So, Bill sent me a link to an article that seems to tie back into the discussion I had about branding not too long ago. Here is the link(http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1464842.htm). It seems that Tom Wolfe's publishers are going to release his next book with no title at all, just his name writ large on the cover. The gist appears to be that he is a brand unto himself now, his books will be so well-recognized that we don't need any clue as to what they might be about (not that, say, A Man In Full did much of that anyway). Very interesting. Branding spreads. :)
Are there any romance authors who could do this? Nora Roberts, probably; Amanda Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz, maybe. I'm sure there must be more, but it's late and I just got back from indulging my once-a-year corndog obsession at the State Fair, so I'm not at my sharpest. I'd love to hear your thoughts. (About branding for romance authors, corndogs, fairs, whatever)
1 comment:
Branding can sound a lot like ultra-egotism, if you ask me. This smacks of self-importance building with the Tom Wolfe case - I mean, not putting the name of the novel means that the author is more important than the work, and if we stop reading something for its value, only because someone "important" wrote it, we seem to be focusing on the wrong thing.
It could encourage writers to push out dreck because they have the impression that it doesn't matter what they write - people will buy it for their name. We've all seen this in romance - a big author with dozens of titles behind her starts writing crap. And ultimately, most of her loyal fans stop buying the hardback version of her books because they don't want to plunk down $20+ for something that wouldn't get published except for the author's name recognition.
If branding encourages that, then it's a bad thing.
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