The dumbest thing I ever did was to write a series of books for adults and name it “Mrs. Stevens’ ABCs.” There are eight books in the series, each about some aspect of the Long Beach Peninsula that might be of interest to a newcomer or a visitor or even to a local resident who wants to know some basic facts about this fabulous area that we often take for granted.
Basic Facts. Basic Information. As in the ABCs of anything – it could be auto mechanics, or hospital staffing, or Italian cuisine. My ABC books happen to be about things like oysters and cranberries and Pacific County government with a big emphasis on local history. The books include big ideas, whacky facts, and specific information. They are NOT meant for kids.
I must confess that when I realized my mistake – as in bookstores placing the books in their children’s departments – I tried to cover my backside by billing the books as “suitable for all ages.” But, in reality, that’s a stretch. Even as read-alouds, the books are not user friendly for kids.
Let’s take a look at I is for Indians: The A-B-Cs of the Chinook People in the lower Columbia River region for instance. The very first sentence in the book under “A…is for area” says: The Chinooks, sometimes referred to as “Chinooks proper,” are part of a larger cultural group, the Chinookans, who lived on the Columbia River from the Dalles (called Wascopam) to the Pacific Ocean. I think you’d have to be from some other planet to ever think that such a sentence was written for children!
On the other hand, a friend was recently expressing delight that she had seen the books on display in the children’s section of a local gift shop. We had a conversation in which I expressed much of the foregoing and when I asked her if she had ever opened a book to take a look at what it said, she confessed that she had not. Come to think of it, why would she? She doesn’t have grandchildren who might be interested.
I despair. I guess I give too much credit to the reading public and especially to the sellers of books. It just never occurred to me that people would not understand the meaning of ‘ABCs’ as a synonym for ‘essentials’. A really stupid marketing mistake on my part. I probably could have made my millions long ago…
I confess to having been fooled by the titles so I guess I’m right there with the rest of them. In my defense I will say that the combination of the cover artwork and knowing that Mrs. Stevens was an elementary school teacher at the time made juvenile material entirely reasonable. I believed you were attempting to educate children with their parents thrown into the bargain. You still could.
I must admit I join the list of folks who thought the books were for children. I thought they were coloring books with educational information included. The ones we have were used that way by our grandchildren. Perhaps a new set of children’s ABCs.
When I was writing my book for beginning gardeners, which was organized encyclopedia-style — short entries in alpha order — I gave it the title “The ABCx of Gardening.” I thought I was double clever — it’s in ABC order, right? and it’s also a primer, a beginner-level book.
OOOps. accidentally sent before I got to the punch line: My publisher changed my title. It’s now called “Gardening from the Ground Up.” Which I think is sort of silly, but as all authors know, we have no control over these things.
Based on my own experience, Maggie, I think your publisher was right.
Heck yeah. The publisher is *always* right. Right??