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September 2006 - Interview with Brian Judd:
As many of you may have noticed we have a running theme of including marketing advice in each newsletter. We do this because marketing is such an important element in the book industry, and is beneficial to all. So, in keeping with this theme we decided to interview an individual who could give you great advice about book marketing. Brian Judd is an author and also the President of a company specializing in book marketing. This interview is highly informative as it explains some of the many concepts in marketing and how they pertain to you.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am president of Book Marketing Works, a book-marketing consulting company. I am active in special-sales marketing. I am the organizer and host of the National Special Sales Conference™ (New York City, November 1-4, 2006) sponsored by Simon & Schuster and Publishers Weekly. And I am the author of the Publishers Weekly title, Beyond the Bookstore and The Marketing Planning CD-ROM that accompanies it. I am also the editor of the Book Marketing Matters newsletter on special sales topics. In addition, I am the producer and host of the television series The Book Authority and have aired over six hundred shows. Also, I am the author, narrator and producer of the media-training video program You're On The Air, and I wrote and published its companion guides, It’s Show Time and Perpetual Promotion. I also wrote and self-published five books on career transition that are distributed internationally and translated into Spanish. And I am the author of eight e-booklets with Proven Tips for Publishing Success, and the author of the printed booklets with the same eight titles, published by R. R. Bowker.
In your book, "beyond the bookstore" can you explain what you mean by "non-bookstore" markets?
Special-sales marketing is generally considered as “everything outside of bookstores.” But that is hard to get a hold of. The opportunity for book sales in special markets is made easier if you view it as consisting of three segments. The first is Special Distribution. This utilizes a network of distributors and wholesalers similar to that serving the bookstores. Second is the Commercial Sales sector encompassing sales to corporations and others using books as sales-promotional devices. And third are Niche Markets, comprised of groups of people sharing an identifiable need for the information in your book.
1. Special Distribution is similar to the way most independent publishers currently market to bookstores, i.e., publisher Þ distribution partner Þ retailer Þ consumer. This category includes sales to libraries, airport stores, discount stores, warehouse clubs, supermarkets and pharmacies.
2. Commercial sales. Corporations, associations, schools, foundations, government agencies and network-marketing organizations buy books directly from publishers for use as premiums, incentives, sales promotions or for educational purposes. They may also purchase books for resale. The factor differentiating this segment from special distribution is that you contact, negotiate with, ship directly to and bill the people representing these firms.
3. Niche marketing entails selling to defined groups of people that share a need for the information in your book. For example, you could sell your book about healthy eating to beauty shops, doctors’ offices, fitness centers and stores that sell clothing, cookware, gourmet foods, groceries and health foods. A children’s book could be sold to daycare centers, toy stores, pediatricians’ offices and gift shops in children’s hospitals. Museums and national parks also constitute a lucrative market. Book clubs also fit in this category. Not only the major clubs, but the many niche clubs, too. There are book clubs that focus on children, religion, foreign languages, teaching and more. Or, think of mail-order catalogs that can move large quantities of books.
Do you need to have a marketing background to be able to take advantage of these various markets within the industry? In other words, is it enough just to write a book these days?
Authors do not need significant marketing experience. It is more important that they understand what they are getting into, maintain their early self-confidence in the face of regular rejection and obstacles, and persist in promoting their books. Here are three sources of disappointment that can be avoided.
1) Unrealistic perspective. Most authors think that theirs is the best book ever written on the topic. This is certainly understandable since the act of finishing their book causes “author elation.” This exhilaration in itself is not bad. They should rejoice in their success, but their joy should be tempered with the reality that their opinion of their writing is subjective. It probably is the best book they have ever written, but the buying public compares their books against alternative books, and will choose that which they think is the best.
2) Unrealistic expectations. Another source of disappointment is expecting the top bookstores to immediately accept the author’s book and put it on the stores’ shelves. While this could happen, think about it from the point of view of bookstore owners. These people have limited shelf space on which to display books that will attract the largest number of buyers to their stores. They stock their shelves with the books best suited for their potential customers: best-selling books, those by the top authors and those about current events or local issues. If any book does not sell enough copies to pay for its shelf space, it is removed and returned.
3) Unrealistic goals. Setting unrealistic goals is a major cause of disappointment. If an author’s only planned marketing action is to get on The Oprah Winfrey Show and sell 1,000,000 copies, then he or she is likely to be disappointed. If they sell a hundred copies of their book they are ahead of most authors. Successful book marketing takes time and effort, particularly time, since bookstore buyers purchase books months in advance. If their book is not available in June, it will probably not make the store shelves in time for the December Holidays. Authors should be prepared to stick it out for the long term to give their promotion time to take effect.
What misconceptions have you encountered with the word "marketing"?
One of the most misused words in the publishing business is marketing. Some people think selling is marketing, but it is not. Others think publishing is marketing, but it is not. Marketing is a distinct business philosophy that, if understood and applied properly, will help the authors become more profitable.
There are four competing concepts under which authors can conduct their marketing activities. These are the Publishing Concept, the Product Concept, the Selling Concept and the Marketing Concept.
The Publishing Concept holds that consumers will favor those titles that are widely available and low in cost. These mass-market publishers concentrate on achieving high production efficiency and wide distribution.
