# They're just giving book deals to everyone now



## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Does anyone find it amazing that with Jwoww releasing a book, it now makes 3 Jersey Shore cast members with books?  I know they're celebrities and they just had ghostwriters do the writing, but these are people who don't seem able to read.


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

Nobody expects it to be literature.  People expect it to earn truck loads of cash.

Publishing = business = making money

Celebrities = make money

Artists = often starving


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

I know the book business is all about money.  It's just a strange world to live in when you see novels supposedly written by Hillary Duff and Lauren Conrad.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Except two of the Jersey Shore books have tanked, and this one will do just as bad. Heck, I've outsold Snookie and the Situation COMBINED, and you don't see me doing talk shows. Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

I think the world has dumbed down, at least culturally.  Art used to be sophisticated, it seems.  Music was Beethoven and Mozart, not teen pop.  Literature was Dickens and Shakespeare, not Twilight (sorry, Twilight fans).  Artwork was Michaelangelo and Da Vinci, not splashes of abstract paint.  I don't know.  Maybe they had crap in the old days too, but it hasn't survived the test of time.  It does seem that in the modern age, artwork caters to the lowest common denominator -- be it music, literature, or what have you.  It's become less "art", and more "popular entertainment".  In a way, I can understand this.  Artwork was once created for the genteel, for the wealthy patrons who could afford it.  Today it's about selling as many units as you can, so the lowest common denominator is necessary.

Of course, there's still a lot of quality work today that does well.  Usually the nonsense is just a fad, and dies off after a while.


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## meggjensen (Feb 17, 2011)

It's all about platform, and they have HUGE platforms. I wrote about adoption & parenting for many years and snagged an agent. Guess what? They told me I had to build a platform before any publisher would touch me. The adoption book never got published even though I was one of the few authors trying to sell my book during the international adoption boom of the last decade. Why? No platform, no deal.

What's odd is seeing that transfer now to fiction....


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

You know, I think there has ALWAYS been crude pop culture. I seriously doubt 1880s coal workers and millers were reading Dickens, they were down at the pubs listening to bawdy music and vulgar plays (this is totally a guess on my part). It was the aristocracy and educated class that read dickens, listened to mozart, and attended the opera. Just like they do today. Broadway is still there, quality films are still being made, and enduring literature is being written. Cheer up! In 100 years folks will remember Band of Brothers, not Jersey Shore


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Daniel Arenson said:


> Artists = often starving


Damn, explains a lot... two artists in one home... no wonder we're in squalor :whoops:


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Half-Orc said:


> ...Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


One of the more insightful things I've read online today -- certainly more insightful than anything likely to be in that book.


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

Actually, Mozart wrote some delightfully naughty -- sometimes downright filthy -- music for his friends.   They just don't normally play those ones at the opera.


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> Except two of the Jersey Shore books have tanked, and this one will do just as bad. Heck, I've outsold Snookie and the Situation COMBINED, and you don't see me doing talk shows. Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


I had thought the same thing when they were talking about the book deals. Same thing with the Karshdans.

Clearly someone has a campaign to get any celebrity they can signed on to "write" a book to cash in on the fame. Unfortunately they forgot that celebrity nowadays doesn't actually mean you have to have achieved anything worth writing about.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Has Justin Bieber gotten a book deal yet for his memoirs?


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## evrose (Jan 7, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


Fixed that for ya!


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

NogDog said:


> Has Justin Bieber gotten a book deal yet for his memoirs?


Him and Bristol Palin both. Add them to the list. Of course, their memoirs should be pretty short.


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## Mark Feggeler (Feb 7, 2011)

And to think, some in the traditional publishing world talk about online self-published indie authors degrading the quality of literature in our modern society.  Perhaps if some of them stopped throwing good money at these over-publicized mouth breathers and instead focused on proven trends in the ebook arena, they might actually realize a return on their investments.


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## Julie Christensen (Oct 13, 2010)

Daniel Arenson said:


> Nobody expects it to be literature. People expect it to earn truck loads of cash.
> 
> Publishing = business = making money
> 
> ...


Exactly.

But who cares? Now that indie writers can self publish on BN and Amazon, the public can read anyone they want instead of being limited to what publishers think will make them the most money.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Julie Christensen said:


> Exactly.
> 
> But who cares? Now that indie writers can self publish on BN and Amazon, the public can read anyone they want instead of being limited to what publishers think will make them the most money.


We don't have big marketing budgets to work with though. Or, any marketing budgets in some cases.


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## Julie Christensen (Oct 13, 2010)

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> We don't have big marketing budgets to work with though. Or, any marketing budgets in some cases.


And even so, some Indie writers are still outselling these guys!


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Julie Christensen said:


> And even so, some Indie writers are still outselling these guys!


There are a lot of great success stories, you among them. And congratulations to them. I just wish I had the marketing power behind me that these celebs do is all.


