Books: A New Way to Market?
Posted on: May 17, 2011
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Could digital marketing across multiple platforms represent a new business model for publishers? Could this model work for books on paper as well as ebooks?
Just a few years ago, who would have thought the subject of book publishing and marketing could have become as contentious and sometimes rancorous as it has these days?
Authors, agents, publishers and readers tussle over which is preferable: digital or traditional (print) publishing … and lately it seems that the trend is swinging toward a blend of both. But hold on to your hat! The blend itself is probably just another transition phase …
And do you even want to wade into the fray about book marketing?
Authors think it’s the publishers’ job. Agents and publishers insist that, for the most part and for most authors, it’s primarily the authors’ responsibility. And the audience … wait, do they even know you just published a book and are frantically trying to get their attention?
Yes, how exactly are you going to market your book to your target audience?
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Use various types of channels and media to build a multi-platform marketing campaign. (Click image for credit and source)
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A New Marketing Model?
How does the following approach to marketing your book grab you? Let’s say you could reach out and connect with your audience in these ways:
Market your backlist books online.
Create frontlist fiction and non-fiction books digitally, and publish them as ebooks as well as online to various devices and as POD (print-on-demand) in selected retail outlets.
Team up with independent, traditional publishers to bring your ebooks to a larger audience through enhanced marketing, publicity and editorial strategies; these strategies would be implemented online via social media, blog postings, videos, photos, written pieces and interactive promotions.
Partner with agents and publishers who could do far more than just sell film and TV rights. Imagine partnering with someone who could actually develop selected ebooks for all screens (film, TV, web, mobile).
Collaborate with publishers who would build up your list of ebooks as well as other curated, complementary pieces, and then package and syndicate your digital publications as appropriate to other outlets, for example, social networks, blogs and mainstream media portals.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Here are two ways of thinking about digital marketing—before the sale (top) and after the sale (bottom).
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Digital Marketing on Top: Use a multi-platform blended approach of digital and traditional media to move your customers from awareness to purchase. This example emphasizes digital media. (Click image for credit and source)
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Digital Marketing on Bottom: Use a multi-platform blended approach of digital and traditional media to keep your customers loyal and committed to giving your company their repeat business. This example emphasizes digital media. (Click image for credit and source)
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If you want to learn more about how one publishing company is going about creating this type of new, digital multi-platform marketing model, take a peek at the website of Open Road Integrated Media (ORIM).
One purpose of this type of digital marketing model is to forge strong connections between authors and their audiences in ways that haven’t been possible before now.
Even though authors may not always meet and greet their fans in person, authors must still reach out and connect their ideas to … well … to other people and their ideas. In essence, you have to create mind links.
Is that sort of connection necessarily any less real if it’s done digitally instead of in person?
Could we be catching a glimpse of where book publishing must go if it is to survive as an industry?
Should traditional publishers consider retooling their operations around a similar model?
If you are one of the 80,000 independent publishers, would you consider partnering with a digital marketing company?
In fact, will traditional publishers even survive if their business model does not emphasize heavy-duty marketing, especially digital multi-platform marketing?
Now it’s your turn: What do you think? Is this model the book-marketing wave that authors, agents and publishers alike have to catch to survive and thrive? Please share your thoughts in the comments – thanks! Elizabeth Lexleigh LexPower The Write Ideas
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