A Glove of Their Own: Even Jerks Will Like It

Remember the book I've written about here and been interviewed about there called A Glove of Their Own?  Huh?  Remember?  C'mon, you must.  It's a kids (technical term: children's) book about a handful of kids who, one summer, don't have enough baseball equipment to play.  They become the beneficiaries of a local man who used to be a coach and had a stash from the old days of bats, balls & gloves in in basement.  He gives, the children receive, and all are happy.  It's a very nice book, well writtten, with a great message for all of us.  Even jerks will like this book.

That is, actually, the marketing angle for the project: Even jerks will like it.

The three authors, Debbie Moldovan, Keri Conkling & Lisa Funari-Willever, illustrator Lauren Lambiase, and Chief Idea Officer (he's an Apache chief) Bob Salomon, spent hours - no, they spent months pouring over potential taglines and slogans to push the book.  A few that didn't make the cut:

"It's really good!"

"Shut up and buy it!"

"It's better than anything you can do."

Here's how they got to their now infamous slogan that is wowing mothers and fathers and kiddies throughout this great land: First, they wrote the book.  Easy enough.  Then, they needed it to be good, so they re-wrote it, this time spelling the words correctly.  They threw in some stick figure drawings, published it, and voila!  Instant best-seller!

Nope.  It's not that easy.

People, even jerks, want to and like to feel good some of the time.  So Team Glove, led by Chief Salomon, began reaching out to charities dealing with young people some of us call Kids (technical term: Children).  Proceeds from the sale of the book would go to these charities, which number around 40 as of the most recent breath you took.  Check out THIS RECENT POST on the (Philadelphia Phillies minor league affiliate) Lakewood BlueClaws website to confirm my claims. Here's a quote from the article, which includes a quote from Salomon:

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“For every book sold we donate $3.30,” Salomon said. “The whole theme of the book is giving and we use baseball as the vehicle to give.”

Involved with the book are now 40 charities and non-profits. The charities receive three dollars for every book sold, while the non-profits, who are geared to providing sports equipment for kids, receive $.30 for each book that is sold.

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As a quick, yet sturdy aside, the authors, illustrator and Salomon will be attending the Your Child Today Ultimate Family Expo on March 28th (2009, not 2010 - yeah, this post is at least a year old as you read it) at the Poland Spring Ritacco Center in Toms River, New Jersey.  If you have kids, drag them there.  If you don't have kids, but maybe have grandkids, drag them there.  If you don't like kids, avoid the place fully knowing that you did a good thing for yourself and the kids who were dragged there by their parents & grandparents.  What you won't know is that the dragged (but not drugged) kids had a great time at the Expo (no relation to the Washington Nationals).  There was music.  Food.  Dancing.  Games.  Who wouldn't want to go to the Your Child Today Ultimate Family Expo?

Yeah, you guessed it: The jerks.

Settling on the "Even jerks will like it" marketing line was considered the safest bet for the authors, illustrator & Salomon as they thought long and hard about how to sell and market A Glove of Their Own.  One thing they wanted to do was make the book seem inclusive, so allowing the jerks into their inner circle of A Glove of Their Own fans seemed like a good idea.

"Who are the jerks?" you ask as you shuffle your feet and refuse to make eye contact.

I stare at you, straight in the cowlick, and ask you right back.  You offer your bashful little grin and spit out names of people who beat you up in 3rd grade.  I lose interest after the seventh name and interrupt you during the ninth.  "I don't think they were thinking of specific people," I say, pretending I know something I clearly don't.  "I think they were thinking about specific groups of people."

You nod.  It's clear to you now.  Then you rattle some off.  "Jimmy, do you mean they want politicians and criminals to read the book?"

"Maybe," I respond.  "But aren't you being redundant?"

Nodding, you say you get the joke and that we're both better for it.  We embrace, for just a moment, knowing that A Glove of Their Own, the children's book that just keeps on giving, just made two jerks hug.