Book marketing may seem like a strange concept to some. After all, unlike at the cinema, there aren’t sneak peeks into other books before you read the one you’ve paid for. But a lot of thought and planning goes into marketing each individual title to ensure that it effectively reaches its audience.
By Darren Gilbert
Book launches, literary festivals, author appearances. There are many different ways to get the word out about a book, and each book is different.
The state of book marketing in South Africa
While the local book industry is small and publishers’ budgets are relatively limited, there is no doubt as to its state of being. Speak to any South African publishing house and you’ll get the same answer: the industry is very healthy.
That being said, the market is very different to what it was a few years ago, points out Amanda van Rhyn, national marketing manager for
Penguin Random House SA. Essentially, this means that what worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today. Or, at least, be as effective. But that’s alright. Instead of it being a negative thing, it should be embraced.
“Book marketing has been taken to another level in South Africa over the past five to 10 years,” says Nicola van Rooyen, sales and marketing manager at
Bookstorm. “It has now become essential to market books as aggressively as any other product on billboards or full page adverts in magazines.”
But how do you market a book exactly?
Essentials of marketing your book
When it comes to marketing a book, there are a number of aspects to consider. One is that despite the changing landscape, traditional retail marketing is essential.
“We’ve seen great success through recent partnerships in competitions, as well as through point of sales items,” says
Pan MacMillan’s marketing manager, Laura Hammond.
And don’t forget the power that word of mouth can play, says Hammond. Of course, as Van Rooyen points out, it’s not always easy to get results. “Creating a campaign that generates word of mouth sales is hit and miss most of the time,” says Van Rooyen. “But if we could pin it down, it would be lightning in a bottle.”
The overall point of word of mouth is to deliver exposure. One other way of achieving that is through what Van Rhyn terms as “discoverability”. She continues, “You need to work with the retail partners (like Exclusive Books) and media partners to create visibility.”
As with most things though, there is no formula for the perfect book marketing campaign. Publishers must just be on top of their game to give readers what they want.
What does the future hold?
In order to do that, you’d need to look forward to what we can expect in the future.
“I believe we will see a move away from only marketing individual books [to] marketing genres and author groups that fit together,” says Van Rhyn. This could work, for example, with several Struik Nature authors talking about their fields of expertise, or a focus on Afrikaans books.
As Van Rooyen points out, the future of marketing books in South Africa is going to have to be “more directed at the end consumer”. The publishing world is changing and clever publishers are going to have to be innovative to keep up, she adds.
This means one thing: online and social media will become the norm. “Facebook groups such as The Good Book Appreciation Society and The Secret Book Club are spaces where users interact with one another and recommend books, and I believe we should be paying more attention to these.”
What are your thoughts? What has been the best marketing campaign you’ve seen around books?