Over 200
million Americans did not watch the Super Bowl this year. It’s hard to believe that no more than a
third of the country is ever fixated on any one thing at any time.
We know with
books that even runaway bestsellers are not read by well over 95% of the
country.
Popular
TV shows that draw 20 million viewers missed 300 million others.
Movies
that do $300 million at the box office may have been seen by 25-30 million in theaters, leaving 290 million out in the cold.
Magazines
that have readerships of three to four million or the biggest daily newspapers
that have a circulation of two million are unread by 99% of America.
Online,
even when some video gets 50 million views, chances are a lot of it is repeat
views but even if every view represented a person and if all were Americans
(they’re not), then more than five-sixths of the country never saw it.
All of
this shows what a diverse, fractured, and disunified country we really are when
it comes to our cultural arts, sports, politics, news, and faith.
What
surprises me is if you get as many as 115 million people to watch an event like
the Patriots-Seahawks battle – and the hyped ads and Katy Perry halftime show,
why didn’t that number swell even more? If so many people say they are watching the Super Bowl, what turned so
many others away from it – and what did they do instead?
I
propose next year we throw a Book Bowl.
No, it won’t be authors scrimmaging on the football field or literary
agents lining up against publishers in a huge arena, but it could be something
special.
Let’s
take a day to celebrate books and to highlight the industry’s best authors,
publishers, bookstores, libraries, literacy organizations, free-speech defenders,
and book clubs.
What
would some of the events look like? How
would we turn this into a game or competition?
Would advertisers run commercials – albeit for less than 4.5 million
bucks for every 30 seconds – that showcase the same things you see during the
championship gridiron match or would the ad fare match the presumed
intellectual wit that’s watching the Book Bowl?
To give
it a competitive element, I’d feature heated debates on controversial topics
that relate to books. Let people go
jaw-to-jaw like they’re on a daytime talk show.
You can
add in a regional or city element by having authors and representatives from
all over the country to participate.
You
would have something for everyone when business authors talk to erotic
novelists, while faith publishers interact with.
There
would be readings by poets, novelists, and nonfiction authors.
Awards
would be given out.
The
event would have an interactive social media component as well.
Results
from various polls and surveys that were researched before the Book Bowl can be
announced before a live audience so that reactions could be measured.
Best of
all, the Book Bowl could be like a Jerry Lewis telethon, where money could be
raised so that literacy could be promoted and censorship fought.
Will you
tune in to the Book Bowl?
DON’T MISS: ALL NEW RESOURCE OF THE YEAR
2015 Book PR & Marketing Toolkit: All New
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