Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Why Do Adults Read Young Adult Books?, Monica Hay

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

Young adult books are widely read by adults. Through interviews with publishing professionals and a survey of 2,139 participants, several reasons were discovered regarding why adults read young adult literature. In the research, the most common reasons were the influence of Harry Potter and Twilight, the relatability for millennials, the social media presence of YA online, and the success of women writers in the category. Survey participants had more to add. The survey themes were nostalgia, "less pretentious," "faster reads," diversity, escapism, "less graphic," and perhaps most importantly, hopeful.

A Cover Is Worth 1000 Words: Visibility And Racial Diversity In Young Adult Cover Design, Jenny Kimura

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

Diversity in young adult literature has been a hot topic in the publishing industry for many years now, and calls for diversity from the YA community, librarians, authors, and publishing professionals have garnered nationwide attention. But while the conversation around diverse content is well documented, few have considered how young adult cover design might have an impact on how diversity, especially in terms of race/ethnicity, is represented visually.

The research detailed in this paper compiles and analyzes data from 700 covers each from 2014 and 2018 respectively (1400 book covers total). In my quantitative analysis, I wanted to know whether …

Approaches To Contested In-Group Terminology For Mindful Editors, Jasmine Gower

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

In the conversation about mindful editing, a conundrum exists with regards to marginalized groups for whom all possible labels to identify the group contain loaded histories and connotations, and different subsets of these marginalized groups are in disagreement about what terminology is most appropriate. This contested in-group terminology places editors in a position where any editorial choice they make has high risk of offending or alienated members of the very group the editor hopes to represent. How, then, do mindful editors approach the matter of contested in-group terminology in an ethical manner? This study examines the approaches to contested in-group …

Marie Kondo And The New Self-Help, Kristen Ludwigsen

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

In the wake of the Marie Kondo phenomenon, is the self-help literature genre being redefined? How is Marie Kondo and her book affecting the ways self-help literature is being shared, discussed, and interpreted? This paper attempts to answer these questions by first discussing the difficulty in defining the self-help genre, and how recent definitions reflect the current economic climate. This paper examines The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo; the tone and language used and how it’s typical of books in the self-help genre, despite categorization as a House and Home—Cleaning and Organizing book. This paper looks at …

Engagement In The Fiber Craft Community: How Authors Can Increase Visibility And Market Their Books, Victoria Raible

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This paper conceptualized the “fiber craft community,” a group of people heavily engaged with other members in community spaces, both online and in person, surrounding their craft. Drawing on scholarship about imagined communities, brand communities, and subcultures of consumption, this research argues this potential audience is a “community.” In addition to providing contextual information on the creative products industry and craft/hobby books market, this research uses a case study approach to gather ethnographic information about where and how the fiber craft community engages. It draws conclusions about how authors can best reach this community to market their fiber craft books.

Pay To Play: Internships, Post-Graduate Education, And The Cost Of Working In Publishing, Madison Schultz

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

In 2019, diversity is the biggest buzzword in publishing. Spurred by initiatives such as We Need Diverse Books, publishing houses are working to publish more non-white authors and feature more stories about people of color. Behind the scenes, though, the publishing workforce is strikingly homogenous, with 86 percent of employees identifying as white or Caucasian, according to the 2018 Publishers Weekly salary survey. Increased scrutiny has started to lead to incremental gains, and groups like People of Color in Publishing and the Representation Matters Mentorship Program, both founded in 2016, are actively working to increase the number of people of …

Diversity In Ya: A Look At How Book Description Language Talks About Race, Brittney Finato

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

When exploring young adult literature, it is specifically important to research racial diversity because it can help show particular stereotypes, biases, and tropes that may be used in YA overall. This helps inform current issues or excellencies in the canon and leads to broader discussions about the importance of racial, and other, diversity in books generally. By developing methods to isolate racially diverse books in YA, extracting specific language from their Goodreads copy, and talking broadly about overall themes, I will analyze the types of language that book descriptions use when talking about race, if they do at all.

Consumerism-Driven History: The American Girl Brand As Publisher And Arbiter Of Girlhood Identity, Sarah Loepp

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

American Girl is a highly recognizable brand that wears several hats: publisher, dollmaker, and purported educator. Yet many researchers point out a disconnect between merchandise-driven aspects of the company and its educational qualities, as well as the set of cultural values suggested in material consumption versus the brand literature’s stated representation of girlhood. This paper outlines research pertaining to these issues before engaging in a close reading analysis of one of the historical character’s book series, ascertaining how the aforementioned concepts play out in the text itself. Assessment of American Girl consumption practices further draw from the brand’s website and …

The Small Publisher’S Guide To Audiobooks, Stephanie Anderson

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

While audiobooks have been around since the invention of the phonograph, the invention of streaming technologies, combined with our increasingly fast-paced, multitasking culture, has caused audiobooks to become the fastest growing market in the publishing industry in recent years. In fact, since 2013 the audiobooks market has seen sales growth of an average of 20% per year, according to studies done by the Audio Publishers Association. However, many small publishers are not entering into the vital “new” frontier and reaching greater markets because of assumptions about the cost-prohibitive nature of creating audiobooks, and a lack of knowledge of the industry …