Is the soft-cover of Tom Wolfe's latest book being repackaged as chick lit?
Here are the 2 covers from "I Am Charlotte Simmons" -- a novel which is meant to be a glimpse into the excesses of college life at a privileged private (party) university:
THE HARDCOVER
(too retro, too macho, sayeth the experts)
THE SOFTCOVER
Hmmm.... Softer... Slightly abstract... lime green theme... with focus on a fashion item (the dress).
Chick lit, or not chick lit?
Here are some supporting arguments in favor of a trend (not copied & pasted here for copyright reasons):
EXHIBIT A | EXHIBIT B | EXHIBIT C | EXHIBIT D
It'll be interesting to monitor this as a case study to see if college aged kids start buying the book. Today its Amazon rank is 1019.
There's no buzz on Technorati. Here's the word on Google Blogsearch. Thus far most bloggers are reacting to the fact that the book cover has no title. Picador claims this is because Tom Wolfe is a brand. Evidently they'd rather sell the brand than the title, as the novel received mixed reviews.
Re-branding the brand. Interesting approach. Targeting 2 simultaneous demographics, maybe? Existing fans + young women readers? The frog will keep an eye out (and perhaps check a copy out of the local library).
Keith Donahue's The Stolen Child seems to be doing everything right. He's got a blog on Amazon... Amazon sent galleys to their top 100 reviewers... and NPR covered the unique new approach.