There’s an article in the Globe and Mail this morning, about Penguin’s 75th anniversary and their branding as a house in the marketplace. It’s quite interesting – you can take a look at it HERE.
The one thing about the article that I do think is funny is this – their example of a happy Penguin consumer is a guy who buys used Penguin Classics. Someone buying used books is not a direct customer of the publishing company, and this guy admits he has no intention of reading them. There’s certainly something to be said for the graphic appeal of a whole wall of Penguin Classics, but it maybe was a better example of great packaging than great publishing.
So, do you have lots of Penguin Classics? (I’m afraid to count mine. I don’t have a wall-worth, but there are several shelves of them. At least.)
What about Penguin’s current list? Do you look specifically for new Penguin titles because you associate their programs with quality? I do think that Penguin US has a terrific paranormal romance program – not just because they publish my Dragonfire titles! – and also a great women’s fiction program. I do look for the Eclipse and the Accent logo when I shop. Am I unusual in that? Do you do that, too? Or is there another house with editorial taste that better fits your own?
I’m curious. 🙂
Deborah Cooke: Author 
5 responses to “Penguin’s Anniversary”
Perhaps it’s my ignorance, but I don’t think that I ever associated a publisher with an editorial theme. I usually associated that with the author. Now I will have to look harder at my collection.
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But editors have tastes, too. I saw something the other day (in PW? maybe) about editors using Twitter. The article said that readers followed specific editors because they knew that editor had similar tastes to their own. So, the editor tweets about an exciting project, and these readers put it on their shopping list. I thought that was interesting, too.
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I’m with Alicia, I always thought about the author rather than the editor or publisher. Very Interesting.
And that is too funny about what you read in that article! I wonder how many people are scratching their heads at it too? I always find it amazing that this kind of stuff gets past so many people. I read another article the other week about a firm and it was supposed to be a marketing ploy but by the end of the article it had actually put the firm in quite a bad light.
BTW – I love the fire at the top of your new site! It screams dragons.
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I don’t specifically search out Penguin titles, but if I am making a choice between two publishers of Paranormal fiction, I tend to choose the Penguin. Could be better back cover blurbs, but maybe it is subconscious. Lots of my keeper shelf is Penquin.
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And actually, this is a variation of what I recommend authors do. If you notice that an editor has similar taste to your own – if, for example, many of your favourite books within your targeted subgenre are edited by the same editor – then that editor will be a good person for you to query with your own work.
I just never thought of readers doing it before.
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