by Jason Joyner | Jan 4, 2011 | Blog, books, CSFF, fantasy, marketing, speculative fiction
Welcome back to the second star-studded day of the CSFF Tour. We’re featuring The Wolf of Tebron, the first in a series by author C.S. Lakin.
Yesterday I gave an overview of the book, and tomorrow I want to give my review. What do I have in store for today?
A puzzle.
How does an author effectively market their book – to get it into the hands of the type of reader that will appreciate their genre/style?
I ask this today because The Wolf of Tebron is billed as a “fairy tale allegory of God’s love.” The designation fairy tale isn’t used often nowadays outside of the Disney realm. I thought it was an interesting angle to go with this book. Since this tour features fantasy and science fiction novels (more broadly speculative fiction, including alternate history novels like The Gifted series by Lisa Bergren), it is a logical book to spotlight. I don’t think anyone in our group, when choosing books, paused when they saw the description.
I think a lot of the books we feature run into a tricky problem of how to market the story. In 2010 we featured Lost Mission by Athol Dickson. It was set alternately in the 1700’s and the modern day. It was labeled as “magical realism.” What is that, exactly? And who is the market for that? It worked enough to get us to review it, but it isn’t an easy book to summarize. It is not fantasy, but there was a fantastic element that was a key plot item.
The Wolf of Tebron is probably closer to fairy tale than true fantasy, so the designation is appropriate. Will it capture a potential buyer with that moniker? Of course, it also bills itself as an allegory. True allegories are hard to find. The Pilgrim’s Progress is probably the most famous one in Christian literature. The publicity letter I received with Tebron considered C.S. Lewis in the allegorical realm. I wrestle with that. I don’t think it is a true allegory. In my mind an allegory has point-by-point connection with whatever it is trying to emulate. Yes, Aslan is a Christ-figure, but how many other direct connections are there? There is much symbolism, but I don’t think allegory is the best way to describe the Narnia series.
Enough with the nit-picking. The point is, I think speculative fiction has a harder time marketing itself because the term is encompasses several sub-genres. If a book is a mystery or a romance, there can be variations: detective vs. noir, chick lit vs. historical. Still, the category is pretty focused. Speculative fiction is a wide berth, and it is tricky when a fantasy book doesn’t match a Lord of the Rings pattern.
So the author and publisher have to call it something. For those in the tour, what do you think? Was “a fairy tale allegory” the best way to market Tebron? Is there a better way for this book to reach its readers?
Check to see what the rest of the CSFF gang is saying on Becky Miller’s post. I’ll give my review of the book tomorrow, with a little more on marketing…
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by Jason Joyner | Jan 4, 2011 | Blog, books, CSFF, fantasy, marketing, speculative fiction
Welcome back to the second star-studded day of the CSFF Tour. We’re featuring The Wolf of Tebron, the first in a series by author C.S. Lakin.
Yesterday I gave an overview of the book, and tomorrow I want to give my review. What do I have in store for today?
A puzzle.
How does an author effectively market their book – to get it into the hands of the type of reader that will appreciate their genre/style?
I ask this today because The Wolf of Tebron is billed as a “fairy tale allegory of God’s love.” The designation fairy tale isn’t used often nowadays outside of the Disney realm. I thought it was an interesting angle to go with this book. Since this tour features fantasy and science fiction novels (more broadly speculative fiction, including alternate history novels like The Gifted series by Lisa Bergren), it is a logical book to spotlight. I don’t think anyone in our group, when choosing books, paused when they saw the description.
I think a lot of the books we feature run into a tricky problem of how to market the story. In 2010 we featured Lost Mission by Athol Dickson. It was set alternately in the 1700’s and the modern day. It was labeled as “magical realism.” What is that, exactly? And who is the market for that? It worked enough to get us to review it, but it isn’t an easy book to summarize. It is not fantasy, but there was a fantastic element that was a key plot item.