The Product Concept is the "better mousetrap" philosophy that assumes consumers will favor those titles that offer the most quality in terms of appearance and content. Here the emphasis is on cover design and writing quality where book marketers are sometimes caught up in a love affair with their titles. They lose sight of the fact that the market may be less enamored.
Product-oriented authors often create their titles with little or no reader input. They trust that their publishers know what the market wants. Very often they will not even examine competitors’ titles and believe readers cannot know what kind of books they want until they see what is available. These authors are too often looking into a mirror when they should be looking out the window.
The Selling Concept believes that consumers, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the publisher’s books. The author must therefore undertake an aggressive selling and promotion effort to coax readers into making a purchase. Authors adhering to this philosophy seek to attract customers through heavy promotion that accentuates the features of the book.
These first three viewpoints focus on the needs of the author and his or her desire to convert a book into cash. The emphasis is on making the sale by selling what they publish rather than publishing what the market wants. This is a short-term outlook that typically leads to lower profits and possibly, eventual failure.
Conversely, the Marketing Concept is a long-term business philosophy contending that the key to achieving success lies in giving prospective readers what they want to read. In this case, customer retention is as important as customer attraction. The marketing concept rests on four pillars: target market, customer needs, integrated marketing and profitability.
The selling concept starts with the publisher and its need for profits, focuses on its books and calls for heavy selling and promoting to sell more books. The marketing concept takes an outside-in perspective. It starts with a well-defined market, focuses on customer needs,integrates all the activities that will affect customers and produces profits by satisfying customers.
With recent trends towards self-publishing, do you find that there is an increased need for marketing help?
I think there has always been a need for help from authors for marketing books. Many do not realize that it is up to them to perform the marketing/selling function regardless of who publishes the book. With more and more books being published today – particularly using the POD technique – authors compete among many more titles.
What is your advice to those individuals with little to no marketing experience, and a limited budget?
As authors approach the completion of their manuscripts, their excitement sometimes clouds their judgment of what needs to be done to make their books successful. In their jubilation they may skip steps that form a solid foundation for future sales. As sales begin to falter, the negative impact could cause their attitude to spiral out of control. The points below serve as a reminder of what needs to be done early in the publishing process.
1) Do your homework before you enter each of the three publishing stages. Read books by the experts (Brian Jud, Dan Poynter, John Kremer, Penny Sansevieri, Shel Horowitz). Attend seminars and educational events. Subscribe to major industry magazines such as Writer’s Digest and Publishers Weekly. Join and participate in discussion groups (Publish-L: http://www.publish-l.com; self-publishing: http://www.spannet.org/ezine.htm). And subscribe to pertinent newsletters (Shelf Awareness http://news.shelf-awareness.com/ct.jsp?uz2490477Biz2003104; Book Marketing Matters special-sales ezine http://www.bookmarketingworks.com/mktgmatters.asp; or Dan Poynter’s newsletter http://www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/). Join publishing associations such Publishers Marketing Association (www.pma-online.org, or SPAN: www.spannet.org). Many of these resources are free, but one good tip from any of them can save you several times their cost.
2) Know your target reader. If you say your target reader is “anyone in the world who likes fiction,” or “everyone who wants to do something using the techniques in your nonfiction book,” then you will find the path to marketing to that nebulous market difficult, time consuming and expensive. Instead, define the typical people who will benefit most by reading your book. What are their gender, age and level of education? How many of them are there, and where are they located?
3) Who is your competition? How is your book different from or better than those that already exist? What do you offer a reader that is not available currently? These are questions that distributors, bookstore managers and television and radio hosts are very likely to ask you. Your answers to these questions will probably alter the content of your manuscript, too.
It is not difficult or expensive to find this information. Simply go to a bookstore and study the books on your subject that are already on the shelves. While you are there, look at the books currently available in bookstores on your topic. What do you like or dislike about them? The titles? Cover designs? Page layouts? Or, go to Amazon.com and search the other books available on your subject matter.
4) Find out if there is a special marketing period that is relevant to your subject matter and tie your promotion into it. For example, November is Aviation History Month, Child Safety and Protection Month and Good Nutrition Month. May is Correct Posture Month, Family Support Month and American Bike Month. To find a special occasion that is appropriate to your topic go to http://www.guestfinder.com/calendar.htm
5) Budget accordingly. Many of those who become their own publisher spend a significant amount of their budgeted money in the production process. When it comes time to promote their books, there is nothing remaining. This is one instance in which third-party publishing excels. Since the initial costs are lower than starting your own publishing firm, you will usually have sufficient funds left over for marketing.
8) Get involved with the marketing. I’ve said this before, but the author’s involvement in marketing is critical to the book’s commercial success. It doesn’t take a lot. Simply let your family, co-workers and friends know when your book is available. Create a website. Make yourself available for book signings and in-store events. Just think about how you can use your strengths to communicate the existence of your book to as many people as possible.
9) Have a written marketing plan in place. The downfall of many companies, large and small is the lack of planning. If you don’t have a written plan in place you are creating a major obstacle to your success as an author.
Bookhitch would like to extend our thanks to Brian Judd for taking the time to participate in this month’s newsletter. If you would like more information then you can visit the company website at www.bookmarketing.com or email brianjud@bookmarketing.com.
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