Case against publisher direct web sales as viable marketing option

At first, I was tempted to play devil's advocate with this question, and try to make a case for how and why a publisher could manage to successfully sell books in large volume through their own website. Certainly, the profits of direct sales seem incentive enough for the publisher to make the effort.

But after substantial thought, I simply couldn't make a case for it. Currently, average consumers just don't care much about who the publisher of a book is, regardless of the book's popularity, and it would take a monumental effort on the part of the publisher to change this dynamic. The reality is that it would require far more effort and capital than it would ultimately produce. In fact, I could imagine that the publisher could even conceivably lose money at this effort. As we talked about in class, Amazon is able to offer discounts to consumers in such a way that publishers couldn't possibly compete.

Of course, it is necessary for publisher, as with almost any business, to have an online presence. But they have plenty to offer concerning author info and interviews, event info, promotional book information, videos, and podcasts. I think it would be better, despite the profit concession, if they could try to view their distributors as channel partners rather than as competitors. In that regard, publishers and their various distributors should be willing to set up reciprocal links to one anothers' websites. For example, they could consolidate their marketing efforts by using Amazon solely for the book sales, but with tag lines about author signings and supplemental information on the page that directs the user to the publisher's link to view. Bestselling books will often intruige consumers to find more information, and will likely draw traffic to the publisher's website.

After all, a consumer doesn't go to GM's website to buy a car; they go there to find more information about the product and then they go to the dealership (distrubutor) to make the purchase.

Technology: The Beauty and the Beast

I often think about whether technology makes things better or worse for people, especially on a social level. Personally, I am glad for things such as e-mail and text messaging. I am person who values the written word so much that when friends or family write something personal to me, I tend to save it because it holds tremendous sentimental value to me. I love the exchange of written words with other people.

But technology really caters to what I consider to be our “attention deficit society”, in which we are all so preoccupied with devices that we don’t necessarily interact with one another in a natural way anymore. Case in point: I was recently in line at Costco when the man in front of me suddenly said, “So, what’s for dinner?” Since his face was turned slightly in my direction and there was no one else in close vicinity, I asked, “Are you talking to me?” Then he turned his head completely and pointed to the Bluetooth I hadn’t seen from the angle I was looking at him. He gave me an annoyed look and said, “I’m on the phone!” (Which also means he either answered the phone or called someone without the customary “hello”, but with the forthright question about what was for dinner—and he treated me like I was the jerk). Also, I really hate it when somebody can’t have the decency to get off the phone long enough to make the three minute transaction with the cashier.

I notice the influence of technology every day as I go from one place to the next. People walking through the park blocks, standing in line, or riding on the bus often talk on the phone (even about quite personal information!), or are listening to their iPods, as if to intentionally avoid interaction with the people around them. It seems like we’re always plugged into something. Admittedly, I have the same problem. I’ve had to get by for a day without my cell phone when I forgot to charge it, and I found it almost unbearable. There were probably a dozen times that day when I thought of people I needed to call, and couldn’t. (Payphones? Do they even exist anymore? Plus, 50 cents per call? Please!)

Additionally, e-mails, texting, and IM allow people to neglect proper grammar and punctuation. I consider myself a purist when it comes to these matters, and I am personally offended when I see things that are grammatically incorrect, such as the omission of an apostrophe. When I make those mistakes myself, especially if it is in a format that can’t be corrected, it pains me to see it. Blogging is a new experience for me, which I have found to be difficult because it’s the first time all my classmates have access to reading my assignments. I notice it elicits sort of a performance anxiety, making it take twice as long for me to do the work because I have a fear of sounding ignorant or banal.

So after all these ramblings, I know I will likely continue to have this love-hate relationship with technology… Now, if you’ll excuse me, Facebook awaits.

Allen & Unwin

After looking over websites this week for class, I decided to examine a website from an international publisher to see how it differs from a national press. In particular, I looked at the website for Allen & Unwin (http://www.allenandunwin.com/), a publisher in Australia. Through Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_&_Unwin), I learned that this publisher has a relationship with Bloomsbury in the U.K., and also acts as a distributor for the Harry Potter books to Australia & New Zealand. This website had more information available about their children's authors, with most of them having a Q & A section.

