Report 2013 - Kelly Fagan HERE - Australian Publishers Association
Report 2013 - Kelly Fagan HERE - Australian Publishers Association
Report 2013 - Kelly Fagan HERE - Australian Publishers Association
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
A Very Long Engagement:<br />
how the new publishing landscape<br />
is changing the way we promote books<br />
BY KELLY FAGAN<br />
On Behalf of the Unwin Trust <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong>
Contents<br />
Overview 01<br />
Research and Methodology 02<br />
Key Findings 03<br />
The <strong>Australian</strong> Retail Space 05<br />
The <strong>Australian</strong> Media Space 06<br />
Marketing and Publicity Department Structures (Australia) 07<br />
The UK Retail Space 09<br />
The UK Media Space 10<br />
Marketing and Publicity Department Structures (UK) 12<br />
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Strategy 14<br />
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Activities 15<br />
What Does it Mean to Connect Directly with Consumers 21<br />
Focus on Branding 22<br />
Focus on Events 23<br />
Focus on Connecting Directly with Readers Online 24<br />
Cross-industry Collaboration 25<br />
Conclusion 27<br />
Acknowledgements 28<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
B
Overview<br />
With book marketing, everything has changed. We are now in the uncomfortable middle of not knowing<br />
what will work or what that even means. We don’t know. An uncomfortable middle needs then to be a<br />
time of great fear leading to passionate experimentation. The genetically-quotable Clay Shirky put it best<br />
when he said ‘Nothing will work. Everything might’.<br />
Kevin Shockey, O’Reilly Media<br />
Marketing and publicity for books has long been a subject of debate.<br />
The original proposal for this fellowship report was to research the role of marketing and publicity in a new,<br />
increasingly digitised publishing landscape. The scope of this project, and the issues at its heart, are vast. The very<br />
reason marketing and publicity is often called into question is that it is daunting, if not near impossible, to quantify<br />
their efficacy and relevancy with sheer numbers.<br />
Until recently most trade publishers have operated with a marketing department focused largely on retailer promotions<br />
and mass communication and a publicity department charged with promoting a book through traditional media<br />
channels and author tours that engage with readers directly. Today’s rapidly changing retail environment paired with<br />
continual consolidation of the traditional media, however, has challenged the way trade publishers have historically<br />
communicated with their readers forcing a re-evaluation of marketing and publicity roles within many of the major<br />
<strong>Australian</strong> houses.<br />
The rise of social media and direct digital marketing has afforded the industry the unprecedented opportunity<br />
to circumvent traditional media and speak directly to their consumers. The challenge now is how to market and<br />
publicise books effectively to an increasingly fragmented audience in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner<br />
across genres and retail spaces. In 2010, the <strong>Australian</strong> Government established the Book Industry Strategy<br />
Group (BISG) ‘to identify the key priority issues for addressing the need for structural change across the industry<br />
supply chain and to recommend appropriate actions to be taken to meet emerging challenges’. Among the key<br />
recommendations from the group was ‘to improve industry skills in marketing and communications’.<br />
This report aims to examine the more advanced UK book trade, and discuss how publishers there, are tackling<br />
the challenges associated with marketing and publicising books in a digitised world. Originally I had hoped to be<br />
able to perform some kind of empirical analysis on traditional marketing and publicity activities; however several<br />
things made this near impossible to achieve. Firstly, as with other Unwin Fellows before me, I found it impossible<br />
to organise an interview with Amazon, UK publishing’s largest customer. Without being able to speak directly to<br />
buyers and merchandisers within Amazon, it is almost impossible to measure the effect of marketing and publicity<br />
at a retail level. Compounding this issue was the reluctance of those people within publishing companies who sell<br />
to Amazon to talk about their processes. Furthermore, I found that looking at sales data on UK Bookscan (which<br />
doesn’t take into account e-book sales) also did not give an accurate picture of the performance of a particular title,<br />
and again publishers were especially careful around what information they would divulge with regards to e-book<br />
sales of particular titles.<br />
Due to these limitations, the report focuses mainly on the promotional strategies and activities of trade publishers –<br />
their value and also the ways in which they are changing. It should be noted that this report is primarily concerned<br />
with what I have called traditional marketing and publicity activities. Whilst some of my research did lead me to the<br />
new and very interesting areas of pricing and meta-data these activities still tend to fall outside the brief of trade<br />
marketing and publicity departments.<br />
With this in mind, I’ve identified what I hope are key areas of interest to <strong>Australian</strong> publishers (particularly marketers<br />
and publicists): comparing retail and media spaces between the two territories; looking at department structures;<br />
analysing the evolution of marketing and publicity strategy and activities within trade publishing houses; and<br />
attempting to answer the question of what it means for a publisher to connect directly with a consumer.<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
1
Research and Methodology<br />
Face-to-face interviews were the main source of research for this report. Before traveling to the United Kingdom in<br />
May <strong>2013</strong>, I spoke to many people involved with book promotion in Australia about their roles and how or if they<br />
were changing. The aim was to establish a ‘book promotional state of play’ to help identify areas of interest to the<br />
<strong>Australian</strong> industry which I could then use to establish a framework for the rest of the project.<br />
Once arriving in the UK, meetings were set up with both independent and multi-national publishing houses including<br />
Faber & Faber, Jonathan Cape and Bodley Head (divisions of Penguin Random House), Pan Macmillan, Allen &<br />
Unwin UK, Atlantic Books, Profile Books, Bloomsbury and HarperCollins.<br />
I attended the Hay Festival and the Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. I went to signings in High<br />
Street bookstores and author events run by bookshops and by publishers. I spoke to literary editors, journalists,<br />
statisticians, and freelance marketers.<br />
I also attended a number of cross industry conferences and happenings including:<br />
▪ ▪ Independent’s Day talks program run by The Independent Alliance of <strong>Publishers</strong> in partnership with the ICA<br />
▪ ▪ The Authors Awards<br />
▪▪<br />
The Women’s Prize and meetings held by The <strong>Publishers</strong> Publicity Circle and The Book Marketing Society.<br />
HarperCollins were kind enough to give me a desk in their Hammersmith offices for my stay in London and I did<br />
base myself there spending time with the International Sales and Marketing teams, Harper Fiction and Non-Fiction<br />
and Fourth Estate teams. That said, the views in this report, unless otherwise stated, are my own and do not<br />
represent the views of HarperCollins.<br />
Also, it should be noted that whilst much of the information presented in this report was gathered directly from<br />
interviews and experiences, I have also used information from trade press, government reports, media articles and<br />
blogs where appropriate to enhance my own research.<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
2
Key Findings<br />
1. Differences/similarities Between <strong>Australian</strong> and UK Retail Spaces<br />
Although our bricks and mortar market is still considerably healthier and more sizeable than the UK’s, <strong>Australian</strong><br />
publishers have nonetheless seen and responded to the changing international landscape and have been reaching<br />
out to consumers directly, both online and through our vibrant festival culture.<br />
Despite the shrinkage in High Street retail and the dominance of Amazon, UK publishers remain committed to<br />
servicing all sectors of the retail market – physical bookstores have not been forgotten.<br />
2. Media Spaces<br />
In both Australia and the UK, traditional media is still key to selling books. Though both territories are experiencing a<br />
reduction in book-dedicated real estate in the mainstream press, Australia definitely fares the worst of the two with<br />
regards to the visibility and treatment of books in the media.<br />
<strong>Australian</strong>s by nature are much more attuned to international media content and regularly consume international<br />
newspapers such as The Daily Mail, Guardian or New York Times. As such, the knock-on effect of overseas reviews<br />
can be an excellent launch pad for international titles distributed in Australia. Comparatively, UK readers are highly<br />
engaged with their own press and the UK press in turn, is very connected to its readers.<br />
Ranked as people’s third favourite pastime in the UK (after TV and the internet), books and reading remain a highly<br />
visible part of British culture, whereas the same is not as strongly the case in Australia.<br />
3. Company Structures<br />
Continuing the theme of the earlier two findings, <strong>Australian</strong> publishing is more outward-facing than the UK. <strong>Australian</strong><br />
publishers’ focus, particularly in the bigger houses, is divided between being a content creator (local lists) and<br />
account management (UK lists and US lists) and the distribution of all those books. Perhaps because of this,<br />
we have been quicker to streamline our processes and merge publicity and marketing departments than our UK<br />
colleagues.<br />
Based on what I witnessed in the UK, there is still a place for discrete marketing and publicity roles within a ‘Marcomms<br />
department’. Merging of departments in both Australia and the UK seems to be more about restructuring resources<br />
at a managerial level as opposed to any huge changes in the way both disciplines go about their day-to-day roles.<br />
That said, because of online and social media components, traditional marketing roles are definitely expanding in<br />
scope and evolving a little faster than roles in publicity.<br />
4. Marketing and Publicity Strategy and Activity<br />
I went to the UK expecting to find examples of highly experimental or revolutionary marketing campaigns, and was<br />
surprised to find that most campaigns were very much centred around what we would call ‘traditional activities’ –<br />
Tube sampler campaigns, outdoor advertising, national book tours, events and festival appearances all dominated<br />
the promotional landscape in the UK.<br />
The biggest change to marketing and publicity from what I can see is the expectation of what promotional activities<br />
need to achieve for a publishing house. Return on investment is not just about sales – it’s about gathering data,<br />
creating brands and author networking, and building communities and online presence. The introduction of digital<br />
to the marketing mix is not simply a matter of employing one person to tweet and update facebook occasionally; it’s<br />
about using digital to enhance or amplify the tried and tested methods of promotion.<br />
I visited many publishers and asked all of them if they could think of a completely digital campaign, with no traditional<br />