The Wolf of Tebron is probably closer to fairy tale than true fantasy, so the designation is appropriate. Will it capture a potential buyer with that moniker? Of course, it also bills itself as an allegory. True allegories are hard to find. The Pilgrim’s Progress is probably the most famous one in Christian literature. The publicity letter I received with Tebron considered C.S. Lewis in the allegorical realm. I wrestle with that. I don’t think it is a true allegory. In my mind an allegory has point-by-point connection with whatever it is trying to emulate. Yes, Aslan is a Christ-figure, but how many other direct connections are there? There is much symbolism, but I don’t think allegory is the best way to describe the Narnia series.
Enough with the nit-picking. The point is, I think speculative fiction has a harder time marketing itself because the term is encompasses several sub-genres. If a book is a mystery or a romance, there can be variations: detective vs. noir, chick lit vs. historical. Still, the category is pretty focused. Speculative fiction is a wide berth, and it is tricky when a fantasy book doesn’t match a Lord of the Rings pattern.
So the author and publisher have to call it something. For those in the tour, what do you think? Was “a fairy tale allegory” the best way to market Tebron? Is there a better way for this book to reach its readers?
Check to see what the rest of the CSFF gang is saying on Becky Miller’s post. I’ll give my review of the book tomorrow, with a little more on marketing…
—
by Jason Joyner | Jan 3, 2011 | Blog, books, CSFF, fantasy
Welcome to another Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy blog tour. This is a group passionate about quality speculative fiction with a Christian worldview, and there are always good discussions on the books we highlight each month.
I believe we’re having two tours this month, with the first featuring The Wolf of Tebron by C.S. Lakin.
The backcopy to the book says it is a “stirring allegory of God’s love in classic fairy tale tradition.” It follows the adventures of Joran, a young blacksmith with the gift of mindspeaking with animals. He has a recurrent dream that his wife is trapped by the Moon after he sends her away in a fit of anger. On his journey he rescues a large wolf, who becomes his companion on traveling to the four ends of the world to solve the riddle of his dream and rescuing his wife. Joran suffers through many trials in his journey, but in the end a sacrifice is needed to finish his task. Will Joran risk all for what seems to be a dream?
Ms. Lakin appears to be a prolific writer, as she has another contemporary book that was recently released, Someone to Blame, (the CFBA tour will be featuring it later this month). You can find out more about her from the website for The Wolf of Tebron and her personal blog.
As always, you can find different opinions from my varied tourmates below. I will have a review of the book in a later post as well.
Noah Arsenault
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
—
I did receive an advanc reader copy of this book for review purposes.
by Jason Joyner | Jan 3, 2011 | Blog, books, CSFF, fantasy
Welcome to another Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy blog tour. This is a group passionate about quality speculative fiction with a Christian worldview, and there are always good discussions on the books we highlight each month.
I believe we’re having two tours this month, with the first featuring The Wolf of Tebron by C.S. Lakin.
The backcopy to the book says it is a “stirring allegory of God’s love in classic fairy tale tradition.” It follows the adventures of Joran, a young blacksmith with the gift of mindspeaking with animals. He has a recurrent dream that his wife is trapped by the Moon after he sends her away in a fit of anger. On his journey he rescues a large wolf, who becomes his companion on traveling to the four ends of the world to solve the riddle of his dream and rescuing his wife. Joran suffers through many trials in his journey, but in the end a sacrifice is needed to finish his task. Will Joran risk all for what seems to be a dream?
Ms. Lakin appears to be a prolific writer, as she has another contemporary book that was recently released, Someone to Blame, (the CFBA tour will be featuring it later this month). You can find out more about her from the website for The Wolf of Tebron and her personal blog.
As always, you can find different opinions from my varied tourmates below. I will have a review of the book in a later post as well.
Noah Arsenault
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
—
I did receive an advanc reader copy of this book for review purposes.
by Jason Joyner | Sep 28, 2010 | Blog, Christopher Hopper, CSFF, speculative fiction, spiders, Wayne Thomas Batson, young adult
Continuing the CSFF Tour of Venom and Song, the latest book by the dynamic duo of Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper, one would expect a review of the book, right?
If I had been able to rip it away from my 10 year old long enough to finish it, I would review it.
