Tony's Kansas City, the most well-read blog in the state's largest city, has accused the Kansas City Star of bullying John Hacker and me with publication of its book Joplin 5:41:
THE LATEST ATTEMPT TO CAPITALIZE ON DISASTER BY THE KANSAS CITY STAR IS PUSHING SMALL PUBLISHERS OUT OF THE MARKET PLACE!!!
The book from people in Joplin was put together by photog extraordinaire John Hacker and Randy Turner and The Turner Report.
Unfortunately, Randy would have a better blog if he could spout a controversial opinion every now and then but even he seems slightly peeved when he notes . . .
"Though I certainly wish the Kansas City Star had named its new book on the Joplin Tornado something beside Joplin 5:41, I am eagerly anticipating reading the book."
That's a nice sentiment from somebody who mistakenly thinks he has to grab ankle for big media. Meanwhile . . . Turner & Hacker have a more authentic story with greater detail and better images and they're clearly being muscled by The Kansas City Star and their parent company.
Obviously, I didn't come out much better than the Star in Tony's estimation, but I do have the genuine belief that 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado will hold its own with the Kansas City Star and Joplin Globe books, despite the much bigger promotional budget both of those publications have.
Ours has done well almost entirely on word of mouth and social networking promotion. At this point, the only media mention of our book has come from KSNF and KOAM.
The Kansas City Star sent me an e-mail yesterday asking me to promote a book signing Saturday at the Joplin Public Library for its book Joplin 5:41. I agreed to do so, but asked if it would be possible for the Star to mention our book. I received a negative response, being told politely that since our book came out Aug. 28, it was pretty much old news now.
I did not hesitate to publicize the Star's book, not because I was bending over for the newspaper as Tony's Kansas City says, but because I write my blog for my readers and they have a genuine interest in any publication that writes about the Joplin Tornado.
I have also written about the Globe's book and as anyone who reads the Globe is aware there has not been one mention of 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado in its pages. Nor did I expect there to be.
I will admit that the Star's book has been a problem for us because of its title. We announced the title for our book months ago, and though I know there are several Star reporters who read The Turner Report, I am sure that the advertising and promotional types who chose the name probably are not among my readers.
Despite all of that, I have faith in our book. We are not asking people to buy our book because our proceeds are going to a good cause. In fact, I deliberately tried to play down that part of it because I do not want people buying 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado for charity reasons; I want them to buy it because we put a lot of effort into it to make it a book that people would actually want to read instead of decorating a coffee table.
On that level, we have succeeded.
And I ask those who have bought our book and like it- spread the word. That is the kind of advertising that money cannot buy.
The KC Star always has been and always will be an afterthought. I buy the paper to wad up and use to start charcoal fires for grilling. The editor and most of the writers are sissy-girls looking for some other person's story to copy. Other than that, I guess they are basically good people, but not journalists.
ReplyDeleteIf I wasn't busy on Saturday, I'd swing by the KC Star book signing event and try to get the "author" to sign a copy of the superior Turner/Hacker tornado book.
ReplyDeleteI'd also love to have Rick Springfield sign a copy of Born in the USA and get Sara Palin to sign a copy of "Going Rouge"
But that's just me.
whine..whine..whine...It's still a free country..unless OBAMA gets his way...we're still free to worship how we like, root for the baseball team we like,practice capitalism and we can still,(even if it steps on Randy and John's toes)name our books what we want. The STAR did some great reporting on the tornado...they just weren't self-absorbed in it as we locals were. quit whining.
ReplyDeleteI hope the whining reference was not intended for me since I have consistently praised the Star's work in Joplin, have often linked to it, and have publicized their book. I did ask that some publicity also be given to our book. That request was turned down, but it did not stop me from promoting the Star's book signing. That is not exactly what I would call whining.
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