Charlie's Diary

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Mon, 06 Dec 2004 Red state, Blue state I may be a British writer, but my biggest single market is the United States. Thus, the demographics and distribution of my readers is a matter of no small interest to me. Earlier today, Warren Ellis -- the enfant terrible of the graphics novel scene -- posed an interesting question on his Bad Signal mailing list: A few weeks ago, I threw out the playful notion that original comics don't actually sell in the Red states of America -- that the political borderlines there are also cultural borderlines. Just as there are isolated political Blue islands in Red America, there are also island comics stores, to be certain -- but that the audiences for progressive comics are largely contained in the coasts and those few Blue states in the north. The broader sweep of Jesusland is a dead zone, to massively generalise. So after that I got an email from a publisher I know. Telling me that he and his staff had been discussing the same thing. They looked at their sales documentation. And, in fact, it looks to them that they do the vast majority of their business in the Blue states. So they're talking about changing their PR campaigns. Focussing on Blue America and those handful of island stores. They figure that if Red America isn't listening, then fuck Red America. And if you're in Jesusland and you can't get their books anymore, then frankly you should have tried harder to make your store order you the stuff you wanted to read. (And, for God's sake, I've been telling you that for years, so this shouldn't come as a surprise.) No company has an endless marketing budget, and they need to put those dollars where they'll do the most good. So why not try to maximise their market in the areas where people don't freak out at the idea of a comic that wasn't invented forty years ago? The idea lends itself to all kinds of interesting secondary concepts, like coastal tours -- for a reasonable amount of money you could send a creator, or a group of them, the length of California, or up the East Coast. (Something Vertigo should have done five years ago.) Anyway. Interesting development, I thought. Like me, Warren is a Brit selling into the American market. He's in a different field -- comics and graphic novels -- but he's trying to do innovative stuff rather than merely re-hashing the same tired old Pervert Suit capers that have been the staple of superhero comics since the year dot. And his question got me thinking: who buys SF and fantasy in the United States? And where do they live? I can make a couple of crude guesses: I suspect the market for mil-SF (staple product at Baen Books) is probably red state heavy. And I suspect the sort of literary work you expect from the likes of John Kessel or Michael Swanwick is more of an urban latte-swilling cafe culture blue state thing. But I must confess I've got no idea whether high fantasy is a localized sales phenomenon, or indeed whether the market for SF in general (excluding those narrow categories I mentioned) is geographically stratified. Written SF doesn't necessarily follow the same market rules as other media. But if it's a geographically distributed market, I need to know it, and to know how it's distributed, as well. For example, if 80% of my sales can be found in one half of the country, then obviously that has implications for any marketing I do. Again: (while I don't go out of my way to deliberately offend peoples' sensibilities in what I write) if folks in some areas aren't reading my work, then I don't need to tailor my work to meet their cultural requirements. (I hasten to add that this isn't a political thing: if I'm writing for an audience of small town or rural readers, they may well need different degrees of emphasis and explanation in my work than an audience of city dwellers.) Writing is a form of communication, after all. And my own ignorance about who I am communicating with is something I should be addressing. So, does anyone have any information they'd be willing to share? [Discuss writing] posted at: 18:44 | path: /writing | permanent link to this entry

specials: Is SF About to Go Blind? -- Popular Science article by Greg Mone Unwirer -- an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction Inside the MIT Media Lab -- what it's like to spend a a day wandering around the Media Lab "Nothing like this will be built again" -- inside a nuclear reactor complex Quick links: RSS Feed (Moved!) Who am I? Contact me Buy my books: (FAQ) Missile Gap Via Subterranean Press (US HC -- due Jan, 2007) The Jennifer Morgue Via Golden Gryphon (US HC -- due Nov, 2006) Glasshouse Via Amazon.com (US HC -- due June 30, 2006) The Clan Corporate Via Amazon.com (US HC -- out now) Accelerando Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB -- due June 27, 2006) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) Free download The Hidden Family Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) The Family Trade Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Iron Sunrise Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) The Atrocity Archives Via Amazon.com (Trade PB) Via Amazon.co.uk (Trade PB) Via Golden Gryphon (HC) Via Amazon.com (HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (HC) Singularity Sky Via Amazon.com (US HC) Via Amazon.com (US PB) Via Amazon.com (US ebook) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK HC) Via Amazon.co.uk (UK PB) Toast Via Amazon.com Via Amazon.co.uk Some webby stuff I'm reading: [ Engadget ] [ Gizmodo ] [ The Memory Hole ] [ Boing!Boing! ] [ Futurismic ] [ Walter Jon Williams ] [ Making Light (TNH) ] [ Crooked Timber ] [ Junius (Chris Bertram) ] [ Baghdad Burning (Riverbend) ] [ Bruce Sterling ] [ Ian McDonald ] [ Amygdala (Gary Farber) ] [ Cyborg Democracy ] [ Body and Soul (Jeanne d'Arc)  ] [ Atrios ] [ The Sideshow (Avedon Carol) ] [ This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow) ] [ Jesus's General ] [ Mick Farren ] [ Early days of a Better Nation (Ken MacLeod) ] [ Respectful of Otters (Rivka) ] [ Tangent Online ] [ Grouse Today ] [ Hacktivismo ] [ Terra Nova ] [ Whatever (John Scalzi) ] [ GNXP ] [ Justine Larbalestier ] [ Yankee Fog ] [ The Law west of Ealing Broadway ] [ Cough the Lot ] [ The Yorkshire Ranter ] [ Newshog ] [ Kung Fu Monkey ] [ S1ngularity ] [ Pagan Prattle ] [ Gwyneth Jones ] [ Calpundit ] [ Lenin's Tomb ] [ Progressive Gold ] [ Kathryn Cramer ] [ Halfway down the Danube ] [ Fistful of Euros ] [ Orcinus ] [ Shrillblog ] [ Steve Gilliard ] [ Frankenstein Journal (Chris Lawson) ] [ The Panda's Thumb ] [ Martin Wisse ] [ Kuro5hin ] [ Advogato ] [ Talking Points Memo ] [ The Register ] [ Cryptome ] [ Juan Cole: Informed comment ] [ Global Guerillas (John Robb) ] [ Shadow of the Hegemon (Demosthenes) ] [ Simon Bisson's Journal ] [ Max Sawicky's weblog ] [ Guy Kewney's mobile campaign ] [ Hitherby Dragons ] [ Counterspin Central ] [ MetaFilter ] [ NTKnow ] [ Encyclopaedia Astronautica ] [ Fafblog ] [ BBC News (Scotland) ] [ Pravda ] [ Meerkat open wire service ] [ Warren Ellis ] [ Brad DeLong ] [ Hullabaloo (Digby) ] [ Jeff Vail ] [ The Whiskey Bar (Billmon) ] [ Groupthink Central (Yuval Rubinstein) ] [ Unmedia (Aziz Poonawalla) ] [ Rebecca's Pocket (Rebecca Blood) ] Older stuff: June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 (I screwed the pooch in respect of the blosxom entry datestamps on March 28th, 2002, so everything before then shows up as being from the same time)

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