finding great leads on books to read, and they can subscribe to a twice-monthly newsletter of forthcoming books. Not necessarily the prettiest site, but hardcore fans will overlook this in favor of the many links to all the well-organized lists of information. This site would be great fun to use with a computer-savvy customer who is looking for new authors, or with someone who remembers the name of a certain detective and wants to know what books they appear in. More than anyone would ever want to know about the genre!
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Wednesday, May 15
Today I had great fun exploring Goodreads. The site is very easy to navigate through, and I wasted no time adding 21 of my favorite books, rating them all and reviewing a few. On Listopia I searched for books about characters who juggle, and found a list with one book on it. I added another to it, and marked the original one as "to be read." Then, I put the Goodreads RSS feed on the front page of my feed aggregator, Netvibes, so I can see what is trending right away when I log onto my list of feeds every day. 14 new stories trended today. (Note to Goodreads Webmaster: put the general RSS icon prominently on the first page so those inclined can find it quickly and add the stream to our feed reader of choice....) Then I added some friends from Gmail and made some recommendations.
The suggestions of titles in the genres I checked off were accurate, especially in the ones where the setting was prominent. Many books appeared in more than one genre.
Since our PAC links to Goodreads I have always been curious about it and have explored it before, but never signed up, preferring to use The Library Thing www.librarything.com instead.
Today I had great fun exploring Goodreads. The site is very easy to navigate through, and I wasted no time adding 21 of my favorite books, rating them all and reviewing a few. On Listopia I searched for books about characters who juggle, and found a list with one book on it. I added another to it, and marked the original one as "to be read." Then, I put the Goodreads RSS feed on the front page of my feed aggregator, Netvibes, so I can see what is trending right away when I log onto my list of feeds every day. 14 new stories trended today. (Note to Goodreads Webmaster: put the general RSS icon prominently on the first page so those inclined can find it quickly and add the stream to our feed reader of choice....) Then I added some friends from Gmail and made some recommendations.
The suggestions of titles in the genres I checked off were accurate, especially in the ones where the setting was prominent. Many books appeared in more than one genre.
Since our PAC links to Goodreads I have always been curious about it and have explored it before, but never signed up, preferring to use The Library Thing www.librarything.com instead.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Saturday, May 11
The most important thing that I learned from the "Conversations" assignment with the three customer requests was that you can search Novelist for appeal factors. This was new to me. If readers reveal appeal factors in the books they prefer, or even just mention a title they liked, we can search by these factors and find just the right book for the right mood, every time. No more searching your brain for the one title you think is appropriate, but actually may not be.
Conversation 1
The customer chose Eat Play Love because it was popular, but ended up liking it for the location and the reflective tone. She revealed that she liked the Oprah books too, most likely for their tone as well. I would recommend Three Cups of Tea for its impassioned and thought-provoking tone, even though it is not a novel. Another one that comes pretty close to fulfilling what the customer wants would be Tales of a Female Nomad, an author's journey across the globe in search of her personal identity in the wake of a failed marriage and her peripatetic lifestyle in the fifteen years that followed.
Conversation 2
In this scenario, the customer is very sure of what she doesn't like in a vampire story. With the help of the Boolean appeal factors search in Novelist, I would suggest several humorous ones as well as poignant ones that are not for teens and are devoid of romance. A fast-paced, funny and steamy novel, Undead and Unemployed features Betsy Taylor, the new Queen of the Vampires, who gets a job selling designer footwear at Macy's while trying to catch a vicious vampire slayer with the help of a gorgeous ally. For a more contemplative mood, suggest Fledgeling, a story of a young, amnesiac girl whose un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must also learn who wants to destroy her and how she can save herself.
Conversation 3
This customer wants a true story, historical, fast-paced, perhaps a story about wilderness survival, with or without a president but maybe someone famous. Lots of accounts of the Shackleton expedition came to mind, but after some digging I also found Panama Fever, the epic history of one of the greatest engineering triumphs of all time: the building of the Panama Canal. This book describs the human cost in terms of the harsh working conditions and epidemics, and the resulting medical breakthroughs that would transform medicine. The canal, commissioned by Teddy Roosevelt (the subject of the customer's last book read) is the main character in this well-researched and satisfying account of imperial vision and social inequity.
