Book Marketing 101: What Works and What Doesn’t

Part 1: Start with Great Content

This is the beginning of a series of posts I am calling, “Book Marketing 101: What Works and What Doesn’t.” I have wanted to write this series for a long time. There are so many opinions when it comes to marketing books. I certainly don’t have the last word on this topic, but I do have some experience.

I have been involved in the book publishing industry for 30 years. My career has included working at three different publishers, serving as a marketing director, marketing VP, acquisitions editor, editor-in-chief, publisher, chief operating officer, and now, of course, chief executive officer. I was also a literary agent for six years and have written four books, including one that was on the New York Times bestsellers list for 28 weeks. I am currently writing a new book called, The How of Wow.

A Self-Imposed Media Fast

I’m tired of the relentless torrent of bad news coming from the media. I feel like I am stuck in a recession version of Ground Hog Day.

The names and places change with each story, but underneath the veneer, it’s the same story-line:

• “We’re in a severe recession.”
  
  
• “It’s the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.”
  
  
• “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
  
  
• “There’s very little you can do about it.”

The Recession Hits Home

Today, was a very difficult day at Thomas Nelson. We informed fifty-four of our friends and co-workers (about 10% of our workforce) that we have eliminated their jobs, effective this Friday. This will affect nearly every department in our company.

This was the second round of reductions this year. Unfortunately, this one was no less painful. We did the first round after significantly cutting our SKU count. However, this second round was purely a result of the slowdown in the economy.

10 Benefits of a Recession

If you want more bad news, then don’t read this post. But if you are tired of reading about bailouts, bankruptcies, and poor earnings, keep reading.

I’m no Pollyanna. I have blogged previously about embracing the most brutal facts of your current reality. I know people are suffering, and I hate that.

Two Things Great Leaders Must Do in Turbulent Times

Thankfully, the election is over. We now have clarity about who is going to lead our country for the next four years. I have never personally witnessed such excitement and hopefulness following an election (though I acknowledge that not everyone shared that sentiment).

However, the problems still remain. The stock market fell precipitously yesterday. In fact, it was the biggest post-election decline in history. I am not sure that this is so much a response to President-Elect Obama as it is a reflection of the fact that the economic environment is still enormously turbulent.

The Wealth Wall Street Can’t Touch

I watched in amazement this week as the stock market continued its downward slide. Every time I checked the news, I braced myself for increasingly dire reports. When the market finally closed on Friday afternoon, I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that the DOW did not end below 8,000 points.

While the week’s drama had been unfolding on Wall Street, Gail and I were safely tucked away in the Rocky Mountains, spending a few days with several dear friends and industry leaders. Naturally, we talked about the financial crisis, but we also shared some wonderful times of fellowship. We spent most of our time talking about more transcendent issues—things that matter deeply to each of us.

Silver Bullet Thinking

In the Western literary tradition, the silver bullet was the only weapon that could destroy certain types of monsters. As a result, it became a metaphor for a singular solution that solves a giant problem.

Many touted the Financial Stability Bill (a.k.a. the $700 billion bailout package) as a silver bullet for the economy. “If Congress will just pass this legislation,” the argument went, “everything will return to normal.” Not so much.

Whatever Happened to Modesty?

I watched MTVs VMA awards last night. Some of my daughters’ friends are in the band Paramore, and they were nominated for an award. And—to be honest—I wanted to see how Britney Spears would do, since we are publishing her mom’s book next week.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen MTV, but I was flabbergasted. I could not believe the sensuality and decadence I witnessed. Gail and I finally had to turn it off. We just couldn’t take it any more.

When WOW Becomes Not-WOW

When Apple introduced the original iPhone last summer, it was a complete WOW experience. People expected a new phone, but their expectations were shaped entirely by their previous experiences with cell phones. As a result, Apple exceeded the market’s expectations. The company reinvented the cell phone and WOWed the market.

Among other things, Apple redefined voice mail and Web browsing on a mobile device. The company married a phone to an iPod and threw in an amazing touch-screen interface to boot. The device has proven so popular that Apple has sold five million phones in the last year.

Top Ten Book Publishers in America (Through March 2008)

It’s been more than a year since I updated our list of the Top Ten Publishers in America. Because of some changes in the available point-of-sale data, we were not able to get create a reliable ranking. However, we have seen an improvement in recent months. It’s not perfect, but we do believe it represents the best data currently available.

These lists are based on revenues for the twelve months ending March 31, 2008. We created these lists from a proprietary database we have assembled at Thomas Nelson. It is based on various point-of-sale systems from multiple sales channels.

This Publisher Evidently Didn’t Get the Memo

I hear publishers and booksellers complaining all the time about how bad the book publishing industry is. Gas prices are up. Retail traffic is down. Books are simply not moving. One pundit remarked, “Flat is the new up.” Evidently, Dwight Baker and his team at Baker Publishing Group didn’t get the memo.