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

Well, most of us have enough basic human decency to not stoop to the level of these celebs, but I suspect that if any of the authors here put out a sex tape or an obscenity fueled rant and had even a quarter of the behind the scenes marketing skill of the Kardashians or Jersey shore folks they could parlay that into a year or two of sales. Notoriety sells, at least for a little bit, and being known as a jerk is still better than not being known at all. But since we are principled and have an iota of self-esteem, that path is just not for us.


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## AJ (May 15, 2010)

One of the main driving forces for the publication of so many celebrity authors is the way books are sold. Books sold at a traditional bookshop are lucrative for the publisher and author, but the heavy discount stores changed all that. Here in Europe, the demise of the Net Book Agreement meant stores such as Asda (Walmart) could sell books at ridiculously low prices, often below cost. This resulted in the closure of many book shops and forced publishers to chase the bottom line, something they had been proud to resist for hundreds of years. The situation resulted in a number of amalgamations and takeovers, further limiting the market for authors.

Cheaper books were at first considered a 'good thing' for the consumer, but over the years it has proved exactly the opposite. Stores have closed, the range of literature has narrowed and standards have dropped. Publishers now chase 'one hit wonders', rather than investing in new talent which may not fully mature until the author has three or four books under their belt.

I recently did a little research comparing the best sellers list of the 1970s to last year. It was a real eye-opener to see how many of the best-selling authors of the '70s are still dominating the lists forty years later. Wonderful for those authors, but it demonstrates how difficult it has become for a new author to make any sort of impact. A sad indictment of the publishing industry. E-books will revolutionize book sales and allow talented authors to build a platform they would have been denied under the old regime. Celebrity authors will continue to erode a once noble industry.


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## Mark Feggeler (Feb 7, 2011)

jason10mm said:


> Well, most of us have enough basic human decency to not stoop to the level of these celebs, but I suspect that if any of the authors here put out a sex tape or an obscenity fueled rant and had even a quarter of the behind the scenes marketing skill of the Kardashians or Jersey shore folks they could parlay that into a year or two of sales. Notoriety sells, at least for a little bit, and being known as a jerk is still better than not being known at all. But since we are principled and have an iota of self-esteem, that path is just not for us.


I've already arranged for a friend to take video of me holding one of my kids over the rail of the new Disney ship when we cruise next month. Then we'll upload it to YouTube and try to get it to go viral. With any luck, I'll have a major promotional deal signed by the time I post bail. Working in the Disney brand is a stroke of cross-promotional genius, I think, and should result in ten or twenty thousand extra hits.


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## Kenneth Rosenberg (Dec 3, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


I think the audience for that show is definitely the reading type... Only their attention spans can't handle more than 140 characters!


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## Mark Adair (Dec 4, 2010)

Kenneth Rosenberg said:


> I think the audience for that show is definitely the reading type... Only their attention spans can't handle more than 140 characters!


Makes my heart all a twitter...seriously, times, they are a changing. I think it will be interesting to see how many new flavors of writing packages/formats survive...all those short attention spans will need something palatable, right?


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## jdj5585 (Feb 13, 2011)

Daniel Arenson said:


> Why must it be true?


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Sure they're giving deals to all the celebs. That's because the "real" authors are jumping ship and going indie.


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## Michael Blake (Feb 2, 2011)

Recently a thought came to me - humanity is rushing at full speed in the wrong direction. The big houses just want to make money, they don't want good stories anymore. 

MB


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Michael Blake said:


> Recently a thought came to me - humanity is rushing at full speed in the wrong direction. The big houses just want to make money, they don't want good stories anymore.
> 
> MB


Just like Hollywood.


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## jdj5585 (Feb 13, 2011)

I think humanity has bigger fish to fry, for the moment. lol


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## AnneKAlbert (Dec 7, 2010)

Mark Feggeler said:


> I've already arranged for a friend to take video of me holding one of my kids over the rail of the new Disney ship when we cruise next month.


Thanks, Mark! Coffee splattered all over the computer keyboard! Funny. Love this discussion.


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## jdj5585 (Feb 13, 2011)

LOL. I had totally missed that comment.


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## Mark Feggeler (Feb 7, 2011)

AnneKAlbert said:


> Thanks, Mark! Coffee splattered all over the computer keyboard! Funny. Love this discussion.


My pleasure!


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## Nell Gavin (Jul 3, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


Woot!!


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## Gastro Detective (Feb 17, 2011)

I spent my working career in the food and baking business. A wise old baker offered me this adage, which is similar to what has already been stated: 'Feed the masses, sleep with the classes. Feed the classes, sleep with the masses.'

There's no accounting for bad taste, except that it makes a whole lotta dough!!!


