Comments on: Paid Product Placement for Young Reader Book Series

By: Donna Johns

Donna Johns — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:06:04 +0000

I recently bought a James Patterson book. I was previously unfamiliar with his work. Note that I am an avid reader, not a writer. I immediately was put off by the name brands that stuck out like a sore thumb and had nothing to add to the story. In fact, they were very distracting. At about Chapter 3, I was thoroughly disgusted and have thrown the book away in the trash. I then let my daughter purchase a set of two vampire genre books. She said that, try as she might, she could not read them and wanted to put them in our garage sale. I picked them up so see what was so bad about them. Yuchh! Product placement all over the place. Capitalized words everywhere. What was the story about? It doesn’t matter! All I could see what the makeup, shoes, hair products (for men and women), etc. Please just go write advertisements and stop disguising them as fiction. Publishers – I will now read the first three chapters of any book before I buy it and if I see a brand name, I will not buy it! Shame!

By: DS

DS — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:24:28 +0000

I read one of Mercedes Lackey’s coauthored books (w/Rosemary Edghill?) that had so many product references that I wondered if someone had been paid to stick them into the story– the other down side was by the time I read it– it had come out a couple of years earlier– the products were already dated.

By: Ned

Ned — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:33:10 +0000

Sherry,
Sorry about the confusion on the first paragraph on Tina Wells. I should have used the quotes instead of the hyperlink that takes you to Investors.com where she was quoted. Too confusing!
Thanks for catching it.
Ned

By: Sherry Thomas

Sherry Thomas — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:19:22 +0000

I am opposed to it philosophically. But I think its effectiveness would only be so much. Wasn’t there some brouhaha about a Bulgari book some time back? Don’t think the trend quite caught on.

And besides, people are getting more cynical than ever. I assume every product with a visible brandname in a movie is a paid product placement.

Which makes me think writers of historical romance/fiction can market the lack of product placement in our novels (The House of Worth, the house of who? Did they have a show in fashion week?) as an advantage over contemporary books. :-)

By: Sherry Thomas

Sherry Thomas — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:12:03 +0000

Dear Sir Ned (may I call you Sir Ned?),

I’m a little confused at the first paragraph about Tina Wells. I don’t see quotation marks around it. Nor is it set in blockquote. Are you speaking of her out of personal knowledge or paraphrasing from some other source?

By: Tedypig

Tedypig — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:02:04 +0000

Tina went on to say some day she hopes to write catalogs for a living.

By: Shiloh Walker

Shiloh Walker — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:09:32 +0000

oh geez. this is as bad as the idea of ‘labeling’ eggs.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:39:38 +0000

I agree, Christine. I hate this idea. When Ned and I were emailing earlier today about this I told him that I felt like there was no safe place for kids to be away from commercialism.

Also, anytime that advertisers begin to be inserted into the prose, the notion of intellectual integrity goes out the window.

By: Ned

Ned — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:38:58 +0000

I never dreamed that when Jane asked me to help her with the industry news section of Dear Author that I would be so involved in the news stories. I have been thinking all day about Harper Collins and this issue!

Is this author published because she is able to monetize her books or is she being published because her prose is better than any other submission they have?

I don’t have a problem with the author but with the publisher. It seems to me the publisher is more interested in lining their pocketbooks than raising the literary bar.

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:28:11 +0000

I am definitely opposed to this kind of product placement in a young adult novel. It is unnecessary and quit frankly, a bit disturbing. I am the mother of two young daughters (the oldest on the cusp of becoming a teen), and I can attest that there is already way too much pressure for kids to be wearing name brand or designer clothing. I think it would be rather sad if I now had to worry about my children being targeted with name brand advertising in a book. I believe I would steer my child away from reading such a book out of principle.