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Subject:Re: Gender, Age and Dummies books From:JGREY <JGREY -at- MADE2MANAGE -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:40:36 -0500
I used to work for IDG and I edited a few Dummies books during my
tenure. (PROCOMM Plus For Dummies; The Internet For Macs For Dummies;
Macs For Dummies, 3rd Edition). During my time there (1994-96), project
editors did not have demographic readership statistics to share with
authors. We worked from the vision for the series as developed by DOS
For Dummies author Dan Gookin and refined by a few key senior editors at
IDG, such as Diane Steele and Mary Bednarek, who both appear in the
credits page of every Dummies book.
Peace,
jim
jim grey \ Documentation Manager
Made2Manage Systems, Inc. \ jgrey -at- made2manage -dot- com
-----Original Message-----
From: Rowena Hart [mailto:rhart -at- INTRINSYC -dot- COM]
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 1998 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: Gender, Age and Dummies books
I don't want to stir up a gender battle, but my observation of Dummies
books is that they are designed, written and marketed toward a largely
female readership, on the whole, with a secondary market being people
who are retraining and/or learning to use computers later in life.
Eric and Deborah: When you started writing your book, did the Dummies
management give you any statistics about their readership that might
shed some light on my (admitted) general observation?