For the fiscal year ending April 30, 2008, Baker reported sales up 16% to $57.9. Yes, they had a huge hit with 90 Minutes in Heaven, but, according to Dwight, their sales growth was “much more comprehensive” than this one title. In fact, the company experienced growth in all divisions: Revell was up 26%; Chosen, 25%; Baker Books, 15%; Baker Academic, 13%; Brazos, 10%, and Bethany House, 9%.

The Growing Interest in Spiritual Things

If the New York Times bestseller lists are any indication, people are more interested in spiritual things now than ever.

I can’t remember a single time when there have been more Christian books on the New York Times bestseller lists. The April 20, 2008 list, which is published on the Internet one week in advance of the print version, has eleven Christian books on the various lists. This is huge. I can’t remember a time when there were more.

Here are the books. Disclaimer: The fact that I list the book is not an endorsement of the book. Caveat emptor. (If you want to purchase a particular book, visit your local Christian retailer.)

Let’s Not Talk Ourselves into a Recession

Last weekend, I attended a Christmas party with several of my friends. After getting a cup of hot apple cider, our polite conversation quickly turned to our mutual concern for the economy.

It seems that everywhere you look, the news is bad. The media drone on and on about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and high gas prices. While the outlook may not be apocalyptic, it is certainly pessimistic.

Generating Retail Traffic

For the past several months, booksellers have been complaining about slow retail traffic. Publishers have complained, too, of course. But not all retail stores are experiencing this problem. Some are thriving.

Last night, I got a taste of this. While on the road, I visited the Apple Store inside the South Coast Mall in Costa Mesa, California. It was about 7:30 p.m. When I entered the mall, it seemed very quiet—almost deserted. Until I got to the Apple Store.

The Expresso Book Machine

Currently, Amazon.com has a big competitive advantage compared to brick-and-mortar bookstores. In a word, that advantage is selection. Retail bookstores carry 5,000 to 150,000 book titles, depending on the size of the store, retail strategy, and available working capital. As “the Earth’s largest bookstore,” Amazon.com carries millions.

This makes it difficult for even the biggest bookstores to compete on selection. People get tired of making a trip to the store only to discover the title is out-of-stock. But that may soon change.

The Current Bookselling Environment

The book publishing market is tough right now. Earlier this week, Publishers Weekly reported that:

Bookstore sales continued their perfect record in 2007 in May, falling for the fifth consecutive month. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, sales in May were down 4.3%, to $1.10 billion, and were off by the same percentage for the first five months of the year. Bookstore sales totaled $6.20 billion in the January through May period. For the entire retail segment, sales were up 5.6% in May and were ahead 4.1% for the first five months of 2007.

ICRS: Day Four

I never thought I’d be so glad to see Wednesday. ICRS continues though Thursday, but we were done early. I was ready to get home.

I ate breakfast with Mike Coleman, CEO of Integrity Media, the largest Christian music company in the world. I did not really know Mike until we met at last year’s convention. We bought Integrity Publishers from him, and he and I became friends through that transaction. I always enjoy being with him.

ICRS: Day Three

Tuesday at ICRS was tiring, but not nearly as exhausting as Monday. I think this was because I had the evening free, which was a first since I arrived. Ten hours non-stop sure beats fifteen.

My first appointment of the day was the “CEO Breakfast” hosted by CBA, the association for Christian Retail. I sat between Bob Munce, CEO of The Munce Group, a marketing group providing services to some 600 independent Christian retail outlets, and Marshall Gage, president of Kirkbride Bible Company, publisher of the famous Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Marshall and I spent most of our time chatting about the National Bible Association. (He is on the Board.)

ICRS: Day Two

Monday was another full but exhausting day at the International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta (ICRS). Thankfully, the cool weather is still with us. Although the humidity was quite high (85%), the temperature remained in the 70s and low 80s. Even Denver, where we’ve had the convention for the past two years, wasn’t this cool.

I had breakfast with Dale Hansen Bourke, former publisher of Today’s Christian Woman and now a writer for Religion News Service (RNS). She had not attended ICRS for several years but was back to do a story on trends in the Christian marketplace. We’ve known each other for 25 years. As Jerry Jenkins quipped last night at the Book Awards show, “we’ve known each other since the Dead Sea was merely sick.”

ICRS: Day One

Gail and I are attending the International Christian Retail Show (the show formerly known as “CBA”) in Atlanta this week. I always dread coming to Atlanta in July, but yesterday was unseasonably cool. Believe it or not, the temperature was in the mid-70s.

