Reader Remorse
by John Wolf
I was haunting my local library the other day and stumbled across a push-cart full of free books. In there was Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfires of the Vanities." I've never read it, so I took it home. 1987 and it reads like it was written yesterday about the big tycoons on Wall Street, but what got me was the somewhat gross personalities, off-center attitudes, free range sexual activities, racial slurs, and profanity incrusted on every page.
This was Tom Wolfe's first breakout novel, which led to great success as a writer. I've been thumbing through several first big hit books of famous authors, all showcased in New York City. The same themes ran in strings of crass language and demented characters off every page. I felt dirty after the research.
The impression I had in general was, 'Who are the readers of this stuff that it instantly climbs to the number one slot and makes millions of dollars? Are the readers so deprived that their eyes widen with anticipation with each transvestite hooker that scores with a CEO of a baby clothes manufacturer? Are these the people that have slammed their hand down over a receipt spike and grimmest with pleasure?'
I have to admit, I enjoyed Wolfe's style of describing things. He is very skilled with setting a scene and getting into the character's thoughts, but the subject of the whole book is like befriending Bernie Madoff because of his moral values. It gave me reader remorse.
The next logical question is what are the demographics of these readers? Where to they come from? Are all readers so mentally hair-triggered to feed off of other people's misery. I hope not.
Then it occurred to me that if you marketed successfully in New York City only, you might see millions in sales. If you just sold in a few urban centers, you wouldn't have to waste your time in every Podunk, backwater town in America, hanging around the local Borders Books listening to Muzak in the background, drumming a pencil on a folding table, waiting for a sale. Maybe these sales would map-pin into major urban areas, where I would expect the run-of-the-mill lunitic to live. I'm not saying everyone that lives in a big city is weird; but I assumes enough do to make great book sales.
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The next demographic thought was, 'I wonder if anyone has every surveyed other areas of the country to determine stories that people respond to?' Maybe non-urban areas have better taste; they don't need a heroine high to feel fulfilled. This could be risky and an eye-opening in itself. What if the readers that make these huge sales possible are all people you wouldn't want to babysit your children. Maybe bodycount video games aren't so bad after all.
As I wander aimlessly through book genries with my own writing, trying to find a group of readers drawn by what I have written, the thought passes through me, 'Do I have to pump out gutter language and promote the virtues of pedifiles to sell a book?' I would rather not have to prostitute myself like that for a sale. The real question is where are the readers that wouldn't give me a feeling of remorse?
If this theory holds water, and stories that won't make your children become serial killers are not what you want to write about, where are the map-pins so you can find your target buyers? This would be valuable information, because all the rhetoric about how to sell a book could be ignored and groundbreaking new strategies would immerge.
My question to you is, 'Do you know of any agency, organization, or literary scholars that could provide demographics verses story style, focused on stories that don't depend on crass subjects, characters the drain puss onto pages, or stimulate the primeval animal in all of us to disgusting levels of perversion?' If so, please let me know.
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John is an eRagSheet journalist, author, and musician.
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