Leslie Bennetts' The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?
arrives in stores next month, the initial publication from the new
Hyperion Books imprint Voice. It's also the first title to benefit from
the expertise of two advisory councils set up for the imprint, one
comprised of booksellers and the other made up of women in a variety of
professional fields.
When senior v-p and publisher Ellen Archer conceived of the imprint,
which publishes fiction and nonfiction aimed at women in their
mid-thirties and older, she decided to bring together "a great brain
trust of women" who would act as consultants in all stages of the
publishing process. "I felt that the way to really make it more dynamic
was to create what I consider the equivalent of an old boy's network,"
said Archer, who heads Voice with v-p and editorial director Pamela
Dorman. "Certainly other organizations have advisory councils," she
added. "Why not an imprint?"
The bookseller advisory council includes members from chains as well as
independent stores, among them Sarah Bagby of
Watermark Books & Cafe in Wichita, Kan., and Roxanne Coady of R.J.
Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn. "Book reading and book buying has
changes every day," said one member, Cindy Dach, director of marketing
and events at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz. "Publishers need
extended eyes and ears. With an advisory board of booksellers, Voice
can collect information and ideally use it wisely."
For Kathryn Popoff, director of adult trade books at Borders, the
appeal of being part of the bookseller advisory council was two-fold.
"From a personal and professional standpoint I think what's being done
with this imprint is really filling a customer need and will be well
received," she said. "It's sophisticated and will hit the target
market." Popoff added that booksellers are in a position to share
information about "the trends we're seeing in both cover treatment and
content."
One member of the professional women's advisory council will be able to
draw on her bookselling background: Thelma Kidd, co-founder of
Davis-Kidd Booksellers and now a Life Coach who lives in Nashville,
Tenn. When Kidd was asked to be part of the advisory council, she said,
"I was immediately interested in the focus of Voice" and intrigued by
the imprint's mission to produce "books for smart, curious women who
are interested in looking closely at their own life."
Along with Kidd, professional advisory council members range from
Hyperion author Candace Bushnell and iVillage co-founder Nancy Evans to
Merrill Lynch executive Subha Barry and economist Heather Boushey of
the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The council members' role goes beyond offering advice, Archer noted.
They plan to help market Voice titles. For example, Bushnell hosts the
weekly show "Sex, Success and Sensibility" on Sirius satellite radio
and often conducts author interviews. Barry is organizing an event at
Merrill Lynch with The Feminine Mistake author Leslie Bennetts.
Moreover, each professional council member provided a list of 50 influential
women in their respective fields. The nearly 1,000 people on the list
will receive a copy of every book published by Voice in the first year
to "create a ripple effect and get buzz going on these books in exactly
the arena that we're hoping to reach," said Archer. "I think women
listen to their friends whose opinions they value more than anything
when it comes to deciding what they want to read."
A Web site dedicated to the imprint will launch later this month. Archer envisions "a fun, interactive, and
provocative" community where women can exchange ideas and find useful
information, a site that goes beyond merely promoting books. The Web
site, in a sense, will be a consumer version of the advisory
councils--a resource for generating discussion about Voice titles and
garnering feedback. "I really want to communicate with the readers who
come to the site and ask them what's missing," Archer said. "The
Internet is such a gift to publishers because we've never been able to
afford market research. Now we have it right on our desk tops. We can
let our readers participate in the process of determining an imprint's
list."
Claire Cook, whose novel Life's a Beach hits stores in June, views the
advisory councils as assets in the publishing process. "It's really
exciting to have two groups of strong professional women backing the
imprint with their contacts and support," she said. "I'm particularly
thrilled with the bookseller advisory council, since as an author, I
think one of the most important things you can do is connect with the
wonderful people who are hand selling your books, and this is one more
great way to do it."--Shannon McKenna