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## JRMurdock (Feb 12, 2011)

The sad thing is publishers want an author with a built in audience. They fail to understand that if I have a built in audience, I'm already making money. WHY would I give any cut of the action to a big publisher when they have no intention of doing anything for me as a new author? I'm doing it all myself now and reaping all the benefit. Seems to me the only thing an agent of publisher can off me at this point is less profit than I'll make going it on my own. It amazes me to see how many are happy to jump ship to get a publishing deal to get a few extra bucks up front. I'll be curious to see what happens to those people in the coming years.

I also find it sad that publishing thinks it can turn a buck with any celeb with any popularity. I'm glad when they don't, but in the end it affects everyone in the publishing business as now there is less money to go around to those with real stories to publish. Then with deeply discounted books putting book stores out of business and publishers not getting paid there's even more of a trickle down effect to new authors who are struggling to  make it. 2011 will see a shift in publishing much like we saw a shift in the music industry. It's going to happen no matter how many celebs sign book deals for mediocre books that no one will buy 

As for me, I think I'll also start a youtube channel of my exploits. Maybe I'll shave my head for the release of my first book


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## easyreader (Feb 20, 2011)

Giving a deal to Snooki was the end of publishing. They have no one to blame but themselves when they go under.

_--- edited... no self-promotion outside the Book Bazaar forum. please read our Forum Decorum thread._


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## SpecOps (Feb 20, 2011)

Yeah, but readers aren't stupid.  Gosselin's book hit #6 on NY Times list but only sold 8,000 copies-- which makes you wonder about the NY Times. As they say on The Wire-- juking the stats.


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## div (Aug 25, 2010)

Came back from a call yesterday to find the two guys in the firehouse watching the Dog the Bounty Hunter book signing tour......really? I have a hard time believing that piece of trash is even literate...I suppose some would consider him a celebrity....not me.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Jesse James memoir anyone?


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## Mark Feggeler (Feb 7, 2011)

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> Jesse James memoir anyone?


Didn't they write his already? Wasn't it called "Mein Kampf," or was that his girlfriend's?


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## ThompsonWrites (Feb 17, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> Except two of the Jersey Shore books have tanked, and this one will do just as bad. Heck, I've outsold Snookie and the Situation COMBINED, and you don't see me doing talk shows. Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


First off, congrats on the sales. I always like to hear authors who sell books. Secondly, great point concerning target audience of Jersey Shore. I can't remember the last time I heard a high schooler or college student post on Facebook how they couldn't wait to sit down and get a good read of Jersey Shore.

I'd rather be selling books, earning cash than doing talk shows and having my picture taken.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Mark Feggeler said:


> Didn't they write his already? Wasn't it called "Mein Kampf," or was that his girlfriend's?


He's so dumb that he's going to write a tell all, not realizing how that'll make him look even worse.


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## Syria Says... AKA Celia Can Read (Apr 16, 2010)

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> Does anyone find it amazing that with Jwoww releasing a book, it now makes 3 Jersey Shore cast members with books? I know they're celebrities and they just had ghostwriters do the writing, but these are people who don't seem able to read.


HA! You said that they were "celebrities"... *snigger*

And it's true about their target audience: they aint all into readin' and them werds and stuff... That's for losers and nerds! HA!


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Syria Says... said:


> HA! You said that they were "celebrities"... *snigger*
> 
> And it's true about their target audience: they aint all into readin' and them werds and stuff... That's for losers and nerds! HA!


They can pack a barnes and noble for a book signing though.


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## Basil Sands (Aug 18, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> Methinks some executives forgot the target audience for that show isn't exactly the book reading type.


That target audience are also the ones who'd buy a book they can't read just because of the cool factor...and to prove they're smart because, unlike their friends, they actually own a book.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

The celebrity is the real commodity, not the book. I think many of them are a) a vanity published to keep them happy b) an extension of their celebrity persona. They're like a ginormous (and longer lasting) Vanity Fair spread. It's marketing for the person not the book.

Make sense?

That's my take on most of anyway.


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## tawnytaylor (Feb 19, 2011)

This equation doesn't always work. I've heard of some books flopping in a big way, and because celebrities generally get huge advances, that must really hurt the publisher's bottom line.


