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Question: Disturbing Trend in Publishing!?
Is anybody else bothered by the fact that movie companies have been priming the public (namely YA readers) with book series just to make successful movies!?
Publishers like Miramax Books (The Weinstein Company) and Hyperion (Disney) are the two obvious examples!. They commission book series to be written at a book a year, getting kids hooked, then putting movies out!. They are making a financial investment out of filling kids heads with second rate literature in order to have a summer blockbuster released!
Even Hatchett Book Group, the parent company of Little, Brown Children's Books - the publisher of Twilight was not too long ago Time Warner Books! They also handle all of Robert Ludlum's stuff (the Bourne series) and several other notable book to movie writers!
Any thoughts on this!? Any theories on why readers are being turned into the test run for movie studios!?
Buying genre fictions just got a little more dangerous in my opinion!. It's a huge conspiracy to brain wash us!Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Yes, actually!. This is something that has bothered me in a variety of ways since I first noticed it over a decade ago!. The pace seems to have accelerated rapidly in recent years and I do find it distressing!.
I often find myself weakly echoing the cry of a previous answer, "but at least they're reading!.!.!." That's pretty thin soup when what they're reading is HP and Twilight!.
I think it has something to do with the surge in a desire for predictability and familiarity, which is rooted in fear:
"I liked the first book, and now I want an endless string of books that I know I will like!. Please don't challenge me, I would much prefer a nice bowl of ice cream!. Vanilla, just like last night!. Thank you!."
Finding something new and unexpected has always been one of my primary joys!. I feel bad for the people who are missing out on the treasure hunt by simply following the trail of crumbs laid down for them by corporate media interests!. I also fear for the heart of this country, but that's another topic, for another day!.
Honestly, this syndrome started before the boom of HP, but I still hold the Rowling franchise essentially responsible!. Children''s series' have always been around, but they used to be in the minority!. Now, if it isn't a series, well, good luck! I answered a question here from a boy who wanted to know how many books there were in the Catcher In the Rye series!. I am not kidding, and neither was he!.
With the advent of Potter madness coinciding so neatly with the precipitate slide in sales for even major publishers, a bandwagon was born, and a marketing formula etched in stone!. Ever since then everything is a series, even if it hardly qualifies as a book in the first place!. Ideas are milked entirely dry and sharks are jumped right and left!. Does anyone see any more correllations to commercial TV!? In some of these series' each book is little more than a sit-com episode, and they'll even complete the milking with spin-offs (Midnight Sun, anyone!? Edward's POV, my eye!. Marketing op!? Oh, yeah!) And that's all before any of it ever makes it to the movie theater!. Once it does, hang on!
Since it's gone this far, none of us should be surprised that the hand of publishing has proven to fit so sweetly into the glove of Hollywood!.
Take heart though!. There is still a remarkable legion of quality press in this country and it really isn't too hard, as a discerning reader, to separate the wheat from the chaff!. Which doesn't stop me from fearing that we are not doing a very good job of providing our young with the necessary chaff-winnowing skills!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Isn't that what's happening in almost everything else!? Best sellers books are mediocre in content, while good literature is cast aside!. The media pays as much attention to celebrity news as to real significant events!. A rock star or professional athlete gets better paid than an MIT scientist!. The planet is being depleted of its natural resources, so that US cities can keep corporate buildings fully lit all night!.
It may or may not be a conspiracy --making money seems to be the one goal--, but certainly brain-washing has been going on for quite a while!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
This has been going on for well over a decade!. The first book I ever read from John Grisham was "The Pelican Brief" and all I could think about was how much like a screenplay the whole thing read!. This was, in the early 1990's!. Sadly, it does seem to be happening more and more, specially as it pertains to suspense books and young adults!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
AMEN TO THAT!. And by the way, if you leave school having read Twilight, you still don't know how to read or write!. Read the posts here!. The spelling and grammar is horrendous for high school students!. Pax-CWww@QuestionHome@Com
I think if it gets kids to read books, then its not so bad!. Too many kids these days leave school without being able to read or write!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
You think it's the fiction publishers that are dangerous!? Poor, misguided man!. The true conspiracies disguise themselves as facts!. Governments all over the world are infiltrating the humble editor's office!. A slight adjustment here and there, and suddenly 'Agent Zigzag' by Ben Macintyre makes war seem exciting!. 'Ike' by Michael Korda convinces us of Eisenhower's infallibility!. Subtle, insidious, you could almost believe the errors and omissions were accidental!. But ask yourself this: what do all these so-called accidents add up to!?
!.!.!.think about it!.!.!.
THAT'S RIGHT! Aliens are coming to destroy the earth, and our only hope is to unite, as one, behind whichever government is in power!. Readers beware!. We can no longer afford civil disobedience!
I'm glad we agree!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
This is surely a dangerous trend!. I don't think it enough to read A book, it is IMPORTANT that the book be GOOD!. But here, the primary condition seems for it to be a book - not a screenplay!
Schools should definitely warn children against such books!. I am in no way against movies from books, but writing books specifically for that end is just not a healthy trend!. You capture a market of readers first by giving them a book and then make a movie to appease that sector- of course you are in a win-win situation but you just ruin the taste of readers and spoil the minds of youngsters by feeding them trash!.
It appears that such books are not much than actors and actresses in dream roles!. Say the protagonist is so similar to someone that readers at once imagine it to Julia Roberts (or someone); and when the movie actually stars ROberts the second book is bound to be a hit!. Inexperienced readers just have had their fantasies fulfilled!. They will like to go for Drew Barrymore this time!.
But anyhow if the book is good, even if written with such a delinquent cause, then it shall be no problem at all!. At all!. If written by some good writer, then the trend may even be given a push-up!. Not for those cheesy romances!.
TW KWww@QuestionHome@Com