On Tuesday I posted on the BookExpo Canada Writers to Readers Conference. Since that time Kate S. has offered her comments (see UPDATE in original post), and Siobhan Long, the marketing manager at Raincoast Books has allowed me to post her notes. I’ve summarize for length but here’s the overview.
Siobhan’s Notes (the editor’s cut)
“All the speakers stressed how important all of this is [understanding online marketing], and how you really have to listen to and invest in the people who know about this stuff … There were 235 people in attendance for the talk (and a previous Humber seminar got 63 ppl) … they were publishers, booksellers and authors … a mix of people who agreed with the speakers and those who remained very reticent to embrace or accept technology.
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Michael Cader, www.publishersmarketplace and Publishers Lunch e-newsletter
Your passion and knowledge needs to get off the TI’s and out of our internal databases … we need to share all this info with readers. Don’t just keep cutting and pasting the same catalogue copy … unlock the good stuff! Your site should aggregate ALL the info and passion (etc.) you have or know about concerning your books.
Don’t base your website on a paper model (i.e., reproduce your printed catalogue online): you should be looking at how the online world works, not using the model of your books or how you publish books.
The web is the best place for book publishers b/c, by it’s nature, it attracts readers; plus, the web is where we do everything now… don’t let books be absent or underpresented from this realm. Use the web to sell the core of what you do, not individual products.
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Michael Tamblyn, BookNet Canada
His main point was that there’s more than one way to measure a “bestseller” — i.e., a poetry bestseller VS a fiction bestseller. People want more targeted types of bestseller lists.
Typical weekly sales: 50% non-fiction, 30% fiction, 20% juvenile
The top 200 books sold in Canada = 20% of book sales (i.e., bestsellers)
The next top 5,000 books sold in Canada = 40% of book sales
The next top 95,000 books sold in Canada = 40% of book sales (i.e., the longtail)
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Kevin Smokler, founder of The Virtual Book Tour and author of Bookmark Now
Branding is the creation of an immediate emotional association with a book or author. Be like Apple, not Windows: create a sense of trust and belonging.
Branding is not top-down, you can’t tell ppl what to read … YOU need to be the locus of where people ENGAGE and CONVERSE about a book or author.
Provide a place for readers to share their enthusiam. Don’t just sell a book and then ignore your readers; they want to engage with you afterwards. We’re in the business of ideas, content and lifestyle — not just books. Books are just the beginning of what we’re selling.
“This is a great book” is NOT a brand. Strong branding: trust, engagement, efficiency, cross-platform (i.e,. provides MANY points of enagagement, or on-ramps to a book (like trailers for a movie, or food samples at the grocery store).
Who should be doing all this work?
– IT people
– Online marketing Dept
– Create a “director of reader relations” position if you can
– Interns & local techies
– Invest in sending your employees to Web 2.0 professional development: confernces like SXSW etc on new trends in online & tech.
Other site to know about:
http://www.Freeconferencecall.com (use it to connect authors to book clubs)
http://lbc.typepad.com/
http://www.readerville.com/
http://bibliobuffet.com/
http://www.bookreporter.com/
NEW site: MySpace Books http://collect.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=books
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“Reclaiming Readers” panel discussion
On Amazon: 54% of sales were longtail (according to Amazon)
At Indies: 70-80% of sales were longtail (according to a bookseller who compared BookNet data to data from some big indies)
NEW site: Rabble Booklounge just launched (reviews, store, event listings, podcasts, book club):
http://www.rabble.ca/lounge/
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Advice for publishers from Judy Rebick from rabble.ca: “Invest in people who understand the web … and listen to them. Move faster, be open, be more creative. Don’t hold on to your old ways.”
Advice for publishers from Albert Lai from bubbleshare.com: Authors should have blogs, they shouldn’t wait for their publishers to do this.
Follow youth trends and online trends. But don’t just do something new just b/c it’s new.
Participate in the longtail through dialogue online. Look beyond the book itself.
——- end of Siobhan’s notes ——-
Thank you Siobhan for these incredible notes and for letting them be shared.
Do you have notes to share? Did you attend BEC 2006? Were you a speaker?
Add to the conversation. Post your thoughts in the comments.