Teenage Lit - and Product Placement

There has been some interesting coverage of an upcoming teen title. According to a New York Times article (sorry, no free link):

Near the end of an early galley of "Cathy's Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233," a young adult novel that will be published in September, the spunky eponymous heroine talks about wearing a "killer coat of Clinique #11 'Black Violet' lipstick." But in the final edition of the book, that reference has been changed to "a killer coat of Lipslicks in 'Daring.'"

As it turns out, Lipslicks is a line of lip gloss made by Cover Girl, which has signed an unusual marketing partnership with Running Press, the unit of Perseus Books Group that is publishing the novel.

The article then explains that Lipslicks is made by Cover Girl - a Procter & Gamble brand - and that the company will promote the title on its Beinggirl.com site.

According to the article, what apparently happened was that Creative Artists Agency, representing at least one of the authors, went to P&G, which had already been in contact with CAA about other promotional deals. The book was already written, but the authors (both marketers that helped create the massive online PR campaign for the movie AI) and illustrators made changes here and there to satisfy the company.

Publisher Perseus Books Group was interviewed for the piece, and one quote in particular seem telling:

"What we are selling here to the customer or the reader is an experience that transcends the book itself," said David Steinberger, president and chief executive of Perseus, the publisher. "The relationships with Beinggirl.com and Cover Girl are enriching that experience."

As the Times noted in an editorial from June 17, "When a publisher starts talking about a book as 'an experience that transcends the book itself,' you know that what matters isn't going to be the writing." That seems obvious. The authors may be telling themselves that the allowed the intrusions with integrity, but it's the sort of virtue that calls a prostitute a whore and someone who marries for money "upwardly mobile."

If there were no other problems (and I think there are actually business problems, as I mention in my BizBlast blog), there would still be the issue of the writing. When you write with an eye on the cash register, whether the payment is in money or in-kind services, you no longer pay attention to either the audience or - more importantly, I think - to your own aesthetic self. I don't knock amrketing writing. I do it myself at times, and it does pay well. But it's not what I want to say; it's about what the company wants to say. To the degree you open a narrative to the needs of a corporation, you become upwardly mobile - that is to say, you prostitute your talent and work.