It's the inconsistency that can be particularly annoying.
When I worked at a Goliath BookPulper, that chain considered
Stephen King and Dean Koontz horror but Anne Rice and
Jonathan Carroll fiction, Louis L'Amour and Elmer Kelton
western but Walter Clark and Larry McMurtry fiction, Ian
Fleming mystery but Tom Clancy fiction or war fiction,
depending on the month. And Diana Gabaldon was definitely
still romance along with Nora Roberts, while Danielle Steel
and a few others were fiction. It bespoke of at least as much
ignorance, confusion, and second-guessing the customer's
ignorance and/or snobbery as the corporation's marketing
snobbery, but the latter snobbery was there...the presumption
that the shelves that held Harold Robbins were inherently
better than the shelves that held Hammett or Fritz Leiber or
Georgette Heyer always left me breathless as well. TM
-----Original Message----- From: Philip Benz [mailto:
Philip.Benz@wanadoo.fr]
Mark Sullivan wrote:
> All he did was
> exaggerate everything he was already doing [...] So
how is it no
> longer crime fiction? Just because
> bookstores changed what shelf he was on?
>
I'm convinced this is primarily a marketing and perception
thing. Take Diana Gabaldon. She wrote this series of 1000+
page historical/romance/time travel novels. Although the
first one,
_Outlander_, started out on the romance shelves, very quickly
she was able to move into the fiction section, with the help
of her editor and agent.
I'm also convinced that Ellroy's attitude is a marketing
ploy. Seems to be working quite well for him too.
Jess said:
> Ellroy doesn't control how AMERICAN TABLOID is
categorized. The "big
> bookstores" (and libraries) do.
I think you'll find that authors, agents, publishers and
their marketing plan have something to do with it. High sales
figures can do wonders.
<g>
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