Nestled three-quarters into a nearly 2,400-word feature article about the unpredictable nature of book publishing in The New York Times Sunday Business section May 13 was the following quote:
“Word traveled among vegans and college students, however, and it became a Los Angeles Times best seller.”
It would be of no surprise to Promo readers that word-of-mouth marketing would figure prominently in finding an audience for a diet book called “Skinny Bitch,” which has sold 100,000 copies since its publication 16 months ago.
Most of the Times’ article discussed the financial risk that publishers take when making big advances to authors. Apparently figuring out consumer tasteis a mystery to them.
They all have stories of coming out on top in bidding wars, only to fail miserably in meeting sales expectations. Supposed can’t-miss best sellers turn into remainders overnight, taking up warehouse space at 5 cents on the dollar. It’s the contemporary book publishing version of the 1970s record industry’s “shipped gold, returned platinum” yarn.
An agent quoted in the article admits that before Amazon started posting consumer-written reviews, most publishers didn’t know what people thought of their books. She urges that publishers cultivate a more direct and interactive relationship with readers.
A friend of mine who writes novels for young adults confirms that her publisher relies heavily on viral tactics to generate buzz.
“According to the PR people in my little corner of the book business, word-of-mouth marketing is the only kind there is,” she notes in a recent e-mail. “I think it’s probably truer of the teen market; they are so hip and miles ahead of any attempts to tell them what’s cool, and their interests are largely peer-driven.
“It’s kind of maddening — my agent and I go to my publisher for publicity meetings and the head of PR just looks at us and says, ‘I suggest you blog! Do your MySpace thing! I can do nothing for you, but good luck!’”
Like most writers, my friend loves hearing from readers. She especially appreciates being able “to peek at their feverish little online reading journals. There are a lot of kids who are passionate about books these days; it’s heartening.”
It’s the same demographic, but not quite the same kind of book: DC Comics is launching its first graphic novel series for teen girls (see page 9). Not surprisingly, the campaign’s hub is a high school-oriented social networking Web site.
“Word of mouth is so effective because of the natural credibility that comes from real people with no profit or agenda tied to their recommendations,” urges Andy Sernovitz, author of “Word of Mouth Marketing” (Kaplan Publishing, 2006). More of Andy’s words of wisdom can be found in the excerpt from his book on page 66.
At some point all businesses miscue, which makes the tenets of word of mouth all the more universal.
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