As we know, romance readers are some of our number one patrons (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019). Avid romance readers love a good trope. Personally, I'm a big fan of rivals/enemies-to-lovers, fake dating/relationship, grumpy/sunshine pairings, and a slow burn romances. These are only a few of so, so many tropes out there. I often like to seek out romances that have some of these particular tropes in them, and I know I'm not alone. To promote romance novels based on these tropes, I believe the way the Tropes and Trifles Romance Bookshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota is the way to go. A combination of catchy displays and passive programming is effective at both bringing in seasoned readers of certain tropes while potentially grabbing the eye for readers who might not be familiar with it. Plus, after reviewing some Reddit threads of the subject of trope displays, including cards that have a summary and why a staff member recommended it for display is helpful for those readers that want more than just knowing there's a "grumpy sunshine" trope.
Additionally, these displays being marketed on social media is an excellent way at promoting even more what materials are available. Armistead (2022) argues that the romance publishing market these days is being driven by the readers themselves, not the publisher's marketing. Having displays that shows what staff are reading and sharing that with other readers is a great way to make those connections, making the displays and programming both by and for the readers.
References
Armistead, C. (2022, June 8). 'After lockdown, things exploded': How TikTok triggered a books revolution. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/08/lockdown-exploded-tiktok-books-revolution-booktok '
Tropes & Trifles Romance Bookshop [tropesandtrifles]. (2023, December 1). PSA: Sunday is the last day to stop in and cast your vote for the character archetype of your choice. [Photographs]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C0UZp8sLq40/?img_index=1
Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.
Hi, I like the display where patrons can cast their votes. It makes them feel like their opinions matter. I also enjoy learning what my local library staff is reading. They publish a monthly electronic newsletters highlighting their choices.
ReplyDeleteI love finding out what library staff are reading. There's some thing in my head that knows we're surrounded by books all the time, even if we're not reading them, that places library staff opinions on a different level. I'm not entirely sure why, though.
DeleteI love the idea of asking patrons to vote on the next book display! My branch has patrons vote for things of no consequence (cats vs dogs was very popular with all ages). It would be great to give them some ownership along with sharing their opinion. Thanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the term of "ownership!" I feel like that's a word I needed for this, but couldn't find. I think people like to share their opinions on things like polls, especially when it could potentially affect what they see in the library. It'd be cool to see a poll somewhere like "what displays do you want to see next" with a few genres as options to see what people are interested in reading. That feels like a great way to get participation while being able to provide better readers advisory if you know more of your patrons are wanting to read mysteries or suspense novels than they're wanting to read romance and literary fiction.
DeleteI really enjoy this idea! I never thought about using tropes to market romance, but it makes sense especially if patrons have a favorite trope. I also like the idea of voting for the next display to make it more interactive.
ReplyDelete