How King is Marketed

[Sweet One]

This post is related to another post of mine that King is generally marketed as a horror writer.

There have been a lot posts about encounters with people who assumed King was just a hack who never knew he wrote the Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile or Stand By Me.

It occurred to me recently that this is becuase those films weren't sold to the public as "Stephen King Films." But any of King's more horrific works are.

As I've said before, SK does not write for mass-consumerism. But it occurred to me that that is indeed the way he is marketed--as aconsumer product. His pubishers and distributers sell SK as a brand name. Think of all the cheap horror paperbacks in the eighties that compared the author to SK. But the three aforemenioned films were disassociated with KIng--perhaps because they feared alienating their target audience.

This is why King sees himself as "Literary Big Mac and Fries"--because he is marketed for a specific audience. So the problem of King being percieved as a writer of "cheap thrills" lies with marketing. He's been marketed that way from the very start.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Indeed, it's the publicity machine that is responsible for the 'horror author' tag, perhaps unfortunately.

But on the other hand, they've done wonders for his book sales, which is, after all, the bottom line (quite literally) for the publishers.

350 million books can't be wrong.

Long days and pleasant nights

[PatInTheHat]

Just by reading folks on here, I find his "market" is actually quite varied.
Now whether or not it is marketed to a target audience or demographic, a really wouldn't have a clue.
I don't much pay attention to market pitches and usually respond in the negative if I do (can't tell you how many "products" & services, no matter how good, because of condescending marketing I find extremely irritating, I simply won't buy)

I'm not a genre motivated reader per se, there's more I'll read than not, though true I enjoy some more than others, or rather I enjoy them in different ways.
I just read a serious book sent to me by a wonderfully wonderful member on here, and it came with a dire warning about my head exploding..it did (& it was very veerrry messy)...it supremely pizzed me off), I loved it!
What kind market share category would that be in I wonder...the do it yourself/self help/helpful house hold tips/political?

Some writers can transcend categorically being categorized, and Mr King's work, I think, has been doing that somewhat over time to a fairly decent degree, whether marketing realizes it or not.
The multi-generational readership is pretty apparent, and that puts a nice little spin on it I'm sure...oh them krazy kids ya know!
It's pretty groovy how many parents get excited that their children take an interest, and some even actively pass down the love of his work to their children, while asking others the what's & how's about the appropriateness of it at certain ages..now that's damn cool, I mean Tipper Gore doesn't even have to argue with Frank Zappa...which is really good news for Tipper!
That says something I think...I mean come on, this ain't Curious George...unless Dick & Jane were to get involved, and all hell breaks loose...hmmmm!

I guess you have to pander to fans (we like it, makes us feel special and pretty...I mean, uhh pretty special), but really you can see on here, that all we need is the word there's something coming out, and we'll pounce on it...right there they can save some glossy ink I think.
Preaching to the converted, I always thought was a waste of time, and gentle reminders is all that's required to the faithful.

So I guess I'm sayin' is, that if the marketing is shootin' for a target genre readership, well it's kind of a waste of dough maybe, 'cause it already exisists..though very good dough well spent for the economy I'm sure!
Iconic people and their stuff are like that (he doesn't have to like it, but he is...I don't like having flat feet or have hair sprouting from all manner of wacky places, but whattaya gonna do?), it's what built the show, but it doesn't by any means, have to mean, it's a one pony show.

If the "horror" genre button is the only one the marketing genuises will press, what a shame, because it's blatantly obvious to me now (since reading this board, but I noticed a bigger "base" than I thought was out there when travelin' on the road...and in various county pokey's...huuuge readership in the pokey is what I'm sayin'), that the appeal is spread much wider than a horror flavored pigeon hole.... oh I know, ewwwwww, what was that?!

[finalfantasyVII]

For me after reading The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, it's clear in my view that Mr. King is a lot more gifted in not writing just 'horror stories', even though he made his mark in that specific catagory..but they all have a little something in them that is somewhat out of the ordinary, strange and a lot of the times gets you to think scary stuff...YES?? Good reading..Mark FFVII

[CorbinKale]

a horror flavored pigeon hole...

Nominated for "Best Patism".

[tillyn]

Money makes the world go round the world go round the world go round. That's the truth ain't it. The label made him known world wide so, i guess you have to take the good with the bad. But he does write the best horror story's out there so, it's really not so bad. (it is too bad people don't see the Shankshaw story's of Steve's though.)

[PatInTheHat]

Nominated for "Best Patism".

Awwww shucks