Net
Flex
Publishers (Still) Grapple With Web's
Role
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MAY 2004)
Speaking
recently before the AAP’s Young to Publishing
Group, as the first installment of its Living Legends
Series, former editor-in-chief of Random House,
Jason Epstein, presented his now somewhat infamous
vision of publishing’s future. By his estimates, it’s
only a matter of years before an ATM-like machine located
at your nearest “Kinko’s, on the corner of your street,
or [at] a Starbuck’s, or a school, or a library or hospital”
would receive transmission of a book in digital format
and instantly print, trim and bind it, essentially making
the term “print on demand” literal. Using the Internet,
the consumer would order the book directly from the
publisher, who would stock its entire list in digital
form, and the end product would be of the same quality
as current paperbacks. Epstein’s dream machine, which
he claims to have witnessed “in a shed beside an airport
in St. Louis,” would eliminate the current financial
burdens of warehousing and distributing, and would make
maintaining backlists all the more palatable for publishers.
It might also eliminate the bookseller. (It’s Sprout
déjà vu all over again.)
However farfetched this magical printer may sound now,
few publishers would deny that the Internet is already
an integral intermediary between them and their readers.
The extent to which publishers use the Web — whether
for marketing or sales, or both — is not only a topic
of heated debate, but a matter currently in flux. Increasingly,
authors create their own websites, with or without their
publishers’ help, and often the book’s or author’s URL
is printed on the jacket. But, according to some, Penguin
recently went too far on the Internet. It stunned many
in the industry by adding that familiar little shopping
cart icon to its website, suggesting publishers shouldn’t
stop short of using the Internet to sell directly to
consumers. Despite many scientific, medical, reference,
and specialty publishers having sold directly online
for years, many obviously thought that trade publishers
should not take the reins into their own hands and risk
trampling the traditional booksellers.
Penguin
says its objective — contrary to what many may have
thought — was not to put the bookseller out of business.
To date, they have not offered discounted products nor
any other incentives to lure the buyer; and in fact,
Penguin’s site still links to other retailers’ sites.
So, why did they do it? Besides, the question that pretty
much everyone asks — except, perhaps, those in the biz
— is, why would a publisher sell directly to consumers,
when the average reader goes by a book’s title or author?
Thinking the average reader knows the publisher’s moniker
is as naive as believing the average film-goer knows
who the cinematographer is. But two words begin to explain
Penguins motivation: Penguin Classics. “With a backlist
of over 30,000 titles, it’s the case that very few physical
stores, if any, can stock and support all our titles,”
says John Schline, Senior VP of Corporate Business
Affairs, Penguin Group (USA). “Our sales have confirmed
this, with the vast majority being for books published
more than two years ago.” So far, less than 1% of the
company’s total sales occur through its site, which
is managed in-house, though hosting and some database
administration is handled outside. Schline also said
that feedback from past site visitors, as well as from
authors, implied that “people using the Web expect a
site that markets products to also accept orders for
those products.”
And,
finally, part of Penguin’s purpose was simply survival.
With traditional notions of retailers, wholesalers,
authors, and even publishers becoming increasingly blurry,
Penguin thought it might be time to re-examine its flippers.
“In a world of auction sites, online used book networks,
retailers who publish, authors who sell directly, etc.,
we feel that some of the separations have become unrealistic
and peculiar to trade book publishing,” Schline says.
“To ignore something that is growing as quickly as the
Web because it is inconvenient to existing business
structures would be short-sighted.” The company’s existing
infrastructure basically put it “one step away” from
being able to accept online orders.
In
many cases, small publishers working with very tight
budgets witnessed the power of the Internet and its
cost-effectiveness long before the big houses. Brook
Noel, CEO of Fredonia, Wis.-based Champion Press,
which began in 1997 and now has 130 available titles,
says online retailing put her on equal footing with
the big players. “Programs like Amazon Advantage or
Abe Books allow publishers great access to online sales,”
she says. “The way consumers are purchasing is changing
dramatically, and publishers need to adapt and track
those modes of purchasing to remain competitive. Don’t
get me wrong, I love working with booksellers. We do
many author events and signings and special promotions
— however, we need to be prepared to sell to those who
are buying online.” Not only do publishers increase
sales with websites, but they can build mailing lists
as a way to remain in touch with customers to announce
future books, she says. “We have mailing lists by topic
— educational, lifestyle, cooking — that our readers
can subscribe to for monthly newsletters” — and, of
course, to buy more books.