I played golf Sunday morning in the Global Publishers Alliance Invitational Golf Tournament. Every single golfing spot was filled. We even had a waiting list. We also raised $52,000 for GPA. This money goes toward helping small Christian publishers in other parts of the world.

Why Don’t Publishers Do More Research?

Book publishers are notorious for not doing consumer research. I am not sure exactly why, but it seems they want to decide what is best for the market. Early in my publishing career, I got my first taste of this.

In my second job out of college, I became a Marketing Director for a medium-size publishing house. I had been in the job less than 90 days when I suddenly realized that no one seemed to know which marketing vehicles really affected consumer buying behavior. For example, at the time, I couldn’t tell you what was more effective—a magazine advertisement, a “shelf-talker,” or an author appearance on television.

The Beginning of a New Fiscal Year

Our fiscal year begins on April 1. To celebrate this past year and to kick off the new year, we had all our Nashville-based employees gather around the flagpole this morning. I shared a few thoughts that I thought I would repeat here, in case you weren’t able to attend.

A Look Back

Last year was tough. The economic environment was challenging, as was the retail sector. The publishing industry was at best flat. And, according to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the religious segment was down 10.2% for the year. However, this appears to be turning around.

Track Amazon Sales Rankings with TitleZ

I frequently use Amazon to track how our books are ranked. More importantly, I use it to track how those ranking change over time. This is especially important on big books where you need near-immediate feedback. Often, you can see a direct correlation between a specific promotion or publicity event and upward movement in Amazon’s rankings.

The problem is that this can be a slow and tedious process. You have to go to Amazon’s Web site, search for the book you want, go to the specific title page, and then scroll down to the metadata to see the “Amazon.com Sales Rank.” However, unless you are willing to manually log this data into an Excel spreadsheet, there’s no way to keep track of the ranking history.

February Update: Top Ten Publishers in America

This is an update to the top ten publisher lists. We maintain two lists internally. First, we track all trade publishers. (Publishers whose books are primarily sold through retail booksellers as opposed to, say, textbook publishers.) The various imprints are consolidated into their parent companies. So, for example, HarperCollins includes William Morrow and Zondervan. Simon & Schuster includes Free Press, Pocket Books, Howard Books, Scribner, etc.

Second, we track all Christian publishers. In this case, we break out the Christian imprints of the trade publishers and rank them against each other. That’s why Zondervan, for example, is on the second list but not the first list. (Click on the images above and below to enlarge them. If you want to save the PDF files to your hard drive, right-click and download the linked files.)

Update: Top Ten Publishers in America

We just re-ran our list of the top ten publishers in America. Michael Cader at PublishersLunch.com pointed out that I had separated St. Martin’s Press from all the other Holtzbrinck imprints. (Holtzbrinck is the parent company of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Henry Holt, MacMillan, and, of course, St. Martin’s.)

I asked Cletis Fisher, our database guru, to re-run the report, consolidating all the Holtzbrinck imprints. I also asked him to add Multnomah Books to Random House, since they were recently acquired by RH.

Ten Reasons I’m Excited About Christian Retail

For the last five years, I have heard constant complaining about Christian retail. Publishers complain. The media complain. Even Christian retailers complain.

It is time for this to stop. Enough is enough. I believe we have talked ourselves into a slump. Therefore, I am declaring a moratorium at Thomas Nelson on negative comments about Christian retail. I don’t want to hear them. These comments aren’t helpful, and they sure aren’t empowering.

I want us to change our thinking. We can see the glass half empty or half full. I want us to see it half full. Things are never going to improve until we learn to give thanks for what we already have and start focusing on the positive.

To get us started, here are ten reasons why I am excited about Christian retail. I am deliberately choosing to focus on the positive.

Q & A Regarding Thomas Nelson’s “Open House” Announcement

Yesterday, we sent out a press release announcing “Open House,” an event we plan to host in Nashville for our top Christian retail accounts in the Spring of 2008. We will invite two employees from each selected store and pay their expenses to attend the weekend conference in Nashville. The Open House initiative will take the place of our attendance at the CBA Advance convention.

Publishers Weekly ran an article in PW Daily about this entitled, “Nelson Out of CBA Winter Show.” Of course, the emphasis was on the fact that we have decided not to participate in next year’s CBA Advance trade show. Open House is our alternative. I thought the article was accurate and balanced. However, as I suspected, it has created a bit of a stir.

Publishing and the Current Economic Environment

Once a quarter, we compile a list of leading economic indicators that affect our industry and our business. I thought I would start sharing the report here. (Click on the chart below for a larger view. If you want a PDF version of the file that you can print out, click here.)

I think the business environment is analogous to a river’s current. Our performance as a company is analogous to how the boat moves through that current. Sometimes, you move faster than the current, sometimes you row against it, and sometimes you just drift with it.