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An Economical Reading Selection
While I love fantasy, my decision to read A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin was based on two things more than that. First, the book was recommended to me by one of my wife's co-workers at Barnes & Noble. Another reason, the focus for this blog entry (no, not the long-promised review of the book), was a marketing gimmick by the book's publisher Random House.
Earlier this year, AOL's Book Maven posted a blog entry devoted to how used books and various other sources for obtaining a book cut into the market for new releases. She solicited her readers' opinions on the matter, asking how some thought publishers might encourage readers to buy books they might obtain through other means (i.e. used bookstores, ebay,etc.). Even at the time, I posted a reply that made mention of a marketing idea by Random House. The idea is quite simple, make a mass market paperback copy of the first book in a series available for a discounted price and put faith into the quality of the work to hook readers into paying full price for the rest of the series.
Does the ideawork? I wish I could offer you numbers, but those I don't have. Perhaps I might ask Random House and see if they actually give a straight answer, though I doubt they'd actually say "Our idea tanked" if it did. In my case, I can at least say the idea has half-worked. Even with my wife's employee discount, I'd be hard-pressed to purchase a book for a price so low as $3.99, so I found it difficult to pass up her co-worker's recommendation.
There's a flipside to this, though. Even with that "Only $3.99" printed onto the cover, I can't say that I'd have bought this book without the recommendation. As an aspiring writer, I find this both encouraging and discouraging. It tells me that no matter how clever a marketing scheme might be, nothing can replace the power of the almighty word of mouth. The gimmick did work in that it made it easier for my wife's co-worker to talk me into buying the book. I can't dispute that.
Publishers do recognize the power of word of mouth, though. The most popular and successful book by author Ken Follett is The Pillars of the Earth. That book's success is owed to word of mouth, a fact the author admits to in a preface added into later editions. Even the now infamous DaVinci Code owes much of its success to word of mouth. That success starts with the booksellers. A representative from Random House often visits my wife's bookstore (among many others I've no doubt) in order to highlight some of the books they expect to be their "big sellers," and so I knew DaVinci Code would be big even before it hit the bookshelves. At this year's James River Writer's Conference, the President and Publisher of Grove/Atlantic Morgan Entrekin discussed how he used a similar strategy to make certain Cold Mountain and Black Hawk Down would turn into highly-successful bestsellers.
So I now pose a similar question to the one the Book Maven directed to her readers. Do you think the publishing industry can do anything to make you more willing to pay full price for a book? What makes you willing to forego the used bookstores or even the anticipated mass market paperback release of a book in favor of paying full price for one of those hardback copies?
As for A Game of Thrones, I've been on a tear reading that (because I'm determined to finish reading the bloody thing!). Just two hundred pages to go out of more than eight hundred, so if I don't have my review written and posted Monday, then you can probably safely expect to find it here by Tuesday.
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My mother had The DaVinci Code on her coffee table and I had just finished a book so I asked her what she thought. Before that I hadn't even heard of it.
Dianne -
You want a mass marketing suggestion? I can tell you one that would GUARANTEE you a best seller!!
Somehow get Oprah to like it and put it on her "favorite books" and you WILL have that mass market! lol.. sorry for joking when i know it's serious.. but wow, think of those books that woman picks and what happens to them "overnight"!! That's "power" for ya!
http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/
http://journals.aol.co.uk/deslily/HereThereEverywhere2/ -
i'd pay more for a book if i felt it would benefit the writer in any way...something along the lines of "fair-trade" publishing...i enjoy a good used book every now and then because of the treasures it might contain...it has a history with other readers.
i will also pay more for a book at an independent bookstore rather than take the bargain basement price at a barnes and noble...no offense to your wife's work, i expect it could be a really fun job...but the man and the machine and all of that...
but i'm quite the hippie throwback, so i could very well be crazy.
thanks for the post.
rachael (http://journals.aol.com/rachaelanne21/RAWuncensored) -
Some good news for me on the writing and legal front - a double whammy!
BTW you KNOW you're not an aspiring writer - you are one because you do!!
Tilly xx
11/27/05 5:23 PM
I don't know how to answer your question regarding marketing; I'd make a terrible salesperson. However, I will say that I paid full price for four of the Dan Brown novels. there again, because of word of mouth.
Q) What makes you willing to forego the used bookstores or even the anticipated mass market paperback release of a book in favor of paying full price for one of those hardback copies?
A) The author and nature of the book.
Your entries are always interesting.
Dianna
http://journals.aol.com/sazzy