activity whatsoever, that resulted in strong sales of a book. No-one could give me an example. Of course there are<br />
a handful of successful authors who have pioneered self-publishing across the web to bestseller-dom, but even<br />
then, the sales of authors such as E.L. James were considerably amplified once the mainstream promotional and<br />
publicity machine kicked in.<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
3
Key Findings (cont.)<br />
The other significant difference that should be highlighted is the timing of a campaign. The two format style of print<br />
publishing employed by most publishers in the UK, whereby the hardback and e-book are released at the same time<br />
followed by a paperback release six to twelve months later, can be quite advantageous in the new digital landscape.<br />
Many publishers treat the first release almost like a sampler campaign – with promotional activity centred around the<br />
acquisition of reviews, reviews, and more reviews. Independent reviews from the mainstream press of course, but<br />
also, consumer reviews from places like Amazon and GoodReads.<br />
In many ways it’s like road testing a book before committing to a full promotional spend for the paperback. A recent<br />
example of this in action is The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. Acquired in a storm of publicity at the Frankfurt<br />
Book Fair, the book was first published in hardback in April <strong>2013</strong>. The book was praised in the press, and hailed<br />
by several media outlets as the next Gone Girl. The hardback received almost 200 reviews on Amazon, a quarter<br />
of which were 5-star reviews. In August <strong>2013</strong>, HarperCollins published the paperback complete with a widespread<br />
advertising campaign. Posters, outdoor and press ads all featured the book and the tag-lines ‘This summer’s Gone<br />
Girl’ (a quote from India Knight) and ‘Got a Gone Girl shaped hole in your life Try this’ (a quote from the Evening<br />
Standard). Lauren did a British publicity tour, and the book went to number one on the bestseller lists.<br />
Of course, with a shrinking second format market, we in Australia rarely have the luxury of a two print format release,<br />
but it is definitely worth noting that as online retail becomes an ever increasing part of our market – it may not always<br />
be necessary or wise to spend a title’s entire promotional budget up front.<br />
5. Industry Bodies<br />
Finally, in this new and evolving world of merged departments and changing roles, professional bodies such as the<br />
Book Marketing Society and <strong>Publishers</strong>’ Publicity Council are like an oasis for like-minded professionals. Learnings<br />
are shared, experiences discussed and particularly for junior members of staff, interactions with industry experts are<br />
hugely valuable.<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
4
The <strong>Australian</strong> Retail Space<br />
In Australia in early <strong>2013</strong>, bookshops were closing at a rate of one per week. In 2012, some two hundred accounts<br />
with an annual value to the market of $10,000 and over closed. Some of Australia’s oldest and most respected book<br />
stores have been forced to downsize to smaller more affordable retail premises in order to survive, and in Melbourne<br />
two local bookstores launched public appeals for support so that they could keep their doors open until Christmas.<br />
When I left for the UK, it was amidst reports from Nielsen Bookscan that sales through <strong>Australian</strong> bookshops in 2012<br />
had dropped a huge 9.3% in value; that discount department store Target would no longer employ a book buyer;<br />
and that in general the past twelve months were seen as ‘one of the toughest years in the trade in a long time’. 1 And<br />
then there were Those Amazon Rumours. 2<br />
Australia source of purchase 2012 volume share % 3<br />
Dymocks<br />
12%<br />
QBD<br />
5%<br />
Collins<br />
3%<br />
ABC Shops<br />
3%<br />
Newslink<br />
3%<br />
DDS<br />
19%<br />
Others<br />
16%<br />
Leading Edge<br />
11%<br />
Department stores<br />
3%<br />
Amazon<br />
6%<br />
Specials<br />
13%<br />
Other online<br />
6%<br />
Combined e-book and hard-copy book purchases made online in Australia (by volume) currently sit at 13%. Modest<br />
predictions see this rising to approximately 35% over the next four years – more if Amazon opens a fully-functioning<br />
.au shop front. Locally, our two largest online retailers, Booktopia and the Pearson-owned Bookworld, are reporting<br />
significant growth year-on-year. Last year saw Bookworld try to capture the Christmas market quite aggressively<br />
with high-profile print, television and online advertising.<br />
There’s no longer any doubt that the <strong>Australian</strong> market is being revolutionised by digital sales and publishing. But does<br />
this spell doom and gloom for traditional trade publishers ‘Not at all’ argues Stephen Page, CEO of Faber and Faber.<br />
What’s up for grabs for publishers – in Australia and in the UK – is the significant opportunity to be<br />
valuable to writers and readers at a time of great change. 4<br />
1 http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/DetailPage.aspxtype=item&id=25903<br />
2 http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/cloud/amazon-lands-in-australia-20120621-20q6y.html<br />
3 As reported by Nielsen bookscan, 2012<br />
4 Face-to-face interview with Stephen Page, CEO Faber and Faber, 12 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
5
The <strong>Australian</strong> Media Space<br />
In the media sphere, magazines were closing – and not just niche publications. Mainstream women’s magazines,<br />
such as Grazia and Madison, regularly featured books and authors across their pages. Those that were left, on the<br />
most part, had less space for books (especially reviews). Vogue magazine, in particular, had previously employed<br />
a freelance literary editor and ran a dedicated books column and featured several book reviews ceased to do so,<br />
instead choosing to feature ‘beautiful books on an ad-hoc basis’. 5<br />
Newspapers too either reduced or combined their coverage of books. The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph<br />
have stopped employing a books editor altogether as did The Canberra Times instead electing to publish reviews<br />
commissioned elsewhere in their respective groups. The Sydney Morning Herald literary editor, Susan Wyndham,<br />
took over managing pages for the weekday, Saturday and Sunday editions of the paper. Previously there had<br />
always been a Deputy Literary Editor who would manage the Sun Herald pages. A piece on ‘structural challenges<br />
in newspaper publishing and their consequences for the book industry’ written by Matthew Ricketson and Sybill<br />
Nolan for the Sydney Review of Books reports that the pagination of the book section in Saturday’s Sydney Morning<br />
Herald was almost halved in 2012 to six or seven pages only. The report also highlights the negative impact that this<br />
reduction in books coverage in the <strong>Australian</strong> press has had on authors, on publishers and on ‘the national cultural<br />
conversation’. 6<br />
Wyndham is blunt about the challenges ahead for publishers when it comes to newspaper coverage for books.<br />
‘Around 50% of reviews in my pages now come from The Age’ she says. ‘And I cannot see there ever<br />
being an increase in print space for books again’. 7<br />
Interestingly, Wyndham also mentions that a recent Sydney Morning Herald readership survey revealed that book<br />
reviews and features were the second most read pieces in the Spectrum section after film. Wyndham’s book column<br />
“Undercover’ has finally been published online, as well as in the Saturday print edition of the paper.<br />
Online media and blogs are, of course, on the rise in Australia too. The Hoopla and Mamamia go some way to filling<br />
the void left by women’s magazines but we have yet to see online or social media really make or break a book in the<br />
same way that newspapers and magazines used to.<br />
When it comes to social media, <strong>Australian</strong>s are both early adopters and heavy users. In August this year, Facebook<br />
released the following <strong>Australian</strong> user metrics:<br />
▪▪<br />
12 million monthly active users (desktop and mobile)<br />
▪▪<br />
9 million total daily active users (desktop and mobile)<br />
▪▪<br />
9.8 million mobile monthly active users (mobile only)<br />
▪▪<br />
7.3 million mobile daily active users (mobile).<br />
These figures confirm Facebook as the biggest social media site in Australia. 8<br />
Facebook is used in publishing in Australia both as an advertising medium and as a way for publishers and authors<br />
to converse easily and inexpensively with readers – but to what effect<br />
5 Face-to-face interview with former freelance Vogue Books Editor, Jeanne Ryckmans, 20 May, <strong>2013</strong><br />
6 http://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/parallel-fates-2/<br />
7 Face-to-face interview with Susan Wyndham, Literary Editor Sydney Morning Herald 11 November, <strong>2013</strong><br />
8 http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/facebook-checked-by-9-million-australians-every-day-<strong>2013</strong>0820-2s7wo.html#ixzz2lZHjxnkA<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
6
An <strong>Australian</strong> book consumer benchmarking study conducted by Thorpe Bowker in October 2012 reveals:<br />
▪▪<br />
one-in-six book buyers say they discover books via general social media sites, over 80% use social media sites at<br />
all, rising to over 90% among book buyers under 25.<br />
▪▪<br />
Two thirds of book buyers use Facebook, and one-in-seven use Twitter, with 60% using either of these at least<br />
weekly. However, more book buyers use YouTube (35%), GumTree (23%) or GooglePlus (20%) than Twitter.<br />
▪▪<br />
Use of Facebook rises to over 70% of female book buyers, 18–24 year olds and those using an e-reader for their<br />
e-books, while the use of Twitter and YouTube is higher among male than female book buyers, and those reading<br />
e-books on a tablet as opposed to an e-reader. 9<br />
Marketing and Publicity Department Structures<br />
(Australia)<br />
The initial catalyst for my fellowship application was primarily a selfish one: I was ‘marcommed’.<br />
In late 2012, HarperCollins Australia announced a restructure in its marketing and publicity departments. At the time,<br />
CEO James Kellow said that HarperCollins had decided to merge its publicity and marketing divisions under the title<br />
of marketing communications as ‘the distinction between traditional publicity and marketing has disappeared, and<br />
both teams are now engaged in one mission’. He said the brief for the marketing communications team ‘will be to<br />
ensure that we are speaking to our readers, whether directly, through traditional media, new media, electronically or<br />
in print, with one consistent and trusted voice’. 11<br />
The announcement was cause for much discussion. What did this actually mean In house, those in ‘publicity’<br />
wondered if they would soon be planning poster campaigns. Those in ‘marketing’ were suddenly pale faced at<br />
the thought of accompanying an author on tour or cold calling journalists to try and drum up promotion. Across<br />
the <strong>Australian</strong> trade, big players including Random House, Pan Macmillan and Hachette all announced similar<br />
restructures to their marketing and publicity teams. Hardie Grant Egmont managing director, Natasha Besliev,<br />
went as far as to say that ‘the “traditional” publicity function will not be a focus of our marketing strategies’ when<br />
announcing her company’s restructure. 12 Not so at Allen & Unwin where separate marketing and publicity teams still<br />
