How eBooks Have Changed the Marketing of Books
by James Lander
Statistics have shown that forty percent of people in the United States read one book or less per year. That’s a staggering amount if you take into account the over 300 million people currently populating the country. If 40% aren’t reading, what are they doing? They’re downloading. They’re texting. They’re updating their status and tweeting. Yet while the business of book publishing slows to a crawl, entertainment through social media and mobile devices is booming. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that our desire to read has decreased. The fact that in 2009 e-book sales rose a shocking 145% proves that interest in reading isn’t the problem – it’s our interest in old technology that’s waned.
The origins of the E-book
In 1971, the University of Illinois allotted a man named Michael Hurst a great deal of time in front of a computer. Eventually his boredom got the better of him and he decided to transcribe the Declaration of Independence onto floppy disk. Out of boredom, the first e-book was born. Initially they had a very limited audience. Most e-books of the time were marketed to a very specific, audience that the majority of them were either technical manuals or textbooks for manufacturing techniques. It wasn’t until the 1990’s when the Internet was ‘born’ and transferring files became easier that e-books began to evolve into what they are today.
Selling the written word
Generally considered the most time consuming and difficult component of publishing, the techniques behind traditional book marketing are more than a little formulaic. Upon completion of a novel, publicity agents interview the author and search for an ‘angle’ to make the work appealing to consumers and the media. After deciding on an approach, magazines, radio, television and other broadcast mediums are contacted to elicit interest. If the author is lucky, they will be sent out for interviews or even on time-consuming book tours to promote their work nationwide. With e-books quickly taking over sales in publishing and our lives almost fully consumed by the Internet, book marketing has had to adapt and evolve in order to be successful.
Marketing online – a solitary venture
Years ago, if you were to complete your first novel you would probably feel immense relief handing it off to your publishers knowing that they would ‘take it from there’. Today, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The publishing industry is barely making enough money to survive. In fact, between 2002-2008, annual sales increased only by 1.6%, leading to massive layoffs of editors, agents and publicists. Requiring authors to market their own work reduces the publishing agencies expenses- something that is crucial for what is essentially a failing industry. As a result, many authors are deciding to self-publish their work as e-books through Amazon.com or other online publishers, making traditional marketing increasingly obsolete. Now the Internet and social media can create a ‘buzz’ and thereby achieve the sales they desire.
Taking advantage of the web
These days it takes more than a catchy title and arresting cover image to sell a book. The average consumer needs to be exposed to a sales message at least seven times before they make a decision to purchase. Whereas previously this was the realm of the publicist, today’s authors are almost completely responsible for this portion of their book’s development. An e-book author must employ all the technology available to them in order to assault their audience with their work and secure that all-important purchase. Using Facebook, Twitter and various forums is a common way for writers to reach their potential audience.
Some even choose to go a bit deeper into the online marketing world by creating ‘brand awareness’ through the production of short articles. The key to this strategy is ensuring that writers credit themselves as the ‘expert’ while promoting their e-book at the article’s conclusion. Making sure that these articles are posted in as many directories as possible allows multiple webmasters to include them on their sites, leading to free advertising and promotion.
In 2009, the publishing industry had a meager 3-5% profit, proving people were rapidly losing interest in purchasing traditional novels. However, by July 2010, e-book profits had surpassed all other book sales and showed absolutely no sign of slowing down. It is obvious that we are changing the way we read and in order to stay relevant publishers must change the way they reach consumers. If the estimation that eventually e-books will outsell and perhaps even outnumber hardcover edition is true, they simply have no other choice.
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James Lander is a regular contributor to the consumer savings site, Couponing (http://coupon.com/), which offers coupons and deals for top retailers.
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Related Articles:
2012 New Year eBooks Special
SEO and Marketing: Basic Tips and Definitions
Book Marketing: Choose a Website Domain Name
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Until next time,
Karen Cioffi
Author, Ghostwriter, Freelance Writer, Editor
Karen’s Books Page:
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2 comments:
Its like my friend who works in dental advertising said, "Marketing today is different than marketing before the Internet. Now, your voice can come from and echo from a lot of channels, not just one."
People are moving into the digital age, this is why we should embrace the use of digital marketing. I'm pretty sure that this will the be future.
direct marketing
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