{"id":1646,"date":"2012-07-31T21:19:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T01:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=1646"},"modified":"2012-09-26T11:45:36","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T15:45:36","slug":"monster-movie-month-guest-post-by-becky-siegel-spratford-marketing-horror-all-the-year-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/monster-movie-month-guest-post-by-becky-siegel-spratford-marketing-horror-all-the-year-through\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster Movie Month: Guest Post by Becky Siegel Spratford- Marketing Horror All The Year Through"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, we’ve reached the end of Monster Movie Month. If you’ve been following along, you have a lot of background information, resources, and recommendations for both movies and books at your fingertips, on topics from Asian ghosts to killer rats. So how do you use all this to get horror movies and fiction into the hands of likely readers? We asked Becky Spratford, author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition <\/em>(reviewed here<\/a>), which includes an entire chapter on marketing horror, to share her expertise, and she wrote us this guest post.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marketing Horror All the Year Through<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Becky Spratford<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One of the biggest questions I get from my fellow librarians is how they can best market their horror offerings throughout the year.\u00a0 Of course it is easy to get patrons to notice horror in October.\u00a0 Every other marketer in the world is priming the public for all things scary, so when people walk in the library, they are horror hungry zombies, looking for their next meal.\u00a0 We have to do little more than place the horror books within their line of sight, and patrons snatch up the books by the handful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ah, but the rest of the year we do not have the entirety of mass media working for us; we have to try just a little bit harder. But as daunting a task as it may seem, marketing horror to your patrons during the other 11 months of the year, is not as difficult as you might think. I have 2 easy ways you can seamlessly incorporate horror into your general work marketing books at your library.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s talk about traditional library displays.\u00a0 Most of you out there probably put up a big horror display in October.\u00a0 But why aren\u2019t you doing it other times of the year?\u00a0 The most common answer is that you think your patrons aren\u2019t thinking about horror outside of October.\u00a0 But in the last few years this is not necessarily true.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take the first 6 months of 2012 as an example.\u00a0 In April, we saw the release of The Cabin in the Woods<\/a>, a terrific and popular haunted house movie.\u00a0 In May, there was the Johnny Depp vampire soap opera Dark Shadows<\/a> and in June, the king of mash-ups, Seth Grahame-Smith helped to bring his bloody, smart, and amusing novel, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter<\/a> to the screen.\u00a0 Each of those movie releases had their own marketing campaigns that resulted in buzz about them among the general public.\u00a0 For each, a small display could have easily been created.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You begin by putting up a graphic of the movie poster on regular 8 \u00bd\u00a0 by 11 paper (just do a Google image search for the movie) next to a handful of books.\u00a0 Then you grab some books that are connected with the movie.\u00a0 So for Cabin in the Woods<\/em>, you could pull out some haunted house books, vampire books for Dark Shadows<\/em>, and some comic horror novels for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter<\/em>.\u00a0 Displays do not need special shelving.\u00a0 Just put books out anyplace where you have space.\u00a0 For example, at the Berwyn Public Library<\/a>, we put these small, current event displays up on our desk, on a top shelf that we keep clear to rotate with impromptu displays, and even on small side tables in our seating areas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These current event displays not only show your patrons that you understand their interests, but they also make a trip to the library easier for them.\u00a0 Patrons are daunted by the large number of books on our shelves, so anything we can do to pull out good books for them, makes them less intimidated and more willing to browse.\u00a0 And, displays linked to current media darlings are a sure fire crowd pleaser.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But how do you choose the books?\u00a0 Here is where I can help.\u00a0 In my new book<\/a> and on its companion website<\/a>, I have a lot of lists that would help you to identify titles that you could highlight.\u00a0 I am even fine with you using my annotations, as long as you cite where they are from.\u00a0 In the book I have entire chapters on haunted houses, vampires, and comic horror that include long annotated lists of popular titles available at most public libraries.\u00a0 On the website, RA for All: Horror<\/a>, I use tags on each post.\u00a0 You just need to choose a tag, like vampires<\/a>, and all of the relevant posts come up.\u00a0 There are literally hundreds of options at your fingertips.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another way you can work horror into your displays throughout the year is to simply include a few horror titles in the mix in your larger, more planned displays.\u00a0 For example, we have done displays featuring coming-of-age stories at our library.