The most important thing that I learned from the "Conversations" assignment with the three customer requests was that you can search Novelist for appeal factors. This was new to me. If readers reveal appeal factors in the books they prefer, or even just mention a title they liked, we can search by these factors and find just the right book for the right mood, every time. No more searching your brain for the one title you think is appropriate, but actually may not be.
Conversation 1
The customer chose Eat Play Love because it was popular, but ended up liking it for the location and the reflective tone. She revealed that she liked the Oprah books too, most likely for their tone as well. I would recommend Three Cups of Tea for its impassioned and thought-provoking tone, even though it is not a novel. Another one that comes pretty close to fulfilling what the customer wants would be Tales of a Female Nomad, an author's journey across the globe in search of her personal identity in the wake of a failed marriage and her peripatetic lifestyle in the fifteen years that followed.
Conversation 2
In this scenario, the customer is very sure of what she doesn't like in a vampire story. With the help of the Boolean appeal factors search in Novelist, I would suggest several humorous ones as well as poignant ones that are not for teens and are devoid of romance. A fast-paced, funny and steamy novel, Undead and Unemployed features Betsy Taylor, the new Queen of the Vampires, who gets a job selling designer footwear at Macy's while trying to catch a vicious vampire slayer with the help of a gorgeous ally. For a more contemplative mood, suggest Fledgeling, a story of a young, amnesiac girl whose un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must also learn who wants to destroy her and how she can save herself.
Conversation 3
This customer wants a true story, historical, fast-paced, perhaps a story about wilderness survival, with or without a president but maybe someone famous. Lots of accounts of the Shackleton expedition came to mind, but after some digging I also found Panama Fever, the epic history of one of the greatest engineering triumphs of all time: the building of the Panama Canal. This book describs the human cost in terms of the harsh working conditions and epidemics, and the resulting medical breakthroughs that would transform medicine. The canal, commissioned by Teddy Roosevelt (the subject of the customer's last book read) is the main character in this well-researched and satisfying account of imperial vision and social inequity.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Tuesday, May 7
Applying Wyatt's principles again, here is a book where the setting is actually a character in this huge family saga. It is Rutherfurd's expansive history of a great city, his novel, New York. I chose this one for three appeal factors, the setting, the impressive historic detail, and for learning/experiencing the storied history of Manhattan. His latest, Paris, is on our new book shelves.
I will be recommending Elle Newmark's The Sandalwood Tree, and Lisa Scottoline's Don't Go to fellow bookish staffers tomorrow.
Applying Wyatt's principles again, here is a book where the setting is actually a character in this huge family saga. It is Rutherfurd's expansive history of a great city, his novel, New York. I chose this one for three appeal factors, the setting, the impressive historic detail, and for learning/experiencing the storied history of Manhattan. His latest, Paris, is on our new book shelves.
I will be recommending Elle Newmark's The Sandalwood Tree, and Lisa Scottoline's Don't Go to fellow bookish staffers tomorrow.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Monday, May 6
Great article on Neal Wyatt's appeal factors--Madison Avenue admen should check this out, because this is how everything, not just novels, finds its customer. I recently chose Lisa Scottoline's newest, Don't Go, to indulge because it's heavy on the emotion appeal factor, and all her fans know this before they even crack it open. When you read her you know that you will get complex yet predictable characterization, a quick pace, an ethical/moral storyline, and an ultimately satisfying ending. She never disappoints. Reading her books is like eating a whole bag of Utz Kettle Classics potato chips; you just can't stop after one chapter. And sometimes there could be tears.
Great article on Neal Wyatt's appeal factors--Madison Avenue admen should check this out, because this is how everything, not just novels, finds its customer. I recently chose Lisa Scottoline's newest, Don't Go, to indulge because it's heavy on the emotion appeal factor, and all her fans know this before they even crack it open. When you read her you know that you will get complex yet predictable characterization, a quick pace, an ethical/moral storyline, and an ultimately satisfying ending. She never disappoints. Reading her books is like eating a whole bag of Utz Kettle Classics potato chips; you just can't stop after one chapter. And sometimes there could be tears.
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