Oprah For Teenage Readers: Where Are You?
We are all aware that Oprah sells books. Call her a lens, a filter, a booster, whatever but that is mostly for older women. I have often wondered if there was an opportunity for somebody to be a book booster for teenage girls in the same way Oprah is there for my mom on her bookstore visits. All of you who say “blah” to Oprah in the first place can stop reading right here.
I had hoped that the popularity of the Twilight and Harry Potter fan podcasts would spawn a general vidcast for girls. If only some enterprising teenagers out there would start a show then the professionals could swoop in and give them aid. I am thinking professionals like Daisy Whitney and the PIxel Corps or Amber McArthur and MGImedia . Not professionals like Proctor and Gamble. But years into YouTube’s popularity that has yet to happen and probably never will.
A retailer could step up. And all-teen Youtube-channel from Indigo or McNally Robinson makes a lot of sense. Gary Vaynerchuk says as much. The store could even go co-op with publishers to make it happen. But that is pretty unlikely too.
Instead we get a glut of publisher-driven efforts to connect with teenage readers. Simon and Schuster just launched a social network for teenagers called Pulse-It. No stand-alone URL. Mistake. You need to sign-up (of course you do) to see what it is all about. Mistake.
Hey everyone! Thanks SO much for joining and all the great support. We actually got an overwhelming response (hurrah!) and far, far more traffic than we had expected. We’re actually somewhat behind in terms of approving members so please, please if you could just give us a day or two, bear with us while we get through everyone! Feel fr…
Approving members? There they go again, the publishers inserting themselves (painfully and artificially) between writers and readers. The big promise for participating users — earn points! Yuck.
Penguin has SpineBreakers. And there is Harper Teen. Both do better in their own ways but there is still room (and a need) for a filter for the teenage reader. Best be one that is open (on Youtube), focused (girls only), authentic (hosted by teens), and includes books from all publishers (sponsored by a retailer).
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