Twilight...the books?

[oliegirl]

Sorry if there has already been a thread on this...what is the deal with these books? All of a sudden I'm seeing stuff on them everywhere. Just got an email from BN about the launch parties, encouraging people to wear their Prom Cosumes??? I know they are about vampires, but besides that, what is the big bruhaha about? Has anyone read them?

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

Sorry if there has already been a thread on this...what is the deal with these books? All of a sudden I'm seeing stuff on them everywhere. Just got an email from BN about the launch parties, encouraging people to wear their Prom Cosumes??? I know they are about vampires, but besides that, what is the big bruhaha about? Has anyone read them?

My Daughter, My friends wife and his sister are into them...Kind of a teenage vampire love story angle without the Anne Rice macabre. I read the first 5 chapters of Twilight and it was not a bad read.

My wife is starting them this week, I will see what she has to say though.

[SnowMan]

I saw somewhere saying it was the next Harry Potter. I've never heard of it before that, either.

[ISiddiqui]

They appear like a combo between teen romance book and vampires.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by SnowMan

I saw somewhere saying it was the next Harry Potter. I've never heard of it before that, either.

I wouldn't say that...these didn't grab me like the Potter books did....I honestly felt like I was reading a love story in the first five chapters with a little Vampire sighting thrown in.

[Lathum]

I think USA today maybe had a story aboutt it.

[oliegirl]

Sounds intriguing, may have to pick up the first one to see if they are any good. Thanks for the info!

Lathum - I think you should read these on your vacation, you know, while you are getting your pedicure LOL

[Barkeep49]

Well considering one of my hats is a youth librarian I can say, without shame, that I've read them. And they are very well written. They indeed romance novels, with a vampire twist. The vampiricism is what lends gravity to the love experienced by the main character, Bella. For teenage girls this is as big as Harry Potter was, but its impact is more targeted. The promotion that some of you have remarked upon are book sellers, and to a certain extent publishers, desire to make book releases an event, as movie releases were and Harry Potter was. I think they'll be largely successful here, which I think is good, longterm, for publishing and book stores.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

The promotion that some of you have remarked upon are book sellers, and to a certain extent publishers, desire to make book releases an event, as movie releases were and Harry Potter was. I think they'll be largely successful here, which I think is good, longterm, for publishing and book stores.

Bookstore sales tend to have a longer tail than film does (we do, after all, have room for tens of thousands of titles at once), so the movie release comparison is not accurate, I think. I believe that what Harry Potter did was legitimize the midnight release and remind chains that labor and display budget spent on community activities is not wasted money.

In the late '90s, I can recall the release of Hannibal. To promote the book, my indy bookstore set up one of pur prime display areas with a checkered tablecloth, fine china place setting, and bottle of Chianti under a banner reading "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" We left this up for two weeks before the release, and on the day of release, stacked books on the table around the tableau. We ended up selling over 500 copies, which on a percentage basis would have made it as big a hit for the store as HP7 years later.

To contrast, my experience running chain stores would have been that those display spaces were merchandised with publishers' cash and we probably would have had a smattering of thirty or forty titles on the table. I probably would have sold half as many copies of the big title with traditional chain marketing.

Bookstores are waking up to this now, and like always, if the big guys execute, the little fish are screwed. I put about $600 of my own money into the Harry Potter 7 party last year, And I've racked up about $200 worth of display and concession for this event. In years past, that would have given me freedom to do the sorts of cool things a B&N couldn't do. Now, I'm likely to have the 4th or 5th best party in town.

Mostly, though, it's just fun. My staff won't all go "formal", but we will be 'elegant', in black/white/red. We've got strawberries and cream, blood red italian sodas, and one girl is putting together a nice soundtrack of alternative music we don't normally play over the sound system. We'll give out free copies and discount coupons to people who score well on the trivia quiz and who wear great costumes.

And then we'll invite the SCA in and stage dragon battles for the third Eragon book in seven weeks.

[ISiddiqui]

I've just started reading "Twilight". The story is interesting so far (even though its a teen romance/vampire novel). However, I have to disagree they are well written. I think they are actually incredibly poorly written, like a college creative writing essay. Makes Dan Brown look like Shakespeare... but the plot is interesting, so it keeps my interest.

[Mustang]

Isn't this the series where the author got all huffy due to a leak and decided she isn't doing the final installment?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Isn't this the series where the author got all huffy due to a leak and decided she isn't doing the final installment?

Very much doubt it. $$$$$$$$$


The movie is coming out around the holiday. My wife and daughter are very psyched.

[ISiddiqui]

And I believe it isn't the "final installment", but the first book told from a different POV.

[Izulde]

I haven't read them, but glancing at the blurbs, they struck me as cashing in on the vampire erotica crap that's commanding so much attention, thanks to hacks like Anne Rice. (Although I didn't know it was a teen love story... the principle still holds, though, that I suspect this is more a shrewd awareness of what the market is than anything worthy of reading).

[Kodos]

I liked Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles!

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I haven't read them, but glancing at the blurbs, they struck me as cashing in on the vampire erotica crap that's commanding so much attention, thanks to hacks like Anne Rice. (Although I didn't know it was a teen love story... the principle still holds, though, that I suspect this is more a shrewd awareness of what the market is than anything worthy of reading).

Cashing in on the what? Anne Rice was a while ago, and I haven't heard anything else about vampire stories. This actually seems like it filled a void rather than cashing in on a wave.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Cashing in on the what? Anne Rice was a while ago, and I haven't heard anything else about vampire stories. This actually seems like it filled a void rather than cashing in on a wave.

Paranormal sales made up more than half of all romantic fiction sales last year, and the romance genre grew heavily in comparison to other categories. Over the last eight years or so the paranormal subgenre has moved from dead to dominant. In any given week's list of new releases, about 40 percent are romances...and about 70 percent of that is dirty vampire sex. In addition, the sexual content of sensual romantic fiction has changed from euphemism to raunch. For that matter, teen romance has changed from dealing with first kisses, to dealing with whether to save the front hole for college.

What the Twilight Saga has been able to do from a marketing standpoint is take a genre which is attractive to teen girls, and strip out the sex that pervades much of the vampire stories and the teen stories out there today, creating a fiction series that appeals to both teens and mothers.