exist. Publicity Director, Andy Palmer, says that ‘it is true that we work very closely with our marketing department,<br />
but the nature of Allen & Unwin’s list is such that our authors benefit very much from a dedicated publicity team’. 13<br />
At Simon & Schuster, the structure has always been to employ combined marketing and publicity managers. The<br />
team is small and the nature of their list makes it possible for personnel to work across the entire promotional<br />
process from sell-in to sell through.<br />
Some (but not all) of these restructures led to high-profile redundancies and resulted in people with decades of<br />
experience, expertise and contacts leaving publishers and, in a few cases, leaving the industry altogether.<br />
The retail and media data presented above certainly supports a case for change. It has become abundantly clear<br />
that publishers need to communicate directly with readers. But what is the makeup of the new ‘MarComms’<br />
department Is it as simple as teams working closer together<br />
9 Source: Thorpe Bowker <strong>Australian</strong> Book Consumer in 2012 for Subscribers (supplied with the cooperation of Jo Henry)<br />
10 http://www.idealog.com/blog/book-marketers-need-rethink-three-things-time-timing-budgeting/<br />
11 http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/DetailPage.aspxtype=item&id=24941<br />
12 http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/DetailPage.aspxtype=item&id=27519<br />
13 Face-to-face interview with Andy Palmer, Publicity Director, Allen&Unwin, 18 April, <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
7
Marketing and Publicity Department Structures (Australia) (cont.)<br />
I put this question to Simon Milne, who managed the restructure of HarperCollins Australia’s marketing and<br />
communications team:<br />
One of the first things I did when I joined HarperCollins was to integrate the marketing and publicity<br />
teams into a vertical structure – Fiction, Non-fiction, Children’s and ABC Books. Bringing marketing and<br />
publicity together has improved our working processes and integrated our brand positioning across<br />
print, digital, retail, social and the media. I believe this vertical structure has also enhanced the energy,<br />
creativity and fun we bring to our marketing communication campaigns. 14<br />
After nearly 12 months of working within this structure I can see that there is undoubtedly a fertile overlap between<br />
consumer marketing and traditional book publicity. Book publicists are naturally attuned to market segments<br />
and demographics, and very used to quickly developing relationships and partnerships. That said, I have to be<br />
honest and say that individually my day-to-day activities have not changed very much at all. I still find myself largely<br />
communicating with traditional media and with booksellers. My marketing colleagues are still producing point-ofsale<br />
campaigns and outdoor advertising campaigns. Marketers still market; publicists still publicise and despite all of<br />
the noise about communicating directly with readers, much of the change from what I can see here is still happening<br />
at a budgetary and managerial level.<br />
Nevertheless, change is part of our future and, across the board, all of the marketers and publicists I spoke to in<br />
Australia before leaving for the UK were keen to experiment and passionate about finding new and inventive ways<br />
to promote books and authors here. What skills do we need to turn ourselves outward and face readers directly<br />
And what parts of traditional roles are still valid in this new landscape<br />
14 Email interview with Simon Milne, Marketing and Communications Director HarperCollins Australia, 31 October, <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
8
The UK Retail Space<br />
When I approached the Unwin Trust with the proposal to research the changing nature of book promotion in the<br />
UK, it was with only a vague understanding of Britain’s more advanced market. I knew that readers in the UK had<br />
long embraced the discounts afforded by online retailing, and that Amazon was the largest account for most, if not<br />
all publishers there. I hoped that by now, publishers had developed more specific strategies about how to market<br />
books in such a climate.<br />
UK source of purchase 2012 volume share % 15<br />
Internet-only retailer<br />
37%<br />
Chain bookshop<br />
28%<br />
Independent<br />
bookshop<br />
3%<br />
Book club/direct seller<br />
5%<br />
Other non-specialist shop<br />
8%<br />
Bargain bookshop<br />
13%<br />
Supermarket<br />
13%<br />
In fact, Amazon controls 37% of the UK market (combined p and e-book sales by volume) and up to 80% (depending<br />
on who you talk to) of e-book sales.<br />
Like Australia, in the UK there is still very much a climate of high street closures and uncertainty around the management<br />
and survival of chain stores in the UK. Independent bookshops make up a mere 3% of the market and, in London<br />
particularly, those that have survived offer bespoke and additional services such as gift subscriptions, author talks,<br />
specialist collections and of course coffee and refreshments to attract and keep a loyal and local customer base.<br />
Despite the presence of bookstores continuing to shrink, the invoiced value of UK publisher sales of books rose 4%<br />
in 2012 to £3.3bn with a 66% increase in digital sales offsetting a 1% decrease in physical book sales. Digital sales<br />
now represent 12$ of UK publishers’ total digital and physical book sales. 16<br />
“Amazon has always been strong in the UK market,” says Bowker’s Jo Henry. “These trends are not really showing<br />
just how much the chains have been suffering.”<br />
Henry adds that other Bowker data shows that UK ebook buyers who buy their ebooks from Amazon tend to shift<br />
their print-book buying to Amazon, too. “That is an added threat to the high-street bookseller...” 17<br />
15 Source: Thorpe Bowker UK ‘Books & Consumers’, October <strong>2013</strong><br />
16 Source: PA Statistics Yearbook 2012, The <strong>Publishers</strong> <strong>Association</strong>, <strong>2013</strong><br />
17 http://www.digitalbookworld.com/<strong>2013</strong>/e-retailers-now-accounting-for-nearly-half-of-book-purchases-by-volume/<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
9
The UK Media Space<br />
Traditional media is still key to selling books in the UK.<br />
Anecdotally, two Amazon account managers for multi-national publishers cited reviews and features in traditional<br />
press as a key factor in driving both sales and reader reviews through their accounts.<br />
‘Other than price promotion, reporting mainstream publicity is the best thing I can do to attract attention<br />
from the people I deal with’ said one. 18<br />
Even the highly experimental and very digital, The Wasteland app, published by Faber in 2011 relied heavily on<br />
traditional print publicity to generate sales and awareness.<br />
‘It was actually a four-page feature in The Times that really got things moving.’ 19<br />
For a media-consuming, information-hungry <strong>Australian</strong> publicist, the media landscape in the UK seemed huge and<br />
vibrant. The multitude of newspapers to choose from online, and in print; the selection of papers and magazines for the<br />
commute and women’s magazines that actually appraised books instead of barely featuring blurbs and covers – for<br />
a wide-eyed outsider, the opportunities for book promotion seemed endless.<br />
Of course, this is a superficial view that doesn’t take into account London’s much larger and diverse population.<br />
In addition, newspapers are reportedly in a similar, if not worse, predicament in the UK as they are in Australia.<br />
In fact, whilst I was visiting the UK, my meeting with The Times chief literary editor and critic, Erica Wagner, was<br />
cancelled due to her sudden departure from the paper. At the same time, the arts coverage in The Independent on<br />
Sunday was in question after a series of high profile redundancies at that paper. 20<br />
Despite the decline in print media, books generally in the UK seem to get good coverage. Perhaps this is because,<br />
as the Deliottes <strong>2013</strong> Media Consumer Survey reports, reading books ranked third, second only to TV and Internet<br />
use in terms of popularity in terms of people’s media pastimes. 21<br />
To offer a snapshot of opportunities for books coverage in London, it’s worth looking at the weekly free press to see<br />
what these publications feature with regards to books and authors.<br />
The Evening Standard<br />
Four hardback reviews, three paperback reviews and a bestseller list every week on Thursdays.<br />
Stylist<br />
ABC 430,000 (over a million anticipated readers) across UK; regular slot Book Wars two readers speak about two<br />
books and fight for readers to read them – varies from fiction to cook books and true-life crime; also has a news<br />
section that regularly features author interviews and fiction extracts.<br />
Shortlist<br />
Two to three book reviews a week (generally positive); interested in male-skewed books both non-fiction and<br />
fiction; picture books; talking points. Readers are men aged 25 to 35; has a distribution of 529,000 (over 1 million<br />
anticipated readership) across UK.<br />
The Metro<br />
One daily book review, a larger book review on Thursdays and ‘Shelf Space’ on Fridays which features three books<br />
on a theme, for example, travel and crime. Also has an ‘e-reader’ slot where an author recommends three books<br />
that he/she is reading on an e-reader, and a weekly contemporary author Q&A with five questions.<br />
18 Face-to-face interview with Amazon account manager (who asked not to be named), 2 July, <strong>2013</strong><br />
19 Face-to-face interview with Stepehn Page, CEO Faber and Faber, 12 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
20 http://www.mhpbooks.com/the-independent-on-sunday-axes-all-of-its-arts-critics/<br />
21 http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/industries/tmt/media-industry/media-consumer-survey-<strong>2013</strong>/<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
10
The UK Media Space (cont.)<br />
As in Australia, radio is a big and effective medium for book promotion in the UK. Simon Mayo’s Drivetime Radio 2<br />
Bookclub, airs on BBC Radio 2 and reaches roughly 15.5 million listeners a week – around half male and half female.<br />
‘Radio 2 loves books and is keen to do more and more with them’ notes the show’s producer Joe Haddow. ‘This<br />
year one of the big successes was the 1st UK interview with American Sci-Fi author, Hugh Howie on his recently<br />
published title, WOOL. After being on the show, his book went to No. 5 in the Amazon top 10’ Haddow told the<br />
<strong>Publishers</strong> Publicity Council Meeting. 22<br />
Social media is also big in the UK. Britain has 24 million daily Facebook users, from a population of 63 million<br />
people. 23 Deloitte’s <strong>2013</strong> Media Consumer Survey found that ‘on average the UK consumer has 240 friends on<br />
Facebook and undertakes, on average, 3.5 actions on the site each day, where an action is defined as updating their<br />
status or commenting on or ‘liking’ something. 24 Despite these numbers, publishers in the UK are limited in their use<br />
of Facebook to talk directly consumers. A quick scan through the Facebook pages of publishers that I visited in the<br />
UK shows significantly smaller communities than their <strong>Australian</strong> counterparts. HarperCollins Non-Fiction Associate<br />
Publisher, Erin Roy, says that for her division at least, Twitter is king. ‘Our “brands” in non-fiction here, are our very<br />
high profile authors. If we do run a social media campaign, it is usually through Twitter using promoted tweets to<br />
a specific author’s twitter followers. At the moment, and this is likely to change, general Facebook content is not a<br />