I guess I can’t blame him – he had a Barnes and Noble gift card from his birthday, so really I’m trying to steal his book. But…he knew I had a deadline!
Instead, I am going to attempt a difficult task: interpret a 10 year old boy’s thoughts of, “Cool! Awesome!” into a coherent review.
Remember that this is book two, following last year’s Curse of the Spider King (see the tour here, there, and here too). We read that together as a family out loud over a couple months at bedtime. The timing worked out that we finished Curse right before Venom came out, so he launched right into it. Both boys enjoyed the action, characters, and suspense of the first book. (A favorite line was when an Elf was asked if she knew what the other Elves were up to due to telepathy. The answer: “A cell phone.”)
 |
| All boy |
As Nathan read through it, he proclaimed last weekend it was “his favorite book.” That endorsement from a 10 year old should be enough. I hope so, because I tried to ask why it was his favorite. Turns out 10 year old boys aren’t very good at explaining their feelings! He thought it was “cool” and “awesome.”
I pressed him for more. He like the action, the characters, and the suspense (had to define “suspense” for him). His favorite character was the teenage elven lord Jett, due to his power of super-strength and his past history of being a star football player. He didn’t care for Kat or Kiri Lee, two other lords, because they didn’t have “cool powers” (telepathy and air-walking). I wondered if it was the fact they were girls, but he didn’t include Autumn, who has super speed, so the power thing must be it.
I also asked him about a theme. As a 10 year old boy, his response was, “Uhhhhhhh.” Finally, he said he saw the importance of teamwork from the book. I don’t think I’d do any better as a 10 year old, so I’ll take it!
So, if you want to know what a typical 10 year old boy thinks of Venom and Song, it is “cool.”
Nuff said!
Oh, and for stuffy grown-up opinions 😉 you can check out Becky Miller’s blog, where she keeps a tab on all posts here.
—
by Jason Joyner | Sep 28, 2010 | Blog, Christopher Hopper, CSFF, speculative fiction, spiders, Wayne Thomas Batson, young adult
Continuing the CSFF Tour of Venom and Song, the latest book by the dynamic duo of Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper, one would expect a review of the book, right?
If I had been able to rip it away from my 10 year old long enough to finish it, I would review it.
I guess I can’t blame him – he had a Barnes and Noble gift card from his birthday, so really I’m trying to steal his book. But…he knew I had a deadline!
Instead, I am going to attempt a difficult task: interpret a 10 year old boy’s thoughts of, “Cool! Awesome!” into a coherent review.
Remember that this is book two, following last year’s Curse of the Spider King (see the tour here, there, and here too). We read that together as a family out loud over a couple months at bedtime. The timing worked out that we finished Curse right before Venom came out, so he launched right into it. Both boys enjoyed the action, characters, and suspense of the first book. (A favorite line was when an Elf was asked if she knew what the other Elves were up to due to telepathy. The answer: “A cell phone.”)
 |
| All boy |
As Nathan read through it, he proclaimed last weekend it was “his favorite book.” That endorsement from a 10 year old should be enough. I hope so, because I tried to ask why it was his favorite. Turns out 10 year old boys aren’t very good at explaining their feelings! He thought it was “cool” and “awesome.”
I pressed him for more. He like the action, the characters, and the suspense (had to define “suspense” for him). His favorite character was the teenage elven lord Jett, due to his power of super-strength and his past history of being a star football player. He didn’t care for Kat or Kiri Lee, two other lords, because they didn’t have “cool powers” (telepathy and air-walking). I wondered if it was the fact they were girls, but he didn’t include Autumn, who has super speed, so the power thing must be it.
I also asked him about a theme. As a 10 year old boy, his response was, “Uhhhhhhh.” Finally, he said he saw the importance of teamwork from the book. I don’t think I’d do any better as a 10 year old, so I’ll take it!
So, if you want to know what a typical 10 year old boy thinks of Venom and Song, it is “cool.”
Nuff said!
Oh, and for stuffy grown-up opinions 😉 you can check out Becky Miller’s blog, where she keeps a tab on all posts here.
—
