In trying to address nervousness across the business, Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum reports that ceo Markus Dohle “challenged our sales group to see what we can do as a company on behalf of the larger trade to get people in to the book-buying habit for the holiday season.” As a result, Doubleday’s Suzanne Herz led an in-house “mini-task force” that has pulled together an ambitious promotional campaign over the past two weeks. Aiming for what Herz calls a “got milk campaign for books,” the unifying slogan is “Books = Gifts” and it is designed to promote book sales throughout […]
Marketing
Godin Advises Publishers
Author and marketing guru Seth Godin is asked for advice by Harper Studio on their blog: “The huge opportunity for book publishers is to get unstuck. You’re not in the printing business. The life and death of trees is not your concern. You’re in the business of leveraging the big ideas authors have. There are a hundred ways to do that, yet book publishers obsess about just one or two of them. Here’s the news flash: that’s not what authors care about. Authors don’t care about units sold. They care about ideas spread. If you can help them do that, […]
Free Books, As Long As You Blog
Thomas Nelson has launched a formal program to enroll interested bloggers and provide them with free review copies of “select titles” in exchange for the promise of a posting of a review of at least 200 words on a blog and at Amazon.com. Nelson ceo and active blogger Mike Hyatt credits his own blog with inspiring the initiative. It “originally came from heightened interest on my blog, around two of our recent releases, Stephen Mansfield’s The Faith of Barack Obama and Lynne Spears’ Through the Storm. My readers, many of whom are active bloggers themselves, wanted to engage in the […]
Early Reviews, Electronically
LibraryThing is among booklover sites with loyal audiences that has had success in helping publishers channel galleys to interested readers who are likely to post online/review the books. In October, for example, they’ve had available for request 1,670 copies of 55 titles. Now Sourcebooks is experimenting with an electronic offering: they are allowing up to 2,500 downloads of their recently published IN THE LAND OF INVISIBLE WOMEN to Library Thing members through the end of October.
Toni Morrison's Sound Serial
NPR’s web site will offer a four-day series of pre-publication readings by Toni Morrison from her forthcoming novel A MERCY beginning October 27 as part of their Book Tour program. Additionally, NPR’s Lynn Neary will discuss the book with Morrison in a webcast interview and All Things Considered’s Michele Norris will have a broadcast interview with Morrison. Senior supervising producer for NPR Digital Media Joe Matazzoni says, “This exclusive moves affirms our goal of making NPR.org a must-visit site for readers and listeners interested in writers and ideas.”
Another Chronicle Book Editor to Leave
Regan McMahon, who took over as books editor at the San Francisco Chronicle when Oscar Villalon took a buyout, is now also take a buyout and leaving the paper. “When SF Weekly contacted McMahon Monday morning, she said people in the publishing world didn’t know about her imminent departure, and she feared that once they heard the news, they’d freak out. But she insists they shouldn’t worry — she’s been assured by higher-ups that the paper plans to name a new books editor and keep the section going.”SF Weekly