But for me, the most striking difference was that this particular publisher had so much available information for potential writers under a link called "Being a Writer". This included the common details such as the publisher's submission guidelines and information on a writing competition, but also so much more. There were many exerpts from books about writing (published by this press), broken down into specific topics: Character, Setting, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, and Revision. Additionally, under "Getting Started", there are details about writing journals, memoirs, and family history. So, in summation, I found that this website set itself up to attract yet another type of user--new writers--by taking the time to consider what that group would be interested in seeing. The website staff clearly devoted some time and energy deciding what exerpts would be included from which books under each topic, so this was obviously something the publisher believes that potential writers are an important avatar to address.

With the budget crises most American publishing houses are facing at the present time, I think publishers in the U.S. are not likely to make the effort to cater to the desires of potential writers, as most presses cannot affort to publish very many books per year. But also, an American publisher might expect potential writers to spend their own time finding out about the publishing process and finding ways to improve their own writing skills.

websites

I agree with Nancy that Simon & Schuster has done a good job with its website, as it appealed to the end user looking to buy books, as well as teachers and librarians searching for lesson plans and supplemental materials.

I liked the website for Chronicle Books a little more, particularly for their organization of children’s books by age categories (I also noted a further division of YA literature from its standard 12-18 age bracket, which is often too large. This publisher has subdivided the books into 12-14 as “Advanced” and 15-18 as “Young Adult”). I thought Chronicle Books did a thorough job of thinking about what their users would want, especially targeting readers and individual book buyers. When a user clicks on a book, several things display on the page without making it appear overly crowded: a link to buy the book, a summary, related titles/recommended reads, and a link to customer reviews. I think that the average reader would care more about customer reviews than critics’ reviews, as most consumers are prone to choosing their books based on entertainment and sentimental values rather than literary merit. I also like the simple layout of the authors’ and illustrators’ bios, each with a link to the author’s own website. The video library was a neat addition, too—I watched a few animated children’s books. I assume these videos are meant to target the parents, not necessarily the children, because although a child would probably enjoy them, I can’t imagine how a child would find him/herself on that website without the direction of a parent. By design, this website really doesn’t appeal to children, which I think is intentional, as the publisher doesn’t need to attract the attention of the children (the press can leave that job to the websites of illustrators and children’s book authors).

With the same website, I do have a couple criticisms. The “kids contests” page was not working, and under “author events”, nothing was posted. Also, maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t quite get the point of podcasting. Was there supposed to be visual feed as well? I was not engaged with only audio feed (the narrator on Episode 47, the narrator introduced an interview with author Noah Holly, “poolside”, which seems an unimportant detail without visual media). Maybe it would have more appeal if they had a sample reading of a chapter.

Our class in Online Marketing

My first blog. I feel like such a newbie.

But, seriously, I am feeling good about having signed up for this course. Even on the first day, looking at the list of items on the board that we'd be covering-- I just felt so uninformed. Some things on the list were things I had just never heard of before, and I am looking forward to becoming more knowledgeable about what resources exist on the internet and how they can be used for the benefit of marketing books. The internet really feels boundless to me, yet it's so huge that it seems like anything we put out there can be so easily drowned by all that's already out there. Even thinking about this blog makes me feel as though, once it is posted, it's nothing more than a drop of water in the vast ocean. Outside of this class, who's ever going to read it or care about it? For that matter, what is the point of a blog at all? I can imagine an author using it as a sort of message board for his/her readership, but beyond that and personal use, I can't imagine why people use it. I suppose I will soon learn the answer to that.

A re-occurring in my head is that if I can learn to cultivate an instinct for how online marketing can be used, then it could make ME more marketable as a potential intern/employee at a publishing house. Over the summer at a writing conference, I met an editor who is starting a new imprint in San Diego, and I had approached her with the question of whether or not she might need an intern. Since the imprint was so new at the time I asked, she had to tell me that she didn't know yet if she could use an intern. So I thought about how I could approach her in the future-- what strengths and knowledge could I bring to her to help promote books published by her new imprint? Well, certainly marketing knowledge would be helpful, but more specifically, how to market online could be even more valuable to her. So I am bearing that in mind as I go through this class and next term's classes, to work on aquiring knowledge and skills that I can use with a specific angle to apply to the needs of a publishing house.

Thanks for reading!