The University Market

The protagonist in the novel, Jordan Fineman, has completed his junior year at Cornell University, and is encountering serious emotional problems, a phenomenon, rightly or wrongly, Cornell has become associated with.  Early in the story, Jordan's father and sister drive up to Ithaca on a spring night, to cart Jordan down to New York City for his first meeting with his psychiatrist and there are references through out about his desire to return to Cornell and to complete his degree.  In more general terms, the novel deals with that stage in life, "the college years," pursued in an unconventional manner.

For all of these reasons, it seems logical that if there is a market for this novel, it might be among younger, college age people.  In particular it seems logical to approach the Cornell market.  They read a lot of books.  Most of them are assigned, but you never know.  I'm attracted to this idea additionally because it is finite and, in fact, approachable market.  The country is so vast, there are so many public radio stations, so many newspapers, so many web sites, that attempting to place one paperback book before them is daunting, no matter how filled with hope and love you may be.

So I've made a start at Cornell.  I called the paper and asked about the price of running a series of small ads.  In the context of that discussion, the managing editor suggested that the paper might be interested in including some editorial coverage of the novel, either as news, or as a review in the arts section.  I gave him my best pitch, and we agreed that I would send him a copy to review.  He sounded interested.  In the category of "hope and optimism," if I got a review in the Cornell paper, it might be possible to use it to approach other university papers around the country.