Elongating
Shelf Life?
Ultimately,
Epstein sees the Internet as a tool connecting readers
with the right publishers. “The books in digital form
will be posted on websites of related interest — a book
on fly fishing will be on all the fly fishing networks
— so that people will find the books they want as they
go to the websites that interest them,” he predicts.
“Rather than put a book in a bookstore where people
may or may not find it, where it may be taken away in
three months and junked, now books can be available
forever on those websites.”
This
scenario, which Epstein thinks will draw “great opposition
from publishers,” is not so much a vision of the future
as a slightly altered version of the present. The self-publishing-and-promotion
guru M.J. Rose, who now publishes with traditional
presses and teaches classes on how authors can better
promote themselves by using the Internet, thinks the
average reader is flummoxed by the number of books he
has to choose from, and the Internet helps readers find
authors of their liking, and vice versa. “With six to
12 weeks of work, [an author] can reach from 3,000 to
50,000 readers ... and with under $2,000 you can do
a serious outreach that will sell books.” Plus, Rose
points out that the Internet has elongated the lives
of non-bestsellers. “A year-old ... or 10-year-old book
can get buzz and traction online and take off in an
amazing way. Plus, they are always available to be bought,
when stores are no longer stocking them,” she says.
You
can’t talk about online marketing or book longevity
and not mention The South Beach Diet. Dr. Arthur
Agatston’s book — craze might be a better word —
has been on the New York Times “Advice, How-to, and
Miscellaneous” best-seller list for over a year. The
“blanket the Web” campaign, produced by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based
Waterfront Media, is responsible for approximately
one-third of all online sales, says Cindy Ratzlaff,
VP/Associate Publisher at Rodale. Online book
sales, however, is not the “key focus” of Waterfront’s
Internet marketing campaigns, which also include Tyndale
House’s Andrew Weil’s My Optimum Health
Plan and the Left Behind series, among others.
Noting the sensitive issue of publishers selling directly,
Heidi Krupp of Krupp Kommunications, who
works on external PR for Rodale, said, “Publishers are
still very diplomatic with their brick-and-mortar booksellers.
The booksellers are the ones who have always given them
their bread and butter, and I don’t think anyone wants
to take that away.” Instead, Krupp calls what the South
Beach Diet Internet campaign does “creating a content
community to retain customers” and compares it to the
way bookstores now have coffeeshops and live music.
“Waterfront is not replacing books,” she explains. “It
is making a longer shelf life for a book.”
Publishers
finally have woken to the benefit of online marketing,
said CEO of Waterfront Media Inc. Ben Wolin.
Unlike traditional book campaigns that are strong right
around the pub date, Wolin said Waterfront’s campaigns
remain aggressive from launch forward, always attracting
more subscribers and, presumably, more book buyers.
“We can definitely give consumers a way to get familiar
with the brand, to learn a little bit about the brand,
and then they can decide to purchase if they want,”
he said. To date, Waterfront manages more than 5 million
total subscribers for its handful of newsletters — 300,000
of which are paid subscribers who get other benefits.
When
it comes down to survival, the Internet is the best
way to reach your target market without emptying the
coffers, says Noah Kerner, partner and Senior
VP of Marketing and Creative at SoulKool, LLC.
Instead of buying ads in the various media to promote
the release of Love & Death (April, Atria Books),
an exploration into the death of Kurt Cobain, Simon
& Schuster hired SoulKool to create an Internet
marketing campaign “with more grassroots appeal,” which
included building a microsite, www.cobainwaskilled.com
that posted a new “clue” each day for three weeks before
the pub date. The site, its message board, and newsletter
reached 45,000 unique users. SoulKool also hyped the
book on its own site www.soulkool.com,
and about 500 other sites, chat rooms, message boards
and egroups — most aimed at young people who would have
an interest in the book. “If you’re not aware of Internet
marketing, you’re not going to stay at the front of
the pack,” Kerner says. “It’s by far the most influential
medium.”
©2004
Publishing Trends
