Information, Medium & Society: Eighteenth International Conference on Publishing Studies

Abstract

With the appearance of megasellers on the market as a result of the increasing convergence effects we have witnessing in the publishing industry, the question of how specific works or fiction were able to appeal to such a wide audience remains a favourite subject of debate both within academic studies and among the population in general. While the publishing environment, the individual marketing strategies, social-media endorsements by fans and many other such factors will certainly have contributed to the sucess of recent megasellers, this paper examines the works themselves to demonstrate the practice of ‘genre tesselation’. This term refers to the utilization of a ‘mosaic’ of genre conventions and motifs which the author argues broadens the appeal of popular series such as ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘The Hunger Games’ and allows them to target a wider audience.