priority for my non-fiction team.’ 25 Twitter users in the UK have topped 15 million in <strong>2013</strong>, an increase of five million<br />
users from 2012. 26<br />
It is also worth highlighting the vibrant trade media landscape in the UK. The Bookseller, which publishes weekly<br />
in print. Online, the bookseller.com provides daily news and comment about the book business, ‘starting at 8am<br />
with the latest digest of press reports about the publishing sector and financial updates from the City. Regular news<br />
updates from The Bookseller’s news desk follow throughout the day.’ 25 The site also includes opinion, blogs, author<br />
profiles; publishing employee spotlights and features about the book business. In addition to this, more publishing<br />
and book news can be found at through the online daily news service: BookBrunch, and mainstream newspapers<br />
– especially the Guardian publish stories about and by members of the trade, and articles about publishing trends.<br />
Books and authors are on TV too. I’ll discuss this in further detail later in the report, in brief: in addition to standard<br />
breakfast and morning television interview opportunities for authors, writers’ festival events and public author talks<br />
are regularly simulcast on Sky Arts 2. Author awards feature in TV news bulletins, and some genre specific book<br />
awards such as Specsavers ITV3/CWA Crime Thriller Awards have partnered with television networks to ensure<br />
mass media exposure.<br />
<strong>2013</strong> did see the cancellation of Mariella Frostrup’s book show on the Sky Arts network, but this has been quickly<br />
replaced The Book Show hosted by James Whale to air from November 24 on both Sky and Freesat.<br />
All this is to say, that, despite a decrease in physical book displays from high street retailers and the like, books<br />
and reading are still a highly visible part of English culture. This, I believe gives publishers in the UK an incredible<br />
advantage as they embark on the challenge of connecting directly with readers themselves.<br />
22 Notes from Publisher Publicity Council meeting, 25 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
23 http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/facebook-checked-by-9-million-australians-every-day-<strong>2013</strong>0820-2s7wo.html#ixzz2lc6mQwBg<br />
24 http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/industries/tmt/media-industry/media-consumer-survey-<strong>2013</strong>/<br />
25 Face-to-face interview with Erin Roy, Non-Fiction Associate Publisher, HarperCollins UK, 18 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
26 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/10291360/Twitter-claims-15m-active-users-in-the-UK.htmll<br />
27 http://www.thebookseller.com/about.html<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
11
Marketing and Publicity Department Structures (UK)<br />
‘The media and the market for books are in flux in the age of e-books and Amazon, but publishers still<br />
have a vital role.’ 28<br />
In very early 2012 Stephen Page wrote a piece for The Guardian reflecting on the dramatic year that was 2011 in UK<br />
publishing. He suggested that 2011 ‘may have signaled the beginning of the end of the era of publishers-with-accessto-the-mass-market<br />
as the dominant model for book publishing’ and goes on to discuss the need for a shift in focus<br />
– from trade to consumer – in order for publishers to prove their value in the 21 st Century.<br />
Almost two years after this piece was written, I was interested to see how British publishing houses had implemented<br />
this change in focus. Was it still largely a discussion about what needed to be done How were promotional departments<br />
and the positions within them changing Were there new department structures New roles Appointments from<br />
outside of the industry In what ways were publishers refocusing their marketing and communications<br />
Faber and Faber were an interesting case study for this. Stephen Page suggested that I spend some time with<br />
Faber’s new Consumer Marketing Director Matt Haslum in order to understand how the publisher has shifted<br />
its marketing strategy. Page told me that during the interview process he asked Haslum (who has an extensive<br />
background in consumer marketing across big media brands such as Sky and TalkTalk) what he knew of the book<br />
trade. When Haslum admitted his knowledge was limited, Page said,<br />
‘Good. If I ask you this question again in a year and your answer is still the same, then I will know we’re<br />
getting somewhere’. 29<br />
When I meet Matt Haslum mid-June he is putting the finishing touches on Faber and Faber’s new consumer<br />
marketing team. There has been a reshuffle of existing staff and roles, as well as some new appointments.<br />
‘Part of what I am trying to do here is to give people an expertise and a focus around different consumer<br />
groups and that is a fundamental shift in the way that we are looking to market.’ 30<br />
The team has grown from two generic campaign managers to four consumer marketing managers who are to<br />
become experts in their assigned lists – Non-Fiction, Fiction and Crime, Arts (poetry, art, rock and pop) and Children’s.<br />
‘Now that each member of my team has a focus, they can really get inside those consumer groups<br />
because there is no one “arts consumer”, there is no one “crime consumer”; there are about 15 subsets<br />
of crime before you start and the question is how do you talk to those different niches, how do you make<br />
them interested and ultimately buy the book’ 31<br />
Haslum believes that content marketing is the key to engaging consumer groups and appealing to readers in a<br />
modern society. To this end he has created a content marketing team, to complement his consumer team. Heading<br />
this up is Partnerships Editor Hannah Marshall who creates a program of content tailored for retail, media and<br />
distribution partners ‘that adds value to our books, adds value to our offerings and promotes the Faber brand’. 32<br />
Marshall is also the content curator for Faber Shop – an online boutique within The Book People website, offering<br />
direct retail to customers as well as author interviews, articles and competitions. 33<br />
In addition to this Faber also has a publicity department who feed into both consumer and content teams, but<br />
maintain a more traditional function. Head of Publicity Anna Pallai says,<br />
‘We focus largely on our relationships with the media – online and traditional – and with the authors, and I<br />
think the new marketing structure will allow us to do this even more effectively, to really focus on our authors.’ 34<br />
28 http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/13/way-ahead-publishing-ebooks-stephen-page<br />
29 Face-to-face interview with Stephen Page, CEO Faber and Faber, 12 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
30 Face-to-face interview with Matt Haslum, Consumer Marketing Director Faber and Faber, 17 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
31 Face-to-face interview with Matt Haslum, Consumer Marketing Director Faber and Faber, 17 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
32 Face-to-face interview with Matt Haslum, Consumer Marketing Director Faber and Faber, 17 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
33 http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplaycategoryId=122209&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100<br />
34 Face-to-face interview with Anna Pallai, Head of Publicity Faber and Faber, 17 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
12
Marketing and Publicity Department Structures (UK) (cont.)<br />
Pan Macmillan also announced a restructure to their marketing and publicity teams in January <strong>2013</strong>, bringing<br />
together the formerly separate marketing and publicity teams and adding ‘an extra layer of “always on” digital<br />
resource and expertise to ensure we stay ahead of the game in developing our authors and engaging readerships<br />
through online platforms and social media, email marketing and community development.’ 35<br />
Sara Lloyd, director of the new communications team says that one of the main goals of the restructure was<br />
to create a ‘more collaborative, less silo-ed working environment’ 36 for her staff. She insists that the mission of<br />
‘engaging with readers’ must be a company-wide strategy.<br />
‘We have established a Reading Group scheme, literally opening our doors to readers to invite them into the<br />
publishing process; we’ve launched Notebook Sessions, our own brand of creative writing venture in which we<br />
connect with the aspirational writer that is a feature of so many dedicated readers; we made our Tor list digital<br />
rights management-free, based on listening to what our readers wanted and daring to experiment and learn by<br />
doing; we’ve focused on our own web platform, given it a responsive design to make it mobile-friendly, and grown<br />
our email registrants by over 200%; and we’ve invested in trends insights, social media tools, consumer research,<br />
search engine optimisation, search engine marketing and the associated training.’ 37<br />
I ask Lloyd about training and she tells me that she has invested in both ‘up-skilling and cross-training’ existing<br />
marketers and publicists, so they have a complete arsenal of communications tactics to use when bringing a<br />
book to the world. New hires (at a coordinator level) are selected on the basis that they have the ‘aptitude and<br />
disposition to complete both marketing and publicity tasks’. 38 Interestingly, Lloyd has also created a digital publicity<br />
team, situated within the wider communications team. The group of three (one head and two digital publicists) are<br />
charged with managing a digital contact database, using online activity to ‘bridge the gap between key campaign<br />
moments’, and amplifying the traditional media and marketing on social media. Trade marketing at Pan Macmillan<br />
now happens entirely through the sales team. Lloyd says,<br />
‘Sales support their own orders, with their own budgets and their own time schedules.’ 39<br />
HarperCollins have also experimented with some new department structures in their quest to connect directly with<br />
audiences. The ‘specialist’ structure that Faber have to a degree introduced with marketers working on specific<br />
lists, rather than across them, has long been a part of the way marketers and publicists work at HarperCollins. The<br />
company is divided into divisions, with each running as a separate unit. HarperFiction, Harper Non-Fiction & Sports,<br />
Fourth Estate & William Collins, and Harper Children’s divisions each have their own teams of marketers, publicists,<br />
and sales staff to service the respective lists.<br />
In 2012 HarperCollins appointed Barnaby Dawe (formerly marketing director at The Sun and News of the World) to<br />
the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Hiring Dawe was part of a larger shift in strategy for HarperCollins: ‘Our marketing<br />
activities have never been more strategically important. We have a fabulous team of marketeers here at HC and I<br />
believe the creation of this new role will allow them to develop to a new level, as we put the reader more firmly at the<br />
heart of everything we do,’ 40 said former CEO Victoria Barnsley when the appointment was announced.<br />
According to Director of People John Athanasiou, the role will oversee direct-to-consumer policy for HarperCollins<br />
and also provide a ‘centralised focus to divisional teams’. 41 Dawe also aims to streamline processes around ‘briefing,<br />
placement and creative’ and instill the importance of ‘proximity marketing’ in the team. With this comes a shift in<br />
marketing spend from trade and outdoor to digital, so the ‘consumer is always one click away from purchase.’ 42<br />
35 http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/comms-cuddle.html<br />
