JD Robb fan communities (Part II)
I’ve been thinking a lot about where I want to take my research on JD Robb and her online fan communities. In talking with Prof Lenhart, she expressed prioritizing method over product. In other words, exploring first and then writing a paper based on what was discovered. I want to become competent at understanding and analyzing social media, so I’m going to continue my research from there and see what happens. To expand my area, I’m going with the compare/contrast between JR Robb and Nora Roberts and online presence.
The Social Media Data:
Twitter: There is no “current” handle for JD Robb, the most recent posts are from 2010, and those appear to be character or fan posts. However, many fans use #JDRobb to post content on their own feeds, especially @PodcastInDeath (150 followers) and fan @FanaticInDeath. @PodcastinDeath is one of the largest and most up-to-date “fan club” areas. Nora Roberts does not have a significant Twitter presence online in English. However, there are active Twitter fan communities in German (4K followers) and Spanish (7K followers) speaking languages. Book reviews from fans are available by searching #NoraRoberts. I want to add that St. Martin’s Press has an interesting short video ad circulating for the next book to be released in September 2022.
Facebook: JR Robb and Nora Roberts both have a much larger footprint on Facebook. JD Robb has 160K followers, with two book groups: A private group with 12K members averaging 10 posts daily and a public group with only 45 members. There is a combined fan club (both names) that is private with 10K members. Nora Roberts has 636K followers. Both Facebook pages (Robb and Roberts) are run by Nora Robert’s publicist, Laura.
Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/17521886039209352/
Pinterest: Nora Robert’s homepage has a direct link to Pinterest, but the link was bad. However, in searching for either Nora Roberts or JD Robb, there are numerous links to cover art or fan art, including infographics, charts, and reviews.
Instagram: Nora Roberts has 63K followers on Instagram. Mostly the posts are book quotes. JR Robb has 27K followers.
Image credit: From Instagram. Example of a book quote.
Fall into the Story: This is an official Blog for both authors run by Roberts publicist. It contains information about new releases, pronunciation guides, travelogues (stories about Robert’s vacations written by Nora and starring her IRL family), and similar items for fans.
Fan-run communities are chiefly in Goodreads, the PodcastinDeath website, and the JD Robb wiki. Goodreads has 3 Nora Roberts book clubs, with the largest having 2K members. By contrast, JD Robb has 2 book clubs, the largest with 1.5K members. There isn’t much to say about Podcast In Death, other than that it is active, engaged, and a good source for fan merchandise and is in its 89th episode. Episodes are available free for download or through several subscription services like Audible, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or Podbean.
The JD Rob Wiki runs on the Fandom platform and is detailed and lovingly constructed. https://indeath.fandom.com/wiki/In_Death_Wiki. It truly is a collaborative encyclopedia with over 1900 pages and 4000 edits. It contains details about characters, the books, and plotlines. However, the communal spaces, such as the discussion boards, are not updated. This site is focused on maintaining a current database of information.
Conclusions?
Obviously, there are many ways to connect with either author in digital spaces, including the internet, social media and the podcast series. I’m not sure what this says about her fans or her “public image,” as her publicist tends to moderate the official pages, which allow Nora Roberts to do what she does best: write. Also, since the same person/team moderates many sites, they are very similar in appearance if not in size. I find it interesting how fans have expressed themselves in these communities. Posting a book quote or review is much different from a book club or a library announcing that they are using her as a featured author. In addition, the fan site looks pretty “normal.” Sure, some folks get into geeky details on the wiki, but there is little fanaticism, especially when compared to fanatics that JD Robb writes about. For example, Dark in Death is about the disturbed fan of a mystery writer who decided to commit murders based on a fictional book series. Most fan sites are simply about people sharing a good book or honestly trying to help new folks jump into the series at the deep end — with quick background about the timeline or references to the main cast of characters. In my final paper, I’ll pull in a lot of details from Jenkins and our other class readings, as well as some outside research on fan communities and their benefits/drawbacks.
On another note, I’ve started re-reading the books in my spare time, starting from the middle of the series. It is interesting to note when different digital techs first appear in the books: when was the first mention of social media? Facial recognition? Texting? Online stalking? Contrasting that with the background of speculative fiction is one of those things that is interesting in a cultural or case study way but a little too geeky to force any of my fellow classmates to listen to.
