I'll Take a Community With That Book, Please!

With today's search empowered readers, do we need to market and publish books differently? Does general publishing makes sense in an age of Google searches, micro communities and niche marketing?

 

Today's readers are tech savvy and resourceful. They know how to get the information they need and have higher expectations from publishers and authors. They don't just expect a book, they expect a community with their book. 

 

I often hear publishers say that there are "very few brands in book publishing." But to thrive in today’s competitive, niche markets, perhaps brands are exactly what we need. What readers choose to read is personal and an extension of who they are. Shouldn't their book choices be supported by a publisher, a brand that is invested in their interests?

 

Many small publishing companies have done an enviable job of branding themselves and building reader communities around their books. Take O'Reilly, TOR and Hay House. You may not read their books, but you know what they publish. Their communities trust them. People who share their point-of-view flock to their lists. These companies publish for a niche community, and are trusted members of their community. They provide extra resources, and often their authors are members of the community itself. TOR has even launched a bookstore to meet their readers’ needs. These publishers show passion for their books and an understanding of their readers, and as such their readers reward them with loyalty.

 

Publishing books for the community.

 

Besides reader loyalty, publishing for micro communities may have other long-term benefits as well. For example, the focus would help publishers save money on marketing. Marketing through online communities is less expensive and much more powerful than trying to reach the general public and hoping to find the right match. The publisher’s Web site wouldn’t have to cater to a wide variety of people, it would be designed to serve the needs of a small group. Instead of expensive advertising, they could announce the book to the community that has already bought into their brand. Publishers and authors could enlist the support of the community to spread the word (which will always be the most efficient method for marketing books.) The logo on the book spine would mean the readers have a promise that the book is worth reading. The readers would know that the publisher looked at over a thousand manuscripts all on the same topic and is offering them the very best.

 

So are large, general publishers at a disadvantage with today’s search-empowered, community oriented readers? I think so. General trade publishing is for everyone, yet there is no “everyone” out there.  Readers are part of micro communities. They want good books, and they need publishers who will support their interests and passions.

 

The bottom line is that publishers and authors need to evolve their marketing and publishing strategies to accommodate for a new kind of reader. A reader whose expectations demand more interaction and community. A reader whose loyalty you can have once you have earned it. A reader who wants more than a 6 week marketing campaign so you can sell a book. This new reader requires an investment of months and years.

 

Is that too much to expect? Perhaps. But this is your new reader, and she will stay with you if you stay with her.

 

 

Stay tuned for Web marketing tips in future weeks, or follow FSB on Twitter to see our results in real time: http://twitter.com/FSBAssociates

 

Fauzia Burke is the Founder and President of FSB Associates, an Web publicity firm specializing in creating online awareness for books and authors. For more information, please visit FSB Associates.

 

 

Follow Fauzia Burke on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FSBAssociates

Comments

[cglennon]

Excellent post and I agree that readers toady "don't just expect a book, they expect a community with their book.". Gary Vaynerchuk did this with his website for Crush IT! A micro-website technology called SmartSymbols can do the same for any author (see http://www.SmartSymbols.com/demo.html for an example). SmartSymbols following the book wherever it goes on the Internet from retailer, blog posts to social networks.
As Fauzia pointed out "The bottom line is that publishers and authors need to evolve their marketing and publishing strategies to accommodate for a new kind of reader. A reader whose expectations demand more interaction and community.­" If this is the tipping point to get readers to buy, then why not give customers that community where it counts, at the point of sale?

[Bruce Harris - Huffpost Blogger]

I absolutely agree about publishers needing to live in on line communities to effectively market their books.
I think authors need to be partners with publishers in these efforts.
Maybe imprints will be the brands of the future.
Alfred Knopf actually wished that Knopf would become a brand and it still stands for excellence (and hot selling backlist like Julia Childs.)

[Fauzia Burke - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi Bruce, Knopf is a great brand for sure. I believe imprints can be the brands of the future if they publish consistently for a specific niche. More importantly if they work WITH the community to get the word out (not market at/to them).

[Keith Thomson - Huffpost Blogger]

Well-done piece; reads like a thriller, at least to people in the publishing industry.

Question: Take a successful brand like the Doubleday thriller. Undoubtedly the mirrored D logo speaks volumes, as it were, to members of the many online thriller fanatics associations. To what extent, though, can the relatively casual fiction readers (say, readers of 25 or so novels per year) can tell you anything about Doubleday, save that Nelson owned the New York Mets?

[Fauzia Burke - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Keith. First, wow you think a person who reads 2 novels a month is a "casual fiction reader?" How many do you read? I am in awe. Second, I wonder if Doubleday spends some marketing $$ on brand awareness for their thriller list or if their budget is all spent on title specific campaigns. I must ask them.

[Keith Thomson - Huffpost Blogger]

I would have bet two was the norm, but this is why I don't bet.

If the number of novels bought per month is less than two, as you imply, then to what extent is the "average" book buyer aware of publishing brands?

[Caitlin Price]

From a Readers perspective I totally agree.

I have not bought a book from a book store in a long time. Amazon all the way, its neat to see peoples reviews of the books on site, people that are apart of my niche community sharing the same interests as me. Its crazy to think that like minded people are just a few clicks away with my book purchase.

[Fauzia Burke - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Caitlin. I think you are absolutely right. The online reviews mean a lot on bookstore sites because the reviews are written by people who share a passion for the same topic. Which is why "general interest bookstores" may have a tough go in today's specialized market.

[Balancement]

That's why I read The Bloomsbury Review--the only book review magazine that covers the small, independent, nonprofit, and university presses. I don't want to know about the same books that everyone else covers and reads--I want to know what's going on elsewhere.

[Fauzia Burke - Huffpost Blogger]

Excellent point. Here is the link to for those who are curious: http://www.bloomsburyreview.com/.

I love that they tell you their point of view right on their home page: "Since 1980, we have published a book magazine with you, the discriminating book reader, in mind. We don’t plug the mega-bestsellers. We don’t push celebrity biographies or “how-to-ge­t-richer-t­hinner-sma­rter-happi­er books.” And we don’t hype books or authors that are reviewed in every newspaper and magazine in the country. You hear enough about them already."

Kudos!