36 Face-to-face interview with Sara Lloyd, Digital and Communications Director Pan Macmillan, 31st July, <strong>2013</strong><br />
37 http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/comms-cuddle.html<br />
38 Face-to-face interview with Sara Lloyd, Digital and Communications Director Pan Macmillan, 31st July, <strong>2013</strong><br />
39 Face-to-face interview with Sara Lloyd, Digital and Communications Director Pan Macmillan, 31st July, <strong>2013</strong><br />
40 http://www.thebookseller.com/news/hc-appoints-news-international-marketer-new-chief-role.html<br />
41 Face-to-face interview with John Athanasiou, Director of People, HarperCollins UK, 26 June <strong>2013</strong><br />
42 Face-to-face interview with Barnaby Dawe, Chief Marketing Officer, HarperCollins <strong>Publishers</strong>, 26 June <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
13
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Strategy<br />
Looking at book promotion and the way in which trade publishers are responding to changing market channels it<br />
seems important to note that this is a process of evolution not revolution. And there are two parts to the process<br />
– publishers need to evolve their overall strategies concerning marketing objectives and budgeting processes, and<br />
marketers and publicists need to evolve in terms of the activities they plan to promote books at a title by title level.<br />
As Mike Shatzkin says in his blog Idealog:<br />
‘<strong>Publishers</strong> have a lot to change in the way they do their marketing. We’ve advocated for years that<br />
publishers look at marketing as an investment, building assets, such as email lists of consumers they<br />
can reach for free, through their marketing efforts for subsequent use. That works better if the house’s<br />
marketing efforts are vertical, or audience-centric, which enables repeat efforts to the same people to<br />
bear fruit.’ 43<br />
As discussed earlier in this report, many of the UK publishers I visited were implementing or had already implemented<br />
‘vertical structures’ to varying degrees within their marketing teams in order to target consumer groups and market<br />
segments more effectively and more regularly. In terms of overall strategy, Sara Lloyd seemed to sum up the<br />
sentiment of all of publishers I visited when she said:<br />
‘In trade publishing in particular, publishers tend to think book by book, campaign by campaign, short<br />
term, short term, short term. I think we’re going to see a trend moving away from book by book campaigns<br />
to much more, much broader, much deeper ongoing strategies, including online community building<br />
and brand building, so that you’re not just living or dying by the next book. We’re going to need to have<br />
businesses that can have a longer term vision than that, and in general there’s going to be a greater focus<br />
on developing and communicating brands, because in the cross-media landscape that’s what works.’ 44<br />
With regards to online community building a new study conducted by Bowker Market Research reveals that the<br />
number of publisher-owned online communities in the US and UK is set to more than double by 2015. The study<br />
also investigated the rationale and perceived benefits for publishers moving into this arena, revealing that:<br />
▪▪<br />
84% of publishers felt their spending on online communities would increase in the next two years with only 14%<br />
envisaging expenditure remaining stagnant<br />
▪▪<br />
64% of publishers with online communities were convinced that their investment in this market is already paying<br />
off and a further 24% believed it would do so in the short term<br />
▪▪<br />
73% of all the publishers interviewed felt that online communities helped or would help them to engage better with<br />
their audiences<br />
▪▪<br />
72% of trade publishers said they helped or would help to increase direct relationships with customers and 45%<br />
claimed they provided or would provide good marketing support to sales channels<br />
▪▪<br />
40% of academic and professional publishers said that increasing knowledge and understanding of customers<br />
was a key benefit, whilst 40% felt increasing content usage was a priority<br />
Although currently only 16% of all respondents viewed online communities as viable direct sales channels, the<br />
formats that have benefited most from online community activity are e-books for trade publishers (40%) and online<br />
resources for academic publishers (67%). 45<br />
When discussing the findings at the <strong>2013</strong> London Book Fair, Jo Henry, Director, Bowker Market Research, said:<br />
‘There is a substantial amount of activity going on in this area as publishers seek new ways in which to engage directly<br />
with their consumers. It is interesting to note that in this survey US publishers were not significantly more advanced<br />
than UK ones – and that trade publishers appear to be leading the way in developing online communities.’ 46<br />
43 http://www.idealog.com/blog/book-marketers-need-rethink-three-things-time-timing-budgeting/<br />
44 Transcript of Dutch Foundation for Literature 8th International Non-Fiction Conference, 29 January 2011 (courtesy of Peter Collingridge)<br />
45 http://www.bookmarketingsociety.co.uk/<strong>2013</strong>/04/publishers-online-communities-set-to-double-by-2015/#coverage<br />
46 http://www.stm-publishing.com/publishers-online-communities-to-double-by-2015/<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
14
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Activities<br />
There is no doubt that social media and online retail present enormous opportunities when it comes to individual<br />
promotional campaigns – the ability to target specific consumers with a product and then receive first hand feedback<br />
about it – means that activity can be better timed, and better measured. But is it<br />
‘Book marketing is broken’ proclaims Peter Collingridge, formerly of Canongate and co-founder of<br />
Enhanced Editions and Bookseer. ‘It is not evolving at the rapid speed of other parts of the industry, and<br />
many campaigns look identical to those 10 or more years ago, relying on PR and big-budget poster<br />
campaigns.’ 47<br />
Specific campaign case studies suggest that in part, Collingridge is right – at the Book Marketing Society Campaign<br />
Awards for January to April <strong>2013</strong>, the winning campaigns in each category were all praised for what might be<br />
considered ‘traditional activity’.<br />
Winner: Adult category<br />
GONE GIRL, BY GILLIAN FLYNN<br />
Marketers: Mark Rusher & Jo Dawson, Orion<br />
Notes from BMS: This title came over from the US with a head of steam but, as many campaigns<br />
before it have proven, this doesn’t always translate into success. Gone Girl was an exception. It<br />
was Mumsnet’s Book of the Month and was instantly identifiable from the striking use of colours<br />
on a widespread poster campaign.<br />
Winner: Children’s<br />
GEEK GIRL, BY HOLLY SMALE<br />
Marketers: Nicola Way, Hannah Bourne, Abby Tayleure (HarperCollins’ Children’s)<br />
Notes from BMS: From the aspirational strapline – “Celebrate Your Inner Geek!”, to the<br />
engaging Geek Girl cover shot competition (get your pic snapped on the cover) at the NEC<br />
Birmingham Clothes Show, this was a campaign with a lot of energy and plenty of visibility. It<br />
was promoted in Shout magazine and on radio, and more than 1,500 photos were taken in<br />
their special photo booth (with glasses provided, of course). It was also the Number 1 debut in<br />
children’s books to date – a well deserved achievement for this first-time writer.<br />
Winner: Shoestring budget<br />
KNACKERED MOTHER’S WINE CLUB<br />
Marketer: Alice Shortland, Bloomsbury<br />
Notes from BMS: This book benefited from the genuine engagement of Waterstones booksellers,<br />
resulting in their voting it the Waterstones Book of the Year 2012; strong targeting of a foodie<br />
audience which managed to turn restaurant customers into book buyers; great competitions for<br />
the potential audience, and amazing sales and ROI.<br />
48<br />
47 http://www.enhanced-editions.com/blog/2012/02/book-promotion-analytics-and-a-new-marketing-approach-for-publishers/<br />
48 http://www.bookmarketingsociety.co.uk/<strong>2013</strong>/07/gone-girl-geek-girl-win-in-jan-april-<strong>2013</strong>-bms-campaign-awards/<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
15
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Activities (cont.)<br />
Collingridge believes that the reason campaigns stick so rigidly to these formulas of posters and trade promotion<br />
is that ‘there is not – nor has there ever been – any empirical understanding of which combination of marketing<br />
strategy and tactics works.’ 49 To this end Collingridge created Bookseer, ‘a market intelligence service for books’.<br />
Bookseer captures the real-time data ‘exhaust’ of the web, combines it with promotional information provided by<br />
the publisher, and builds a picture of the variations in performance of thousands of titles.<br />
‘Bookseer collects as much information about these books as possible. It captures price on Amazon,<br />
hourly sales rank, print and e-book sales data (uploaded by the publisher), what is being said about a<br />
book or author on Twitter, Facebook or in the media, and on the wider web, which marketing is being<br />
engaged with, the makeup of bestseller charts and so on.’ 50<br />
I was interested to learn from Collingridge that after early excitement Bookseer failed to gain any real traction<br />
with UK <strong>Publishers</strong> – and indeed several marketing managers that I spoke to were either unenthusiastic about its<br />
usefulness to them or were unaware of its existence altogether. I asked Collingridge via email why he thought this<br />
was and he listed the following thoughts:<br />
▪▪<br />
Fear: maybe data shows they are bad at their jobs or waste money on stuff that doesn’t work<br />
▪▪<br />
Inertia: change is hard<br />
▪▪<br />
Lack of technical proficiency<br />
▪▪<br />
Lack of data skills<br />
▪▪<br />
Lack of a CEO telling them this is important 51<br />
From my limited experience in UK, I have to wonder however, if the reason that the service failed to gain traction with<br />
publishers is cost. That’s not to say that what Collingridge is suggesting here is untrue, just that publishers already<br />
pay for and have access to data on their campaigns and sales: through Nielsen Bookscan; through marketing and<br />
media monitoring agencies; through social analytics companies; and, to some extent, through Amazon rankings.<br />
Whilst the idea of a tool that can pull all of this information into one report does sound appealing, is it worth the cost<br />
on a campaign by campaign basis My suspicion is that publishing houses are already looking into the creation of<br />
such reports in-house, and so were reluctant to take on the extra spend.<br />
So is a poster campaign in <strong>2013</strong> the same as a poster campaign ten years ago, as Collingridge asserts Sara Lloyd<br />
says not:<br />
‘Where marketing does remain in more traditional media, from broadcast to outside to print media and<br />
so on, digital features are going to become included in all of these areas. Digital elements such as QR<br />
codes or digital tagging, calls to action online, call-outs for digital channels will all become part of the<br />
campaign. And they are becoming part of the campaign where I work.’ 52<br />
49 http://www.enhanced-editions.com/blog/2012/02/book-promotion-analytics-and-a-new-marketing-approach-for-publishers/<br />
50 http://www.enhanced-editions.com/blog/2012/02/book-promotion-analytics-and-a-new-marketing-approach-for-publishers/<br />
51 Email interview with Peter Collingridge, Publishing Entrepreneur, 9th November <strong>2013</strong><br />