\u00a0 Since this is such a popular theme in novels, on the display we included books from every genre.\u00a0 There was literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, suspense, and horror, just to name a few.\u00a0 As I argue in my new book<\/a>, a coming-of-age theme is huge in all horror.\u00a0 In most horror novels, the protagonist has to overcome his own shortcomings, face his inner demons, and grow up before he can defeat the physical monster in front of him.\u00a0 So what horror books can be included on a \u201cComing-of-Age\u201d display? Any you want.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What about a display on gardening? I have lots of \u201cplants of terror\u201d titles to suggest to you in\u00a0 my book or on the blog, but here are two of my favorites– The Ruins<\/a> by Scott Smith and The Caretaker of Lorne Field<\/a> by Dave Zeltersman.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This plan works with just about any theme.\u00a0 If you just make an effort to incorporate horror into all of your displays, I am sure you will find a tale of terror to fit most displays.\u00a0 The moral here is to consciously mix all genres into your displays.\u00a0 You will have more fun, and you will make a wider range of patrons happier.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My second tip for marketing horror all year also plays off of the media.\u00a0 I mentioned a marketing strategy for one-time movie releases, but what about the excitement we are seeing for popular horror television series throughout the year? \u00a0Again, let\u2019s stick with just the first 6 months of 2012 and talk about two of the most popular series on television, period– AMC\u2019s The Walking Dead<\/a> and HBO\u2019s True Blood<\/a> (okay, technically True Blood is paranormal, not pure horror, but trust me, I will address that in a moment).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Walking Dead<\/em> ran on TV in the winter and spring, while True Blood<\/em> is currently running this summer.\u00a0 For each series I took a different marketing approach at the library.\u00a0 For The Walking Dead<\/em>, I focused on a web campaign of all things zombie.\u00a0 On my blog<\/a>, I ran many Walking Dead<\/em> inspired posts and worked hard to incorporate book suggestions in these posts.\u00a0 I did this throughout the run of the show, culminating with a display of zombie books in the library during the week leading up to the finale.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

True Blood<\/em> was a little more difficult, since its fans are mostly those who like paranormal stories.\u00a0 In paranormal, the main thrust of the story is NOT to invoke fear, as it is in horror.\u00a0 The scares come, but they are not the overall point of the work.\u00a0 As a result, some horror fans do not like paranormal and vice versa.\u00a0 But, that doesn\u2019t mean NO horror fans like True Blood<\/em>.\u00a0 To address the wide range of appeal in the TV series and the book series, a few years ago, I created this list of Sookie Stackhouse read alikes broken up by appeal<\/a>.\u00a0 I considered all of the reasons you may like the series and included plenty of horror options on the list.\u00a0 This list is available online and in the library and is one of most popular lists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I hope I have inspired you to consider marketing horror throughout the year.\u00a0 The popularity of horror TV series and movies today proves horror\u2019s staying power.\u00a0 And if huge production companies think it is okay to push horror during the other 11 months of the year, why shouldn\u2019t you?\u00a0 We have way less to lose than they do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And don\u2019t be scared of helping your horror patrons.\u00a0 They are not monsters, they just like to read about them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Becky Spratford is a busy Readers’ Advisor. Between manning a desk at the\u00a0Berwyn (IL) Public Library<\/a> and corrupting the minds of library school students at Dominican University, she runs two popular and critically acclaimed RA blogs:\u00a0RA for All<\/a> and\u00a0RA for All: Horror<\/a>.\u00a0 Her new book\u00a0The Readers\u2019 Advisory Guide to Horror, 2nd<\/sup> edition<\/a> (ALA Editions, 2012) is available now.\u00a0 She also writes content for EBSCO’s NoveList database and is a proud member of The Horror Writers’ Association.\u00a0 She can be reached at bspratford[at]hotmail[dot]com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, we’ve reached the end of Monster Movie Month. If you’ve been following along, you have a lot of background information, resources, and recommendations for both movies and books at your fingertips, on topics from Asian ghosts to killer rats. So how do you use all this to get horror movies and fiction into the<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1155,395,309,960,1156,1154,155,83,1100,9,6,829,1031,13,1005,997,100,1157,1103,11,1101,588,1158,940],"class_list":["post-1646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter","tag-becky-siegel-spratford","tag-book-lists","tag-cabin-in-the-woods","tag-comic-horror","tag-dark-shadows","tag-halloween","tag-horror-fiction","tag-horror-movies","tag-librarians","tag-libraries","tag-library-displays","tag-marketing-horror-at-the-library","tag-media-tie-ins","tag-monster-movie-month","tag-monster-movies","tag-paranormal-fiction","tag-ra-for-all-horror","tag-read-alikes","tag-readers-advisory","tag-the-readers-advisory-guide-to-horror","tag-the-walking-dead","tag-true-blood","tag-vampire-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1970,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions\/1970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}