Observations of book sales in the UK (2004)
The power of TV
It all started in the US.
Oprah Winfrey launched a book club. Some years
later the doyens of daytime TV,
Richard & Judy, introduced literature into the
programme.
By studying the before and after sales one can provide a few rules of thumb.
Exposure in the media can multiply sales by a factor of 2 or 4.
Yesterday's papers?
Newspapers traditionally reviewed books. Publishers could rely on the papers.
The whole system became self-serving, rather incestuous with writers reviewing
each others work.
Things have become less predictable but reviews have some distance to go to
recover their credibility. This won't be helped by the perception that papers
now offer to supply the books. The Daily Mail has its own Book Club.
Nobody mentions the possibility of any conflict of interest.
The new, old-fashioned way
The advertising world has recently discovered something that readers have
known for ever - If you like a book, you recommend it to your friends. The best marketers for any book are satisfied readers.
But the boys
in braces are calling this 'viral marketing'.
They have found out that if
something is good people pass it on. So if they insert an advertising message in an
interesting jingle, image or clip and fold will share it.
Is advertising dead?
Advertising used to inform. It told you about products and services you might
be interested in.
The serious advertising became so expensive that only the successful could
afford it. Because they are successful, they don't need to tell people about
their product. Advertising is now all about image not information.
Fortunately there are still lots of good old fashioned readers and journals.
But in this world, books are on the margin.
Playing the game
If you want to market a book think about marketing yourself. Increasing
column inches are being devoted to quirky features with by-lines like 'my first
kiss' or 'why I fish'.
So writers need to generate a lit-list celebrity persona. Writers of fiction
should take this in their stride.
Timing
There is a massive distance between best-sellers and the rest. Sales figures can be traced
using Nielsen-Bookscan who are able to
monitor sales passing through the majority of bookshops and some online
retailers. The lists are published weekly in The Bookseller.
Christmas and Summer holiday reading are the two seasons. Just remember that
the stocking season starts early.
Chas Jones