52 Transcript of Dutch Foundation for Literature 8th International Non-Fiction Conference, 29 January 2011 (courtesy of Peter Collingridge)<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
16
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Activities (cont.)<br />
Certainly a closer look at the award-winners mentioned above shows this to be the case. The Gone Girl paperback<br />
campaign featured widespread outdoor advertising, with a call to action asking readers to tweet what they think.<br />
The creative for the posters was also unique. Two quotes from the male and female protagonists were contrasted<br />
side-by-side to show the two points of view – reinforcing the tagline ‘there are two sides to every story’ – and<br />
appealing to both men and women. Topsy.com analysis of Twitter shows over twenty-four thousand tweets were<br />
generated in the UK using the ‘gonegirl’ hashtag in the first three months of the campaign (Jan <strong>2013</strong>-March <strong>2013</strong>).<br />
Some of the more influential tweets came from traditional media and traditional retailers – @Waterstones with<br />
seventy-nine thousand followers and @guardianbooks with five hundred and ninety-nine thousand followers, used<br />
both the hashtag and tag line in their tweets to users. Of course, it is impossible to draw a direct line from this activity<br />
to actual sales. Gone Girl had been published to significant success and acclaim in both hardback in the UK and<br />
was number one in the US at the time this poster campaign began. The reviews online and across traditional media<br />
were overwhelmingly positive. The point of referencing this campaign, however, is to show how a simple poster<br />
campaign can amplify positive communication around a book. The messages in these posters were repeated<br />
online again and again, and it is a great example of compiling all of the elements into a persuasive form of mass<br />
communication.<br />
For me, the other interesting thing about this campaign is its timing. Scheduled alongside the paperback release, six<br />
months after the original hardback publication – this is a highly visible campaign that perpetuates the already extremely<br />
good word of mouth generated by more traditional means.<br />
51 Email interview with Peter Collingridge, Publishing Entrepreneur, 9th November <strong>2013</strong><br />
52 Transcript of Dutch Foundation for Literature 8th International Non-Fiction Conference, 29 January 2011 (courtesy of Peter Collingridge)<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
17
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Activities (cont.)<br />
Timing is also playing a big part in the evolution of the traditional publicity campaign. Harper Fiction PR Director<br />
Elizabeth Dawson and Head of Publicity Louise Swannell both talk about trying to stagger publicity activity across an<br />
entire year 53 – from pre-publication awareness right through to paperback release. In her awards submission to the<br />
<strong>Publishers</strong>’ Publicity Circle, for a campaign for Tracy Chevalier’s The Last Runaway, Dawson says:<br />
‘I placed a strong emphasis on review coverage in the national press, gaining reviews in every national<br />
broadsheet, thus reinforcing her credibility and ensuring both that she was firmly on-radar for spring<br />
reading and of course longevity for the paperback. Sell-in to the media started early, with a first proof<br />
mailing as part of a wider divisional ‘literary spring’ push in October, followed by super proofs in the New<br />
Year as well as the final hardback mailing.<br />
In order to re-engage a broad fan base, events and also blogger endorsements were key to the success<br />
of this campaign … I connected with the literary bloggers early, with an exclusive giveaway via Dove<br />
Grey Reader and a wide blog tour that incorporated reviews, interviews and guest posts, and took Tracy<br />
from the top literary bloggers to the quilting and Quaker communities. In terms of events, appearances<br />
began in March and are ongoing throughout the year in order to keep her in the public eye and really<br />
cement the message that Tracy is a top literary novelist returning to her game.’ 54<br />
While none of this is ground breaking in terms of the specific activity, what is interesting is the investment of time,<br />
budget and personnel resource into a promotional schedule that spans two formats and a whole year.<br />
It is also worth highlighting some campaigns that illustrate the overlap of marketing and publicity, and of offline and<br />
online visibility. It seems again, that while the activities themselves may not be new or experimental – the importance<br />
of a holistic effort from publishers can no longer be ignored.<br />
CASE STUDY: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel Marketing Campaign<br />
The promotional campaign for Jeff Kinney’s Diary of Wimpy Kid:The Third Wheel, designed by Vanessa Godden<br />
from Puffin Books, is an excellent example of a highly evolved promotional campaign.<br />
The campaign objectives:<br />
▪▪<br />
To publish the best and fastest selling children’s book of 2012<br />
▪▪<br />
To generate a sizeable increase on sales of the previous book, Cabin Fever<br />
▪▪<br />
To ensure sustained sales with the title remaining at the No.1 chart position until Christmas<br />
▪▪<br />
To improve positioning for the title on the High St<br />
▪▪<br />
To drive solid pre-orders across accounts by creating noise for the book throughout 2012<br />
▪▪<br />
To maximize cross-promotional opportunities with Twentieth Century Fox<br />
▪▪<br />
To grow Penguin Children’s Wimpy Kid databases 55<br />
These objectives alone show the depth and diversity that is required from current marketing and publicity campaigns<br />
in the UK. The first four points are quite conventional in their aims; they are the kind of objectives I would associate<br />
with many book projects that I have been involved with in Australia. The final three points embody, I think, an<br />
evolution in book promotion and publisher marketing efforts in general. Creating the sense of anticipation needed<br />
for the all-important pre-orders of the new retail sector, working with partners and cross promoting, and growing<br />
publisher databases are all new and important pieces to book promotion – pieces that still need to be incorporated<br />
into broader promotional plans but not, I would argue, at the expense of more traditional activities.<br />
53 Face to face meeting with Harper Fiction publicity team, 11 June <strong>2013</strong><br />
54 Harper Fiction submission to <strong>Publishers</strong>’ Publicity Circle, 18 June <strong>2013</strong><br />
55 As presented at the Book Marketing Society open meeting, 17 July <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
18
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Activities (cont.)<br />
The lynch pins of the campaign are:<br />
1. This is the direct to consumer piece – understanding what the existing fans of the series want through market research.<br />
2. The retailer is in no way neglected in this promotion. Puffin created individualised retailer by retailer marketing<br />
packages featuring heavily branded point-of-sale material, standees, gifts with purchase and competition prizes.<br />
Retailers were rigorously consulted before packs were created to meet their specific (and differing) needs.<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
19
The Evolution of Marketing and Publicity Activities (cont.)<br />
3. Partnership with Twentieth Century Fox to increase reach and maximise publicity events. This partnership reached<br />
over 10 million Wimpy Kid fans through a pre-order campaign driven by the cinema and DVD release of the third<br />
and second Wimpy Kid movies respectively. Order messages and the new book’s cover were featured across<br />
Twentieth Century Fox’s nationwide film collateral on and offline. Flyers were placed in DVDs. A Jeff Kinney fan<br />
event was held in conjunction with a Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days film premiere, on publication of the new<br />
book. A ‘Wimpy Kid fun zone’ was created at a Westfield shopping centre on Sunday 2 December 2012, for fans<br />
to interact with the brand. Footfall to this one day event was 100,000 and Jeff Kinney signed copies of his book<br />
for three hours.<br />
4. Above the line activity: Puffin invested in a National Rail outdoor advertising campaign which began slightly before<br />
publication, reaching 3.3 million people. This was followed by a two week television advertising campaign on the<br />
Nickelodeon network, reaching over a million viewers.<br />
5. Online Activity: This included a dedicated Facebook page and Facebook promotions. Puffin devised a ‘Wimpy<br />
Kid Prom’ – a week-long publication party where fans could download exclusive freebies (content and prizes) and<br />
celebrate the book’s launch online. In total, Puffin reached half a million Wimpy Kid fans via 380,000 Facebook<br />
fans, 25,000 newsletter recipients and 100,000 registered online users. Trailer ads were also featured on tween<br />
gaming websites, and a dedicated website was created for teachers and librarians.<br />
Of course not every new release can be tied into an extraordinarily popular film franchise, but there are nevertheless<br />
some interesting lessons to be drawn from the campaign above. (Not least for other properties which do have cross<br />
media promotional opportunities – for example Game of Thrones, and big personality-driven non-fiction.)<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
20
What Does it Mean to Connect Directly<br />
with Consumers<br />
Accepting the fact that the retail and media landscapes have forever changed, and that a shift in focus is required<br />
from publishers – what does it mean to be a consumer-facing publisher in <strong>2013</strong><br />
It seems the path to the reader has gone from this: 56<br />
to something more like this: 57<br />
56 Source: http://www.slideshare.net/EnhancedEditions/innovation-in-publishing-if-book-then<br />
57 Source: http://www.slideshare.net/EnhancedEditions/innovation-in-publishing-if-book-then<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
21
What Does it Mean to Connect Directly with Consumers (cont.)<br />
So far, trade publishing houses in the UK have largely responded to this by streamlining their sales, marketing and<br />
distribution of books. There continues to be experimentation around price and format, and a focus on metadata,<br />
search engine optimisation and web presence (all of which could be the subjects of entire reports on their own).<br />
Focus on Branding<br />
Some publishers have a renewed focus on branding – publisher branding. Stephen Page believes the identity of<br />
Faber and Faber as a brand is key to the continued success of the business. Faber has a rich history in which to<br />
base its brand. When visiting the London office Page talks about ‘the house that TS Eliot built’ and tells me about<br />
the archive of letters from Eliot to his writers, ‘writers of huge importance’, that are still kept within the building.<br />
‘We’re getting better and better at living the myth’, Page says. 58 Further to this, the publishing house has just<br />
announced a redesigned word marque as part of a branding strategy designed to ‘future-proof’ the publisher for<br />
the digital era. 59 In announcing the branding strategy to the trade press in London, Page said: ‘Faber’s trademark ‘ff’<br />
colophon, created by Pentagram, has sat at the heart of our brand for nearly 30 years, and will continue to do so.<br />
In announcing a thrilling list for spring 2014, we are also unveiling a new design for our word marque. Reviewing our<br />
brand design in the light of the new world of reading, with its emphasis on readers online and digital publishing, we<br />
realised that we needed to find new ways to express our visual identity.’ 60<br />
Brand and branding is ‘massively important’ at Bloomsbury too. Group Sales and Marketing Director Kathleen<br />
