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Why Don't Publishers Advertise in Gay/Lesbian Magazines?
March 23, 2007
I wonder why mainstream publishers don’t advertise in gay/lesbian magazines? Last week I was on a gay cruise of the Caribbean and was surprised that most of my fellow travelers were not reading gay books.
While I did see people reading David Sedaris, Clive Barker, Ben Tyler, E. Lynn Harris and Augusten Burroughs, a larger percent was reading James Patterson, Clive Cussler, John Grisham and Steve Berry. Two people actually lugged Norman Mailer’s new 500-page hardcover, A Castle in the Forest, on board! (Although to be fair, I also saw one person precariously bench pressing J. Randy Taraborrelli’s 550-page Elizabeth Taylor biography while sunning on a deck.)
This observation doesn’t make me fear for the life of gay publishing, it just reminded me that popular fiction is popular with everyone—gay, straight and all shades in between. It also made me wonder why I never see publishers reaching out to this community via ads for these mainstream authors in publications like Out, The Advocate, Curve, Genre, and Instinct—or their Web sites.
This is where I usually pull out all sorts of facts and figures to remind people that in 2005 the gay buying power was estimated to be $610 billion. But usually when I start talking about disposable income, someone asks me for a loan.
I know that publishers are pretty tight with what they budget for any print advertising, and they might argue that the LGBT community will find the full-page
New York Times ad for Lisa Scottoline’s newest mystery just like everyone else. But, I’d like to remind the holders of those purse strings of a recent Harris poll that shows
gay-specific marketing practices strongly influences brand loyalty and purchasing decisions. In short, we reward loyalty with loyalty.
Posted by Kevin Howell on March 23, 2007 | Comments (0)
