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A Brilliant Novel Marketing Idea |
I found the following story in Roland Hachmann's Web Jungle: A blog on advertising, digital marketing, and web culture. It's a wonderful example of an entrepreneurial author:
Back in 1897, novelist W. Somerset Maugham, now known as author of Of Human Bondage, was having trouble selling his first novel Liza of Lambeth because his publisher wasn't interested in advertising the book. So he took matters into his own hands.
He took out some classified ads in a few daily newspapers in London. The copy read: “Young millionaire, lover of sports, cultivated, with good taste of music and a patient and empathetic character wishes to marry any young and beautiful girl that resembles the heroine of W.S. Maugham’,s new novel.”
By the end of the week, the first edition had sold out. The novel went on to get critical praise and popular sales.
For more such success stories of debut novelists, see http://www.bookmarket.com/debutnovels.htm.Labels: author marketing, classified ads, debut novels, newspapers, novel marketing, novels, W. Somerset Maugham |
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Teleseminar: Magazine and Newspaper Publicity |
My friend Steve Harrison is hosting a free teleseminar on Seven Things You Absolutely Must Know to Get Publicity in Major Magazines and Newspapers at 2:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, August 9th.
The 90-minute call will explain the three biggest mistakes most people make trying to get publicity in magazines and newspapers. You'll learn how to create relationships with top magazine editors, how a woman was so good at getting advance publicity that her book hit the New York Times bestseller list before publication date, a simple strategy for scoring an Associated Press story about you that runs in dozens of newspapers across the country, and how to spin a small story into a much larger feature for yourself.
To join in on this phone call, go to: http://www.freepublicity.com/printpublicitycall/?10005.Labels: book publicity, free teleseminar, magazines, newspapers, Steve Harrison |
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Where will you be in 10 years? |
Martin Foner of NPL Consultants, a publishing broker, wrote a rant on book publishing which he posted on his site at http://nplconsult.com/archives/42. I don't agree with much of his rant. He gets carried away with depression. But his conclusions out of the rant do make sense: Publishers do have to move toward more selling online and more marketing online and more distribution online.
Unlike him, however, I do not believe that the bookstore trade is a dinosaur, about to be obliterated. And that book distribution is a dinosaur, also about to die a quick, painful death. But I do believe that smart publishers do not put all their eggs into one basket. You diversify. You find multiple ways to sell your books, via multiple markets, via multiple distribution strategies.
In his rant, Martin wrote that in ten years most publishers will be in one of four categories:
1. Sold out.
2. In business with a huge content-driven website.
3. In business with a substantial web presence and multiple channels to sell books (direct to consumers, premium sales, non-book trade retailers, web sellers, etc.).
4. Dead.
I hope most of you fall into category 3. I think that's the best plan for most book publishers, given the talents we have.
But category 2 can also be a good plan (and perhaps more profitable, especially if you hit it Google big or Yahoo middling). But you will have to be a talented software engineer or hire such talent to make this pay off in a big way. As publishers, we tend to be content-driven while most successful websites are software-driven.
As many of you know, I've become more and more of an advocate for Internet marketing. There are so many incredible opportunities to sell books via the Internet. The toughest part for many publishers will be deciding what paths to take (of the growing number of possible ways to market via the Internet). You can easily get overwhelmed by the possibilities. My advice: Focus. Don't buy into every new Internet promise, every new program. Find one to three ways that you like doing and which you find to work -- and continue to pursue and build those ways.
Personally, I'll never participate in Second Life. No interest. It could be a real time-sucker. And, yet, I know that some publishers will create great successes using this virtual world. For me, though, I'd rather focus on email marketing, blogs, joint venture opportunities, creating relationships, teleseminars, webinars.
Plus, of course, I'll keep my fingers in offline ways to sell my books: speaking, premium sales, direct sales to consumers, and book trade distribution. I suggest you do something similar if you want to be around in ten years.
Where will you be in ten years? Where do you want to be in ten years? Please choose one of the first three options Martin described. Don't die.
A sidebar: Fifty years ago, everyone said that television would kill radio. It didn't happen. During the past 15 years, radio has been stronger than ever. What happened to the naysayers? They sold out a long time ago. Lost a chunk of money in the process.
Now everyone is saying that newspapers and books are dead. Magazines, too. I don't agree. I think they will all continue to exist for many, many years to come -- both in print and in electronic forms. The smart print publishers will migrate content to the web. They are already doing that. Forbes magazine already gets half its revenue from online. The New York Times is moving in that direction. Book publishers should do this as well. But don't ignore print. It still drives the online strength of most successful publications.Labels: Internet marketing, magazines, Martin Foner, newspapers, radio, trade distribution, websites |
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Newspaper Book Review Sections |
In recent days, again, many book publishing commentators are lamenting the paring down or elimination of newspaper book review sections. Well, I'm not one of them. Most of these sections have been doing such a poor job that they don't deserve to continue to exist.
Too many of them review the same, same books (all from New York publishers) when they should be reviewing books that would truly interest their local and regional readers. Far too many of them ignore books from local and regional publishers, books that would truly interest their readers.
As I've traveled around the country, I've noticed that most book review sections review the same books, write about them the same way, etc. It has been a long, long time since newspaper have served their local readers with reviews of local books. Once in a while, they throw in a review of a local book, but most newspaper book review editors review, as many have told me, "only major novels, major memoirs, and major nonfiction," which, of course means, no local or regional books for us.
No wonder no one reads the book review sections anymore. No wonder newspapers are dropping them like flies or paring them down to nothing. No wonder so many major newspapers now feature reviews syndicated from other newspapers. They might as well. If they had written their own review, it would have sounded the same anyway.
Seth Godin, my favorite business blogger and the only one I read regularly, wrote a post about the demise of newspaper book review sections (and other mass media options). You should read it. Check it out here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/05/ reaching_the_un.html.Labels: book reviews, mass media, newspapers, Seth Godin |
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