Another target audience?

Bracer left another comment - thanks! - and thinks fetishists might be a target audience for my books. Since I started publishing these books I have become more aware that a lot of people have this sort of greater interest in braces, and I have wondered how what I'm doing fits in that.

I think what I do in the books is try to convey the intensity of the experience, of what having braces means. I can see how a lot of that would appeal to fetishists. But is it enough? I think there's also stuff that is missing. Especially the sex. I'm not really sure what fetishists expect. If they want a lot of descriptions of braces and getting them and people's reactions to them I guess the books do have that. But there's almost no sex, and even in the book with adults with braces, Love and Braces, the braces don't have that much to do with the little sex there is. I mean, they're always there in all the situations that I describe, and Sylvia always thinks about them. But are the braces sexualized enough (if that's the word)? I mean, they take on all this importance, but does that make them fetish objects?

Maybe the intensity I'm trying to recreate is a lot like what fetishists feel. Maybe it's the same thing, except that I don't think of it sexually so much. But I don't know if it's right to say that fetishists are my target audience, because I think they'd probably feel let down by the lack of sex, or at least by the way the romance or sex is described. Of course all my characters are worried about how braces affect their love-lives, but since most of them are teenagers the main worries are just exaggerated adolescent concerns that almost every girl has. Except for in L&B they're almost all just trying to begin to come to terms with the feelings they have for boys. The braces are just an added complication. For a lot of them dealing with the braces is just a different way of dealing with all the confusing growing-up issues they are facing (and even Sylvia in L&B is sort of like a bigger teenager, I think, still dealing with a lot of the same issues). That's why I thought older teenage girls or college students who had a hard time going through all that were the likely target audience for my books.

Another part of the books that might appeal to fetishists is the way the braces and the treatment are exaggerated. There's not too much of that, at least of things that are completely unrealistic, but a few things are different from "real" braces. The one element I thought about hardest was how Dr.Wrighting straps her patients down in the examination chairs. I don't think any orthodontist does that anymore. But I think it's really effective in getting across that feeling one has in the examination chair, so that's why I decided to do that. Plus I wanted the Dr.Wrighting experience to be different from a normal orthodontist visit. But I always try to make it as harmless as possible. No one gets tied down against there will or anything like that. Dr.Wrighting always makes sure everyone is comfortable. The way I like to think of it is like the way young kids are strapped in car safety seats.

The other exaggerations, especially how the devices look and how uncomfortable or embarrassing they are, are also more to make the experience seem more intense. For most people having braces maybe doesn't seem that bad, especially in retrospect, but I think there are moments when everyone feels it really, really is. And I think in my books I try to focus on those moments.

So I'm glad Bracer likes L&B but now I'm worried that I don't have any target audience at all because the books are too inoffensive for fetishists and too weird for "regular" readers! I hope that's not right, but I don't know. It's so weird, because I know they're exactly the books I would have loved to read, or would still love to read if someone else wrote them. And I would have thought that with the millions of kids who get and had braces there would be some who felt just like I did!

(I'm not sure how I would feel if the only ones who liked the books were "fetish" readers. As long as the readers get something out of it I guess it is sort of satisfying, even if this isn't really what I had in mind. But I guess I would be a bit disappointed if I wasn't reaching those readers who I think would get the most out of the books - readers like me!)

I'll probably write more about this too, once I've thought about it more. The next book also raises some issues of who the target readers are, so I'll have to deal with it then too.

It's also cool getting some feedback, especially since I hope that helps other readers decide whether or not they want to read the books. Now I hope some readers leave reviews at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Lulu or wherever they bought the books! I think it would be great if those who might be interested in the books could see what others thought of them, since even with all the information I put up at the Intraoral Press site maybe I'm not able to convey exactly who might like the books best, and for what reasons.

Target readers?

Last week Bracer left a comment on the blog (thanks!) asking who I am aiming these books at. I think the explanation at the page about IoPress still covers a lot of that, even though I wrote it just when I was starting everything. I guess I think that there are some kids who have braces and then when they're done with them are able to just put that behind them, but that there are also a lot who find it more difficult both having braces and then forgetting about them. Not that it was necessarily a totally traumatic exerience or anything but it was a big deal and something that's hard to totally get over and where they might want to read about others' experiences dealing with braces. I know that when I was a teen, when I had braces and afterwards, I was really disappointed that almost no one in all the books I read had to deal with all this braces stuff, and even if a character had braces it was maybe mentioned but the author never really wrote about what that meant and how it affected the character. My books are sort of the other extreme. All braces, all the time. I know they're the kind of books that would have helped me, so I guess I just think there are others out there who feel the same way I do.