Farrar talked about the company’s global strategy and the importance of consistent branding of authors, of titles,<br />
and of the company across the world as integral for the company in the current publishing climate.<br />
Penguin, Faber and Bloomsbury all benefit from having a brand which is recognisable to consumers. As publishing<br />
houses continue to grapple with the challenges presented by the digital landscape, having a brand that is already<br />
known and loved by readers as well as writers is surely a huge advantage. Is it then necessary for other publishing<br />
houses to try to gain similar awareness with readers at a company level Is this even possible Looking at the film<br />
industry there are many studio brands that the general public recognise, but I highly doubt that the average filmgoer<br />
is searching the internet wondering what the latest Paramount release is.<br />
At a staff Q&A session with former HarperCollins CEO Victoria Barnsley the question of branding arose once again.<br />
Barnsley talked about the importance of publishers having a consumer-facing brand but thought that for a big house<br />
with a diverse publishing program like HarperCollins this could be more easily achieved through the branding of<br />
particular imprints: Harper’s literary imprint Fourth Estate, and Voyager, Harper’s fantasy imprint for example, offer a<br />
much easier ‘consumer brand’ than the giant umbrella that is HarperCollins. Furthermore, Barnsley said is that it is<br />
more important that ‘books and authors are the consumer face’ of any publishing brand. 61<br />
While it is true that there are advantages to both approaches, it would be expensive for a larger publishing house or<br />
imprint without existing brand recognition to embark on self-branding exercises alongside those they are undertaking<br />
for their authors and books. Hachette, for example, has so many different publishing companies working throughout<br />
various territories that it seems pointless for them to try to turn ‘Hachette’ into a brand that readers will look to.<br />
Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster all have names that many readers will recognise – and trust<br />
to a degree – but rarely would a reader believe that their offerings are so consistent that they would trust the brand<br />
in the same way they would an author and thus would automatically buy, e.g. the next book by Lee Child. Whilst the<br />
intersection between readers and these publishing brands is much more likely to happen at an author or book level,<br />
there is certainly an argument for these publishers building communities around marquee brand authors in order to<br />
promote new talent on their lists.<br />
58 Face-to-face interview with Stephen Page, CEO Faber and Faber, 12 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
59 http://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-branding-faber.html<br />
60 http://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-branding-faber.html<br />
61 Company Q&A session with Victoria Barnsley, 6 June <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
22
What Does it Mean to Connect Directly with Consumers (cont)<br />
Focus on Events<br />
The author event was also cause for much discussion whilst I was in London. Like Australia, these events have<br />
long been the property of independent bookshops (author talks) and chain/High Street retailers (author signings).<br />
Also, as in Australia, the size and success of these events were varied. I attended events run by several different<br />
independent bookshops whilst in London: Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookshop, Foyles and the Idler Academy. I also<br />
went to launches and signings hosted by Waterstones. The events programs were incredibly vibrant – particularly<br />
in the weeks following the Hay Festival and the weeks preceding Edinburgh Festival when authors from around<br />
the globe had descended on London and were available to talk. The events I attended were either free or charged<br />
between £5 and £7 for entry. Books sales at most events that I attended, however, were modest.<br />
At the Hay Festival, again much like many festivals in Australia, crowds were buoyant and many people had travelled<br />
far and wide to attend and hear their favourite authors speak. Again book sales were modest compared to the<br />
number of people attending the events, but interestingly most authors and publishers I spoke to were passionate<br />
about the importance of writers’ festivals and the longer term return on investment for both author and publisher in<br />
attending. ‘There are more and more festivals popping up in villages all over the UK. When you send an author to<br />
these festivals it can be fantastic for their [the author’s] local profile. They get great community press, and the whole<br />
town comes out to hear them talk,’ said Helen Ellis Publicity Director, William Collins. 62 Anna Pallai from Faber and<br />
Faber agrees: ‘there is an expectation from nearly all of our authors that they be invited to one festival or another.<br />
Mainly the big ones like Hay or Edinburgh. There’s also Harrogate, the crime festival. We positively encourage our<br />
authors to attend this festival. The peer reviewing and networking and tweeting that comes out of the close knit<br />
community that congregates at these festivals is invaluable. In fact, it’s really noticeable if an author hasn’t been to<br />
Harrogate and hasn’t broken into that community’. 63<br />
Selling books predominantly online has in many ways made it even more important for authors to connect with their<br />
readers offline. To this end, it seems important to note that many publishing houses in the UK are experimenting with<br />
running their own events programs. HarperCollins had just started to run some literary salons through their Fourth<br />
Estate imprint (and have since hired Sam Missingham, late of The Bookseller, as Head of Events in the Corporate<br />
Communications team), and Random House were also in the process of ‘looking at hosting their own events for<br />
their literary and YA authors’. 64 But it is Faber Social that is really the pioneer in this area. Faber Social is an events<br />
and publishing programme curated by Faber where literature and music get together. Monthly events are held at<br />
The Social on Little Portland Street, London and are an exciting mash-up of literature, music and performance. Book<br />
sales are not the number one aim of this events program, although books and merchandise are available for sale<br />
at the events. Most importantly for the time being, ‘is that we are providing a physical space to connect with our<br />
readers, as well as building an online community that we can communicate with about upcoming events and books<br />
that will almost definitely be of interest to them,’ says Events Manager Becky Fincham. 65<br />
While I was in London, Faber Social was the talk of the trade, announcing a nationwide tour of events to promote<br />
Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop, by musician and journalist Bob Stanley, published in October.<br />
Events were to be held during the month of release in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and London with Stanley and<br />
a variety of guests. The event at Gorilla in Manchester featured musicians such as Paul Hanley of The Fall, while at<br />
Rough Trade East in London Stanley was joined by Green Gartside of Scritti Politti and Sian Pattenden, a former<br />
journalist for pop magazine Smash Hits. Faber Social handled all the organisation of the events from venues to talent<br />
to ticket sales. Before I leave London I ask whether there is a profit to be made from organising such events. ‘We<br />
haven’t lost any money yet,’ 66 says Fincham – and that’s not to mention the brand presence and growing community<br />
that are created around Faber Social.<br />
62 Company Q&A session with Victoria Barnsley, 6 June <strong>2013</strong><br />
63 Face-to-face interview with Anna Pallai, Head of Publicity Faber and Faber, 17 June, <strong>2013</strong><br />
64 Face-to-face interview with Joe Pickering, Publicity Director at Penguin Random House UK, 16 August, <strong>2013</strong><br />
65 Face-to-face interview with Becky Fincham, Events and Publicity Manager Faber and Faber, 18 July, <strong>2013</strong><br />
66 Face-to-face interview with Becky Fincham, Events and Publicity Manager Faber and Faber, 18 July, <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
23
What Does it Mean to Connect Directly with Consumers (cont.)<br />
Focus on Connecting with Readers Online<br />
‘What will replace that serendipity of just walking past a shop window and seeing something in the<br />
window, the serendipity of browsing in a shop The browsing experience online is definitely not as good<br />
as the physical browsing experience …’ 67<br />
The word ‘discovery’ might be one of the most over used words in publishing these days, second only to ‘metadata’.<br />
But both are thrown around with good reason– it seems ‘discovery’ is the riddle of the moment, and while<br />
Amazon have been able to better the physical retail experience when it comes to commerce and convenience, no<br />
one online has absolutely bettered the browsing experience of a good bookshop. As Sara Lloyd points out above,<br />
it’s very hard to create an algorithm for serendipity, try as we might.<br />
Enter Goodreads. At the <strong>2013</strong> Bookseller Marketing and Publicity Conference, Patrick Brown, Director Author<br />
Marketing announced Goodreads’ mission statement: To help readers find and share books they love. The site has<br />
20 million members who in 2012 shelved (marked as books to read) 220 million books. Good Reads holds 24 million<br />
reader reviews and is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. According to Patrick Brown:<br />
▪▪<br />
Social will create one of the biggest changes in publishing in the next five years<br />
▪▪<br />
Social will drive discovery, especially serendipitous discovery<br />
▪▪<br />
Social will connect readers, authors and publishers in new ways 68<br />
In the world of Goodreads, pre-awareness and giveaways are the name of the game, the so-called answer to the<br />
‘riddle of discovery’. <strong>Publishers</strong> are encouraged to give away advanced reading copies of new books to readers<br />
on the site 3 to 5 months before publication. The goal is get reviews– lots of reviews and early in the life of the<br />
book. The advantage of early reader reviews is that they improve the position of a book on the site, and the social<br />
media aspect of Goodreads means that reviews are shared: on Facebook, on Twitter as well on individual reader’s<br />
Goodreads profiles and to Amazon. Early reader reviews would also seem to be quite raw and unaffected by critical<br />
appraisals published in the mainstream media – but does this make them more or less useful<br />
In terms of traditional marketing and publicity, Goodreads might be cause for a re-think of the traditional timelines<br />
regularly employed by these disciplines. Newspapers, magazines or even the trade press are no longer the first<br />
place a title is reviewed. It also means that marketing and publicity doesn’t have to (and perhaps shouldn’t) start<br />
right on publication.<br />
In May <strong>2013</strong> alone, Goodreads members shared:<br />
▪▪<br />
1.3 million progress updates<br />
▪▪<br />
1 million quotes from books they were reading<br />
▪▪<br />
859,000 reviews on their own social media<br />
The numbers are impressive. Far more impressive I would wager than stats from any individual publishers’ websites<br />
or social media. But back to serendipity… how serendipitous is it if someone who calls themselves ‘a reader’,<br />
who congregates in an online ‘reading community’ stumbles across a book because of an unqualified review or a<br />
giveaway It could be argued that to just rely only on Goodreads for discovery is like the equivalent of only marketing<br />
