Engagement and diversity in twenty-first century popular fiction publishing

这个项目将探索英国最大的流行浪漫小说出版商Mills and Boon如何与其读者打交道。通过进行档案研究和采访，该项目的重点特别是中部地区的读者，以及历史上没有读过米尔斯和布恩小说的不同背景的读者。Mills and Boon成立于1908年，在英国每十秒就卖出一本小说。米尔斯与布恩在与读者接触方面有着悠久的历史，尤其对研究读者和出版商之间的关系特别感兴趣。2016年，出版商的消费者洞察团队进行了一项深入的市场调查，通过定性、定量和人种学的视角考察了英国读者和非读者对该品牌的看法。这份报告指出，有一些活跃的浪漫读者社区并不经常与Mills&Boon接触。这个CDA项目继续2016年报告的研究工作，探索为什么一些浪漫读者(主要是年轻读者，LGBT+Romance读者，以及BIPOC读者)没有与Mills and Boon接触，以及出版商如何接触到这些读者群体。米尔斯和布恩与读者的密切关系在英国出版业可以说是独一无二的，但这种接触的具体策略、错综复杂和历史还有待深入探讨。尽管销量巨大，但学术界迟迟没有意识到类型小说及其产业实践的文化影响。这个项目也很及时。2020年，世界各地的黑人生命也是抗议活动促使许多组织--包括出版商--反思他们对待代表性和多样性的方式。接触到不同的受众很重要；这个项目的重点是中部地区的读者，米尔斯和Boon的读者参与度很高，这使得出现了新的地区特有的发现，并与全国情况进行了比较。该项目令人兴奋地跨学科，提供一系列文本资源(信件、小说、宣传材料)、定量数据(市场研究统计数据)和定性数据(来自访谈和焦点小组)的参与。该项目的混合方法提供了对以前专注于文本或访谈数据的问题的回应：-Mills and Boon如何与其读者沟通？这种情况是如何改变的？-米尔斯和布恩的出版物在二十世纪和二十一世纪是如何营销和接受的？-中部地区的读者如何与米尔斯和布恩打交道？与英国其他地区相比如何？-为什么一些读者不去读Mills and Boon？感觉到的障碍是什么？-出版商如何吸引来自不同背景的非米尔斯和布恩读者？该项目的一部分将涉及查阅保存在格拉斯哥以前未被探索的公司档案中的与营销和编辑做法有关的历史项目。应聘者将能够访问Mills&Boon的市场研究洞察团队，并将被支持探索现有数据。访谈和焦点小组将与两个关键群体接触以解决研究问题：1)确定Mills和Boon读者2)从特定群体(例如年轻读者、LGBT+读者、BIPOC读者)确定非Mills和Boon浪漫读者。Mills和Boon与伯明翰大学的合作伙伴关系汇集了流行浪漫学术研究的专业知识(由学术导师Burge博士和Longworth教授提供)以及当前编辑和营销政策与实践(由Mills和Boon主管协助)。这名学生将受益于伯明翰大学的同行支持，作为现有研究生研究小组的一部分，他们正在研究流行的浪漫小说。

This project will explore how the UK's biggest publisher of popular romance fiction, Mills and Boon, engages with its readers. Undertaking archival research and interviews, the project's focus is specifically on readers in the Midlands and readers from diverse backgrounds who have historically not read Mills and Boon's fiction. Founded in 1908, Mills and Boon sells a novel in the UK every ten seconds. Mills and Boon has a long history of engagement with its readers and is particularly interested in researching the relationship between readers and the publisher. In 2016, the publisher's Consumer Insights team conducted an indepth piece of market research which looked at perceptions of the brand amongst readers and nonreaders in the UK through qualitative, quantitative and ethnographic lenses. This report indicated that there were particular communities of active romance readers who did not routinely engage with Mills & Boon. This CDA project continues the research work of the 2016 report to explore why some romance readers (primarily younger readers, readers of LGBT+ romance, and BIPOC readers) do not engage with Mills and Boon, and how the publisher might reach these communities of readers. Mills and Boon's close relationship with readers is arguably unique in British publishing, yet the specific strategies, intricacies and histories of this engagement have yet to be explored in-depth. Despite huge sales, academia has been slow to recognise the cultural impact of genre fiction and its industrial practices. This project is also timely. In 2020, Black Lives Matter protests around the world led many organisations - including publishers - to reflect on their approach to representation and diversity. Reaching diverse audiences matters; this project's focus on readers in the Midlands, a diverse region with high reader engagement with Mills and Boon, allows for new regionally-specific findings to emerge as well as comparison against the national picture. The project is excitingly interdisciplinary, offering engagement with a range of textual resources (letters, fiction, publicity materials), quantitative data (market research statistics), and qualitative data (from interviews and focus groups). The project's mixed-method approach offers responses to questions that previous studies focused on textual or interview data have not been able to address: - How has Mills and Boon communicated with its readers? How has this changed? - How have Mills and Boon publications been marketed and received in the twentieth and twenty-first century? - How do readers in the Midlands engage with Mills and Boon? How does this compare to the rest of the UK? - Why do some readers not engage with Mills and Boon? What are the perceived barriers? - How might the publisher engage non-Mills and Boon readers from diverse backgrounds? Part of this project will involve consulting historical items relating to marketing and editorial practices preserved in previously unexplored company archives in Glasgow. The candidate will have access to Mills & Boon's market research Insights team and will be supported to explore existing data. The interviews and focus groups will engage with two key groups to address the research questions: 1) identified Mills and Boon readers 2) identified non-Mills and Boon romance readers from specific groups (e.g. younger readers, readers who identify as LGBT+, BIPOC readers).The Mills and Boon and the University of Birmingham partnership brings together expertise on the academic study of popular romance (provided by academic supervisors Dr Burge and Professor Longworth) and current editorial and marketing policy and practice (facilitated by the Mills and Boon supervisor). The student will benefit from peer support at the University of Birmingham as part of an existing postgraduate research group working on popular romantic fiction.