Thursday, September 14, 2017

Books To Finally Get TV Exposure



Finally, books will get their due.

PBS is launching an eight-episode documentary series that will explore and highlight the role of reading in American culture.  It will premier in May, 2018.

The show, The Great American Read, will feature a selected list of the 100 most-loved books.  It will be chosen by the public and a panel of literary experts.

Based on a survey of Americans conducted via YouGov, a palling organization, responses to the question:  “What is your best-loved novel?” produced a list of 1,200 titles.  From there, the list was culled down.  The top 100 titles are based on poll results.  Then experts took over to create a top 10 list.

PBS, along with Nutopia, a TV production company, and Aevitas Creative Management, a literary agency, recruited a panel of volunteer experts that included heads of not-for-profit literary organizations, librarians, members of the literary press and educators.  The panel will review the final list of 100 books to see that they represent the full range of American literature.

According to Publishers Weekly, “The show will air thematic episodes ranging from Being American and Heroes, to Growing Up.  It will also feature interviews with celebrities and ordinary Americans about their passion for books and the role of reading in their lives.”

Television has been around for a long time.  Developed in the 1920’s and popularized by the early 1950’s, we’ve waited a long time for TV to honor books, reading, and publishing.  C-Span has done the most in this area, filming author speaking appearances for decades.  More recently, airing of the National Book Awards on TV has contributed to the cause as well.  But now books finally get some real exposure.  Thank you, PBS!

It doesn’t have to conclude with this mini-series. We can continue the party and build on this foundation to expand into something bigger.  The book world has more than enough subject matter, personalities, and fans to justify creating a regular series that can air with dozens of shows annually.

Imagine if we had a behind-the-scenes look at all aspects of book writing, publishing, book marketing, printing, designing, and packaging?  What if we put each genre under a microscope?  What if we highlighted literacy, free speech, and creativity?  What if we talked about bookstores, book reviewers, and best-seller lists?

If anyone can write a great script for TV it should be the book industry.  Books on TV is the next chapter that the publishing industry deserves.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs


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