One of the old rules of book publicity was that if the author or host didn’t mention a book’s title at least three times during an interview, the effect on sales would be, well, diminished to say the least. And while it may sound like an exercise in vanity or a cheap sales tool, it actually worked.
Back in those days, when less noise filled our world and few messages were constantly streaming by us, repeatedly hearing a book title was a good way to ensure we might remember the title when we happened into a bookstore. It’s amazing how much things can change in just a few short years.
While communicating the book’s title to listeners is still vitally important, the ability to buy a book now rests right in the reader’s hands – or book bag, or front seat of their car, or the top of their desk.
Whether using a nook, a Kindle, an iPad or any other kind of e-reader, most now allow people to purchase the book instantly, via WiFi, cloud computing and all those other technologies that make us able to pretty much access what we want on demand.
Having a e-reader puts the point of purchase at the fingertips of an increasing number of listeners, particularly for programs targeting high-income audiences.
E-readers have introduced an entirely different kind of impulse purchase to readers—one that relies more on publicity than eye-catching cover designs. The traditional impulse purchase relied on attractive covers to catch the eyes of customers strolling the aisles at their favorite bookstore. As shelf space in traditional bookstores continues to give way to infinite shelf space in cyber bookstores, a flashy cover will no more get a book into the hands of a reader than a great line in Chapter 5, as customers won’t have the time or patience to cull through tens of thousands of category titles online to see which cover catches their attention.
Instead, the new impulse buy relies on readers hearing about a book from a friend, reading about it in The New York Times or hearing an interview on NPR and picking up their e-reader to purchase it right away – when they are most interested.
According to a study released by L.E.K. Consulting earlier this year, of those who own e-readers, 48 percent told L.E.K. that they were reading more books versus just 7 percent who said their book reading decreased. And a recent report in the Wall Street Journal cited stats that people who own e-readers use them daily, while Amazon says customers who own a Kindle buy 3.3 times as many books.
The best news in all of this for publicists and publishers, is that not only are e-reader owners reading more books, they are also increasingly in a position to be reached by book publicity, as they reported reading more newspapers than before (59 percent) and more magazines (44 percent). According to L.E.K., “Thirty-six percent of the books read by people with e-readers are ‘incremental consumption,’ representing new books rather than books the owner would otherwise have read in print.”
As Amazon, Apple, B&N and others continue to slash prices on their e-readers, more and more are making their way into the hands of consumers, changing everything about the way publicity translates into book sales.
In this market, impulse buying relies more on PR impressions than in-store real-estate, and, with the point-of-purchase in the hands of a significant number of consumers 24/7, the value of each booking will continue to grow.
Music to the ears of publicists.