Advertising on book covers and inside books

 Ads on book covers?
Last week a book was published in China with an advertisement on the back cover. It isn't intrusive--the ad is a small logo of a textile firm. The deputy director of the Publishers' Association of China announced his association's deal with an advertising agency in March. He talks about it in this article in People Daily. (Well worth reading.)
Though ads on covers may be new, ads inside books are not new. 

I remember reading books with ads in them. The ads weren't for products, they were for other books by the publisher. But they are ads! I went to my bookshelves to see if I could find these ads in some of my older books.

First, I found a picture book I bought when I lived in China. The back cover shows photos of other picture books: advertising. (As I thumb through this book, I now wish I had bought more copies of this book and bought some of the other books shown.)

Some books advertise other books published by the author--these advertisements use several pages at the back of the book and show book covers and include pitches or blurbs. (Some books published today still mention other books by the author, but they don't have the tone or look or feel of an advertisement.)

I own some recent children's books that include the first chapter of another book by the same author. This is a type of advertisement, one that can hook the reader. (It can also frustrate the reader if the book isn't yet published!)

Historically, some publishing houses included mail order forms on the back pages of their books.
Here are some of the publishing houses (who used these types of ads) that I found while browsing my shelves.

-Vintage Random House (1984): the back four pages lists "Vintage" classics: "Available at your bookstore or call toll-free to order." Plus, there is another page (and order form) to order the book on audio-cassette.

-Avon/Harper Collins (1990) published a Newbery Honor book. The back page has lists of books and prices, plus a coupon for ordering books.

-Apple Scholastic (no date) has the same type of form in the back of their Apple Classic Black Beauty. The books available are classics and are offered for around $3, with $2 for shipping.

-Ballentine (1976) Tolkien Books have information about ordering other Tolkien books. Plus, one book has ads for both Lord of the Ring Maps and posters on one back page and an ad for the MS Read-a-thon on another page.

Tolkien: Smith of Wooten Major and Farmer Giles of Ham; The Tolkien Reader.

-Other publishers on my shelves that have order forms are Dell (1973, 1990); Bantam (1974); Penguin (1986; 7 pages with 4 order forms! But no prices, yet it says, "please include sales tax); and Signet (1965 and 1984).

A more recent Scholastic Book (2002) has three (!) pages in the back with illustrated advertisements with mail order blanks to fill in.

What about picture books?
Golden Books and some Scholastic books and others show either book covers or a list of books--and I've bought books because of this--but these books give no way to order directly.

Next, I wondered if there were any books from a long time ago that included advertising. I found an example online from 1776: about 3/4 the way down the page shows an ad on an endpage of Aristotle’s Masterpiece.

At some point, most US publishers went away from selling directly to the public. I wonder why that decision was made; I think a few publishers are now again selling e-books directly to customers.

Advertisements could be intrusive and take away from the reading experience. (I can imagine a poorly done ad being placed right at a cliffhanger.) But perhaps the right type of ads placed in the right place would be acceptable to readers.

Here are a few questions that I'm now asking myself:

• Would advertisements in the back pages of a book irritate me as a reader? (I remember when I was a child, I would always read these ads and wish I could get some of the books mentioned.)
• What about ads on book covers? What if it was only a small logo?
• What about a book where the author was paid to insert and highlight a product? (This has happened, by the way.) 
• What if advertising meant that high quality books (edited and published by reputable firms) were available inexpensively?
• Or should books, as one of the last few places we go for entertainment without marketing and advertising, remain ad-free?

Fairy Tale House in Michelstadt

I rounded the corner in Michelstadt when visiting their Christmas Market and saw this amazing building.

Characters from various Grimms' tales are painted on the outer walls of this traditional fachwerk house.

Characters on this side of the house include Hansel and Gretel (top), Bremen Town Musicians (center), Little Red Riding Hood (right), and Cinderella with the prince (left)-the 2nd panel of the story.

Detail of Bremen Town Musicians and Little Red Riding Hood. (Her hood has faded from a brighter red, but see the wine and bread in her basket?)

Here I'm standing in front of another side of the building. 

 Bottom right is the first panel of Cinderella with birds. Above is the Frog Prince, and to the left is a dwarf, carrying a lantern. I'm not certain which tale he is from, as there are a couple possibilities.

Three panels that tell the story of Puss in Boots. Left, the cat is with a man with a horn; center, a girl and boy pass by; right is Puss in his boots.

Details of Puss in Boots 

Details of The Frog Prince

And last--here is a view of the house, with part of the Christmas Market in the foreground.

May your holidays be filled stories.

Happy Holidays.

Revising: Learning from Lewis Carroll

I am fascinated by how different writers revise.

Lewis Carroll wrote two versions of a book. He wrote (by hand) and illustrated Alice's Adventures Under Ground in 1862. (The link takes you to the book at Gutenberg.org.)
This book was expanded, revised, and published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (illustrations by John Tenniel) in 1866. (The second link takes you to an 1866 copy of Alice which can be downloaded in most formats or read online at Internet Archive.org.)

The first chapter of the Under Ground book is almost identical to the beginning of the Wonderland book. Carroll only changes a couple words, such as "nosegay" into "fan."

There is a noticeable word change in the middle:
The ostrich changes to a flamingo!