books to people who are already inside a Waterstones store. It’s tempting, and I can already see the presentations<br />
to authors and agents citing ‘Goodreads promotional campaign’ as the marketing and publicity strategy for a book,<br />
but my instinct is that to really break a new author Good Reads should be but one component in a broader schedule<br />
of activity.<br />
67 Face-to-face interview with Sara Lloyd, Digital and Communications Director Pan Macmillan, 31 July, <strong>2013</strong><br />
68 Good Reads presentation at The Bookseller Marketing and Publicity Conference, 9 July <strong>2013</strong><br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
24
Cross Industry Collaboration<br />
In this current climate of change, both inside trade publishing houses and change within the market generally, cross<br />
industry collaboration seems more important than ever. I discussed earlier in this report the vibrancy and the immediacy<br />
of the trade press in the UK, which goes a long way to fostering positive communication and debate across the industry.<br />
There is a wealth of opinion shared, and few actions from publishers or retailers go without comment. As somewhat of<br />
an outsider in London, The Bookseller website was a huge source of information about all segments of publishing and<br />
it was refreshing to read articles written by editors and publicists and marketers and people from all levels, from all over<br />
the industry.<br />
The Bookseller also organises are series of conferences for publishing professionals throughout the year: The<br />
Bookseller Design Conference; The Bookseller Children’s Conference; The Bookseller Marketing and Publicity<br />
Conference; FutureBook Innovation Workshop; The Booksellerr Futurebook Conference – all boast stellar lineups<br />
of presenters and workshops and go a long way toward championing excellence within these disciplines. Each<br />
conference aims to provide inspiration and practical advice, and I was surprised at the attendance of the Marketing<br />
and Publicity conference not to mention the usefulness of it.<br />
I also found the <strong>Publishers</strong>’ Publicity Circle and Book Marketing Society to be of tremendous value to the UK industry.<br />
In light of the challenges facing both of these departments, particularly in the instances where departments have been<br />
merged or roles have been changed, both organisations provide a professional forum in which to discuss issues and<br />
ideas.<br />
The <strong>Publishers</strong>’ Publicity Circle has been running for over fifty years and aims to enable ‘all book publicists from<br />
publishing houses and freelance PR agencies to gather and share information on a regular basis’. 69<br />
Quarterly meetings are held in central London to provide a forum for press journalists, television and radio researchers<br />
and producers to meet publicists collectively. Representatives from the media are invited to speak about the ways<br />
in which they can feature authors and their books, and how book publicists can most effectively provide relevant<br />
information and material.<br />
The meetings are held in the Gallery of Foyles on the Charing Cross Road, cost £15 to attend and include lunch. The<br />
meeting I attended had publicity representatives from all major publishers that ranged from assistants to directors.<br />
The agenda for this particular meeting was The Times newspaper, and editors from several supplements and<br />
sections came to speak about the opportunities for books within their pages over the coming months.<br />
Quarterly awards are also presented to the best publicity campaigns– these are judged according to the use of<br />
imagination, careful thought and effective planning rather than the most coverage achieved.<br />
The Book Marketing Society represents marketers within the UK book industry. It champions marketing professionalism<br />
and works on co-operative industry projects and events to raise the profile of books in general and help expand<br />
the UK book market. Anyone working for a publisher, bookseller, wholesaler or other associated areas of the book<br />
industry is eligible for membership.<br />
According to their impressive website, The Book Marketing Society aims to deliver:<br />
▪▪<br />
collaborative projects<br />
▪▪<br />
networking opportunities<br />
▪▪<br />
a forum to debate industry initiatives<br />
▪▪<br />
a briefing centre with news on trends and marketing technology<br />
▪▪<br />
career opportunities<br />
▪▪<br />
a higher profile for marketing within the book industry, through awards, events and market research<br />
69 http://www.publisherspublicitycircle.co.uk/index.asp<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
25
Cross Industry Collaboration (cont.)<br />
Fees are significantly more expensive than the <strong>Publishers</strong>’ Publicity Council with the annual cost for one member at<br />
£260. Companies are encouraged to enrol as many people as possible, any of whom can then attend meetings and<br />
submit campaigns for the Awards. There are substantial discounts for multiple memberships within a company. 70<br />
As with the Publisher’s Publicity Council, the Book Marketing Society is committed to promoting excellence and<br />
professionalism. There are two main award schemes for marketers: the Seasonal Awards, which reward the best<br />
marketing campaigns every four months in three categories, adults, children’s and shoestring (campaigns under<br />
£5k) and the Annual Awards. In <strong>2013</strong>, the Annual Awards recognise the very best campaigns in six categories: Best<br />
Blurb, Best Overall Package, Best Shoestring Campaign, Best Partnership, Best Debut Campaign, Best Brand<br />
Management.<br />
The meeting I attended had featured two guest speakers: David Roche from Evanidus, who presented an exciting<br />
new mobile platform (currently in development) for reading and sharing books, and Xavier Izaguirre from Total Media<br />
who gave a fantastic presentation on ‘Experiential Marketing’. Following this was an in-depth presentation of case<br />
studies, sharing of success stories and general discussion of issues affecting marketers within the trade.<br />
The Book Marketing Society also manages several high profile industry initiatives. Of note were:<br />
▪▪<br />
The CrimeThriller-specific TV Book Club – organised in partnership with SpecSavers and screened on ITV3, aims<br />
to promote 6 selected crime/thriller novels<br />
▪▪<br />
Specsavers National Book Awards <strong>2013</strong> – hosted and promoted by Lorraine <strong>Kelly</strong> on ITV1 ‘Daybreak’ (audience<br />
– 2.4m); confirmed interviews with winners during Daybreak the week after the event leading to the televised<br />
announcement of overall winner of the Specsavers Book of the Year on Christmas Day<br />
▪▪<br />
British Sports Book Awards – now aired on BT Sports Channel<br />
▪▪<br />
Political Book of the Year Awards – sponsored by PaddyPower & promoted on Classic FM<br />
▪▪<br />
Wainwright Prize for UK Travel writing – sponsored by Thwaites partnered with The National Trust<br />
The Book Marketing Society is managed by a committee made up of industry representatives and Thorpe Bowker<br />
staff (Jo Henry, Director, Bowker Market Research is the Executive Director). The <strong>Publishers</strong>’ Publicity Circle is<br />
primarily managed by volunteers from within the industry. Whilst we in Australia, may not have the personnel to<br />
justify two distinct organisations, I do feel strongly that one professional marketing and publicity body would be of<br />
great service to the book industry as a whole.<br />
The meetings are a low-key, cost effective way for professional development, recognition of talent, and promotion<br />
of excellence within the industry.<br />
70 http://www.bookmarketingsociety.co.uk/membership/#subscribe<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
26
Conclusion<br />
jThis report led me down many varied lines of enquiry. As I conducted interviews, and asked questions, and attended<br />
events, festivals, conferences, I kept arriving at the same notion.<br />
We are in ‘the uncomfortable middle’, as Kevin Shockey says. To succeed in the climate as it is right now we as<br />
publishers need to stretch further, to do everything, to be online, offline, above the line, below the line. We need to<br />
face consumers without turning our backs on retailers. As an industry, we are no longer just competing with each<br />
other. We all have enemies in common. It is undoubtedly a challenging time. But who doesn’t love a challenge<br />
If my time in the UK assured me of anything, it is of the fact that books are not going anywhere. Writers will write.<br />
Readers will read. It’s up to us to work out how we as individuals, and as an industry, connect the two and create a<br />
meaningful role for publishers in that mix. I asked Andrew Franklin, the owner of Profile Books, about his strategy for<br />
his company’s future. I asked him about branding and marketing and data. His answer to every question ‘Publish<br />
good books’. Indeed.<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
27
Acknowledgements<br />
I would like to acknowledge and thank the following people for their support while applying for the fellowship:<br />
The Unwin Charitable Trust for the wonderful opportunity to visit the UK and research this report.<br />
The Unwin Fellowship judges Patrick Gallagher, Lou Johnson and Cate Patterson for their role in granting me this<br />
invaluable experience, and for taking the time to ensure that the fellowship is available to those in the <strong>Australian</strong><br />
publishing industry.<br />
Jane Palfreyman, Jeanne Ryckmans and Anh Do for their encouragement and kind words in support of my application<br />
Anna Valdinger and Joel Naoum for application advice and further encouragement<br />
At HarperCollins Australia thank you to James Kellow, Simon Milne and Jonathan Connelly for affording me the<br />
opportunity to take part in the fellowship, and providing advice and contacts for my time in London.<br />
I would also like to acknowledge the following people in London for their incredible generosity while I was there.<br />
Thanks to:<br />
Georgina Miller, the trust administrator for her kindness and help during my stay in London<br />
Previous Unwin Fellows Mark Richards and Hannah Westland for showing me the ropes<br />
Allen & Unwin-ers Clare Drysdale, Sam Redman, and Patrick Gallagher for providing publishing contacts and London<br />
advice and especially, for an excellent Ashes Party (despite the result!).<br />
The international sales team at Harper UK, especially Damon Greeney, Katie Moss, Georgina Green, Catherine Friis<br />
and Stef Heinrichs for all their hospitality and help<br />
Finally, I’d like to thank all of those who contributed interviews and assistance while I was researching and writing<br />
my report.<br />
In Australia thanks to:<br />
Andy Palmer, Susan Wyndham, Simon Milne, Anabel Pandiella, Karen Reid, Peri Wilson, Jackie Arthur, Anna<br />
Hayward, Emily Mann, Jane Finemore, Christine Farmer, Tracey Cheetham, Eve Jackson, Ashley Hay, Craig Silvey<br />
and Michelle De Kretser.<br />
In London thanks to:<br />
Lauren Finger, Lucy Howkins, Sam Redman, Clare Drysdale, Sarah Ward, Andrew Franklin, Jon Slack, Jo Henry,<br />
Joanna Ellis, Morgan Phillips, Joe Pickering, Victoria Barnesly, Nick Pearson, Rebecca McEwan, Catherine Patrick,<br />
Erin Roy, Barnaby Dawe, John Athanasiou, Sze Sze Chin, Patrick Jansen-Smith, Louise Swannell, Amy Winchester,<br />
Liz Dawson, Ann Bissell, Andy Quinn, Catherine Daly, Stephen Page, Matt Haslum, Anna Pallai, Becky Fincham,<br />
Hannah Griffiths, Sarah Savitt, Louise Doughty, Craig Taylor, Heather White, Sarah Lloyd, Hollie Howe, Rebecca Ikin,<br />
Kathleen Farrar, Richard Whitehead and Tom Getty.<br />
Author: <strong>Kelly</strong> <strong>Fagan</strong><br />
28