AnlaShokGrey
Regular
You're not really making much sense. If people who are sf fans aren't on the internet, don't go to cons, don't read sf magazines, and don't talk to other sf fans, then how are they finding out about any new book releases in sf?? How do you find out about books (not necessarily tie-in books) you might be interested in reading? Do you have any idea what it costs to advertise in Time magazine, or on ABC-television during primetime, or any other 'wide net' ad campaign you might be envisioning? And, for the record: I don't read Time. Or Newsweek. Or Entertainment Weekly. Or any other magazine except for The New Yorker, Scientific American, and Consumer Reports. So Time magazine would most certainly not manage to 'net' all of the B5 fans who aren't hearing about it elsewhere.
Unless you're a huge company with piles of money to spend on marketing -- think AT&T, Apple, Target, Cingular, Ford, Sprint, etc. etc. -- you cannot cast a wide net. That's why advertising generally targets markets. And as Jan has pointed out, Del Rey made the best use of their advertising budget by doing what they did, targeting the market. As for how many people at Dragon*Con are B5 fans, the answer is: a lot. Every B5 event routinely overfills the largest ballroom at the con hotel, which is large. People come home from the con and blog, and post news (like at filmforce, aicn.com, etc.), talk to their friends, mention it to the guy at the comics shop, write articles for their local newspapers, etc. etc. And that's how the word spreads, and how other sf fans learn the news about their favorite franchise. If they're holed up in their house doing nothing but going to work, shopping for food, and reading "Time" magazine, they're going to miss a whole lot more than just the release of the B5 novels.
Unless you're a huge company with piles of money to spend on marketing -- think AT&T, Apple, Target, Cingular, Ford, Sprint, etc. etc. -- you cannot cast a wide net. That's why advertising generally targets markets. And as Jan has pointed out, Del Rey made the best use of their advertising budget by doing what they did, targeting the market. As for how many people at Dragon*Con are B5 fans, the answer is: a lot. Every B5 event routinely overfills the largest ballroom at the con hotel, which is large. People come home from the con and blog, and post news (like at filmforce, aicn.com, etc.), talk to their friends, mention it to the guy at the comics shop, write articles for their local newspapers, etc. etc. And that's how the word spreads, and how other sf fans learn the news about their favorite franchise. If they're holed up in their house doing nothing but going to work, shopping for food, and reading "Time" magazine, they're going to miss a whole lot more than just the release of the B5 novels.