Since it’s the holiday season, I’ve been shopping a lot. Every shopping trip involves a trip to a bookstore (and sometimes several-Matt can vouch for that!) and this bookstore is often Chapters/Indigo.
Every Chapters and Indigo has a giant display of Heather’s Picks–books the CEO has “read and personally loved” and this cheery little sticker is supposed to entice buyers to buy the book. “Well, Heather loved it,” they are supposed to tell themselves “my mother/friend/brother/father/Secret Santa/I surely will love it too.”
The problem with this situation is that I genuinely do not care what Heather is reading. It doesn’t help that her choices are always safe sure-fire best-sellers or books clearly on their way to that status. It doesn’t help her monthly Globe and Mail ads about these picks say nothing personal or insightful about these books. It doesn’t help her interviews with these authors are vacant, impersonal and ill-prepared. There is nothing appealing or intriguing about these selections because Heather does nothing to make herself or her picks appealing or intriguing.
This isn’t the problem with Oprah. Oprah picks books out of left field and she seems genuinely enthralled by and educated about them. Say what you will about the Oprah Bookclub stigma, she is an interesting and passionate woman, which inspires interesting and intriguing picks. Sometimes they are chick lit, something they are classics, sometimes they are cliche, but they are never boring.
So, what should Heather and Chapters/Indigo do about this?
I think they should do something along the lines of “Canada’s Picks.” Line up a string of Canadian celebrities and public figures and have them select a book-any book-with the only stipulations being that they read it, they loved it, they want others to read it, and it can’t be self-promotion in any way. Imagine how much more intriguing book selections from Peter Mansbridge, Mary Walsh, Rex Murphy, Sara Slean, the Tragically Hip, Jean Chretien, Ben Mulroney, Leah Miller and Paul Gross would be? They wouldn’t have to be A-list stars. One pick a month. Each star would do a teeny segment about their selection on a CBC show (preferably George Stromobolopous). This would be more interesting, engaging and Canadian than Heather’s Picks could aspire to be. It would be like Canada Reads. All year long.
I recognize there would be for greater resources needed to make this program work. But I think we need to be aspirational in our efforts to promote books and Heather’s Picks isn’t. It’s a shell of what Oprah’s bookclub is-and what it could be.
Image credit: Joshua Sherurcij. Found via Wikimedia.
I love your idea but would the celeb endorsement be much different that the Chapters/Indigo endorsement? I’m not sure.
One of the best ways to endorse a book is to make friends with a big mouth who loves to read. He or she will let you know what books they love and they won’t need ot put a little stamp on the cover for you. They’ll book cross the book to you!
Kathleen Molloy, author – Dining with Death
Kathleen,
I don’t think it’s so much about the celebrity endorsement as it is about the personality behind the endorsement. youre right-a loud mouth friend is always a great place for recommendations!
my biggest problem with the chapters/indigo endorsements is that heather has does nothing to make her choices different or interesting. I’ll take the staff I know at my local bookstore any day over heather’s.
The “Canada’s Picks” idea: Indigo has done this already. The fall 2007 marketing campaign was centered around a “What Are You Reading?” theme, with photographs of prominent/famous Canadians (Rick Mercer, Margaret Atwood, Peter Mansbridge) holding up whichever book they had chosen to endorse.
And most large format stores have a display unit specifically for what you’ve described.
Shelves containing a short questionnaire, filled out by a Canadian author/actor/doctor/artist posted next to a selection of books of his or her choosing. These displays are usually at the front of the store, near the discounted hardcover bestsellers, or along the back wall. Ask where they are.
Lastly, lots of well known Canadians are members and contributors to the Indigo Online Community, who regularly post book reccomendations and reviews.
Heather’s Picks get top billing because Mrs. Reisman runs the show. Alternatives aren’t hard to find, but I don’t think you’re looking hard enough.
Steve,
I remember the What Are You Reading campaign. I really liked it.
I’m not so much looking for an alternative to Heather Reisman so much as I am looking for Indigo to better market her picks. It’s as much about the personality behind the choice as it is about the choice itself. The public figures I suggested are not so much because they are public, so much as they are interesting personalities. Reisman’s choices could have a much stronger resonance and influence over the Canadian book buying public if they just gave her a better platform-if I think she’s interesting, I’ll think her picks are interesting and therefore be more likely to read them.
I misread the intent of your post, sorry.
Heather’s a tough nut to crack.
She has sixty percent of the market share, and sadly, none of the public appeal.
I’m not sure if there’s anything *to* forgive, but I don’t think she’s ever really been forgiven for the hostile takeovers, the yanking of books from Indigo shelves, and the behind-the-scenes support of various causes – some of which draw weekly protest outside her downtown Toronto stores.
Much of this ire has a trickle down effect (you really see it as an Indigo employee) to the public who may not directly follow things like this. They know that eight times out of ten, if they see Mrs. Reisman’s name mentioned in the press, it’s usually attached to something negative. So Heather becomes synonymous with “bad,” and they skip past her Picks table to the Oprah display.
(Indigo is, I’ll admit, getting better at PR, but they’ve years of bad press to overturn.)
I once overhead someone call Heather a “Nazi” (cough) while passing by her headshot in an Indigo store, and when I asked her why she’d said it, I got the reply, “I don’t know, she’s evil, right?”
I’ll admit it’s an extreme response, but I don’t think it’s far off from the public’s general perception of Mrs. Reisman – like she’s Ebeneezer Scrooge with scented candles – and it’s the exact reason why Heather’s Picks meet a collective mistrustful yawn among so many bookshoppers, perhaps like yourself.
And to honest, I don’t think that’s going to change, even with all the promotion in the world.
No worries on misreading it-a lot of people have! I’ll need to be clearer in the future