Illustration by Lewis Carroll
I wonder why Carroll made this choice when he revised.
What is the difference between playing croquet with an ostrich or a flamingo?
Did he make this change because of the size of the bird?
The color of the bird?
Maybe flamingos are more docile.

Large scale revision is shown in the final chapters of the book. Three pages in the Under Ground book expand into two chapters in the Wonderland book!

When I write an initial story, I write an "exploratory draft." This is where I discover plot and characters; it is later when I revise, that I flesh out the scenes and find the best way to tell the story. This type of loose exploratory draft is what I see in those 3 pages of Under Ground.
It was a delight to discover (without access to all of Carroll's notes) how Alice Adventure's Under Ground was revised into Alice Adventure's in Wonderland. It is worth the time to read the conclusion of both versions and think about Lewis Carroll's revision choices.

Pop Up and Movable Books

The Smithsonian Library opens an exhibit at the National Museum of American History on June 14th. Fold, Pull, Pop and Turn will feature books--many of them picture books. This exhibit includes examples from some of the best paper engineers, including historical favorites such as Lothar Meggendorfer and many contemporary designers. The exhibit will be open until Fall 2011.

A brilliant blog shares the exhibit for those who can't visit in person. Be sure to click on the link and check it out. Their October blog has a nice slideshow of many of the books.

Another resource: University of North Texas has a wonderful online website: Pop up and Movable Books: a tour through their history. If you draw your mouse over the pictures, you will see the movement that occurs on the page if you were to pull the tab.

Books with movable parts have been around for centuries. They are designed for adults as well as children, for instruction as well as for enjoyment.
Movable book are also published in other parts of the world.

Tulika Books in India recently published Home, a stand up book with opening panels. Their website explains that this book adapts one traditional storytelling method. More about this book can be found here (an explanatory review) and here on Uma Krishnaswami's blog where she gives information about the Storyteller's box and embeds a fascinating video.

Another Indian publisher, Tara Books, makes a scroll-book, Tsunami. This book uses Patua art, and is printed by hand. The description says that this is the "first time a Patua scroll has been rendered into the form of a book." This video from Tara books demonstrates this book.

All the photos of movable books make me want to hold them and play with each page. I just pulled my copy of Nur Für Brave Kinder by Meggendorfur from my bookshelf and again enjoyed the tabs that transform each picture.

I hope I can find a way in the next year to get to Washington DC to see the Smithsonian's new exhibit.

Historical Treasures of Children’s Literature #2 -Struwwelpeter

An early picture book I just discovered is Struwwelpeter.
I found the Struwwelpeter statue in downtown Frankfurt. The man holds his gun in the statue--at the end of one of the stories the rabbit holds (and shoots) the gun. The girl on the left is the one who burns up in her story. Look at the water flowing from the cats' eyes!


About a week ago I took a walk close to where I live in Frankfurt and found this bench.


The writing on the placard states that Heinrich Hoffmann is a picture book writer.

I’d never heard of him. So I came home and learned more. Hoffmann was a doctor and lived most of his life in Frankfurt. He wrote his first picture book as a Christmas present for his children in 1844, supposedly because he didn’t like any existing children’s books.
There is information about him at the Struwwelpeter museum (which I plan to visit soon) in Frankfurt. (Site is in German.)
There is also information in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, a journal and of course on Wikipedia.

Hoffmann’s stories were very popular and translated in many languages. It seems that his books influenced later picture books, as in both the types of stories told and the illustrations.

Hoffmann’s most famous work is Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures, published in 1845. It was one of the best know picture books in the 1800’s. The first English translation was in 1848.

This book contains violent stories and images by today’s picture book standards: a girl burns up because she plays with matches, a tailor chops off a boy's thumbs because he sucks them, and a rabbits shoots a gun at a man.

Another photo of the Struwwelpeter statue in downtown Frankfurt.


Mark Twain also translated this book (Slovenly Peter, 1891) when he was lived in Berlin, but it wasn’t published until 1935.

To read the book go to this link at Project Gutenberg which is a great place to find older, out of copyright books. Their main page is here.
Struwwelpeter can also be found here.

My previous Historical Treasures of Children’s Literature #1 blog post is here. It discusses The Tragical Death of an Apple Pie, (about 1840), an ABC picture book which doesn’t use the letters I, T and U.

Historical Treasures in Children's Literature #1

In my exploration of picture books I've found some treasures.

This is perhaps my favorite:
The Tragical Death of an Apple Pie

A was an Apple-Pie.
B Bit it.
C Cut it.
D Divided it.
E Eat it.
F Fought for it
G Got it
H Had it
J Joined for it
K Kept it
L Longed for it
M Mourned for it
N Nodded at it
O Opened it
P Peeped into it
Q Quartered it
R Run for it
S Snatched it
V View'd it
W Won it
X, Y, Z, and &,
they wished for a piece in hand.

I kept the punctuation as it appears in the book. Also, the "and &," is exactly how it reads.
The letters are, in essence, characters. This is a nice touch.

Are you as surprised as I am at which letters are missing from this ABC book?

The couple present tense verbs thrown in are an interesting choice. Actually the use of verbs for alphabet letters is a bit uncommon.

This book was written about 1840, unknown author, unknown publisher. It can be accessed at the Internet Archive American Libraries. The woodcut illustrations are charming. A later version (with different illustrations) which appears in Uncle Charlie's Book of Nursery Rhymes (London, 1897), still omits some letters.