A quick little thread on publishing, film/TV adaptations, and identifying and tapping in to fan demand…

Having reading the first #Bridgerton book and binged the show, I of course wanted to buy the other books so I could indulge in more of my favourite romance tropes (enemies to lovers, unrequited love, buckets of angst).

#Bridgerton , the TV show, has been huge: it’s been number one in the UK, and in other countries, pretty much since its release. This wasn’t hard to predict, given that it’s based on a set of hugely successful books and is from Shondaland, which is behind hit show after hit show.

So imagine my surprise when I went to purchase Julia Quinn’s other books, and found that physical copies were largely unavailable from multiple retailers.

A quick look at eBay, and you can see that individuals have responded to the demand - a raft of new listings have gone up, including some outrageously priced ones. A friend in Australia is having the same problem, and had to source the books via a second hand bookshop.

This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this problem. When the adaptation of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was released, physical copies of the book were unavailable for a long time. Too long, given what a hit the film was.

I understand producing books takes time, and I know the past year has been tougher than ever on everything from production to printing.

But I also know there is a ready of audience of people out there who don’t know that, and who expect their appetites to be fed. If they’re not, they’ll find something else to obsess over.

I still think too many people in the industry don’t think about books as pop culture, as something to binge in the way we do TV, and I also don’t think publishing really understands fan culture.

All this to say, publishing needs to be better at anticipating the particular demand that comes from adaptations of older books, and at understanding the behaviour of people wanting to purchase books they've been introduced to via another medium.

In the meantime, I've managed to find a box set of the first five #Bridgerton books on some obscure site I'd never previously heard of, and while I wait for that to arrive, I've turned to trusty AO3.