Week Six

Week 6: Building Base Knowledge (Genres)

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May 262013

 

May 27, 2013

We all have favorite genres. We know their classic writers, their offshoot subgenres, and that special je ne sais quoi that makes us fans for life.  More than knowing into which category a book fits, you will learn the characteristics, trends, and subcategories of many genres. Expand your knowledge outside of your regular reading habits and find titles that cross over genre lines.
 Week 6: Assignment 1 
In Week 1: Assignment 4, you began following one of the genre links on the right.  Write a blog post about your discoveries.
  Week 6: Assignment 2 
Explore this Prezi link of Fiction Genres and Subgenres.
 Week 6: Assignment 3 
Pick 3 subgenres that you are unfamiliar with.

• Find a fan website for each subgenre and summarize the current buzz among fans. Why are they excited about this subgenre? How did you find the website?
• List three authors or titles that are associated with or typify each of these 3 subgenres.  What are the hallmarks or appeal factors of each of the subgenres?
• Mashups of subgenres, e.g. steampunk westerns, are becoming increasingly popular.  Find two titles, not shown on the flowchart, which could cross over into another subgenre. Describe your rationale.

Assignment 1: I selected flavorwire.com/category/books as the site to follow. While it has lots of interesting stuff, in addition to books, I find it to be too much stuff for the amount of time I have and my attention span for looing at sites like this. I realized that I am much more comfortable looking at NPR's book section and the reviews in print sources like New Yorker, which I read every week, and the NYT book review which I see at work.

Assignment 2: Great information on the Genre Prezi. I would like a copy of it. I found it hard to move through the prezi  - the key commands did not seem to work, but the content was very helpful. Great job, Alex!

Week Five

There are lots of different ways to find out about new and popular books – there are some useful sources linked on the right side of this page.  Looking at these sites regularly can help you increase your title knowledge and anticipate what your customers will be looking for.
This week, in addition to discussing the general tool that you have been following, we will be looking at various sources of reliable readers’ advisory information to see what titles are:

• Forthcoming
• Releasing this week
• On bestseller lists
• Predicted to be popular with bookclubs
• Being adapted into movies
• Award winning

Wouldn’t it be great if all this information was in one location?  Early Word is a great resource in part because it aggregates all this information into one page.  This should be a site that you check regularly, but if you don’t have time to look at it everyday then sign up for the newsletter which will deliver the highlights of the week and, as well as, a list of big forthcoming titles of the next week right to your inbox.
Week 5: Assignment 1
What useful information have you learned from the resource that you have been monitoring  since week one?  Blog about it.
Week 5: Assignment 2What’s popular in your branch?  If it’s “popular” or “commercial” fiction then you want be sure to look at The New York Times Best Seller List or People Magazine.  For forthcoming titles check the Publisher’s Weekly On Sale calendar. If literary fiction and narrative nonfiction is popular, you can monitor the Indie Next Best Seller List (formerly BookSense) and NPR.  Do your customers want to read the book before the movie comes out?  More than likely, you have a diverse mix of customers who have equally diverse reading preferences, but all of these resources are available via Early Word.  Take a look at the site and click around; there are lots of links in both sidebars.  Post to your blog: What resources are new discoveries for you?  What do you think that you will continue to use?
Week 5: Assignment 3 Pick a title from the highly anticipated titles of 2013, found under the righthand “Coming Soon- Season Previews” sidebar on Early Word.  Write a blog post using appeal factors or read alikes to describe the title.  Why is this title expected to be popular and to whom would it appeal?


I accidentally mixed up week 6 and 5. I'm working on what I missed.

Assignment 1:

Assignment 3: