Report 2013 - Kelly Fagan HERE - Australian Publishers Association

Key Findings
1. Differences/similarities Between Australian and UK Retail Spaces
Although our bricks and mortar market is still considerably healthier and more sizeable than the UK’s, Australian
publishers have nonetheless seen and responded to the changing international landscape and have been reaching
out to consumers directly, both online and through our vibrant festival culture.
Despite the shrinkage in High Street retail and the dominance of Amazon, UK publishers remain committed to
servicing all sectors of the retail market – physical bookstores have not been forgotten.
2. Media Spaces
In both Australia and the UK, traditional media is still key to selling books. Though both territories are experiencing a
reduction in book-dedicated real estate in the mainstream press, Australia definitely fares the worst of the two with
regards to the visibility and treatment of books in the media.
Australians by nature are much more attuned to international media content and regularly consume international
newspapers such as The Daily Mail, Guardian or New York Times. As such, the knock-on effect of overseas reviews
can be an excellent launch pad for international titles distributed in Australia. Comparatively, UK readers are highly
engaged with their own press and the UK press in turn, is very connected to its readers.
Ranked as people’s third favourite pastime in the UK (after TV and the internet), books and reading remain a highly
visible part of British culture, whereas the same is not as strongly the case in Australia.
3. Company Structures
Continuing the theme of the earlier two findings, Australian publishing is more outward-facing than the UK. Australian
publishers’ focus, particularly in the bigger houses, is divided between being a content creator (local lists) and
account management (UK lists and US lists) and the distribution of all those books. Perhaps because of this,
we have been quicker to streamline our processes and merge publicity and marketing departments than our UK
colleagues.
Based on what I witnessed in the UK, there is still a place for discrete marketing and publicity roles within a ‘Marcomms
department’. Merging of departments in both Australia and the UK seems to be more about restructuring resources
at a managerial level as opposed to any huge changes in the way both disciplines go about their day-to-day roles.
That said, because of online and social media components, traditional marketing roles are definitely expanding in
scope and evolving a little faster than roles in publicity.
4. Marketing and Publicity Strategy and Activity
I went to the UK expecting to find examples of highly experimental or revolutionary marketing campaigns, and was
surprised to find that most campaigns were very much centred around what we would call ‘traditional activities’ –
Tube sampler campaigns, outdoor advertising, national book tours, events and festival appearances all dominated
the promotional landscape in the UK.
The biggest change to marketing and publicity from what I can see is the expectation of what promotional activities
need to achieve for a publishing house. Return on investment is not just about sales – it’s about gathering data,
creating brands and author networking, and building communities and online presence. The introduction of digital
to the marketing mix is not simply a matter of employing one person to tweet and update facebook occasionally; it’s
about using digital to enhance or amplify the tried and tested methods of promotion.
I visited many publishers and asked all of them if they could think of a completely digital campaign, with no traditional
activity whatsoever, that resulted in strong sales of a book. No-one could give me an example. Of course there are
a handful of successful authors who have pioneered self-publishing across the web to bestseller-dom, but even
then, the sales of authors such as E.L. James were considerably amplified once the mainstream promotional and
publicity machine kicked in.
Author: Kelly Fagan
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