I think I would have especially needed the books AFTER I had braces, almost more than when I did have them. Letting me relive and work through the experience. Which is also what I guess I'm doing by writing them.... I don't know if that works for other readers, but I hope so.

The books I've written so far probably aren't right for younger patients going through having braces now. Like I think my girls would still be too young for them. But Retainer Girl might be helpful for a teenager with braces. I'm not so sure about Love and Braces and The Braced Experience. On the one hand, I would have devoured them when I was like fifteen or sixteen. Especially L&B. But now as a protective mom I'm worried what my kids are exposed to, and even though the books aren't explicit the total focus on braces, and the fact that there's some fantasy and exaggeration about the actual orthdontic treatment makes me worry a bit that kids who can't handle it would be upset by them. But then I think that when I was a teen my mom would have thought the same way, while I would have totally been able to handle them....

So who are my target readers? I guess anyone who wants to read about what it's like having braces - not just what it's really like, but a sort of heightened fictional version. Because some of the stuff is exaggerated it probably isn't right for people who haven't had braces yet but want to know what it will be like - especially kids! - but I think anyone who has or had braces will get the exaggerated parts, and will find the books more entertaining because of them.

I think the readers who will enjoy my books most are those who had a bit of a tough time with braces and still have strong memories of those years - readers just like me. If I had to narrow it down to one person, I think my target reader would be a 17 or 18 year-old girl, maybe just starting college and away from home for the first time, who had braces during those awkward years of puberty and had a bit of a rough time handling that and everything else. I see her getting ready for bed, putting in her retainers, and then opening one of my books....

I haven't had much feedback yet on the books, but the few readers who have e-mailed say they've really liked them, which I think is great. I don't know if I'm reaching my target readers yet, but I'm glad that some readers are finding the books, and are enjoying them!

Weekly update

Back again, and I'm glad, even though it takes a while to settle in again - and catch up with everything! For a few more days the new book and the old books and all the IoPress stuff will have to wait.

Other books on Google?

Someone left a comment, asking whether or not The Braced Experience would also be available on the Google-books-site, like Retainer Girl where the whole text is there.

For now I don't plan to add it (or Love and Braces). I put the first book there to see if it would help get attention and interest readers, but I don't think it has. And with one book there and the others not I can compare in the future whether it makes any difference. So for now readers will just have to risk it and buy the books - although there are a few excerpts on the site which should help them decide (and there's more on the Lulu pages: check out the samples at the pages for TBE, L&B, and RG).

It's too bad no one has reviewed the books at Lulu or Amazon or Barnes & Nobles. Maybe that would help people make up their minds. But I think if you liked one you'll like the others as well. I feel bad that the books are so expensive, but The Braced Experience and Love and Braces are both a lot longer than Retainer Girl so I hope readers get more for their money too.

Each book is a bit different. Love and Braces is definitely more mature, and describes the whole experience of having braces from beginning to end. The Braced Experience gives you lots of different stories about having braces. I think you should try them all of course!

Weekly update

All of a sudden the essays are really popular, with a lot of people coming to the site to read about Lolita's Braces and The Unfabulous Appearances and Reality of Braces on TV - but it doesn't seem to have helped sell any more books! Is the audience for Retainer Girl and Love and Braces and The Braced Experience so totally different? I was sure readers who were interested in the essays and the way wearing braces is shown on TV and in movies would like the books too. I still think they would, but nobody seems to be trying them out.

So maybe I should just publish a collection of orthodontic essays....

It's nice to be on vacation, but I'm not getting much done on the next book yet. But maybe not that many people want to read it anyway....

Weekly update + Lolita's Braces

It's good to be back in Michigan again, even if I could do without the excess heat! The girls are glad to be here too, and maybe I'll get more time to work on the next book, though it won't be finished until the fall.

But I did finish something else, and I've added it to the IoPress site: another Dr.Wrighting essay. It's on Lolita's Braces: The orthodontic treatment of Nabokov and his nymphet. Since the first essay has turned out to be really popular recently maybe a lot of people will be interested in this too. And maybe some of them will be tempted to take a look at the books!

