Re: Our "publish then filter" future...

Me:

>> Unfortunately, we book people have learned long since that those  
>> ads weren't worth buying. And the reviews aren't a very effective  
>> sales tool either, although the cost of getting one (shipping a  
>> comp copy to the right reviewers, maintaining in-house lists of  
>> same) are pretty low.
>>
>> Ads are a total waste of time and money for books, EXCEPT within  
>> certain rarely available and clearly definable conditions. NYRB  
>> and the New Yorker aren't even CLOSE to meeting them.


Kent:
>
> And those conditions are??

I turn thumbs down on ads unless it's bookstore co-op, or placement  
payments, which is not usually available to this group for obvious  
reasons, or:

--the book has a distinct, identifiable core audience,
--the medium in which we place the ad is an important resource for  
that audience, and reaches a significant number of them,
--the cost of the ad is quite low.

Then, if those criteria are met, I crunch the numbers. We work out a  
reasonable response rate (rarely more than 1% of the viewers, often  
less). We then look at the contribution margin on those responses,  
subtracting all direct expenses from the revenue generated. If it's  
positive, and the error bars don't seem too large, then we do it.

>> Reviews aren't a very good sales tool. Haven't been for years.  
>> They're better than nothing, and most fiction gets by on them, but  
>> they just don't move volume.
>>
>> It's time to start building something that actually focuses on the  
>> readers, who they are, where they are, what they do, and what they  
>> want and why.
>
>
> Again, I'd love to hear your ideas for this.
>
> I generally agree with what you are saying, but I'm not enough of a  
> marketing guy to really have much of an idea of what the solutions  
> would be!

I don't "do marketing" as my own website and comments probably  
demonstrate! <grin> I think the mechanism is going to be different  
for different audiences.

Example: military SF (Elizabeth Moon, David Drake, John  
Ringo, . . .). You  have to have a site or medium that's offering  
them something they want. An obvious, but perhaps not successful  
choice, would be free downloads of  fiction of the same genre. But  
let's think more widely. Perhaps its playing to the same emotional  
needs that the novels feed?  A need for the testing and victory that  
those novels offer. MMP gaming? Puzzles of accelerating levels of  
difficulty? Add a social network. Work in the cons? And in there, you  
could offer the participants points for reviews that were voted  
useful. These points could be spent on things for their avatar,  
earned elsewhere, etc. You'd need to screen for voting 'bots, and  
such, because this group can and will game the system, but that's a  
refinement that could be attended to later.

That's off the top of my head, with no thought. I'm sure, if I were  
actually trying to do this, I'd come up with something much better.  
And I'm sure someone who does this stuff for real would be better yet.

>

Marion Gropen
Gropen Associates, Inc.
By-The-Question Consulting,  Tools for Publishers, & Classes
www.GropenAssoc.com
Her blog: www.GropenAssoc.com/blog




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