Image – Getty, Wako Magumi
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Steinberger: ‘A Special Emphasis’
In the United States, Open Road Integrated Media, led by David Steinberger, today (August 8) has announced an initiative called “Free Voices Geo-Targeting,” as a response to book-bannings. The idea is to help consumers find and buy challenged books, “even in communities where book bans are widespread,” beginning during the September 22 to 28 Banned Books Week. Publishers can begin enrolling books for the program now.
Publishing Perspectives readers know that “Free Voices” is not new. As we reported on May 10, 2023, “Free Voices” was described then as “a new marketing service to fight book bans and enable challenged works to be discovered and purchased by readers everywhere.” The distinction in today’s move is the interesting addition of the geo-targeting factor, available in 10 state markets.
The company’s timing may be especially meaningful to publishing industry personnel and readers in one of those 10 states. In Utah, the state board of education on Friday (August 2) issued a “no-read list” of 13 books banned by the board from all public schools, under a newly enacted law (“HB 29”) that requires, as PEN America writes, “every school district to remove books banned in at least three districts.”
Margaret Atwood‘s work is on the list, as are titles by Judy Blume, Sarah J. Maas, Elana K. Arnold, Rupi Kaur, and Craig Thompson.
As is frequently the case, issues around perceived sexual content seem to be key drivers in the Utah bannings, Elizabeth A. Harris writing at The New York Times, “The edict issued on Friday was intended to comply with a law that went into effect on July 1, which says that local education agencies—including school boards and the governing boards of charter schools—should prioritize ‘protecting children from the harmful effects of illicit pornography over other considerations.’ Traditionally, schools and librarians have decided whether a book is appropriate for children based on a range of factors, including its literary or artistic value.”
As Open Road describes its new offer to the news media, the initiative will let publishers market books in the ten American states that have had the highest frequency of banned book titles, adjusted for those states’ population sizes while meeting a minimum population threshold. Those states, per Open Road, are Texas, Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Utah, Iowa, Idaho, and Nebraska.
David Steinberger
In commentary on the “Free Voices Geo-Targeting” initiative, Steinberger—who chairs the board of the National Book Foundation—is quoted today, saying, “The First Amendment, and the right to free expression, applies to every community in this nation.
“With ‘Free Voices Geo-Targeting,’ we’re placing a special emphasis on reaching places where readers may find their access to books restricted.”
Lisa Lucas
Members of the publishing community welcomed news of the new program. Lisa Lucas, the former executive director of the National Book Foundation and former senior vice-president of Penguin Random House‘s Pantheon and Schocken, is also heard from in media messaging, saying, “We worked with Open Road in the past to reach those who were looking to buy and read Art Spiegelman’s Maus. It’s good to see the addition of geo-targeting to reach readers even in parts of the country where book-banning is rampant.”
Dominique Raccah
Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher of Sourcebooks, in which Penguin Random House has become majority stakeholder, is also quoted here, saying that a 2021 Sourcebooks release, This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson, “is the third most-challenged book in America today, and among the most-banned. I’m grateful that Open Road is helping to make this important book more accessible to readers.
“We’re excited about geo-targeting as a next step in enabling readers to find and read books wherever they live.” (You can see the Top 10 2023 banned books list on which This Book Is Gay appears as No. 3 here, at the ALA Banned Books Week site.)
Targeting ‘a Specific State or Region’
The “Free Voices” approach, open to publishers with books targeted in book-banning efforts, will feature each title enrolled in the program for four weeks, during which promotions “will reach highly targeted segments of power-readers,” Open Road’s promotional copy says. “Unique to ‘Free Voices Geo-Targeting,'” the company says, “publishers will have the option to overlay an extra segment of readers located in a specific state or region, including areas where book bans are especially prevalent and where specific books are challenged.”
The geo-targeted aspect of the re-offer of the “Free Voices” service “will add a geographical overlay, with additional reader segments from the 10 states that have the most extensive book banning activity, or, if the publisher prefers, a custom geographical segment that can be designed for any specific title.”
An unspecified portion of the proceeds from the “Free Voices Geo-Targeting” initiative, Open Road says, will go to the Freedom to Read Foundation, a nonprofit legal and educational program affiliated with the American Library Association.
And, meanwhile in the Utah banning case we referred to at the top of this article, currently removes these 13 titles from public education in that state:
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
- Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
- What Girls are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- Forever by Judy Blume
- Tilt by Ellen Hopkins
- Fallout (Crank, Book 3) by Ellen Hopkins
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- Blankets by Craig Thompson
And at the Associated Press, Amy Beth Hanson and Jesse Bedayn today write about three more states of the 10 on Open Road’s geo-targeting list: “At least three other states—Tennessee, Idaho and South Carolina—are moving toward putting the state government into the book-banning business, rather than leaving the issue to local communities, PEN America said.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on Open Road Integrated Media is here, more on book bannings is here, more on censorship more broadly is here, and more on the United States market is here.