Daniel Arenson said:


> Celebrities = make money


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## Rory Miller (Oct 21, 2010)

jason10mm said:


> You know, I think there has ALWAYS been crude pop culture. I seriously doubt 1880s coal workers and millers were reading Dickens, they were down at the pubs listening to bawdy music and vulgar plays (this is totally a guess on my part). It was the aristocracy and educated class that read dickens, listened to mozart, and attended the opera. Just like they do today. Broadway is still there, quality films are still being made, and enduring literature is being written. Cheer up! In 100 years folks will remember Band of Brothers, not Jersey Shore


You are absolutely correct. There was a crude pop culture and like someone said earlier, it just didn't stand the test of time. Remember in the middle ages people went to passion plays, not to learn about Christ which they had several other ways to do that, they went to see blood and fighting, as a result many of these Passion plays showed as much of the sinners as of the Savior. As for Coal Miners in the 1880's, I'm reminded that Communists of the day couldn't understand why Communism didn't catch on in England... after all they were a society of down-trodden workers. In the 1920's the Soviet Union decided to send over their highest art form to help communicate Communims ideals-- Ballet! Can you imagine burly coal miners, plant workers getting into Ballet? The idea flopped, not in any small part because the workers had an already established extra-corricular to play/follow: soccer. Soccer was not only something to do in your spare time, it was who you were as all the teams were built on community and in the larger cities were established for the workers of certain industries (like Thames Iron Works FC which became West Ham and so on). Even the Victorians during the high age of British Literature were secretly looking at pornography and reading old Fanny Hill type things that had been around for over a century even then!


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## Rory Miller (Oct 21, 2010)

Daniel Arenson said:


> Actually, Mozart wrote some delightfully naughty -- sometimes downright filthy -- music for his friends. They just don't normally play those ones at the opera.


Exactly. Likewise, in Shakespear's day there were those in high society that thought he wrote rude, crude, disgusting stuff full of pointless sex and violence that he wrote into known, established stories. Most of his stuff was a re-telling of known works, putting him closer to the guys that wrote Looney-Tunes "I want to kill the Rabbit" than to Wagner for creating the original.


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2011)

Daniel Arenson said:


> I think the world has dumbed down, at least culturally. Art used to be sophisticated, it seems. Music was Beethoven and Mozart, not teen pop. Literature was Dickens and Shakespeare,


Have you read some Shakespeare recently?  Murder, sex, witchcraft, ghosts, political intrigue, war...Shakespeare wrote for the common man to put butts in seats. He wasn't selling copies of his plays, he was selling theatre tickets. The Bard would totally be writing urban fantasy if he was alive today.

Mozart? He was totally the spoilt rock star of his time. Again, he wrote for the popular audience. Filling auditoriums put money in his coffers.

I think we tend to romanticize older periods in art, like old people who reminsce about "the good old days." We forget that these people were effectively doing what we do, creating for popular consumption. In fact, they were more honest about it. We all pretend that wanting to make a profit is less important than "being read." But these guys knew they had to put food on the table and being a starving artist meant being a failing artist.


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## zstopper (Jan 11, 2010)

I've expressed my feelings about the Jersey Shore literati in a couple of
spoofs, Jersey Shore Book Tours and Jersey Shore Writers Retreat on my 
blog.


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## Syria Says... AKA Celia Can Read (Apr 16, 2010)

RorySM said:


> Another student went on along rant about how much he hated it, concluding with "I don't give a s#*t that you say it's the best book you've ever read, let's be honest, it's the only [email protected] book you've ever read!"


BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I think I've said that same thing before too...

I went to Hike Skool in Texas and have had to endure my fair share of...um...intellectually challenged ********...but the one conversation that's always stuck out in my mind when it came to extracurricular reading was:

Ronny the ********: So, you gots a you book, huh? Is it fer class?
Moi: *looks down at my Anne Rice novel* Um...no. I'm not sure what class I would have to be in to read this for school, but it'd be great if I were.
Ronny the *******: Pshaw! Readin' is fer dummies!

(Name changed to protect the stupid.)

Then he stomped away in his Roper cowboy boots... *sigh* I'll NEVER forget Ronny and his brilliant display of stupidity. Oi vey!


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

RorySM said:


> I teach at a high school and I remember when the Da Vinci code was in full force some airheads in the school carried that thing around everywhere for three months (tells you about their reading speed). Another student went on along rant about how much he hated it, concluding with "I don't give a s#*t that you say it's the best book you've ever read, let's be honest, it's the only [email protected] book you've ever read!"
> 
> I think of that every time I see Dan Brown books, and lately I'm thinking it about the Twilight books.


I'd add Steig Larsson to that as well. A friend who doesn't read told me The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was brilliant, they were only up to page 40 (apparently I spoiled the next ten pages describing the boat).


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

Yeah, I have a low volume reader friend who gushed about Dragon Tattoo, probably the only book he read all year (he was on vacation). Doesn't men it is a bad book, just that his basis of comparison is supect.

I consider high volume readers like us to be similar to movie critics. We consume so much of the media that we become jaded to oft repeated plots, characters, and styles. Thus something has to be pretty damned original to capture our attention. But that doesn't mean that the lay public won't latch on to something with a furious passion as it is fresh TO THEM.

Thus I figure the Jersey Shore books will be massively impressive to their target audience, coming from the funny pages and pic heavy celeb websites that is their usual fare. I suspect the books will feature graphic heavy layouts that mimic websites as well. Page after page of straight text will just pass over the ADHD crowd.


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