Weekly update

End of term for the girls + Harry Potter + getting everything ready for going home for the summer + work as usual = VERY busy ! At least Harry Potter kept the girls occupied. Headgear girl even wore her headgear practically the whole weekend without complaint, glued to the book. God I hope we are over the hump with that, especially now that we are going to be 1000s of miles away from their orthodontist for over a month. Of course with our luck it'll be the one that's been flying under the radar for the past two months while the headgear drama has been played out that will rebel against her braces!

I have been finding some quiet time somewhere - don't ask me where! - and have been getting some Intraoral Press things done, though the next book still needs a lot of work. But I hope to have one or two surprises in the next weeks.

All of a sudden a lot of people are looking at the 94 Weeks essay. Maybe somebody linked to it, but I'm not sure why it's so popular all of a sudden. But I'm not complaining. And I hope that some of the readers also look at the information about my books and maybe they'll want to read them. If they feel the same way, about how poorly having braces is portrayed on TV then I think they'd especially like Retainer Girl, or find it most helpful. But I hope they'd at least consider looking at all of them.

July 4 update

I miss not being home on July 4th! All there is is attention on Wimbledon and the rain here, and it just doesn't feel like summer. I want hot weather and BBQs and fireworks! It's even worse when it's right in the middle of the week like this. We always do something on the weekend, but that's still days away.... (The other news makes us all really jittery, especially since we will be flying in a few weeks but we're trying hard not to let that get too close.)

A really slow month with the books, but it's hard to find the time to try to publicize them. And I don't really know how I should do that anyway. I hoped there would be more "word of mouth" by now but I guess that only builds up really slowly.

The next book is going well. I have some concerns about it because of the story but I think I will be able to present it in a way that it works. For now what I care about is that it works for me. I am surprised that there's still so much I want to get off my chest, and that I have found another story which is letting me do that.

It's interesting writing about a girl with braces now that my girls are right in the thick of their orthdontic treament. Watching them go through it has helped a lot, reminding me of a lot of things. There are still these aha-moments all the time when I see one of them act a certain way or do a certain thing and I realize it's because of the braces. And it's weird how sometimes they seem to manage so well (one a lot more than the other, especially now) and then all of a sudden the braces are such a big deal again. I hope that I am able to make it easier for them, but it's such a hard balancing act. These have been hard weeks too, as we decided to start with the headgear. Since we are going to be away in August their orthodontist considered waiting but instead we started her at her last appointment so she can gradually adjust and hopefully be fine with it by the time we leave. It's been tough though. Her sister could handle it better, but she's only getting hers months from now, so for now she's all by herself. Sometimes I wonder if a more Dr.Wrighting-like approach wouldn't be better but their orthodontist isn't quite as strict!

More about Emma Roberts braces

Nothing new has happened with the books for a while, and the new one is taking time, but Emma Roberts's movie Nancy Drew opened in America so there's more about the 94 Weeks-girl.

We'll probably back in America when Nancy Drew opens here. It sounds like a movie the girls would like, but the braces issue really does bother me. Seeing what they're going through I think it really would be a bit disappointing to them if they knew Roberts had braces but they were the hidden kind. So I guess I won't even mention it, though they might pick it up from some of the magazines they read.

It's twice as frustrating because Roberts seems pretty ok with talking about the braces. Someone sent me this article where they write this:

As if on cue, her mother knocks at the door and a pricelessly teenage moment - free of Hollywood issues - ensues: "Mom, don't let me forget my retainers, okay?" Roberts turns back to her discussion, as real as ever. "Yes, I have retainers. And braces, too. Removable. I'm probably going to have them for another couple of years."

It's sort of great that she talks about them like that, but it reinforces the message that the braces-look is a big no-no on the screen. And I wonder what kind of braces those are....

Emma Robert's braces episodes

The 94 Weeks essay seems popular with readers, so I'l try and get some more Dr.Wrighting essays up!

A fan e-mailed me to let me know that all the Unfabulous episodes can be watched at the Nick site. It's great! The Rhinoceros in the Middle surprised me a bit because the braces don't seem to bother Emma Roberts very much there - but then it has that stupid ending where she gets the invisible ones.... It's such a shame they didn't let her wear them longer, because she really does handle them like they don't bother her too much, despite the way she looks. Unfortunately The Party - the one where she gets braces - doesn't play right, so one can't see it. I hope they get that fixed soon!

Otherwise not too much happening. Sales of the books in May were o.k., but I wish I could get more people interested. And the new book is coming along well too but it will still take a few months.